"even when she was lying, there was a certain truth she always told"
A pretty girl, a deal gone wrong, an ultimatum, and a death...
Another average week for the Peaky Blinders.
[T. Shelby]
[Under Editing]
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The day started like any other. They spoke little about what they'd done and what they'd said, but the fondness between them was only strengthened. So much so, in fact, that Polly remarked upon it early in the afternoon as they all gathered in the gambling salon, even going so far as to call Tommy a love-sick puppy. Thalia did not understand the phrase in its entirety, but she understood each word separately—one of which made her heart flutter with unspoken excitement.
Tommy just laughed Polly off, but he made no effort to refute her statement. Thalia kept her on him, noting that he'd seemed worked up after he went out to pick up his suits earlier in the morning. When she pressed, he simply told her that he'd met with Inspector Campbell coincidentally, and it had been off putting. He chased away her worry with his excitement about what he called Black Star Day. Thalia didn't question him on what this meant, assuming only that it was something he'd had in the works for a while and was truly proud of. She loved the animation with which he moved that morning, his ice blue eyes alight with contentment.
All was well.
That is, until it wasn't.
The guns were gone. Thalia didn't full comprehend the significance of that, but the panic in Tommy's eyes told her all she needed to know. Something dark was coming, something dangerous.
That something was Billy Kimber.
"I won't ask you to stand with me," Tommy said, pulling Thalia into an embrace in the center of the gambling den that had erupted in the last several seconds since Tommy received the news. He no longer kept up his secretive nature surrounding their relationship, perhaps being honest with everyone around him for the first time in a long while. Now, he was somewhat primal, as if saying silently to everyone around them that she was his alone to hold, to cherish, to love.
He did not use the word, but Thalia did not need to hear it to know.
"You do not have to ask," Thalia scoffed. She looked around at all the men in the den, gearing up to take on an unknown number of adversaries with an unknown amount of fire power. Hell would have broken loose long ago had Tommy not be around to lead the men calmly, with a surety that seemed to surprise even him sometimes. "I will follow you, always."
"Thalia—"
"But do not go where I cannot follow." The jibe was playful enough, but it held a weight to it that Thalia had been yet to use with him since before the bar fight that felt eons away now.
"Never."
Then, he left her, and it seemed that he took all the warmth with him. Thalia shook off the growing cold within her, feeling numb from the anticipation. The war had never truly left, she supposed.
