Page 23 of Samuel

“Criminal damage to her car. We have a witness.”

His smile faltered as he glanced at his own car.

“Yeah, the damage to your own car doesn’t really help your case mate,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when the door was yanked open and a dark head poked around it.

“Tell him to go.” It was Frankie and his eyes were brimming with tears. “He threw a dish at my mummy and he was going to hit me. Tell him.”

Bile rose in my throat as I watched big, fat tears fall down Frankie’s ashen face. I swivelled back to the prick in front of me and when I saw him sneer, I immediately saw red. I grabbed a hold of his hoody dragging him to me and pulled back my other arm, my hand fisted and shaking with anger, ready to punch him.

“No,” Maisie gasped. “Please, not in front of Frankie.”

“Hit him,” Frankie cried at the same time.

If I hadn’t been so fucking furious, I’d have probably laughed, but instead I pulled my arm back again.

“No, Sam,” Maisie’s voice was pleading as she laid her small hand on my bicep.

The prick let out a hollow laugh and shook his head slowly. “So you’re him are you?” he sneered. “No wonder the kid needs to be disciplined.”

I tugged on his hoody bringing him so close, our noses were almost touching and snarled at him.

“You ever raise a hand to my fucking kid or Maisie ever again,” I whispered menacingly. “I will fucking end you. I don’t care if I have to do time, it’ll be worth it to see a bully like you in the ground. In fact,” I hissed. “I’ll bury you myself and no one will find your worthless, piece of shit body. You hear me.”

He tried to act the hard man for all of two seconds, but when I shook him, he nodded and relaxed his fists.

“Now fuck off.” I pushed him so hard he landed on his arse on the driveway. “And don’t come back.”

Pushing himself up, he backed away until he collided with his car and got inside and screeched away.

I turned to Maisie who had Frankie tucked against her side.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded, but her bottom lip was trembling and her grip on Frankie must have been tight because he whimpered beside her.

“Okay, I’m coming in,” I said, my tone uncompromising. “And you need to get these locks changed.”

“I don’t think that-.”

“Maisie,” I warned. “I mean it.”

Maisie simply nodded and moving away from the door let me inside. As soon as I was, I noticed the stain on the wall above a doorway and there was a broken dish over the floor, mixed with what looked like soggy Cornflakes.

“He do that?” I asked.

Maisie nodded.

“Yeah, he threw it at Mummy,” Frankie said, his bravado at wanting me to punch his mum’s boyfriend suddenly gone. “He’s not coming back is he?”

I shook my head. “Nope.” Not tonight at least, but I had a feeling he might try again another day.

“You get Frankie to bed and I’ll clean this up,” I said to Maisie, who was staring at me bewildered.

“Can we have hot chocolate first?” Frankie asked.

Maisie looked down at him, running a hand over his dark brown hair, the exact colour of mine. “Okay. You want one?” she asked me.