CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

                SHE HAD EXPECTED HERSELF to feel some sort of overwhelming fear flooding through her body when she caught sight of the man before her, but that did not seem to be the case, much to Felicity's surprise. Not when the male just so happened to be the one she had seen just a week before. . . and for the first seventeen years of her life, of course. 

"So," John Woods said as he settled back against the wall with an expression of pure, malicious superiority upon his cold features, and it was then that Felicity wondered just how on earth she could possibly be related to this man. Whilst they shared the same hazel irises, she reckoned that was as far as the similarities would go, and even then it was a bit of a stretch to call them related on that basis, as his held fire and storms, whereas hers held the warmth and compassion that Tommy had decided only added to her alias as the angel of Small Heath. 

"What in hell's name do you want?" Felicity said, desperate to spit the words at him but knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere. 

"I just wanted to talk. With you, that is."

"Cut with the crap," she immediately retorted. "You've hardly uttered a word to me since this whole horrid business began, so it would be great if you could drop the pretence and tell me just why you had me whisked off the streets with a pistol pressed to my temple."

"If there was an easier way to have done it, I would."

"Do what? Talk with your daughter, or kidnap her?"

"Stop with the dramatics ― this can hardly be called kidnapping. I'm talking with my only daughter for just barely an hour, and anyone who speculated the event and knew the comings and goings of Small Heath would assume I had some last minute doubts about the wedding between me and Mr Thomas Shelby. Of which they would be partially correct."

Anyone who knew John Woods knew that his words came laced with poison and double―meanings and everything in between. Which was why Felicity only glared at him as she waited for him to continue. 

When he didn't, she gritted her teeth together angrily. "You still haven't told me what you want, though."

She seemed to be presenting far more confidence than she actually had, and for this she was ridiculously grateful for. 

John shrugged. "I'm offering an agreement. Call it one for business, perhaps."

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him ― this was most certainly not what she had been expecting. In fact, she wasn't sure just what she had been expecting to emerge from this abrupt whisk off the streets, and whilst an imagination could do wonders when it comes to producing wild and perhaps unrealistic expectations, it was at least a start. However, she had nothing: not a hint of anything. 

"You've already made one," she eventually said. "With Thomas ― you know that. One that you shook on and swore to honour, nearly half a year ago now."

"This can be seen as me expanding that agreement, then."

"In what way?"

"Well. . . it's either you help me to bring Shelby Company Limited to its knees," he took a sharp breath, all the while not breaking the glare he held with his daughter. "Or we'll bring him to his. Once and for all."

Felicity could have sworn her heart stopped dead in that moment. 

"You can't," she eventually stammered. 

"Can't I?"

"No," she shook her head firmly ― although whether she was trying to convince him or her, she didn't know. "No, you wouldn't be able to do shit - he's climbing up the world faster than you ever have. . . faster than you ever will. You wouldn't be able to do shit."

"Faster than me?" Her father mused.

Felicity nodded. "Way fucking faster than you."

"There's something to note down, I suppose," John raised his eyebrows, seeming far calmer than he should be considering he was discussing bitter betrayals and rivals overpowering him with the daughter he had hardly recognised in all of her twenty-six years.

"Now, do tell me," he continued after a moment. "Whilst he may be faster than me in this cursed world ― there, I've even admitted it ― would he just so happen to be faster than a bullet, eh?"

Felicity stared at him as the true, devastating mean of his words hit home. 

Faster than a bullet.

The thought of one making contact with the only man she loved more than life and forcing him into an eternal silence rendered her speechless. It was as though a million tiny shards of glass had just hit the girl at such a great speed that she had hardly enough time to register the sheer pain of it all ― all that she knew was hot tears were forming and threatened to spill down her cheeks. 

But Felicity refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her porcelain cheeks stain red.

So she gulped hard and swallowed back the lump in her throat. "So long as you swear on your fucking life that you stick to your word and don't hurt him." Her voice low, dangerously low. "Or I'll cut your face worse so that it can't be called a thing because I promise you, I'm not doing this shit for you, nor anyone else in this family. I'm doing it for him."

✧

The moment that the news hit Thomas Shelby, it felt as though everything had come to a devastating standstill. 

Of course, that was before a flood of desperate anger raged through him as the words resonated within as Arthur spoke short, sharp words in his recollection of what he'd just been told. Deep, burning enragement as the man took in his brother's shocked expression. Hot, fiery, raging anger.

Too hot. Far too hot for him to control it.

"They've fucking done what?" Tommy spat out, as he pulled the cap from his pocket and began running it ― folded up ― through his hands, just so that he had something for his nails to bite into and distract him from all that was circling his mind right now.

"Took her."

"Where?" 

Arthur ran a hand over his face as his features consorted into one of pain, perhaps regret for it being him to spill the news to his brother. "Scudboat said he saw them go into a house across the road from us," he informed him. "And no one's been seen going to or leaving the place since."

"You're certain?"

"Why the fuck wouldn't I be?"

Tommy shrugged jaggedly, his movements resonating the fire that burned bright beneath his skin. "I don't fucking know, alright? I don't know what in Hell's name is going on right now ― haven't a goddamn clue."

He didn't let his brother speak another word and instead barked out instructions for him to go home but not rest ― not until he had Felicity within the walls of the house once again. Arthur, not being one to question him in times such as these, only nodded as he left the home, grumbling something about alerting John on the way.

Tommy followed soon after, his heart beating far too fast.

✧

"Felicity?" Tommy shouted out, unable to stop himself as his gaze landed properly on the golden―haired girl that had stumbled out of the door and onto the street. 

In the dim light of the crescent moon, he wouldn't be able to catch sight of her tear―rimmed eyes and stained cheeks. Felicity thanked the stars for that, because she knew that if he saw and proceeded to ask about it ― about whether anything had happened ―, she would only break down more. The guilt would ride up and crash through her veins as though it were a tidal wave, and there would not be anything that he could do to prevent it from doing so.

Tommy broke into a jog and within seconds, he had Felicity in his arms, her blonde tresses spilling over his coat, reminding him of everything she stood for and being an even stronger reminder of the horrors that she most definitely had not deserved to go through in the past day. 

"You're okay," he breathed out in a sigh of deep relief. "Holy fuck, I'm glad you're okay."

Felicity nodded into his chest, forcing out gentle laughter so to reassure him that his words actually were true. "I'm as right as rain, Tom, believe me."

He didn't utter a word in response to that ― instead, his posture had stiffened and he held her out at an arm's length, so that he might glance at her properly. With a gentle thumb, he lifted her chin and her gaze met his: his worried, almost terrified gaze.

"Tell me everything that happened," Tommy instructed as his tone switched from anxious to business―like. 

"Nothing happened."

He shook his head. "Don't lie. Don't. Don't try and defend him, Felicity, please."

"Believe me, I'm not defending him."

That was the thing ― he didn't believe her. He couldn't, not when he knew of the girl's good nature that had a tendency to show itself even towards the cruellest of beings. "I want to know every word he uttered ― and I swear if he did more, if he hurt you, I won't care about honouring some business agreement."

"Don't say that―"

"Say what? The truth?" Tommy continued indignantly. "If he hurt you, I'm not about to let him walk free just because of something we shook on months ago. He'll be gone by the morning."

Felicity stared at him as the thoughts whirred about her mind. To have her father gone by morning. . . . it was tempting, oh so tempting, to just tell Tommy how John Woods was an utterly violent prick and have Tommy deal with him there and then. . . because then it would be over. Then she would not have to betray him, she would not have to go against everything she stood for, even though it had only been because she was desperate to keep Tommy safe. Yet there was the possibility that her father was already a step ahead ― that he was anticipating her to go rushing to the Shelbys' like she now always seemed to. The possibility that it could even more wrong than it already have. That she would lose him completely.

"That fast?" She eventually asked, voice almost breaking.

"You think I couldn't?" Tommy retaliated in a tone that, had the night not been what it was, Felicity would have almost said was laced with amusement. "You think I wouldn't?"

This conversation was going far too similarly to the one earlier, and dread was beginning to fill the girl up from the tips of her toes, all the way up so that it hit her heart heavily. 

Felicity almost gulped as she rolled her eyes. "You've never been one for underestimating your enemies, Tom, that's all."

It was true, and Tommy knew it; yet due to his earlier rage still bubbling in his veins, he hardly cared for that. Hell, he could have had his life and business on the line and he would not have cared more ― not when he could protect the one girl he had sworn he would always protect.

Unbeknown to him, his life just so happened to be on the line.

"Maybe not," he said after a moment of mulling over the truth to her words. "But―"

"But what, Tommy Shelby?" Felicity chuckled, easily cutting through his sentence.

"But―"

"No, there isn't any chance that I'm letting you risk everything just because my father appears to not have any manners," she interrupted once again. "You are not about to go through that door because ― as much as I am aware you know how to fire a pistol better than most men in this city ― he'd have six men shooting bullets at you in a heartbeat. And you dying isn't a part of any one of my plans."

"Felicity, listen to me."

The girl shook her head roughly as she caught the very moment that the tears sprung upon her. With haste, she turned away from him so that she might rub them quickly away. Praying that he wouldn't catch the redness of her cheeks in the feeble light of the crescent moon, once again.

"Can't we go to sleep?" She eventually pleaded as she faced him once again. "Go to sleep and talk about this all in the morning ― or not at all. Forget it ever happened, eh?"

Tommy sighed but nodded, and so his arm found its familiar place around her waist as he snaked her closer towards him. Bodies fitting perfectly together, reminding him of how him and her were everything and more. 

"We're still talking about this tomorrow, though," he told her in that familiar tone that stated how he meant his words one hundred per―cent, to which she groaned, realising she wouldn't be able to get out of it unless she escaped out of the house before dawn. . . and even then, a time would still come where she would have to face him. 

They crossed the street, did not regard any of the flickering lights that surrounded them in the wrought iron streetlamps and instead unlocked the door to the Shelby residence, where they were greeted with a cloak of darkness. Felicity reckoned that the rest of the family had escaped to either their own homes, or upstairs, or even the Garrison. . . although the last option was unlikely. Polly had taken to being restless these last couple of days and so she hadn't joined the rest of the clanmates whenever they paraded down towards the pub, and John had Esme and the kids to think about. 

Felicity could have sighed with relief as she realised they were alone, and whilst she knew that Tommy would still try and plague her for answers tomorrow, she at least had a few hours to herself and to her thoughts.

"He'd be gone, though," Tommy murmured, stopping just before the door to the parlour and turning to meet her gaze once again.

"I know, Tom, but I'm not about to. . ."

"I swear, it'd be done in a heartbeat," he continued, and it was almost as though he was getting excited as a plan formulated itself in his mind. "We'd have help, of course, ― the Lees, perhaps, what with Esme and John joining our families together and all that shit ― and we'd get it over and done with in an evening. I'd be back before the clock struck eleven."

Oh, how she was tempted.

But not tempted enough.

John Woods was always a step ahead of his enemies. Hell, he was quite possibly two steps ahead of them ― and even if he wasn't, Felicity was not about to risk it, not when she had the chance not to. 

Because whilst she knew this betrayal would kill every single heartstring that tied the two lovers together ― a fact she hated to admit was true ―, he would still be safe. Safe from her father, safe from her siblings, safe from the bullets that John Woods had threatened would rain down upon him.

She would take the brunt of it all ― for him. It was only fair.

"Not fast enough, Tom."

"Oh, but I would be," he countered with indignance. "Faster than any one of his fuckin' bullets, if that's what you mean."

Faster than a bullet. 

If only.

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS CHAPTER because we're finally getting into the whole plot thing and it's making me happy as fuck. . . but also sad because it means we're roughly half—way through ( a little bit over half―way tbh ) this book :') i definitely cried whilst writing this ugh

anyway i hope you enjoyed, every single one of your comments make my absolute day and i adore you all so so so much!!

( THIS CHAPTER IS UNEDITED OKAY ITS NEARLY 12AM )