𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔, thomas shelby

ninth shot.

(ninth shot)

09 | in which he's like that.

"I have no problem fucking that man." Rebecca said bluntly, Bella raised her eyebrows at her, but knew where the woman was going.

"What's your interest in this? He's repulsive." Bella muttered to her faithful helper.

"Last time I got an emerald ring."

Bella admitted that she had been a little surprised by the information, but didn't let it show.

"Last time?"

Rebecca let out a low laugh.

"It was at a party, he was bewildered like a rat. Maybe he doesn't even remember me, it's a little thing I always get to drink from men like him." She gave a brief smile. "It's over so fast, you know, men storytellers like him don't have much manhood."

Bella couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want. You have a job now, a life that belongs to you." Bella tried to convince, but Rebecca's eyes were still on Billy Kimber and his disgruntled partner.

"Do you know why I'm with you, Bella? Because we're the same, settling for the little we have has never been a choice. You and your fiance will be great someday, and I want to be there too." Rebecca put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I want Billy Kimber because he's a repulsive man full of money, and I'm an amazing woman without even a pound saved."

Bella reflected on her words, she set her glass on the bar counter and wrapped her index finger over the pearl necklace covering her neck.

"Do you think you'll get anything from that man?" Asked for her, apprehensive.

Rebecca laughed.

"My skills in bed won't let him get rid of me anytime soon." Rebecca headed toward the dancing duo, Bella moving away from the bar to an empty table followed by the young man that Tommy set to watch.

She waited patiently for that day to end.

It wasn't long before Bella was surrounded by young single men, mostly students coming to the race after some different adventure.

Tommy Shelby was too distracted by his thoughts on Billy Kimber wanting a quick fuck with the barmaid, but his attention always turned to his future bride surrounded by strange men, she laughed pleasantly and the table she was in now had it chairs fully occupied.

Tommy remembered well the first time he saw Isabella Andriessen, she was wearing a colorful dress with curly hair full of flowers, at the time there was no way he was attracted to a thirteen-year-old girl but they became friends because she was smart and caught his eye. As she grew older, it was harder to see the little girl he met and at seventeen, she drew the attention of half the men in Small Heath.

And now, again, she was catching the attention of these men at that fucking party. Her amber gaze staring intently at one of them as the man tried to impress her, she pressed her lips to the rim of her crystal glass laughing beautifully.

With each passing day, she got farther from the thirteen-year-old he met, and even after killing a man and becoming the person she was now, Tommy couldn't see Bella as the woman she was, but with his vision caught in the girl who used to run away from home to meet him in the dirty alleys of Birmingham.

Grace was interrupted from her dance with that infamous man, a pink-clad woman with flaming red hair blatantly smiling at Billy Kimber who was still dancing with her. The man could no longer keep his gaze on the blonde for long and the barmaid thanked God for that.