Heartless

Bullets

*Not to confuse anyone but you can imagine Mr. Glasgow as Billy Kimber (for those of you who watch the show). This gif just worked really well with this chapter.

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Time had passed and Toni continued to live alone. She was comforted with occasional letters from her mother, who was doing much better, and she was visited often by her caring uncle.

John and Arthur still came around regularly; for pleasure and for business. Each time they came, in addition to enjoying her food, they made sure Toni's guards were set securely at their posts.  They did this under Tommy's orders of course.

Tommy and Toni's relationship remained how it had always been: tense and sexual.

Toni did her best to avoid him but they both understood, he had only to touch her and her every wall came down.  So Toni repeatedly indulged Tommy to her own delight and despair.

On one morning, she sat in the kitchen talking to John and Arthur over tea. She noticed they had been coming over a lot lately. I guess this is normal, they're family now, she thought.

The boys had been talking about the same thing for the entire morning: women.

Toni could not help but roll her eyes at their disgustingly misogynistic ideals.

"What ever happened to gentlemen?" Toni joked.

"Those went out the door when we went we went into business," Arthur said.

"How about feminism? Surely you believe in that?" Toni pressed.

"Technically," John said, spiking his tea with whatever was in his flask, "we do. Polly is as feminist as you can get."

"Well if feminism is being mean and nagging all day then, yah, Polly's a prime example," Arthur said.

"Oh, you boys are terrible," Toni said.

Just then, they heard voices yelling outside.

"What is bloody going on?" Arthur spoke up. He stood and went to the window. As he pulled back the curtains, there was an explosion.

Glass from every front-facing window flew inside the house in crystal shards. Arthur's face was cut in several places as he fell onto his back from the force of the blast.

Arthur crawled on all fours back to the kitchen and took cover behind the doors. And not a moment too soon because just then, a volley of bullets was fired at the front of the house.

The bullets raced through the open windows and started to chip away at the front door.

John had pulled Toni to himself in the chaos. Taking cover behind a wall, he covered Toni's body with his own.

Toni could hear nothing over the ringing silence the blast had left in her ears. She saw dishes being broken and chairs shot up to pieces in her kitchen. She felt herself screaming but didn't know for sure if she was making any noise.

Suddenly John turned her around.

He was yelling something to her that she couldn't make out. Then he pointed to the back door. It was directly behind the kitchen. He motioned for Aurthur to move first.

Arthur hurried to the door and opened it, staying low to the ground. He crawled out and pulled his weapon, checking the back alleyway.

Arthur knew for sure that all of Toni's guards were dead.

He motioned quickly for John and Toni to follow.

John pushed Toni in front of him and she scurried on her hands and knees to the back door. Following quickly after her, John watched behind them.

Right before they were out the door, a stray bullet hit John in the leg.

John screamed in agony as Arthur hooked his arm over John's neck and supported him outside of the house.

And so the three survivors took off down the alleyway.

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