It didn't take long for Alfie to ask Angelina to be his girlfriend. The two had been almost inseparable since Alfie made the first visit up to Birmingham to see her. Angelina knew he was a very busy man, but what made her happy was that he made time for her, instead of coming up with excuses as to why he couldn't see her.

He was everything and more Angelina could ever have wished for. The only problem was that Alfie was down in London and she was up in Small Heath.

Nights were lonely for Angelina. She had become attached to waking up beside Alfie and seeing him gazing at her as soon as she opened her eyes. He was in awe of her, and she was equally as in awe of him.

At first, Lorenzo didn't approve of the relationship. He was wary for his sister's safety and found it difficult to trust anybody after what happened to Stefano, but his concerns were put to rest when Alfie took Lorenzo out for the day. Angelina didn't know where they went or what they did, but when they returned, they were the best of friends. That was good enough for Angelina.

Angelina hadn't seen or spoken to any of the Shelby's, apart from Ada when they were working together. This never seemed to be a problem, though, as Ada didn't tend to talk too much about her family.

"So, is it true? You and Alfie Solomons?"

Angelina blushed when Ada fired the question at her as soon as she arrived at work.

"Yes," she replied, trying to hide her smile, "It's true."

Ada let out an excited scream and hugged her friend.

"You'll be pregnant before you know it! Maybe our Karl would have a little friend to play with then!"

Angelina laughed, shaking her head, "Don't get ahead of yourself, Ada."

Ada, Agnes and Angelina spent the day working and chatting amongst themselves. Charlotte had even arrived towards the end of the afternoon so she could walk with the girls to the pub after they had finished work.

It seemed for Angelina like her life was finally settling down. Things had been very up in the air when she first arrived in Small Heath, and from the minute she stepped foot in England nothing had been straight forward, but now, she finally felt like she was on the right path.

The three girls said goodbye to Agnes at around five in the afternoon and headed for The Garrison. It wasn't Angelina or Charlotte's first choice, but Ada had insisted that they have a change from The Marquis.

The women ordered their drinks and sat down together at a table, conversation still flowing between them all as they tried to catch one another up on their latest gossip.

"How hard is it to get a bloody drink in this place? What kind of establishment are you running here Arthur?"

Angelina's head snapped up as soon as she heard him speak. A smile was instantly plastered across her face as her eyes landed on Alfie, who was stood leaning against the bar with his hat in his hands and a smirk on his lips.

Without hesitating, Angelina put down her drink and ran past the empty tables to Alfie, closing her eyes as she felt his arms embrace her, holding her tightly against his chest.

"I've missed you so much, darling."

Angelina looked up into Alfie's eyes, her emotions overwhelming her suddenly. She grabbed his face and kissed him hard, feeling him smile as she did so.

"I miss you every second of every day I'm not with you."

Alfie just smiled, shaking his head before kissing Angelina again.

It was only a few moments later that Angelina realised Alfie hadn't just walked into The Garrison, he'd come out of the room where Thomas and his men would usually meet.

"Alfie..." Angelina looked up at him, confused, "Why were you..."

"Afternoon, Miss Santoro."

Angelina exhaled suddenly when Thomas and Arthur appeared behind Alfie, John not far behind.

"Hello, Thomas."

She had no idea what they could possibly have been talking about, and deep down, she didn't really want to know. She just prayed that Thomas hadn't said anything that would upset Alfie, though the way he'd greeted her with such happiness in his eyes put Angelina's mind at ease.

"I stopped by your house on the way here, your brother said this got delivered to you today in the post."

Alfie reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Angelina as Thomas and his brothers stood and watched. Ada and Charlotte both had their eyes fixed on the scene, knowing all the details about Angelina, Thomas and Alfie.

Angelina took the envelope and carefully opened it. She furrowed her eyebrows together when she saw what was inside. She paused before pulling out the card which was printed with a black hand.

"Oh fucking hell."

"What? What's the matter?" Alfie looked panicked after hearing Arthur's remark at the contents of the envelope.

"Come on, now." Thomas ordered, walking back into the room next to the bar. Alfie looked at Angelina with a confused expression on his face, though Angelina avoided eye contact with him and followed Thomas.

The five of them sat down around the table, Angelina placing the envelope and letter in the middle. The silence was heavy.

"Angelina," Thomas looked at her in the eyes for the first time, holding deep concern in them, "Do you have any idea why this might have been sent to you?"

"I don't understand, is this some kind of joke? Is this dangerous or-"

"It's very fucking dangerous Alfie now if you just-"

"Yes." Angelina interrupted Thomas and Alfie's bickering with a soft response to his question.

"And why is that?" Thomas said, glaring at Alfie.

Angelina paused, taking a deep breath and chewing on her lip. This was perhaps the biggest mix up she'd been in so far, and she had been caught up in regrettably more than enough.

She felt the everyone's eyes staring at her, waiting for her to answer. She took the letter and held it between her fingertips, her gaze falling to the signature at the bottom of the page.

"I broke Luca Changretta's heart."

Thomas let out a stifled laugh, choking in disbelief.

"Is that meant to be funny?"

"Do I look like I'm laughing, Mr Shelby?"

Angelina narrowed her eyes across the table at Thomas. She felt Alfie place his hand on her thigh out of sight of everybody else, gently squeezing it to reassure her.

"We we're each other's first loves. We went to school together in Rome for many years, we fell in love, only I had fallen in love with another man at the same time," she stopped for a second, "And I chose the other man."

Thomas looked down at his shoes, hurting at the way Angelina's words were cutting him.

"One evening, Luca and his uncle, they were out together and they ran into my brothers and their friends. There was some trouble, I'm not too sure what happened but Luca knew my brothers, and well, he ended up shooting one of their friend's in the chest. He survived, but he was never the same again. My brothers took it personally, they killed Luca's uncle in response. The black hand," Angelina tapped the letter with her finger, "Is all because of a broken heart."

"Jesus Christ." Arthur mumbled, leaning back in his chair.

Angelina didn't know about what her brothers had done to Luca's family till a year after it had happened. She knew that their friend had been injured, but she never knew it was Luca who pulled the trigger. She hadn't seen Luca since they had broken up, his family had fled to America and hadn't returned to Italy since.

"Fuck me," Alfie let out a loud sigh, "And this guy, you lot know about him?"

Thomas nodded, "He and his men are very dangerous. The black hand isn't something you want to receive, she's in a lot of danger."

"She?" Angelina glared at Thomas who just said nothing.

"Right well you pack your things sweetheart you can come down to London with me, I'm not having you up here alone, I'll protect you, and your brother if needs be."

"No." Thomas said, his hand curled into a fist on the table, "She should stay here."

"What are you talking about mate? This is the first place they'll come looking for her!" Alfie began to grow angrier.

"Look, Alfie, you don't know these men, you don't know how they work or what intelligence they have. Angelina would be safer with-"

"With you? Is that what you were going to say? That's a good one, she had to watch her own brother die when you said you'd sort that one out as well."

Angelina rushed out of the room, overwhelmed by the arguing and upset at the reminder of Stefano's death that Alfie had brought up. She knew he didn't mean to upset her, but it didn't make the memory any less painful.

She hurried past men sat by the bar and barged into a room at the back of the pub that she and Thomas had spoken in long ago. Wandering over to the window, she stood and looked out, her arms crossed against her chest and her eyes glazed over with tears.

The autumn had finally set in. The sun had set earlier and the leaves had started to fall from the trees. Small Heath looked bleak and lifeless again.

"Angelina."

She didn't turn round at the sound of her name being called. She stayed facing the window, watching the canal boats sail past slowly.

"Angelina," she flinched at the touch of a hand on her shoulder, looking up to see Thomas stood behind her.

"Alfie's right," she mumbled, "When have you ever kept me safe?"

Thomas sighed, his eyes closing for a moment before he looked at Angelina.

"I gave you a promise that I'd keep you safe, a promise that you didn't need anybody else because you had me."

"But Thomas," Angelina started, her eyes watering, "Whenever I needed you, you were never around. Whenever I wanted you, it was like I was looking for a man that didn't exist."

Thomas swallowed the lump in his throat. He was watching Angelina slowly break down, and it hurt him that this wasn't the first time he'd witnessed it.

"I don't want to see you with him, Angelina, seeing you kiss him makes me want to throw up my fucking insides, do you know that? I don't want to see you with anyone else. I want to be the one to protect you, to be the one that you run to when you need someone. I want to be the first person you turn to for everything, good or bad, and I want to be the one that gets to wake up to your beautiful face every day."

"Then why didn't you take one of the million chances that you had?"

Thomas fell silent. He couldn't think of an answer that she deserved. Truthfully, he didn't have one.

"Hm," Angelina coughed, drying her eyes, "It only took Alfie one chance."