Devil | A Solomons

THIRTY NINE - TWICE

Luckily for Irina, Thomas had interrupted not long after Alfie confessed how he was feeling, giving her an easy escape.

They didn't stay in Liverpool for much longer, just another hour or so while Irina spoke to the men that managed her offices there, getting all the details from them that she could. She was alone when she did this, not knowing where Thomas and Alfie had disappeared to.

Though as she walked out of her warehouse that afternoon, she saw both of them leant against Alfie's car, laughing and smoking a cigarette each, a glimpse of sun breaking through a gap in the clouds that landed like a cracked halo across Alfie's face, leaving Thomas in the dark.

The drive home felt endless, each stretch of road looked the same as the last and the thundering of the tyres against the worn down road had began to grate on Irina's skin.

She curled up in the passenger seat and closed her eyes, not because she was tired, but to avoid conversation with Alfie. His words hadn't left her mind since she heard them, and all while she was speaking to men in her offices, she had been thinking of Alfie. She wondered what she might've said had Thomas not interrupted them, or if she'd even have been able to say anything at all.

It frustrated her that Alfie could pluck away the control she had over everything in her life so easily. It was something that she'd never experienced before and ever since vowing to take back control of her life, the way he had still managed to get under her skin and twist her mind made it impossible for her to see clearly for even a second.

Irina hated the feeling. She despised not being able to see the path ahead of her, to not know whether tomorrow would be a good day or a bad day. She didn't want to fall asleep wondering whether she would wake up fine or with a broken heart, or perhaps whether she'd end up sat in a puddle of her own tears because one man's words were stronger than her will.

She felt the car draw slowly to a halt, not realising she had managed to drift off into a half-slumber the rest of the way home. Irina yawned quietly, squeezing her eyes shut tightly before forcing them open, blinking a few times as she saw the sky had now turned orange, like a fire burning over the skyline of the city she called home.

"What the fuck?"

Alfie jumped out of the car and walked up the steps to Irina's home. Confused but still slightly delirious, Irina followed him a few moments later, curious as she watched Alfie peer his head through her front window.

He reached in and pulled out a brick with a scrap of paper tied to it with a frayed string, yanking it free with a scowl on his face.

"You have to be kidding me..." Irina groaned, her heart sinking when she saw the shattered glass that was once her front window, broken pieces strewn across the floor and the windowsill, though from what she could see, nothing had been taken.

"You can't stay here," Alfie said, scrunching up the piece of paper and shoving it into his pocket, "Get some stuff, go on."

"What did it say?"

"Just go." Alfie said, snatching the keys from Irina's hand and unlocking the door for her, holding it open as she walked inside and disappeared up the stairs.

Alfie sighed loudly once she'd gone, sinking his teeth into his lip as he looked up to the sky in vain, cursing himself under his breath. He pulled out the note from his pocket, checking over his shoulder that Irina wasn't anywhere near.

'An eye for an eye'

The note would've made no sense to Irina, but it made painful sense to Alfie. The break in at the vault and the brick through the window was never because of Irina, and looking back, Alfie felt foolish to think that even for a second that it was.