Created by the devil

A fool.

Tommy is seated at his desk in the betting den, looking over papers. When someone knocks on his door. "Come in." He voices out loud. Slightly surprised by her visit, he sits back in his chair. "Gia." He welcomes. "Take a seat." He offers her as she stays in the door opening.

"No need; it'll be short. You'll need a new barmaid for the next few weeks." She explains as she makes her way closer to his desk. "And why would you not be attending work for weeks?" He asks her with his eyebrows furrowed. 

"Family day." She recalls Tommy saying it to Ada. "Right, your brother's wedding." Tommy gets the reference. She appropriately smiles and turns around to leave the room.

"And what if I don't agree with your leaving? Three weeks is awfully long." He puts his hands together and challenges her. 

"Then I'll have to say that I'm already financially supported by myself and that I don't need your help." She sighs, not backing down from the little challenge.

"And where would I find another barmaid?" He asks her yet another question to let her stay a little longer in his company. 

"I don't know, Tommy. Call up one of your whores; I'm sure they would love to do it. What about Lizzie Stark?" She answers.

Tommy nods his head and keeps the next few moments short. "Will you still be doing tonight's shift?"

"Sure, anything else?" She asks, seemingly irritated, because she just wants to go home to finish everything she planned for today. "See you tonight." He turns his attention back to his papers.

The truth is that Gia actually doesn't have the time to do it, but for some reason, when it comes to Tommy asking her to do things, she can't deny him.

She has yet to finish her papers and pack her bags in less time than before she cursed herself. It is going to be a promising night.

After some hours pass, the sun is starting to set in the early evening as the winter hours start to show. Gia leaves her home to finish her last shift. 

She is walks into the Garrison with her vest close to her core. There are already quite some men in the pub. 

She goes to take off her vest but is stopped by Arthur. "Love, could you first check my add-up?" He whispers so that no other man can hear him. She just smiles at him, against her own will, and follows him.

This is why she came here to be normal. She wanted to be normal and fit in, but what did she hate it to be bossed around like that. After the marriage of her brother, things are going to be different, she thinks, or, better yet, hopes.

She sits down at the bureau and starts to check his adding up. She corrects a little mistake he made. After a good five minutes, she's done, and he comes by. "How's it going, love?"

"Fine, you only made a couple of small mistakes, nothing drastic." she answers, which makes him smile like a little child at a fair.

"Don't tell Tommy, eh?" He whispers with a wink as he checks the adding up from the past few weeks. "Don't you worry about that." She laughs. 

He stops her as she leaves the room. "Euh, how can it be that the outcome of this week is different from the outcomes of the past few weeks?" he asks her a little louder than before.

"Show me." She comes closer and takes the papers from Arthur. She looks them over once, twice, and the third time she gives the papers back. 

During the whole time, her facial expressions don't change one bit. "Someone's stealing from you." She tells him and turns around to take her bag and make her escape.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Arthur asks her as he suddenly stands, looking at his papers in stress. "What I mean is, you're losing about 15,000 pounds a month." She explains with little care. Arthur starts to pace around the room.

"Will you calm down, yeah?" She tells him. "How are you not faced by this in any way? We lose money; you lose money." He comes closer to her.

"Ain't nobody touching my fucking money." She laughs out loud. "Huh?" Arthur stops pacing to look at her. 

"Nothing; just calm down, will you? You're worse than a pregnant woman. Go talk to Tommy; I'm sure everything will work out just alright." She assures. "yeah, yeah." He murmurs as he walks out of the bureau.

About an hour later, when Arthur comes out of the side room with Polly and John, the family acts as if nothing happened. 

It's only when Arthur comes up to Gia and clears his throath "He wants to talk to ya." She feels a weird feeling in her stomach. She looks over to the side room and makes her way to the room.

Before she can knock, she hears a voice on the other side of the door say, "You can come in, Gia." His voice is low and dark. 

"I understood you wanted to talk to me." She asks as she takes a seat in front of him. "You've seen our documents?" He questions her back. "I have checked Arthur's counting up, which was a mess." He gets as answer.

"You were right; we have indeed been stolen from." He looks up at her. "Of course I was right; why would I have lied?" She looks him back in the eye. 

He dodges her question and says, "You've done a lot for me and my family; I just wanted to know if it is because you have a good heart or if there is another reason."

"Why would you care? You would still have the advantage. Is that all?" She asks him with anger in her voice, which doesn't go unnoticed by him. He looks at her one last time before looking away and nodding.

Gia gets up to leave when suddenly the phone goes off in the pub. Almost nobody has a phone in Birmingham, so silence reigns over the Garrison. This being Arthur's pub, he answers it. "Yes?" He questions.

Nobody has their number, so whoever is on the phone is bad news. "Gia? what? huh? Alright, stop yelling, Bloke." He tells him as he turns around and extends his hand for Gia to take the phone.

All eyes are on her as she passes through the room to get it. "It's for ya. Jesus, what an accent! I couldn't understand shit." He tells Tommy as he walks up to him. Tommy just silences his brother.

"Who is it?" She speaks into the phone. The only thing she hears is "Get out." She is concentrated on the phone call, but Tommy sees the headlights of a car stop right in front of the Garrison and understands that they are in great danger. 

She drops the phone and looks up at Tommy in terror. Tommy runs up to her in a matter of seconds and yells, "On the ground!" He lays his body on hers.

The only things that are moving are the bullets getting shot in front of the Garrison and the phone, which, like a Yolo, goes up and down.

She was a fool for thinking she could ever have a normal life.