working girl » tommy shelby.

chapter twenty

When Rosie first noticed the terrifying yet fascinating Alfie Solomons loitering around the back end of the club with one of his employees, she thought nothing much of it. Alfie was doing business with Tommy and for a short quantity of time, she thought that Tommy had been sending Alfie to check up on her. It was a waste of everyone's times, Rosie was more than capable of looking after herself but of course, Tommy had to go to extra measures to keep her safe and protected. She had also documented some of the Birmingham lads hanging around the place but half of the time, they were too focused on the women dancing or the inexpensive drinks.

Although Arthur was down in London for business, he had taken it upon himself to be an uncontrolled presence. Whenever he was at the club, he would be too invested in looking at the dancers - which secretly upset Lauren - or snorting some expensive drug to the point he forgot everything. It was the same routine every day; get up, go to work, find Arthur passed out behind the bar, get someone to take him home, work the whole day and then return home to find a drunk Arthur leaving the house. Rosie had considered telling Tommy about Arthur's unhelpful behaviour, but Arthur was clearly struggling with a lot of issues, possibly the War, and she did not want to put him on the receiving end of Tommy's fury.

"Arthur," Rosie said, kicking him in the ribs gently with her heeled shoes. "Arthur, wake bloody up."

A series of moans, groans and coughing erupted from Arthur's body as he rolled over until his face was pressed against the bar. Rosie stared down at him before sighing softly and reaching down to grab his arms. Without putting up a fight, Arthur stood up and rested against the bar for support. He could feel Rosie's strict stare but the bashing headache he had was his main concern.

"What's up, Rosie?" he asked, taking a quick look around the club to see that it was in an awful state. Before Rosie could answer Arthur's question, he raised his hand to silence her for a moment, so he could speak some more. "There's something on your mind, I can tell by the way that you're looking at me. It's ruining that pretty face of yours."

"Giving me, compliments does not mean you are off the hook for your stupid behaviour. Tommy sent us down here to work, not to fuck prostitutes and do drugs all day long. I'm struggling here, and I need you. If not, I'll ring Tommy and get him to bring John down which means you will go back to Birmingham." Rosie felt like she was scolding a young boy who had stolen some sweets from the sweet shop, but Arthur needed some tough love - just not from Tommy. "You have three days to clean up your act because if Tommy comes down and sees you passed out behind the bar then there's no way of knowing what he will do."

"He will understand - "

"No, he won't. Arthur, the Italian's could come in here at any time and cause damage. I can't protect myself against them which is why I need you more than anything. Please, just stop this."

Arthur could see the concern in Rosie's eyes and hesitantly, he nodded. "Is there anything else?"

Rosie wanted to tell Arthur about Alfie and his employees lurking around the place, but she decided against it. The Shelby family, including Rosie, had no reason to worry about Alfie. From what Tommy had said, Alfie seemed like a hard-working man with a short temper and if he was planning to do anything that would affect the club or business up North, then he would have attacked by now. Still, it went to the back of her mind and if worse came to worse, she would have no choice but to bring up the worries to Tommy.

The rest of the day went slow as it was only a Wednesday. Some men arrived after work - every one of them sending Rosie into a panic as she thought that it would be the Italians. Arthur cleaned up his act for the day and started to help Rosie around the club and even began to speak to Lauren which resulted in a half an hour girly chat during lunch. The only thing that got her through the day was going home and chatting to Tommy through the phone. Tommy was a busy man, but he always found the time to talk to Rosie and check that she was okay.