Choking On Sapphires

28 Damned If She Do

Your nose was twitching, your lips pursed as he watched you writing at your desk. You were looking rather adorable with your hair up in a bun, pen in your mouth, little tiny gold-framed glasses framed your brown eyes. After you'd gotten beaten up for the hit attempt on you, you'd found glasses helped when you had to read, and with Alfie's advice, you went to his guy and now you had round little spectacles of your own. You had bought the delicate gold chain that attached to the glasses but found nesting the glasses on top of your head worked better for you. He said if he had a head full of hair like yours he'd have done much the same.

Your head shoots up towards the knock on the door.

"'Ello." he says as he bows his head and walks into the room. "Ya got a moment to talk a bit 'a business?" he asks with an intriguing expression.

"Pre-existing or new?" you say with a smile, pointing your finger to the chair in front of your desk, giving permission for him to sit.

"Little a both." he says with a shrug, settling into the leather chair.

"Shoot, Solomons." you say, chin resting in your hand.

Apparently, Sabini wasn't behind the hits that had been taken out on you. He found out you'd killed three of his men now personally, and Alfie had killed upwards of six himself. He had mentioned this to Alfie, having contacts with him and not you, and reached out to him to see if you'd be interested in a meeting. You were shocked you were gaining the attention of another leader of a gang in London, but then again, you did keep killing people. It was bound to catch up to you sooner or later, even if they had tried to kill you first.

Alfie informs you he wants a meeting with both of you. You raise your eyebrows with the delivery of this news. A meeting with both of you? It made you suspicious. Were you really going to throw your weight around with gangsters? Is the world you wanted to invest your time in? The draw of the power, as always, seduces you.

You'd never truly fancied yourself a gangster before. You share this thought with Alfie who laughs loudly as you look on at him with a bit of a confused but somehow condescending look on your face.

"You are more a gangster unintentionally than most that loudly proclaim the title for their own, Gen. You continuously deny that you are one and 'ats how I know you'd be brilliant at it, mate." he says with a wolfish grin.
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He'd left you with plenty to consider. You were still mulling it over as you looked out the window, sitting next to Alfie in his car on the way to the meeting with Sabini.

You'd both killed his men. This was old hat to Alfie, but not to you. You were never one to shy from new experiences, and if what Alfie says is true, if you do have the balls to be in such a position of power, why should you feel so nervous? You'd considered that what balls you had were better than the ones the men that already run the town have, so why should you and your superior balls, your ovaries, get to miss out on all the fun?

"If we're invited together and arriving together..." you say, a slow-paced thoughtful tone. "Are we to be presented as a united front?" you ask, your face turning to his, your upper lip bent up slightly in question.

"Well two against one is much better innit?" he says obviously.

"You realize what a big step this is, Alfie." you say seriously, your voice soft. Your brow is furrowed in the thought of presenting yourself to be a business partner with Alfie Solomons, to aline yourself with the London Jews even if for one meeting. "Both professionally and personally," you say in that same obvious tone he'd used. "Known criminal business partners." you state for clarification.

"It's not one I'm taking without much thought, Genevieve." he says, letting you know this isn't something he's taking lightly either. And he certainly meant that. He'd waited four days, thinking about how big of a step it was and how you might respond before he even came to you about the idea of the meeting. Professionally, you were one of his best assets and secret weapons. You brought him money in both his legal and illegal businesses. You were respected in the legal business world and were still relatively faceless to the illegal underworld in London, you were a newcomer, a wild card. You had high up connections, you had money and you had elite level skills. Professionally you were priceless as far as he was concerned, and he intended to keep you on his side as long as he could. And he knew that meant showing his throat and taking a leap of faith to show you he meant it when he'd told you he wasn't going to fuck you over then he was ready to jump.