TWO.

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( part one, CHAPTER TWO )

Thalia desperately needed a drink

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Thalia desperately needed a drink.

She'd been in boring old Birmingham for two days and two nights and, as the sun rose lethargically across the sky on the third day, she was on the brink of losing her mind over the lack of anything to do.

This had not been a situation in which Théo wanted her to utilize her... special skill set, but that was the only side of the business she ever partook in. There was no information to gather, no manipulation needed. Besides, Thomas Shelby seemed a hard man to control, and Thalia didn't dare try her act on him after he'd seen her hold steady in the pub.  Usually, she drew men in with an air of innocence, all batted eyes and pouted lips, and they opened up easily. Men had loose lips when they figured they were speaking to someone beneath them, and Thalia let them believe she was just another naive little girl looking for a little fun. Shelby had seen her true colors, however, and he would not soon forget them, she reckoned. No, she'd played her cards, and she would have to wait for him to play his.

Without her job to do, she'd grown bored of sitting around doing paperwork. She'd helped her brother create a lucrative business selling imported weapons, and she truly did have her hands full with all the work that came with managing a not-quite-legal family company. Very rarely did she have days in which she had no business to attend to, but they drove her absolutely mad whenever they rolled around. In Birmingham, there just seemed to be far more time spent doing nothing, and it exhausted and unnerved her. It was times like this that she missed the war, however twisted and garish that fact may seem. In wartime, she had purpose. In wartime, she had a job to do. Now, she was waiting on her brother to work out the details of a deal, and she'd likely be waiting a while. It was best to let him run his course and lay the groundwork before she did any more paperwork, lest she risk doing it incorrectly or miss a few facts. No, instead of doing a job or finding her purpose, she just waited and waited and waited some more.

She couldn't take any more waiting.

It was for that particular reason that she'd found herself adventuring down the streets of Small Heath, stumbling over cobblestone and memorizing the layout of the town, off to grab a drink at the Garrison, much to her brothers discretion. Both she and he knew that this particular pub was mostly a boys only club (save for the few whores that lingered about) and that it was owned by one of the Shelby brothers, but Thalia had decided to visit it despite that. Not even Théo's protests could cut her off from finding a little fun or a little booze. Or both. He had wanted her to avoid those gangsters as much as possible, fearing for her safety should she find herself alone in their company, but she was curious—curious enough to drop by their raucous pub in the futile hope of catching a glimpse of just how those boys, and their business, worked.

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