Heaven On Hold | Peaky Blinders

Blackbird

Perhaps I could play his games. See what he was up to, but not now. No... I had to keep my eyes out for him not to kill my family.

"No civilians, no children."

"No police." Tommy had a small smile on his face and the two nodded at each other as I started to relax a bit.

"Welcome to Birmingham, Mr. Changretta."

"Grazie."

~~~

I knew Arthur was the only one of us in the factory and it concerned me, especially with this vendetta going on and nobody to protect him. The last time, Changretta had been successful to get past the security and to get to Tommy's office and it got me distressed. It made me follow my instincts back to the factory. I pushed the huge door up to step inside the storage room of the factory and I jumped up to pull it down and lock it behind me again. I could hear some chaotic yelling in the distance, I think it was beneath my floor, and I silently ran to the closest stairs I could find to go down the surface. Arthur seemed to be alerted about revolting workers and I could see he was after the men who were throwing paint on the machinery in hopes of setting the factory on fire. I'm glad I arrived in time.

Arthur had managed to scare a couple of the men away, but as I had predicted he got into a heated fight with one of the workers who threw red paint over my elder cousin. I immediately straightened my back, sliding the knives into the palms of my hands to grab a hold of them. I tried to launch myself into the fight to help him, but Arthur shook his head. It got me disoriented for a short time, but I restored my posture quickly, leaving Arthur to do the job. Arthur clenched his fists and grabbed the man by his collar to give him a good punch, but because of his guard still being down he received one as well. Both stumbled backwards because the floor was slippery from all the paint, but for Arthur it wasn't really a problem. He stood up with the aid of a pole behind him as fast as he fell back, but the man ahead of him had slipped because of the soaked floor.

It seemed as if his own revolt was against him now. Arthur kicked him three times in his diaphragm and the man underneath him started to beg whole Arthur grabbed a hold of a hammer that laid next to him. I thought Arthur would have ended this, but to my surprise he didn't. Arthur had pushed his old ways aside and had let the man live.

"FUCK YOUR FUCKING REVOLUTION!" He yelled at the fleeing man and then faced me. "Rioney, I'm a fucking mess."

"I know. We probably should get you back to the rest and do something about the paint covering you." I suggested while guiding him with my hand on his back, supporting him. Unbeknownst to the two of us, two Changretta men had entered through the back of the factory and they deadly stared at us before whispering something to one another. Something clearly about me. I pushed Arthur down with me, evading their bullets while then pulling him around the corner of the dividing hallway. I calmed my heart down and listened to the increasing sound of footsteps coming our way. "Arthur, one of the two stayed behind. Move upwards, kill him from behind.... I'll distract the one following us."

"Okay..." He tried to catch his breath for a moment. "We'll meet at the painted hallway."

"Understood." I responded silently before quickly glancing over my shoulder to keep my surrounding in view as Arthur climbed up. I was so grateful I had followed my instinct and went to the factory to see how everything was going. I took in a deep breath and spotted the shadow of the man who chased us. I finally got to see the man up close while he narrowed the gap between me and him and I held my chin up as I grabbed a hold of my knives even tighter.

"Miss. Rioney, Mr. Changretta wants you alive." The man smiled 'kindly' at me. "No need to cause any drama."

"Why does he want me alive?"

"Curious?" I returned the 'kind' smile he had given me a second ago and hoped for an proper answer while I winked at the tall man. "For answers you should speak to him yourself." I clenched my jaw and nodded. He wouldn't give me the answers. He probably also knew too little to do so if he wanted to.

"It seems like I'm very important to you or else Mr. Changretta would have ordered to kill me so I'll go.... if you leave Arthur and the rest of my family alone."

"Unfortunately, those weren't my orders. My job is to keep you alive and bring you to Mr. Changretta."

"You're job might be keeping me alive, but unfortunately, keeping you alive isn't mine." The man's face turned into a twisted smile and he shook his head carefully. Rapidly he pushed his coat away from his left side and his action revealed his pistol holster. His hand reached for the handle and tried to drew his revolver to aim it at me. However, before he could lift his pistol, I threw my dagger with a quick wrist movement at his hand which then was impaled to his rib cage by the great force. He groaned in pain, yet, still tried to find his pistol that fell to the floor. It gave me time to move closer to the gangster and I grabbed his other hand, pushing it to the side to break his thumb and index finger. He screamed in agony and I grabbed the sides of his head, turning it to one side until I heard that familiar snap.

I decided to quickly find a way to Arthur and I soon I found him. He was yelling at the man he kept alive in the distance and I waved at him to indicate that it was me so he wouldn't shoot my head off.

"Where are going?" The man on the floor tried to crawl away. "Come here.... FUCKING HIT MEN, ARE YA? Huh? Is that what you are?! Arthur Shelby?" Arthur kept talking as he dragged the man over to a container now filled with paint. "That's who you wanted, yeah? What about.... what about fucking John Shelby?" Arthur placed the man's head above the pool of paint and then started to drown him in there. At first the man was struggling, but soon had given up. 2 men down, a lot more to go.