𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 🍞PEAKY BLINDERS 🥖

Chapter Seventy-Two

Short and sweet before certain death.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

Despite Christmas Eve only being a day since yesterday, it came out of nowhere.

One day in this house felt like centuries.

Kizzie stared at the phone. She should call Alfie. Tell him she needed to be home for a bit. Promise she'd tell him all about it once this was done.

She missed him. Wished there was an easier way to speak with him that didn't require calling.

"When this is over, you can fucking live with Alfie for all I care!" were Tommy's words.

Kizzie wanted to believe him. But the man was desperate to prevent her from leaving. The Black Hand unnerved him in a way she had never seen before.

"Yeah?"

Kizzie sat up straighter. Felt the familiar chill down to her toes. She smiled. "Hello."

"Little bird," Alfie greeted, "Happy Christmas Eve."

Her smile grew. "I miss you."

"I miss you more." He grumbled more words, incoherently, into the phone. Kizzie assumed he was maybe sitting. Or moving himself to stand up. His body was in frequent pain. Kizzie wished she could help him. "What happened with Thomas?"

"Some people are upset with him. He doesn't trust that something won't happen if I'm not home."

"Mm. Did he say what? Can I help?"

"Tommy didn't get into it with me. But I told him I'd agree to stay here until he deemed it safe... Call it a last minute Christmas gift." If they were back in Small Heath, Kizzie could get away with leaving home easier. Safer, too.

He grunted into the phone. "Right...well. If you absolutely can't help yourself and you need to see me, I'll come rescue you."

Kizzie laughed. "Okay."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Kizzie hung up the phone, still smiling as she walked upstairs and into her room.

♡ ̆̈

"We're all on the list, Ada," Tommy told her. "Even Kizzie."

His sister went pale, surprised eyes following his pacing. "I gave my gun to Arthur."

Tommy removed a spare from his desk drawer and passed it to her.

"Does Kizzie not get one too?" she joked. The two women were his only friends these days. The only ones not once tied to a literal noose. Ada wondered, since leaving for America, if her little sister realized that she too was on Tommy's noose. Always would be.

She hoped to gossip about Alfie. Be there for any questions Kizzie had. She surely had hundreds. And with the rumors of their aunt, Ada knew Kizzie had no other female to go to. She was free, but still painfully isolated.

After speaking with her brother, she went upstairs. Knocked on Kizzie's open door. Ada hoped her sister had the right to lock it when she pleased. But she would not ask. The tension between Tommy and Kizzie was a pot about to boil over at any second.

"Hello."

"Kizzie!" The girls hugged. "I've missed you!"

"How long are you here for?" Kizzie asked, pulling away. Despite feeling glad to see her sister, she still greatly disliked being held for too long, by people she didn't see all the time.

"Until the New Year. I just came from Arthur."

"He is a father now."

She smiled, wary, unsure of Kizzie's feelings. "He is. Does he and Linda make you babysit?"

"I don't like babies, and I wouldn't want to sit on a baby either."

Deja vu hit Ada in the face. From when Karl was born. Kizzie held him once... She looked so displeased. So unsure of herself. Polly made a joke about having Kizzie babysit. Karl was nearly the same size of her--Kizzie had always been small for her age. But now? Now her baby sister was a woman.

"Of course. But you like it over there?"

Kizzie nodded. "It is quiet. Not the same quiet as here."

"How so?"

Kizzie shrugged one shoulder again. "It's not sad there."

Ada frowned.

If Kizzie noticed, she gave no indication. Her big blue eyes, which were often vacant and glassed over, found the small gift in Ada's hands. "What is that?"

"Oh!" Ada extended her hands forward. "For you. Happy Christmas, Kizzie."

Kizzie took it. It was small and square, like a jewelry box. The wrapping paper was red and green. "What is it?"

Ada chuckled. "Open it. I've just came from Tommy." She watched Kizzie try finding the perfect edge to open the gift. Growing up, Kizzie never liked to make a mess if she could help it. Every Christmas and every birthday, she was always so gentle when opening her gifts. Finn, on the other hand, was a monster. "I tried getting you a gun, too, but I was...dismissed."

"It's okay." Kizzie shrugged one shoulder up. "I didn't like the feeling when I had to use one."

"It's scary," Ada agreed, "but sometimes necessary. If you hadn't fired that gun, would Michael still be alive?"

"I don't know."

Ada circled her hands around Kizzie's arms. "How many times now have you been a target? Taken by people looking to hurt Tommy?"

"I don't know... I can't count."

Ada smiled despite herself. Kizzie was never trying to be funny. In another life, Ada would have been a better big sister and helped Kizize where Tommy failed her. "A lot," she said. "I want you to be able to defend yourself...Open your gift."

Kizzie undid the paper and revealed the velvet box. She looked at her sister with hesitant eyes.

"Go on. It's practically Christmas."

Kizzie smiled and opened it. Her mouth fell open. "A knife?" Kizzie held it in her hand. Golden and shaped like a butterfly, it was no longer than her middle finger.

"Mhm. Sharp and small. You can conceal it in your bag or coat. Let me show you how to open it." Ada took it from her and pressed along the side, where an indentation layed on the butterfly's wing. The knife sprung forward with a soft click. "Here."

Kizzie took the waiting handle. "Thank you." Her eyes followed the shine, the sharp edges in the candle's fire. "I will try not to lose it."

Ada nodded. "I trust you, Kizzie."

Her sister smiled, and Ada's heart felt full.

"Now!" Ada crossed her legs over Kizzie's bed. "Tell me all that I've missed about Alfie!"

Author's Note:

See everyone in May.

It just gets darker from here on out.