Undeniable

Ch. 5

*Emilia's POV*

The sun settled in behind the curtains leaving a soft glow onto the bed . I could feel his breathing quicken and slow beside me. Throughout the night  he would jerk around or mumble under his breath, then go back to peacefully sleeping as nothing had happened. His bare back faced me now and I watched the slow rise and fall. I allowed my fingers to glide over his shoulders outlining the definition in each shoulder blade before reaching the back of his neck. Drifting upward into his hair , I ran my fingers back into his hair hoping not to disturb him. The house was quiet. The doctor had told us he had to return to work today so by the time we awoke he would be gone.
Sure enough, he was. He offered for us to stay as long as we needed but I knew Tommy had to get back to the office , he had been gone long enough .

Quietly I shifted off the bed and made my way to the kitchen. Once Thomas woke up he would be in a hurry to leave, so I wanted to make tea before our departure. A smile crept onto my lips as i saw the blue kettle was already sitting out on the counter. I filled it with water and sat it on the burner before taking another look around the house. It was very small and quaint . Only one other bedroom from the one me and Tommy had shared last night. The walls of the living room were similar to the bedroom, lined with bookshelves and papers. He had various candles on every surface, some were merely puddles of wax. My gaze fixed on a set of emerald books all numbered and grouped together. I panned through them while still keeping an eye on the kettle in the corner.

"Do you like to read?" Tommy's voice rang out from the doorway behind me.

I spun around to see him proped on the door frame with a ciggerate hanging loosely from his lips.

"Yes, actually. I read alot. Do you?"

"I don't have time.  Last book I read was in grade school, pain in my ass if you ask me" he let out a low chuckle .

"So then Mr. Shelby what do you like to do in your free time?" I sat the book back on the shelf next to the others.

"Drink. Gamble." His gaze dropped onto me scanning over my body for a moment "women"

Chills formed up my spine but I chose to ignore it. I didn't want him to notice how much he affected me. "Sounds like an awful lot of fun, if it's not getting you in trouble"

"And what do you Miss Weathers know about getting into trouble ? Considering you are armed and dangerous as I have found out"

I laughed returning to the kitchen area and searching for two tea cups. He slumbered over to the kitchen table briskly taking a seat and blowing smoke in between breaths.

"I've never been in much trouble. Tried to keep a clean record, especially in my line of work. You can imagine nobody wants a dirty accountant." I sat two glasses onto the table and begin pouring tea from the kettle for both of us. "But believe it or not I have been arrested . Once"

"Arrested ? I don't remember that coming up in our interview"

"That's because you didn't do the interview , remember ? Busy man." I let out a soft sigh " Me and Polly talked about it but Im sure you are interested."

"I am very much so"

"Well my last boyfriend was" I paused slightly " we will say rough around the edges. I was with him for obvious reasons , he was the rebellion streak I never had as a child. My father all but disowned me over the relationship so I was on my own. One night it was late and he wanted to go out drinking. I didn't feel like being in public but knew if I said no it would just end in another big argument. So we went to this lounge where the lights were dim and they served drinks on metal trays. Fancier than what I'm used too and I had no idea how we would afford it. Turns out , he couldn't and so Adonis ran for it."

"So you pulled a dine and dash but got caught?"

"Not quite. See I didn't run, infact I stayed. I paid the ticket with no problem but there were several men in the lounge who weren't happy too see me using my check book. Not only the use of it but the fact that I could afford something like that ." I laughed before taking a sip of the tea "It seems like no one expected a young woman to have money. When I went to leave I was stopped by two gentlemen in the alleyway outside. I dont know what their intentions were exactly but I also didn't want to find out . So I did what any woman would do"

"Run ?" Thomas leaned closer to me with his eyebrows raised.

"Oh god no , I shot them. Neither were killed but they were pretty renound characters in the city so I got charged and you will not believe the charges"

Thomas laughed slightly "I'm intrigued"

"Armed robbery . Can you believe that? The audacity of some people. Anyways I had a very good lawyer, I packed up all of my things from America and I moved here.  Never even told Adonis goodbye."

"I don't believe he deserved one" he sipped on the last of his tea.

"You are right. He was not worth my time but I wanted to feel... risky , you know ?"

"I believe we all want to feel that way at least once in ours lives"

"Forgive me if I'm too forward , but it seems like that's how you feel everyday isn't it , Tommy ?"

I watched his expression harden. He sat the tea cup down onto the table before standing up.

"We need to head out soon, I have buisness to attend too and I know Aunt Pol thinks I'm dead"

"Right , we can leave once I put clean bandages on your wound"

-

Several hours had passed as me and Tommy made our way back to the office. I tried to talk him into just going home and getting rest but he refused. We walked into building and headed straight to the back. Silence fell over the room and eyes locked onto both me and Thomas.

Polly was the first to come over , inspecting Thomas from head to toe before embracing him tightly, "God Tommy we had no idea what happened. You just disappeared. We thought-"

"Yes, well I'm back now and there's things too discuss" he cut her off.

John and Arthur both gave me a smile of reassurance that everything was okay .

"Alright boys we got some errands to run before dark, Pol you and Emilia need to put Saturdays numbers into the logs."

"I'm afraid I won't be of any help , Emilia. I have a meeting at noon." Polly grabbed my hand " and thank you for taking care of Thomas. I'm sure he was in good hands"

"Of course. I wouldn't let anything happen to him" my words came faster than I could stop them. It seemed that I wasn't the only one shocked by what I had said.

The look on the brothers faces along with Polly told me enough. They didn't expect me to defend Thomas like i had and they didn't expect me to do it again.

I didn't have to look at Thomas to see the smirk plastered across his face. He was very happy with what was said and I was sure it would come up in conversation later.

Everyone dispersed after a moment and left me in the office alone. Part of me was relieved because I could work in peace without the constant traffic in and out of the hallway and being bombarded with questions from John. But my curiosity was getting the best of me about where Tommy had to be today. Why had he come to the office instead of just going home ? Couldn't he wait till tommorow ? I pushed the thoughts out of my head and started logging numbers and tallying totals to keep my brain occupied. From the commotion that happened at the races the paper work was all out of order. Numbers had been erased and mixed. Even some were missing.

Tonight was going to be a very long night in the Shelby office.