An adventurous assassin gets called to Small Heath to kill Thomas Shelby. She soon learns just how much the decision to accept this mission changes her. Thomas Shelby stirs long unfelt feelings, and she struggles to decide the fate of her future.
Ann had come knocking at the doorstop of true madness. The Cheltenham races private room was packed with men and women of prestige. It was brightly lit, with an abundance of twinkling chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The air smelt of tobacco and alcohol, and the brass instrument quartet played lively music with a teasing rhythm.
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She stood at the bar watching women dance with men, and couldn't help but be aware that she was the only one wearing a qipao. The dress clung so tight her body that the shape of her hips and the small swell of her bosom were prominent. The choice was deliberate, today she had to be a different person, someone who stood out. Ann wished her māma could see her now, she would have been proud of her.
She saw Billy Kimber at one of the dining tables a little ways from the dance floor. A woman, presumably his wife, and one of the men that accompanied him the night of the Peaky Blinders meeting, sat in chairs on either side of him. The other two men from the same night stood tall at Kimber's back. Ann took out a cigarette and a box of matches from the small inside pocket of her fur shawl. She lit a match, held the cigarette tip to the flame, and inhaled her first puff.
The last time she saw her māma felt like another lifetime. She'd lived so many lives as different personalities that it had become hard for her to remember that she was still her own person. She had come from a family of four, but grew up in a family of two. Her Bàba and gē gehad died shortly after she had turned four. But from the moment she was born to the moment she left Foshan in 1909, her mother had worked to teach her everything she knew.
Her genius mother, the dignified scholar, historian, flautist, knife wielder, was not the most conventional woman. Her mother taught her that she was free to work to do anything that brought her joy and be anyone she pleased. She'd never said it would be easy, there would be people who fought her every step of the way, and there had been, but she just had to fight harder.
At seventeen, Ann had left her home city with dreams. She was going to do something to improve the human condition. Back then, she hadn't known what she was capable of. Months later, it was revealed to her when she met Misae.
It was that knowledge that allowed her to easily shake her head when a man walked up to her and offered his hand.
"Would you like to dance with me?"
"No thank you." Ann said, gesturing her head to her cigarette. She refrained from stepping back. He stood so close to her that she could smell alcohol on his breath.
"Just one dance," he said.
"I really just want to finish my cigarette, but thank you for the offer."
He looked at her like she'd grown a second head and scoffed. "How about I ask again." He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her towards him. Ann slowly put her cigarette between her teeth, and then grabbed his arm, pressing her thumb just below the crease of his elbow. He yelped, his face twisting with pain, and slumped against her. She set his head between her neck and her shoulder.
