𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝘿𝙪𝙤 ; 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙨 𝙎𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙗𝙮 [ BOOK 2 ]

SIX

The older man held Caroline's hand as they made their way down the steel ladders as though he'd forgotten the monster she truly was within. Whilst one man scattered around to find any traces of their whereabouts, the other stood still, his face in the opposite direction, but it turned when he heard footfalls, and amongst indistinctive chatter, Arthur hit him over the head with his hammer, launching a new approach to violence.

Whilst Arthur remained on the ground in a moment of exhaustion, Caroline immediately took the fallen Italian's gun at the exact same time the other Mafia man came around the corner. They should've known all about Caroline and her sharp animalistic instincts, because he didn't stand a chance. In the blink of an eye, he'd fallen after Caroline riddled his body with his own handmade bullets.

However, despite the certain led poisoning, he didn't die. Helplessly, he tried to move, but Arthur had better plans for him that didn't involve escaping. With utmost force, Arthur dragged his body in the direction of the sink stained with red, and Caroline's face lightened to realise that Arthur hadn't lost his ruthless strategies in regards to killing methods. 

"Caroline and Arthur Shelby, that's who you wanted, eh?" Arthur pulled the man's upper half closer towards the sink's contents. "Well, what about fucking John Shelby?

Caroline easily bypassed Arthur and took matters into her own hands. There was a silence to her soul; she was fall leaves under frost. She felt the chill in her blood, coldness bringing the synapses of her brain to a stand still. Part of it was a pain, yet one she could endure, one she could sleep through night after night without the anaesthesia of false hope. This was her winter; she wait for spring and the chattering of the birds.

Every cell in his body screamed for the oxygen he was starved for, especially under the thick concoction in which his head suffocated in, but Caroline couldn't stop. Her brown eyes became black within a matter of moments as though she was consumed by the dark hole within her chest - the void she felt without John, and no doubt this man was one of the many culprits responsible for his death.

With every gurgle and body writhe, Caroline fought all the more harder to keep him in place and drown him, bathing him in red, a death john suffered, only the red was a pool of his own crimson blood. It only took a few more moments, but when it finally happened, his body stopped moving, having finally drowned.

Caroline rested her head on the man's coated thick red hair. "John." She breathed, then, she threw the body to the floor.

She quickly fell to her knees into the depths of her own despair. There was hope before -just a tiny flicker against the wind. With the open eyes of a child she reached out, fingers extended. In that moment she had a choice of kindness or cruelty; it took no time at all for her to decide. She saw the dying ember and brought the winds to a cold howl. Now, there was nothing. Resurfaced in old, merciless ways, hope was not a choice, but a mere dream.

Arthur breathlessly planted a kiss atop of Caroline's head and brought her torso into a half hug. With little to no energy, she allowed herself to appear weak in front of the man who fought the same darkness within. Now that they were both parents, they had to maintain a certain amount of humanity for the sake of their children, but with the demons they kept at bay, both Caroline and Arthur were destined to lose themselves in the chaos.

***

The cigarette was as those belching cars, feeling so entitled to pollute. It as if the purchase brought some strange notion of dominance - that they could then knowingly be objectionable, to bring chemicals into the environment, and the right of being a consumer trumped the rights of others to breathe clean air.

Yet, Caroline puffed slowly into the night air with her head resting against the windowsill of her shared room with Thomas. She watched as the grey clouds rolled into one thick blanket to cover the dusk, a lure to distract her from the sinister thoughts that crept up on her quicker than her own husband had.

With his hands on her hips, Caroline frowned. Her lazy eyes remained ahead, though her suspicions stayed guarded. To her assumption, it was around two o'clock in the morning, meaning, Thomas had been doing business for hours upon end.

"Why are you in here, Care?"

"Where have you been?"

"Doing business."

"With who?"

"Jessie Eden." Thomas sighed as Caroline raised a brow of lingering betrayal. "She's an enigmatic union convener who'll eventually lead us into politics."

"And how will you reach your end game? By sleeping with her too?"

"No, and I will never sleep with nor look at another woman. Do you really think I'd lose you like that again?"

Caroline mockingly hummed. "So what was it with Lizzie if it wasn't for business?"

"I had to feel something."

"And did you?"

"No."

She felt a flutter of hope awaken in her chest. "I am in here because I forgive you."

His eyes were lifeless. The spark that existed before had vanished. There was nothing left, not an ounce of life in his eyes. The sound he made was a relief, but nothing more than a relief. It would be foolish to call it comfort. He spoke nothing, and he looked off into nothing. He were becoming nothing. His head was slightly tilted, and his mind must of been blank - it was either soullessly blank, or completely ravaged by thoughts that tore at the very synapses of his brain, leaving him unresponsive in her presence.

"I don't deserve forgiveness." Thomas spoke lowly. "Not yours."

Caroline turned her body, leaning her back against the window's ledge. "Because you think you don't means you do. I see your guilt eating you alive. You've avoided me almost every day as you cannot bare to see what the betrayal has done to me, so it is time for my truth - one in which evens the score."

"I already know your truth. I don't need to hear it again."

"Oh, but you do." She sucked in a sigh after stubbing out her cigarette. "I visited Michael the other day in hospital with nothing but bad intentions, but I couldn't bring myself to use him for selfish reasons."

Thomas blankly blinked. "What did you do, Caroline?"

"I cried. He held me and I cried." She spoke, her tone coloured with sadness. "I cried for John and I cried for you. Perhaps you should do the same."

"I can't cry, Caroline. I've already cried for you and I can't do it again."

Caroline frowned. "Like I told Oscar many years ago, crying doesn't make you any less of a man."

Thomas's head dropped. "I'm not supposed to show emotion. You know how I am and I am the way I am because I turned off all emotion, and now that they're gone, I can't get them back, and maybe it's a good thing, because if I felt a single thing other than love towards you, I'd kill myself."

Caroline and Thomas seemed to have a silent conversation as they stared into each others eyes, understanding one another's fears on a spiritual level. Thomas finally look away, tears threatening to blur his vision, when a hand encircles his. It was soft and warm, reassuring almost, as if the owner of that hand sensed my desperation.

"Sincerely, I forgive you, Thomas." She whispered. "We have more at stake than just our marriage. If Charlie doesn't see a strong unit, it will distort his future portray of love, as well as rose's. We have to move past this and create a warm environment for our children to absorb."

He seemed to crumble. In that raw moment, a tear slid down Thomas's cheek and although he couldn't feel it, Caroline saw it and made no sudden move to wipe it away. Instead, she ushered the man into her arms and allowed him to rest his head in the crook of her neck whilst her hands wrapped around his broad torso, holding him closer than ever before - producing a feeling that no intimate experience could - one that held remorse, but a love that felt recycled, new and better than before.

"I love you, Caroline. More than you'll ever know."

"I love you too, Thomas. Further than hell and back."