NEW CHAPTERS COMING SOON.
Small Heath, Birmingham, was an unsafe place to be. Men stumbling drunk out of pubs, whores there waiting for them on the side of the street, with gang fights happening around the corner. Unsafe for young girls... but not i...
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• • •
"Time for peace, or is it time for violence?"
• • •
The peaky blinders were notorious for their ruthless violence across Birmingham. You could easily pick them out from a crowd with their shaved back and sides haircut and razors sewn into their flat caps. Harry had heard many gruesome rumors about their dealings.
Harry should have been scared in all reality, but she was used to doing risky jobs. In her line of work, she had learned to dissociate herself from fear. Fear is just a distraction and one that Harry didn't need if she didn't want to get caught.
The letter Lee had given her was from a fancy writing set. She could tell from the quality of the paper alone. A small detail at best, but a point deluding her to the fact this job is a small part of a bigger ordeal.
The letter had a smaller envelope enclosed within it and directions stating the task:
Deliver the letter to the office in the Shelby residence in Small Heath.
Retrieve a black diary belonging to Mr. Thomas Shelby.
The second payment will be made on the receiving of said item.
B.
In normal circumstances, the job would sound easy, but this would involve waiting for the premises to be empty from all gang members.
• • •
Harry stood a few meters away, blending in with many other street kids outside the Shelby residence. She had intel from one of the street boys that there was a meeting at the pub called the Garrison. All she had to do was wait patiently until they had all left the house apart from the one 'guard dog'. It would be tight to get the job done, no more than 10 minutes, but it was possible. She just had to get Scudboat out of the house.
The gamblers piled out of the house, followed by a man and a woman shortly after—the pack's leader: Thomas Shelby. Mister high and mighty is about to be done over by little old me, Harry thought with a smirk.
She waited a few minutes before whistling to a group of younger street kids. A few pennies each, and they were under Harry's command. They ran around the street to where Mr. Shelby kept his car and started playing inside it, just as instructed. Nothing serious that they would get into trouble but trouble enough that Scudboat would leave his post after one of the kids knocked on the door to tip him off.
She watched as her plan fell into action. Scudboat stormed out of the house, following the boy falling for the act. She wasted no time, perusing from the opposite direction to the house left carelessly unlocked. She slipped inside the house quietly, making sure to go unnoticed by anyone passing.
Once inside the house, Harry confidentially walked towards the gambling den's office, pocketing some of the cash left on the tables as she went, feeling at home in the danger. Entering the office, she strolled around, skimming her hand along the expensive oak desk, taking the letter out of her pocket and placing it down carefully.
One half of the job done, she thought, and now for the diary. Harry started rummaging around the desk, but alas, no luck. Hmm, where would his diary be? Like a lightbulb moment, she realized it would likely be in Mr. Shelby's room.
Harry headed up the stairs just in time as she heard the doorknob turn, hearing someone walk in downstairs. It wasn't long until she listened to a man, presumably, Scudboat, swear loudly, followed by the sound of him running out of the house. Time to hurry up now, Harry thought.
He rummaged through a room with a single bed and a painting above it. Just as her eyes landed on the book, she heard many people come back into the house downstairs. Shit, Harry thought. Just a few more seconds, and she would have been fine. She stood as still as a statue, careful not to make the floor creek, never taking her eyes off the black diary from under the sheets. The voices got louder as the people went into the kitchen directly under where Harry was standing.
Unfortunately, Harry couldn't hear what was being said as the floor distorted the voices, but she could make out Scudboats voice replying to a deeper, more authoritative tone.
She was losing balance slightly, causing the floorboard under her right foot to let out a low creak causing Harry's eyes to widen. She quickly snatched the diary, shoving it into the back of her trouser waistband, and fled for the window, all the while hearing loud footsteps running up the stairs toward the room she was in. With a push and a jiggle of the window, she managed to force it open and began climbing out the window.
• • •
~Tommy's POV ~
A low creek silenced Scudboat mid explanation as all of our eyes looked up to the ceiling. Hand on my gun, I raced upstairs to find the intruder. Kicking in my bedroom door, my eyes scanned the room, breathing deeply until my eyes landed on a young boy holding onto my window seal, startled by my bursting into the room. In a split second, his face had gone from shock to a cheeky smirk before letting go as he jumped into the street below. I thought, why the hell was a young boy breaking into houses and stealing money from gangs? I raced past John, who stood in the doorway with a dumbfounded expression of what he had also just witnessed. Running out of the front door, my eyes scanned the road spinning around, trying to spot the boy who had broken in, yet there was no sight of him. He had vanished.
