Talya hopped on the spot whilst sending a paranoid glance over her shoulder as Michael opened the door. "Hurry up. It's cold."
"I know it's cold," Michael chuckled as he finally got the key in the hole with his shaking hands. "Get in and stop moaning."
She scurried in. "You sure there's no one out there?"
"I am." He confirmed, firmly shutting the door behind them and locking it. "Worry not, fair maiden."
Talya rolled her eyes before kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you for tonight. The meal was lovely."
They had gone out to commemorate the one year anniversary of their first meeting, which had ended so abruptly. Talya couldn't believe how far they had come, but she was glad they had. Aside from the figure she had seen outside their house a few weeks ago which had really unsettled her, things were going well for the two of them.
"Go upstairs, love. I'll make us both a drink and make sure everywhere is locked up."
She obliged and hopped up the stairs and into their room. Once she had taken her makeup on and slipped into her silk nightie, she snatched the newspaper from her dressing table that she had been painstakingly poring over before their meal and flopped into bed to carry on where she had left on. She had been meticulously reading every single article for the past month in an attempt to find any further information about the war between her family and the Blinders' war. Things may have been well between Michael and Talya, but there had become so much sectarian violence between the Ivanovs and Blinders that no one person could keep track of it all; the local newspapers had taken a shining to the story and were reporting on every bar right, every cutting and every car bomb being set off. Talya was just hoping there were no names she recognised from either side of the conflict whenever she read the articles. Despite how much she loathed her family, she wasn't sure she could handle seeing her brother being named dead at the hands of a Blinder.
Nothing in the newspaper caught Talya's eye, it was just the usual business advertisements and the overly-dramatised witness accounts of gang violence, until she came across a name that rang like an alarm bell in her brain.
"PHILANTHROPIC FATHER HUGHES CONTINUES TO DEDICATE HIS TIME AND MONEY TO BIRMINGHAM ORPHANS."
She had seen his name here and there in the papers before, but this time it struck a chord in her. This was who she had heard Tommy talk to Michael about the time he spoke to him on his own! Mentally taking a note to bring it up to him, she folded the newspaper in half and placed it on her bedside table as Michael walked in with two mugs of tea.
-
A few hours later, Talya was absentmindedly tracing the outline of Michael's bare shoulders with her fingers as he laid between her legs, his head resting comfortably on her stomach. He was falling asleep, but Talya's mind was racing as she stared up at the night sky through the crack in their curtains. She never managed to get much sleep these days, such was her trepidation over the gang war. Worry consumed her at night, but she never told Michael that. He had enough on without having to deal with her lack of sleep. Compared to some of the problems this war had caused them, it seemed stupid to mention.
"Are you awake, Mike?"
He murmured slightly in response.
"Can I ask you something?"
"You already have, but go on."
"I was reading the newspaper before, and I saw something which I recognised. A name." Michael leaned his head back slightly to look at her as she spoke. "Father Hughes. He's a priest. I heard Tommy mention him to you once, but you never told me what he said. I was just wondering..."
Her voice trailed off as Michael's gaze darkened and his body stiffened beneath her touch. He shot up from his position and turned away from her. "He's no one."
"Oh... I was only wondering," Talya intended on backtracking, but Michael's reaction had confused her. "Hey, why won't you tell me who he is? You didn't seem yourself after Tommy spoke to you about him. What's going on?"
Michael's head snapped towards her and his face was so strained it shocked Talya. "I said, he's no one. Stop fucking yapping on about him, alright?"
Talya recoiled. "Watch who you're speaking to, mate. I was only asking a question, there's no need to get bold with me. You never keep secrets from me like this."
"You never know when to fucking leave it, do you?" Michael roared, making Talya jump. He grabbed his clothes from the pile he had left them on the floor earlier, pulled them on and made for the door. "Don't come after me. I'm going to my mums."
She blinked as she watched him storm from their room and slam their front door behind him. Moments later, she heard their car pull off the path. What the fuck? His attitude had changed so fast she had barely processed what was going on. All she knew was there was more to this Father Hughes story than he was telling her.
-
"You still not heard from him?" Ada asked as she sat down opposite Talya and placed their tray of tea down.
Talya shook her head no as she poured them both a drink from the teapot. "Not a peep. Has he shown his face here?"
"Nope. Pol said he's staying there, though. Very weird, isn't it? You'd think after three days he'd calm down a bit." Ada tutted as she finished speaking before turning her head. "Karl! Come here."
A few moments later, the young boy emerged. "What? Oh, Talya!" He skipped over and gave Talya a great hug.
"Hello, little man. You excited for our walk?" She had promised Ada to take him out whilst she held a meeting in her dining room about some business or another. Talya half suspected she was seeing a man but daren't pry on people's private lives after the way her own boyfriend had blown up on her.
Karl nodded fervently. "Can we go the sweet shop?"
"Karl Thorne! Don't be so cheeky!"
"Yes we can. Don't tell your mam though." Talya said with a wink before finishing her cup of tea. "Right, come on. We'll be back by four. Did you see my escort when you let me in, Ade? He doesn't speak at all. We shall have to try and get a few words out of him, won't we Karl?"
Ada chuckled. Since Talya had spotted the figure outside her house, Tommy had been adamant the women take one of the Peaky men with them if they were without one of the family. And seeing as Michael was ignoring Talya, she now had to bring a bloke named Daniel with her everywhere she went.
-
"Mummy had the man she's seeing now around last week. Something very strange happened. I don't know what business he owns." Karl said curiously as they passed by a duck pond in the park.
"What was it?"
"Well Aunt Pol dropped me home early, and I heard loads of shuffling and a bang come from mum's room when I went to say hello."
"And then what happened?" Talya said, raising an eyebrow at the child, knowing what was coming next. He certainly had a big mouth, she thought.
"Well, I walked into the room and the man was shirtless! Isn't that strange? They seemed all in a hurry, too."
Talya chuckled and patted Karl on the head. "Yes, mate. Very strange. Is that a sweet trolley over there?" As Karl hopped happily, she handed him her purse. "Buy what you want but hide it from your mum. Go on."
A few minutes later, the boy returned holding a bulging paper bag and handed Talya her purse back, it being considerably lighter than when she gave it to him. "Reckon you got enough?"
Her sarcasm went over his head as he nodded and began to list what he had bought. They were approaching the entrance of the park again. Daniel turned around. "Should I start the car?"
"Please." Talya replied, before muttering to Karl. "That's the most he's ever said to me, kiddo. See if we can get him to laugh on the journey home, eh? Tell him a joke."
The child giggled and took Talya's hand in his own as they walked the short distance from themselves and the car. Talya was never fond of kids, but she liked Karl, he was a laugh. He went to shout a joke at Daniel as he opened the car door, but something clattering on the floor as he did so made Talya gasp, cutting him off. She instantly knew what it was.
The trigger of a bomb.
Grabbing Karl and throwing herself on top of him, she braced as the car went up in flames. The heat licked her back and she heard pieces of metal drop around her. Luckily they were far enough to not get caught directly in the blast, but a piece of metal hitting her on the head instantly knocked Talya out upon impact.
-
When Talya's eyes opened, they felt heavy and resistant, almost refusing to give up sleep. She had to fight to open them fully, and even when she did, she felt groggy. Her surroundings were unfamiliar and it smelt strongly of alcohol disinfectant. "Where the fuck..."
"Talya!"
The sound of Michael, who she hadn't noticed, exclaiming her name made Talya jump, which sent a jolt of pain through her body. "Fucking hell. What's going on?"
"Thank god you're awake," he said with a heavy sigh as he took her hand and kissed it gently. Talya noticed scrapes all across the arm. "You're in the hospital. Someone planted a bomb in your car. The doctors weren't sure if you were in a coma or not. Some shrapnel hit the back of your head."
It took a few moments for her to compute what he said as she tried to remember what she had been doing and who she had been with. "What was I... Oh my god! Karl! Is he alright?"
"He's fine, love. You protected him from it all. You did so well."
She already knew the answer before she asked the question. "And Daniel? Is he dead?"
Michael nodded gravely.
Shaking her head, Talya tried to piece everything together. The only perpetrators could have been her family or the Sparkbrook Boys.
"Look, Tal. You've been asleep for nearly a day and I haven't stopped panicking about how we left things. I couldn't bare it if the last time we spoke was an argument. I want to apologise. I was out of order. You have no way of knowng why I don't want to discuss Hughes, because I haven't told you. I'm sorry."
"It's alright. I'm sorry if I overstepped the boundary."
Michael sternly shook his head. "No. There shouldn't be boundaries between us when it comes to things like this. I should have just told you what happened. It's just... it's hard. I've never really told anyone, apart from my mum. You see, when I was in care, in the Parish, some of the priests used to 'play games' and give 'special treatment' to some of us boys. Hughes was one of them. He... he-"
"You don't have to tell me, Michael. I know what you're going to say." Talya said sadly, holding her aching arm up so she could stroke the side of his face, catching a solitary tear as it rolled down his cheek. "If he's coming to Birmingham, Michael, then we will kill him. I promise you."
"We can't. Tommy has involvement with him."
Talya rolled her eyes. "Then we will wait until the involvement is over and we will slice him ear to ear, do you hear me? Him and anyone else who fucks with us."
Michael chuckled softly as he looked at his girlfriend, with her head bandaged, stitches on her cheek and covered in scrapes and bruises. She had never looked so vulnerable, and yet he had never heard her sound so strong. "Alright, love. We will. I hear you."
"Good," she said before sending a pointed sideward glance at the man in the cot beside her who was engaging in a particularly nasty coughing fit. "Now, go find a doctor for me and find out when I can get out of here."
(a/n: hellooo long time no upload!!! seeing as im in lockdown and have nothing else to do i wrote this chapter in one sitting so its a bit rough around the edges but it would appear i am back!!!)