Forbidden Alliances // Alfie Solomons Peaky Blinders

(136) Possessive

*edited 04/14/23*

That's when he knew for certain that they had done something.

They did something to her and even though he opened up a space to be nicer to these people, he wasn't going to stop disrespecting them until Tommy or he decided it was enough. 

Alfie turned on his heels and began surveying all that they had on display. He knew he couldn't keep diddle-dallying but he didn't want to look at the jewels now, he didn't want to deal with the business anymore. All that became irrelevant and all he wanted to do was hurt them. 

He wanted to know what they did to Freya that would cause Tommy-bloody-Shelby to allow some bootlegger to disrespect the people he was going to be making a deal with. Alfie wanted to know how far he could go without making it a serious issue between them and the Shelbys. He wanted to know it all.

As much as he wanted to cause a ruckus, he kept his eyes on the jewels and pulled a magnifier to his eye to examine the quality and veracity of each piece. He did his job for Freya, but at the same time, he wasn't going to stop for the sake of her name.

"Hello..." Alfie sang deeply, examining the first piece of jewelry that caught his eye. 

Freya took the time to glance over at Tommy. He was watching Alfie with a calm look on his face. She found Alfie's outbursts to be startling because he knew he was supposed to be on his best behavior, but Tommy didn't match her concern. He was acting as if everything Alfie was doing was going according to plan. Freya didn't understand it. 

She saw that he was looking down at Izabella from across the table at which he refused to be seated and saw how angry she was as she sat in silence.

For once, all of a sudden, she didn't have the power to say no. 

Ever since meeting Izabella, Tommy and Freya knew she was the person in charge. She might have the King fooled, making it seem like Leon was the man to speak with when shit needed to be done, but they knew better. Tatiana and Leon were just her puppets, carrying out every order and doing all her dirty work for her while she sat in velvet and decorated her head with tiaras. 

"Right." Alfie cleared his throat and lifted a diamond-encrusted necklace with one hand, and examined it under the light of the torch behind the Duchesses. 

He turned and approached from behind her to show her what he was working with. Alfie had the magnifier still clenched between his brow and cheek as he gave his proposal. "I think it's fair to say, yeah," he said and licked his lips deviously. "£1.500."

Freya didn't know much about jewels or their worth over the years but she knew Alfie was underpricing. That necklace had to be worth at least £2.500.

"£1.500?" Izabella scoffed, avoiding meeting Alfie's gaze to show her disrespect. 

Alfie's head snapped in her direction and met her calm disbelief with unwavering brutality. "Alright, I'll give you £1.800."

He was still underpricing but he let Izabella know just how determined he was about getting what he wanted. There would be negotiating, that much was apparent, but Alfie wasn't going to let these people take advantage of him, or Freya for that matter. He was going to get as much money as he could from these people, whether he gained anything from it or not, he didn't care. All that mattered was that it was coming out of these Russians' deep and dirty pockets. 

Izabella faltered the moment Alfie met her sarcastic tone with confidence. She blinked awkwardly and turned her head slightly as if to see if Alfie was being serious or not. However, she couldn't bring herself to meet his eye.