Peaky Girl (Peaky Blinders ABO Omegaverse Smut Fanfiction)

Five

Two days later, a Peaky boy delivered to Charlie's yard a small oblong package wrapped in red ribbon and a letter addressed to me in a fine cursive script.

I opened the letter first. The handwriting, I discovered, belonged to Ada Shelby. Ada wrote to invite me to late afternoon tea at her flat with Freddie in the Brum. I wrote her a letter affirming I would attend and passed it to Charlie downstairs, who gave it to Curly to run to Watery Lane. Then I rushed back upstairs to open the gift.

There was a note attached to the box, secured by the shiny red ribbon. It read, "Show the Lees who you are now. From Tommy."

Who am I now, Tommy? I wondered. I wasn't sure of the answer.

I raised the lid of the box and gaped at the dress inside. I lifted the fabric to my shoulders so that the dress cascaded along the front of my body, and I turned to the mirror of my vanity to look at the way it would surely hug my curves. The fabric was smooth almost like velvet, and the color was a deep ruby red that didn't quite match my red-orange hair.

I smiled at my reflection, and the gypsy in the mirror beamed back at me. Tommy had remembered that I preferred red.

Rosy pink splashed across my cheeks as I remembered the way Tommy's lustful gaze had drawn across my body two nights before, mapping with his eyes all of the places he wanted to touch me – and he had. I imagined him thinking of me as he searched the shop for a suitable red dress. I held the dress closer to my body, cherishing the thought of Tommy extending so much effort on my behalf.

I hung the dress on the back of the bathroom door and began filling the tub with cool water. The Shelby alphas would pick me up in the family car at 8 o'clock. I had an hour to prepare for the meeting with the Lees.

Dread filled me from the tips of my toes to the crown of my head as I stepped into the bath and sunk into its cold depths. The icy water numbed my jittery limbs, distracting me from the cold apprehension that spread from the base of my skull.

I drew my washcloth over my skin, where the bruises from my encounters with Danny Whizz-bang and the copper were yellowing into splotchy patches. The bruises reminded me of the ones the Lee alphas decorated me with during their ruts. After my mother and brothers had abandoned me for the Great War, the Lees had taken advantage of the unclaimed omega within their midst in every way possible. Slowly, as I grew accustomed to the rapes, I had stopped struggling against the force of their hands on my body. Still, the alphas had seemed to enjoy beating me black and blue, and the abuse had been endless.

I didn't want to back to the Black Patch gypsy camp. I had never wanted to go back. But if Tommy needed me for a show of strength, I would give him what he asked. I owed him my life.

"Show them who you are now," Tommy had written. I didn't know what I was meant to show the Lees. I had been Red Ruby for so long that I no longer knew who I was without her.

As I rose from the bath, I remembered John agreeing with Polly that "not another scrape would go by without someone trying to coddle you." I remembered Arthur telling me, "Anyone who lays a finger on you is a dead man." I remembered Tommy confessing he would murder the copper who had laid hands on me, and briefly wondered if he had already carried out the killing.

Squaring my shoulders, I reminded myself that the Shelby alphas would not allow the Lees to touch a hair on my head. This was a show of strength, and I would be strong for them like they were for me.

The dress was meant to be worn by a gypsy. It was a short, knee-length dress that revealed my stockings pulled up close to my knees so that only a sliver of skin was visible. The collar of the dress was a square scooped neck that revealed just the slightest bit of my cleavage and hugged my breasts and torso tight. I didn't wear a corset beneath, so the tight muscles of my trained abdomen were visible through the thin fabric. The sleeves were short and ruffled, reaching halfway down toward my elbows and exposing my slender arms. The bottom half of the dress hung from my waist, flowing around my body to my knees.