‘All right, Kev?’ he greeted the man breezily. ‘Long time no see. How’s it going, mate?’
Kev glanced up from the phone in his hand and narrowed his eyes when he saw who it was. ‘Fuck’re you talking to me for, dickhead?’ he grunted. ‘Thought I was a cunt and you wouldn’t piss on us if I was on fire?’
‘You what?’ Rob screwed up his face as if he didn’t know what Kev was talking about. ‘Who told you that?’
‘Don’t bother denyin’ it,’ Kev snarled. ‘Decca told us, and I’d believe him over you any day of the week, so do one before I put me foot up your arse.’
As big as Rob was, Kev was bigger – and hard as fuck – so Rob held up his hands and quickly backed off. Just wait till he saw Decca, he fumed as he made his way back to the bar where he’d left his rucksack. He was the one who’d slagged Kev off after he’d found out the cunt had shagged his ex, and Rob had only agreed with him to make him feel better. So much for loyalty, the two-faced bastard!
Pissed off that no one else he knew was around to ease his thirst, Rob gave up and set off for his mum’s place, hoping that she might have got bored of Reg and chucked him out by now. He didn’t really want to stay there, because his old bed had fucked his back up the last time he’d slept on it, and his mum’s nagging had almost driven him insane. But he was starting to feel hungry again, and she was a great cook, so he figured he could put up with her for a bit. Plus, it was her benefit day, so she’d be ripe for tapping up for a few quid.
Reg was still there, and Rob’s blood instantly started bubbling when the man answered the door and tried to send him away with a flea in his ear, telling him he wasn’t welcome and that his mum didn’t want to see him.
‘Where is she?’ Rob demanded. ‘If she don’t wanna see me, she can tell me herself.’
‘She’s not in,’ Reg said, blocking the doorway with his obese frame. ‘And I won’t have you or your lady friends coming round here trying to bully her. She’s your mother and you ought to have more respect.’
‘Bully her?’ Rob repeated, pulling a face. ‘Behave, you fat twat.’
‘You don’t scare me, boy,’ Reg spluttered, his jowls wobbling.
‘Listen here, Churchill,’ Rob sneered, thinking the man looked like the nodding dog from the advert. ‘She’s my mam, and I ain’t having a cunt like you, who thinks shagging her gives him some sort of rights, keep me out of the house I grew up in. So, if I was you, I’d back the fuck up or—’
A vehicle pulled up at the kerb behind Rob before he could finish, and he groaned when he glanced round and saw that it was a police car.
‘What’s going on?’ one of the two officers who got out asked as they walked up the short path.
‘Sorry for calling you out when I’m sure you have far more important things to be dealing with,’ Reg said, his ingratiating tone bringing a snort of derision from Rob. ‘This young man is my partner’s son, and there was an unfortunate incident last time he was here and she was forced to eject him. She’s out shopping at the moment and I’m under strict instructions not to let him in if he turns up – which, as you can see, he has. I anticipated trouble, so I rang you as soon as I saw him coming through the gate.’
‘And has he given you any trouble?’ one of the coppers asked, hooking his thumbs into the sides of his stab-vest and staring at Rob.
‘He threatened me,’ said Reg. ‘He seems to think I don’t have the authority to keep him out, even though I live here and his mother told me not to let him in.’
‘You’re a fucking liar,’ Rob spat, glaring at him. ‘I haven’t threatened you, and my mum would never bar me from the house. What you even doing here, anyhow, you ponce?’
‘OK, sir, let’s calm down and get some details,’ the second officer said.
Rob narrowed his eyes. He recognized the man as having been part of the crew who had arrested him for beating Suzie up, and he knew exactly how this would pan out if he didn’t simmer down. These jokers would slap the cuffs on him and chuck him in a cell – revenge for him only getting a suspended sentence after landing a tasty punch on their mate’s nose and booting the fuck out of the van when Suzie had falsely reported him for having a gun in the house.
‘It’s all cool, lads,’ he said, holding up his hands and backing out onto the pavement. ‘I only wanted to see my mum, but I’ll ring her instead. Sorry for inconveniencing you,’ he added, flashing an insincere smile as he pulled the gate shut.
Turning without waiting to hear what the coppers might have to say, he hitched his rucksack over his shoulder and walked briskly down the road, cursing Reg under his breath as he went.
Before he knew it, he was standing outside the block of flats where Angie lived, and he sighed as he gazed up at her living room window on the fourth floor. He hadn’t wanted to come here, and the thought of Angie slobbering over him in a desperate attempt to win back his heart – which had never been, and never would be, hers – sickened him. Suzie
