BITTER - Michael Gray.

FOUR.

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Whether it was all the alcohol finally catching up, or the fact that she essentially told her new boss to fuck off a few hours ago, Olivia's stomach was churning. She was propped up on the mantlepiece right next to the punch bowl. Everyone was dancing and laughing, but a smile failed to show on Liv's face.

"You've got a face like a slapped arse." Polly laughed and poured some drinks.

"Feel like one too." Olivia sighed.

"Polly." Grace's unmistakeable Irish accent approached. Olivia perked up. The chance of the two women having a fight had just spiked dramatically, meaning it was now her job to referee.

"Hello Grace. You look absolutely beautiful. Welcome to the family." Polly spoke in what seemed a genuine tone.

"I see. Tommy's orders. No upsets tonight." Grace smirked and drunk her drink. "Thank you for coming Olivia, I know it must've been hard."

"S'alright. Thanks for the invite." She shrugged.

"Your hair, everything, beautiful." Polly carried on in the shower of compliments, placing a cigarette in her lips.

"Do you know where he is?" Grace ignored the nice words. Olivia shook her head and looked around the room, expecting Polly to do the same.

"Yes. Yes I do." Polly lit up her cigarette.

"Well where is he then?" Liv's words were starting to congeal together, displaying how drunk she was becoming. Both women ignored Olivia, she rolled her eyes in response.

"You know, Tommy really wants to keep certain things secret from me. It's very hard when you're man and wife. We were late coming down because we were having sex. So afterwards he told me everything." Grace announced.

"Well aren't you just the lucky one." Olivia grumbled and took off into the hallway, finding no one to talk to.

The large staircase enticed her. The walls were covered in portraits, the largest being of Tommy, Grace and a child, which Olivia assumed to be Charles after Polly's catch up talk earlier. Slowly stepping up each step, the voices at the party below became more and more distant. At the top, Liv was met with thousands of doorways all the way down a long corridor. Voices and shuffling were coming from one, so Liv decided to press her ear against the door.

"In London we were told you were all gangsters." A female voice came from within the room.

"So thats why you got on the train to dirty, old Birmingham. For a dirty old night." A male voice replied. Michael's.

There was a moment of silence. Olivia tried to look through the keyhole, there was a girl knelt infront of a table and the back of Michael's head in the chair opposite her.

"You don't look like the others." The girl carried on.

"That's the idea. I put it all together but I don't partake." Michael retorted back. "You see, I've got a bright future, you see. Mapped out."

Olivia shouldn't have carried on listening, but it was getting good. She could pick up on the sexual tension in the air between Michael and the girl despite it being none of her business. A maid passed the room Olivia was loitering outside of, giving her a dirty look. Olivia glared back at the woman, annoyed that no one was treating her with the dame respect that the other Peaky Blinders got. But then again, she had only asked to return all of 30 minutes ago, before that she had no right to feel annoyed.

"But you wanna try things first." Michael's voice inside the room had now dropped, obviously trying to appear more attractive to the poor girl that got lumbered with him.

A large snorting noise came from inside following by laughter from the both of them. Ah, excellent, cocaine, Liv scoffed to herself in disgust. She could drink enough alcohol to drown a small canal boat but drugs were not her thing.

"As if I were a whore." The girl spoke. Olivia was missing bits of the conversation. She definitely should've pulled away and gone somewhere else, anywhere else, at this point, but she was too nosy.

"Well, if that's the game you wanna play." Michael replied.

Realising now she had gone too far and didn't want to start listening on the two of them fuck in the bathroom, she stood up. The endless whiskeys that Finn and Arthur had plied her with were now working in full force, her lanky body knocking the glass tumblers on the table next to her off, making an almighty crash that was probably heard in London.

"What was that?" The girl perked up inside. Liv desperately tried to pick up the glass as footsteps approached the door. Swinging open, Michael was stood in the doorway, arms folded in anger that Liv's drunken antics had cockblocked him. He let out a long sign and rubbed his hands over his face.

"Give me a few minutes Charlotte." Michael grumbled and pulled the door behind him. "You're bleeding." He stated, arms still folded across his chest.

"Shit. Tommy's gonna kill me if I get it on his carpet." Olivia tried licking the blood off her fingers, not making a large difference.

"Not if an infection in those cuts kills you first. Let's get you cleaned up."

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a/n: okay so wow this book got like 200 reads in about 36 hours which is mental thank you so much. also this is a filler but it might pick up next chapter ;) x