A Lonely Place / Michael Gray / Peaky Blinders

S I X

She's

a

little

bit

savage

and

a

whole

lot 

of 

soul

- CWPoet

--------------------------------------------

Anna slammed her hands down on the stranger's desk as Tommy sat behind her smirking. One of the people they had lent money to didn't seem to want to pay it back at all, a big mistake on their part. 

The young woman stared straight into the middle-aged man's eyes which showed a certain level of fear whilst hers held no emotion accept from anger. It slightly unnerved Tommy how this girl didn't seem to feel anything except anger, but it wasn't time for him to question it, all he knew is that it made people give him money back.

The man sat opposite Tommy didn't seem to be complying with anyone, Anna looked back at Tommy as he nodded at her. A gun was pulled from its holster as Anna pointed it at the man's head, giving him one last chance to hand over the money.

The trigger was pulled as blood found its way onto half of Anna's face as she placed the gun back into its holster and Tommy stood up and they left making their way back to the car. The Shelby boy didn't even need to ask if she was okay or not as after the past month of working with her he realised that she wasn't affected all too much by killing somebody for the right reasons.

The door to Polly's house was swung open scaring the life out of Polly and Michael as Anastasia walked in with the blood now dried on her face as she made her way into the living room to pour herself some whisky as Polly and her son stood up and followed the young woman. The whisky fell down Anna's throat as she showed no reaction, asking Polly and Michael if they have had a good day before she left to go upstairs and bathe.

Anna had multiple peoples blood on her hands, it was part of the job, so was the emotional impact of it all which nobody ever saw due to it being bad for her image.

Water flowed down her back washing away specks of blood, there was more business to be done today, a meeting between herself, Tommy, Polly and Michael, all for business reasons she had been told. But they were also all told to look presentable.

Polly knew what was happening today and she wasn't exactly excited about telling Anna what was going to happen. Michael would be fine with the idea of it all but Anna was unpredictable at the best of times. 

-

Tommy sat at his desk with John and Arthur as he breathed heavily, genuinely nervous for what he had to say to his right-hand woman.

"Tom, she isn't going to react that badly, calm the fuck down," Arthur said getting frustrated at his younger brothers nerves as Tommy raised his eyebrows at him.

"You'll be alright if she doesn't shoot you, if she doesn't do that then it was a success," John said with a chuckle

"Thanks, John, thanks a fucking lot," Tommy said standing up stressed and running his hands over his face.

John and Arthur got up from their seats as there was a knock at Tommy's office door before Polly, Michael and Anna walked into the room before Anna and Michael were told to sit with Polly, John and Arthur behind them as Tommy sat back down again.

"Right so I'm going to get straight to the fucking point..." Tommy said 

"Well go on then" Anna replied quickly causing the brothers behind her to giggle

"You two are going to get married," Tommy said quickly looking away pretending not to be bothered as Anna stood up walking out the office shouting profanities before walking back in and shouting at Tommy directly. Whilst this was happening Michael just sat there not being overly bothered about the situation.

"Tommy I am not fucking marrying anybody," Anna said whilst resting her hands on the back of her head.

"Yes you are, you're going to be marrying Michael no questions asked, we cannot have an unmarried Shelby hanging about" Tommy said looking at Anna with a serious face, before Anna walked out of the office and then the building to go and have a cigarette with Tommy following her as the others stayed in the office.

"I fucking hate you right now so I'd recommend saying right by that door," Anna said exhaling the smoke.

"I had to do it, he needs a wife and I want you to be connected to the Shelby family by marriage" Tommy replied staying his distance away from the girl.

"I don't want to be tied down Tommy, I don't even know if I'm capable of loving," Anna said taking another drag from her cigarette looking away.

"I'm not asking you to love him but you will be marrying him, now Polly is going to stay at my house tonight because you and he need to talk without anyone around" 

Anna simply nodded before making her way home to wait for Michael who wasn't really wanting to go home just yet but Tommy had forced him to.

As the young man walked into his home and hung up his coat he noticed the fire was lit with Anna sat on the floor in front of it drinking wine to calm her nerves about the whole thing. Michael walked over to where she was sitting and sat beside her as they shared a comfortable silence.

"I'm sorry for the way I reacted, it wasn't fair on you," Anastasia said sincerely

"It's absolutely fine I was quite surprised as well but kept quiet about it," Michael said looking at the side of Anna's face.

"Mrs Anastasia Gray, at least your name won't sound entirely awful," He said trying to make like of the situation.

"And I can finally get rid of the last name Collins and put my parents out of their misery," She said back whilst laughing.

"I don't know why I thought that this would be really bad, marrying you I mean. Tommy could have got me to marry Finn or Arthur and no offence to them both but that would've been much worse" Which sent both of them into a fit of laughter.

As the night went on a considerable amount of alcohol was drunk, but not enough to make them both not know what they were saying. 

"Does this mean you're going to have to sleep in my room now?" Michael said with a slight slur to his words. "Wait that sounds creepy but I'm serious, if we're going to get married might as well try to love each other," He said giggling.

"Well I guess so Mr Gray, do you mind showing me the way," She said smiling at him as he offered his arm to guide her.

This night had helped Anna realise that she didn't have to be in an angry state all the time, she was allowed to be happy. And she was tending to find happiness within her conversations with Michael. It was almost as if Tommy knew that this is what she needed deep down.

Michaels door was pushed open as in his slightly drunken state he picked Anna up and placed her on the bed not realising that she would be going to her room to get changed into night clothing.

As she was getting ready Michael had lit the lamps on either side of the bed and lay under the covers looking at the door as Anna walked back in, he scanned every inch of her figure admiringly.

"You know you are extremely beautiful right," He said looking at her as she climbed into the bed next to him.

"Absolutely not Michael" Anna replied looking back at him

"Well, its one of the reasons that I'm not entirely furious about this arranged marriage," He said causing them both to laugh in their slightly intoxicated states before the side lambs were turned off and everything went silent.