Harsh Love (Peaky Blinders)

Sad Old Man

It has been a lonngggg time since I updated and I cannot apologise enough. I want to put a warning at the beginning of this chapter as it can be triggering for some (mentions of rape)

!Triggering!

Rose's eyes widened in shock and she instinctively closed the door in his face, failing when Mr Byrne's foot blocked it. He chuckled and threw his cigar onto the floor and kicked the door off its hinges.

"Oh Rose, there's no need to behave like that, I just want to do talk to you that's all"

Chairs were being pushed to the ground in a hope that it would somehow postpone his movements towards her, she slammed her bedroom door shut and barricaded it with her vanity table, sitting at the end of her bed with tears streaming down her face, her hair sticking to it. She buried her head in her trembling hands and brought her shaking legs up to her chest.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Rose crawled as fast as she could under her bed and covered her mouth to prevent any more noises coming out so she wouldn't get detected; the door had crashed down and all that could be seen was the familiar brown brogue shoes of him.

"Jonathan, search the closet"

As Rose's clothes glided down to the floor, she couldn't help but think about Tommy, how she hoped that he would walk in now and save her.. but there was only one result of this situation, and that didn't involve Tommy.

A small sob left her lips until her lips were quickly covered again and the whole room went quiet...

Until Rose was grabbed by her ankles and dragged out from under her bed, a piercing scream leaving the room.

•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•

Tommy and the rest of the Peaky Blinders were sat in private room of The Garrison, laughing and cheering away at the defeat of Kimber. Everyone raised their glasses: "to the Peaky Blinders" Arthur and John cheered merrily.

Tommy sat with a smile on his face at the thought of his victory, now that Kimber was defeated he could finally move on with his life with his family, the company and most importantly, Rose.

He lit up a cigarette and took a sip of his whisky.

"I should probably go and get Rose and tell her the good news"

John leaned into me with a whisky in his hand, slouched into Tommy with his tie loosened, his hair falling into his face;

"Nah she'll be alright for another hour or so, come on this is Shelby time"

Tommy took a second to flick through what he should do, "yeah I suppose you're right John" he cupped his shoulder "I'll give it an hour or so"

•~~~~~~~~~~~~•

Rose slowly started to come round, her vision was blurry as she tried to look at her surroundings, she soon realised her hands were chained above her and could vaguely taste blood in her mouth and noticed that it was also staining her clothes.

Her head was throbbing as she slowly tried to raise her head, failing and letting it flop back down. A small trickle of blood flowed down the length of her arm and dripped onto the old, wooden floor.
The familiar sight of Mr Byrnes' brogues came into view and stood before her. She tried to raise her head to meet his stern face but was put back down by a cloud of cigar smoke swirling around her head and filling up her lungs which were already struggling with the dampness in the air.

"Rose, do you know why we're here?"

It took all of her effort to spit at his shoes, if only it would've been worth it.  He simply kicked it off and crouched down to her viewpoint.

"I want you back Rose, you were the best spy I ever had" he sighed and ran his hands over his face and took a drag off his cigar. He nodded for his men to unchain her.

"Look, I care for you dearly-"

"You've got a funny way of showing it" she sniggered. He wiped his chin with his thumb and circled his hand;

"Oh do go on.."

"First, you murder my father in cold blood! And now you have me beaten to a pulp and chained up like a dog! If you call this caring for someone then there is something seriously wrong with you!"

"Rose you don't understand-"

"Oh I perfectly understand"

"I want to protect you because I love you!"

The whole room fell silent, Rose felt sick to her stomach at the thought of this man being in love with her, never mind her feeling that he wasn't even capable of it. By now, the 2 henchmen had left the room and left Mr Byrnes on his knees in front of Rose, a very rare sight.

"You are a sad old man" she spat blood down at him which only powered him to stand up, rage in his eyes.

"If you won't love me, I'll make you love me!"

As it all flashed by, Rose was slowly starting to lose faith in Tommy Shelby. 

The clock was ticking, and time was soon to run out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that was just a filler chapter as I'm hoping to update more often now, I know that this might of been triggering for some but as I hate to say it, it's how I've pictured Mr Byrnes' character being.

Hope you're all well and get prepared for all the new chapters!🙌🏼

- Siân 💗