The Poisoned Rose

Chapter Thirteen

Bursting into the room, Rose slammed her hands down onto the desk Tommy was sat out, "What is this?" She shouted angrily at him. "When were you going to tell me?"

He blew out a cloud of smoke, "I've solved the case of the missing letter."

"Did you ever plan on telling me?" Rose asked him, "Answer the question Tommy Shelby or I swear I will bring hell to this house."

Tommy stared at her and noticed how she calmly stared at him, "We were going to tell you."

Letting out a sarcastic laugh she replied, "I do not believe that what so ever." She crumpled the letter in her hand before throwing it into the fire, "They are my family."

"Which is why we didn't tell you immediately." Tommy told her.

Rose let out a frustrated groan, "You were going to let them kill my family. Those stupid men. Anyone but them."

"You want them dead, who cares who kills them."

"I CARE!" Rose yelled loudly. "The Baltons' are not good men, they will make my family suffer and show the fall."

"So?" Tommy asked her with a smirk.

"I will not have my family destroyed by them." Rose started to pace the room, "They will be killed in an uncivil way, that is not what they deserve. They deserve to fear their deaths."

"You sound as though you do not want to be actually killed."

Rose glared at Tommy, "What has my family actually done to the Balton's? Nothing. They have destroyed everything I was, do I not deserve the satisfaction of seeing them die?" She turned silent, "They're my family. No one ever hurts a Crawford if they are not a Crawford."

"We know nothing about you, how can we trust you?" Tommy asked her. "You are someone, someone we do not know anything about."

"You're someone that tells people things they want to hear." John muttered angrily, causing her to glare at him, "You seduce people and then you leave."

Tommy watched her, "We know nothing about you."

"You know more about me than anyone who isn't my family." Rose screamed. "Why do you want me to tell you everything about me, things that don't even matter anymore." Michael touched her shoulder, wanting to calm her down, but instead, it just infuriated her more as she pushed him away, "What do you want to know, huh? That I was so good I dreamed of living in the countryside with the man I loved. That when my mother was taken I would sit on the top of the stairs waiting for my mother to return, that I would cry myself to sleep every night. That I overheard my father talking to his men, telling them that my mother would be killed due to the fact he didn't want to stop the business. He did nothing for my mother, nothing." Her eyes were dry and her face was cold, "And then after the war I stayed in bed and didn't want to wake up. Every morning I would cry that I was still alive, I lost everything. So yes, you know nothing about me." Before any of the men could say anything, Rose fled from the room and up the stairs. As soon as she shut her bedroom door, tears fell down from her face and she sank down onto the floor.

Knocks were heard on her door and then she heard John's voice, "Rose, open the door."

"Leave me alone." Rose whispered to him. "Please just leave me alone."

It was later, in the evening, when Rose entered the living room again. Polly smiled gently at her while Tommy watched her carefully. "We've come up with a plan." Rose ignored what he said and poured herself a drink. "We will tell the Balton's that we will be able to work with them. But we will not actually be working with them, we'll stop them from killing any Crawfords and then we'll distract them and let the Crawford's go."

"They can kill Charlotte." She quickly drank the liquid in her glass. "If my brothers are killed because of you, I will never forgive you and after the Crawford's fall, I will make the Peaky Blinders fall yet again."

"How would you do that?" Tommy asked her.

"All I have to do is tell my friends and they'll have you all arrested before I click in my fingers. You forget, you are only here because my family decided so. I could, quite simply, un-decide." Rose smiled at him wickedly, "Good luck Mr Shelby." She then left the room again, ignoring the stares of the entire room.

"You've upset her." Polly told her nephew. "Why would you upset the most dangerous person you have ever met?"

"She'll get over it."

"Not before she takes this family down with her." Polly sighed heavily. "After everything she's done for this family, she was finally starting to trust you, she was happy and now Tommy Shelby you have ruined all that. That's it, you've lost the support of the Poisoned Rose."

Tommy motioned to his brother, "We have John on our side, she won't do anything, not to him."

"No, she'll just seduce me and then leave." John replied bitterly.

"Really? Now what makes you think that? She thinks he's nice but she's never said she would not do anything to hurt him." Polly then turned to John, "Oh, and do get over yourself. So what if she leaves? She came here to help you succeed, as soon as you have done so, why should she stay?"

"Because she wants to be part of us."

"And why would she want to join another rotten family?" Polly asked him, "Why would she after she's finally escaped?"

Tommy interrupted John, who was about to speak, "We will apologise to her and hope that she shows her forgiving side."

"What forgiving side?" John scoffed as he downed his drink.

Polly glared at the man before finally saying, "You had better hope she does or you will feel the full blow of the Poisoned Rose's wrath. And quite frankly, I think she would be able to kill you all."