smoke storm. peaky blinders

𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻

CHAPTER ELEVEN

In the three days since the races, Adelaide had not seen a soul. Anger still festered within her. She was not sure of the exact cause for it could have been multiple things: Tommy's willingness to make a deal of her and Grace, or Kimber's happiness to suggest such a thing, being a man willing to take and take. Being a woman meant expecting such attitudes, but that didn't mean she was used to it.

The emptiness of the house only seemed to amplify her feelings, the heat of her disappointment and rage curling in her stomach, making her both sickly full and with an appetite unsatiated. With her mind free to wander, she could think of nothing other but that day- that evening when Thomas had taken her by the waist on two separate occasions. Once to spin her around the room in a tame dance, and for a second time, preventing her glass weapon from piercing Billy Kimber's skin.

Adelaide felt betrayed by her thoughts. For a moment she hated him, her jaw clenching together as tightly as her eyes. Hated the way he'd involved her so easily. And yet, in a way, she'd wanted him to. She'd wanted him to trust her, to let her in, to keep her close. Adelaide had wanted it for all the wrong reasons.

Hadn't their plan been to stay anonymous in their work in bringing Emilio Smith to strength? Adelaide Davis was not supposed to become so infatuated with her competition, with the man who didn't even know he was her enemy.

A knock rang through the hallway to where Adelaide sat in the kitchen. She'd grown used to the quietness of the house now and wasn't ready to let Harry and the boys break it. But she opened the front door anyway, only to let out a harsh gasp as a hand connected with her throat and pushed her further into the flat.

"Even prettier with my hand wrapped around your neck," Billy Kimber mused, his voice low enough for only her to hear.

She had the urge to spit at him- to do anything to get him away. He was a small man, his height reaching just below hers, his arms skinny and fingers thing, but she spotted the men behind him, his bodyguards with dark suits and shadowed faces, and stilled her body. When his lackeys had filed in behind, shoulders widening purposefully to intimidate, he let go and pushed her back. Adelaide fell with her hands behind her back, leaning against the wall.

"What do you want?" She snapped, letting the venom spit from her voice.

"Your man," he began, his lips tilting to one side in an arrogant sort of look, "at least, I'm assuming that's how you're tied into all of this. Your man, Mr Smith, promises me a day at the races with his prettiest woman. Now I don't feel like your obligations were met."

He came towards her again and she stopped him with a glare. Kimber smiled.

"I'm surprised a man like Emilio Smith would be happy enough to sell his women, but I'm not complaining," he said. Adelaide cringed away from him. The tiny man held such power and he didn't even know it. "I want what is owed to me."

In that moment, with him leering at her as he had at the races, she feared the worst. But he retracted, smirking, with his silver tooth showing, and glanced to her over his shoulder. She watched him with careful eyes.

"I'll be seeing you, Adelaide Davis."

Alone and with her mind overthinking, Adelaide could stay in the empty flat no longer. She found herself in the only other place she knew to go, hoping for a friendly face, but the place was almost empty, except for the committed drunks, and Grace had long gone home.

"Adelaide."

She heard him before she saw him.

"Thomas."