𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔, thomas shelby

third shot.

Polly snorted, laughing and pulling a cigarette from her purse.

"I heard the Sabini hired your girls."

Polly lit her cigarette.

"An almost lifetime contract, the Sabini pays well to have them dancing at their parties."

The science of Bella's work was so easy, at first it was all about letting prostitutes use the free room of their house until they realized they could go further. When the money she earned as part of the arrangement with those girls began to grow, she knew art and business were very close friends.

Hired a girl who had been chorus girls in Paris, after she went bankrupt, came to the streets of Birmingham and her work was totally devalued, when she found it also prostituted. But Bella had the idea that she would teach the other girls, and soon to create girls to be entertainers became her original work.

Of course this was not the only job, many of her girls still preferred prostitution because of the status and expensive gifts given by gang leaders, but now there was another assignment for what they did.

Discovering information for other gangs has become a profitable business, and now even business owners hire girls to seduce their competitors.

It was a business that was growing very fast.

Bella offered to walk with Polly to the betting shop, not far from where she was living.

Polly Gray was impressed, and compared to other women in Small Heath, it was an event that didn't happen often.

Tommy's girl was walking with her own legs instead of sitting and waiting for everything to fall out of the sky because her boyfriend was a gangster. What she created, the idea that came out of nowhere, was working.

She knew her nephew loved Bella, was very clear since they were very young. The girl's late grandmother was always against, but Polly understood young love better than anyone else.

She was ambitious, like her nephew.

Polly still didn't know if this was good or bad.

"Tommy sent me a letter a few days ago," Bella said, walking slowly to have time to talk to Polly. "He writes it was not to worry, he would come back."

"He writes that in the letters he sends me too," Polly said bitterly. "It looks like this war will never end."

"Arthur and John send letters too?" Bella questioned seeing the distress in Polly's eyes.

Polly rubbed her temple and sighed.

"No, Tommy tells them about the letters he sends me."

"They are well?" she asked hesitantly.

"The day the letter arrived for me, they were in. Today I don't know," Polly said, shaking her head. "Such is the war."

Bella just wanted Tommy to come home, and every time she walked near the canal, she felt a terrible emptiness in her chest to think he might have been killed in combat. Each time a letter came to her, she feared the news, she feared for her life.

She hated it, she hated being powerless.

Bella spent nights staring out the window and wondering if he was sleeping well, if she ate she wondered if Tommy was eating well.

"It seems that this war is consuming us on the inside." she reflected, crossing her arms over the cold and anguish.

It was dark and wet under the tunnel, the risk of collapsing was as great as the risk of being attacked. He had to be alert at any moment, any hesitation could mean the death of himself or the other soldiers.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Danny clutching his wife's photograph as if it were sacred. He shouldn't be distracted by his action, but his thoughts unknowingly flew into Bella's amber eyes.

He should have asked her, he should have taken a picture too, in the midst of all the horror of blood and mud, Tommy was afraid to forget her face.

There was no other way, he had to win that bet.