The Hell Boys | Peaky Blinders

Chapter 7 - Blood, sweat and alcohol

Wednesday, 21st of March, 1922 - Birmingham

Isaiah begins to help Emily wrap her knuckles. "You don't have to do this, you know?" He tells her.

"Z, I'm not afraid to get a little beat up." She tucks in the end of the bandage underneath the wrapped part of the bandage.

"I'm just saying, if you want to back out, I won't judge."

"Isaiah Jesus, I am not a fucking pussy," Emily grabs her friends shoulders and looks into his eyes.

Arthur walks over to the two teenagers. "You ready, Em?"

"Who am I fighting?" She asks her older brother.

"Isaiah," He grunts. "He is one of our best fighters for his age." Isaiah looks at Emily shocked.

"Em," He stutters. "I didn't realise."

"Z, you're not going to pussy out, are you?" She taunts, making the people around them laugh.

"I just don't want to hurt you." He states, bluntly.

"You won't hurt me. Trust me."

"Alright, common in the ring you two go." Arthur instructed them. Isaiah quickly wraps his knuckles and throws his shirt to the ground, climbing into the ring. Emily follows Isaiah into the ring and quickly loosens her blouse allowing her to take it off. She reveals a tight black crop top sitting about 2 inches above the hem of her pants. She looks Isaiah up and down, noticing his toned stomach and a fresh bruise on the right side of his hip. Isaiah does the same to Emily but without much luck of finding a weakness. He notices her contoured stomach peaking out from under her crop top and the toned muscles in her arms. "I want a clean fight, Isaiah." Arthur tells him. "That's my baby sister you're punching at." Arthur slices his hand through the air signalling for the fight to begin.

The two teenagers circle each other for a couple of seconds before Isaiah throws the first punch. Emily, anticipating the punch, blocks it easily with her forearm. Isaiah continues to throw punches, yet Emily blocks them all.

"Common, Z." Emily laughs, continuing to block all punches that Isaiah throws at her. "You can hit harder than that."

"I just don't want to hurt you." Isaiah pauses, keeping his hands up ready, but not punching.

"You won't fucking hurt me." She says. Emily takes this opportunity of Isaiah's weakness to switch from defence to offence. She swiftly throws a straight punch towards Isaiah's head. He blocks it, but doesn't see the uppercut coming underneath where he blocked. Emily's fist connects with Isaiah's chin, sending his head backwards. She places a few more carefully placed punches to his torso, until he is doubled over. Isaiah taps the edge of the ring 3 times, signalling his defeat. Emily rushes over to Isaiah's side. "You alright, Z?"

"Yeah," He breaths in, wincing slightly.

"Common," She helps him stand up and out of the ring.

"Finn," Arthur instructs his little brother. "Go helps Isaiah, I need to talk to Emily." Finn takes Emily's place, helping Isaiah walk out of the gym and towards the bathroom. Arthur places a hand on Emily's shoulder. "Come with me," Emily followed her brother into the back room of the gym. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I've had my fair share of fights, Arthur." She states.

"You went to a fucking finishing school. A fucking finishing school."

"So what if I went to a finishing school."

"Shouldn't you be a professional at drinking tea, not fucking fighting?"

"Arthur, you know nothing about me. We legit met a week ago. Yes, you may be my brother by blood, but you are still a stranger to me. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to go around telling you my secrets. Not just yet, anyways."

"I understand that, but you need to at least tell me who taught you?"

"I taught myself."

***

"Mags!" Emily called throughout the house as she walked through the front door. "Call a meeting. We have shit to do." She threw herself down onto an armchair in the living room. She took out a cigarette, lighting it then pressing it to her lips, taking a large breath in of the smoke.

Half an hour later, Emily along with Maggie and 8 other women are all in the living room, waiting for Emily to address them.

"Ladies, how's Birmingham been treating you?" She began. There were a few nods and comments on how the other women have been settling in. "Glad to hear it. We have a lot to do today so we are going to get straight into it." She reaches into her pocket pulling out a notebook and her cigarette tin. She opens the notebook to a certain page and quickly reads off of it. "Gertrude, Shanely. How's the search for a front man going?"

Gertrude clears her throat. "We have been around all of Small Heath looking for what you are looking for. But there seems to be a lack of men that aren't gang affiliated. We have a couple of people in mind, but they are loyal to the Peaky Blinders, so they are probably not a good idea." She finishes her report, apologising for the lack of contenders.

"I kind of anticipated that everyone here would be loyal to the Peaky Blinders, but keep looking. We need a front man if we want to make deals with other gangs. Helen and May, is everything set up in the warehouse?"

"Yes, Em." May begins to speak. "Everything is set up, crewmen are ready for the first import that's due tomorrow at noon." Emily checks off something in her notebook.

"Last order of business, we need someone to manage the warehouse. Essentially, they need to make sure everything is running smoothly and nothing is missing when the imports come in. Any volunteers?" Emily looks around the room. A couple of people put their hands up. "Good, you three you are now managing the warehouse." There are a few questions and statements, and then the meeting concluded. "Gertrude, May and Helen, can you three please stay back for a bit?" Emily asks her 3 closest members.