The Poisoned Rose

Chapter Twenty-Two

Slowly, the Peaky Blinders made their way into their house. Polly waited in the entrance and stared at them apprehensively, "What happened? Where's Rose?"

"Dead." John harshly told her, "She's fucking dead."

Polly stared at him and then quickly looked over at Tommy, "How? What happened to her?"

They all entered the drawing room and sat down in silence, all were exhausted and none of them knew how to react to the death of the Poisoned Rose.

Tommy lit his cigarette before looking over at his aunt, "One of the Balton brothers began to beat her death."

"Did you kill him?"

"A man shot him and then took her body."

Polly moved closer towards him, "Are you sure she's dead?"

"We saw her Poll." John shouted, "We saw her die!" Everyone turned to stare at him as he broke down and started to smash some of the crockery lined up on the shelves, "She's fucking dead."

"John!" Tommy sternly shouted, "Calm down."

"We were supposed to look after her Tommy!" John turned to look at his older brother, "We were supposed to look after her and now she's dead."

Michael stood up and stopped his cousin from breaking more crockery, "Come on, let's go and shoot."

"I'll come with you." The unusually quiet Arthur said.

As soon as the three men left the room, Polly turned to Tommy, "What are you doing to do now?"

Tommy shook his head, "I don't know."

"Will the Crawfords' come after us now?"

"I don't know." Tommy replied, "We accomplished the mission but Rose died."

"What about John?"

Tommy gulped his drink down, "He'll cause chaos for a couple of months but then he'll get over it. We all will."

"He loves her Tommy."

John fiercely downed the bottle before smashing it onto the ground. "Come on brother, Michael's beating you!" Arthur shouted at him.

John nodded his head before lining his gun up, "She was beautiful."

"She was."

"At first she was untouchable which made her even more attractive. I wanted to get to know her." He shot the glass before lining up for the next one, "And then I did get to know her and it made me like her even more."

"She liked you too." Michael told him.

"But now she's dead." John said angrily, "Dead."

They looked over at him as he continued to shoot.

"John." Finn yelled as he ran over to them, "Katie was asking for you."

"I don't care." John said while shaking his head, "She's dead." He started to walk forward furiously shooting everything in sight, tears staining his cold cheeks.