Chapter Thirty Six

After the bitter reunion with the Shelby's Maddie had been surprised to find that she and Alfie were returning to London. She had expected that they would be staying north for a short while, thankfully Alfie felt the same as her with all things regarding Birmingham and the surrounding areas. The visit was as short as Alfie could make it, and when they had began the drive back to London he had taken her hand in his in a very out of character manner, giving it a comforting squeeze. Neither spoke as they held hands, neither needed to. Alfie was Maddie's friend, her closest, most treasured friend, and it didn't need to verbally spoken that she had found the reunion with Tommy and his brothers difficult. Being thrown back into a world that she no longer belonged to, where she was officially an outsider was harder than Maddie could have ever imagined. She had been a Shelby for so many years that being around them, yet being so distant from them, left the most unpleasant feeling in her gut. And Alfie knew that. He was a good man, under all the roughness, he had never let her down and Maddie didn't know in all honesty what she would do without him.

That trust was what had led her into her current predicament.

"They know we're here, don't they?" Whispered Maddie as she stood as closely to Alfie as the man restraining her would allow. "They know we're here for Tommy?"

Alfie stood still, not even fighting against the restraints around his wrists. He was by far the largest man in the room, but showing brute force would get him no where in their current situation, so he had simply allowed the Russians to tie him and Maddie up with only a few words of complaint. "They know who we are here with. Russian fuckin' hospitality."

Turning his attention to the man holding onto Maddie's arms tightly, Alfie spoke louder so that everyone in the dank underground room could hear him. "You hear that, mate? My wife don't think you're bein' very hospitable." Again Alfie paused briefly, this time his eyes lingering on the tight grip the man had on Maddie making his voice drop dangerously. "I don't know what is customery with you lot, right, but us Jewish we do not appreciate marks on our women."

Instantly the hands on Maddie's upper arms loosened, much to her appreciation. In her opinion there was no need for anyone to keep hold of her, she was bound the same as Alfie, and in a room full of all men and one woman it was extremely unlikely any escape from her would be sucessful.

"That's better, mate."

Maddie shifted even closer to Alfie with the new freedom the loosened grip allowed her, not only to keep up the act of their pretend marriage but because it immediately made her feel safer. When Tommy had enquired what part she was to play in his plan, Maddie had been as eager to hear the answer as Tommy. She was no jeweller and could offer no insight into the value of jewels, but Alfie had offered out a quick responce. She was there to even numbers on his side, to make sure the Shelby's behaved, and to act as his loving wife with the Russians to make him appear more trust worthy. Apparently the Russians did not think it made him more trust worthy.

For the first time since Maddie and Alfie entered the strong room the heavy metal door swung open, revealing another woman this one younger, and Tommy. Behind him the door slammed shut, and Maddie could just make out the clanging of keys and locks. The encounter had to go well or the three of them wouldn't make it out of the room alive.

"Your jeweler, and his wife." The younger Russian woman said to Tommy, as the restraints were cut from the pair.

"I, I... I don't think they trust me, Tommy." Alfie spoke gruffly, shaking the ropes from his wrists before yanking off the ones that had been around Maddie's and checking her slim wrists for marks.

"Mr Solomons is the only jeweler I trust in London." Explained Tommy to no one inparticular. He had no time for whether they trusted Alfie or not, it didn't have any real effect on his plan so it bothered him very little.

"Yes. 'Trust'. Yes. Might have to add that on the old invoice." Done with inspecting Maddie's wrists, Alfie placed chaste kiss on the soft skin before dropping her arm all together. It didn't go unnoticed to him how Tommy's whole body went rigid, he was a business man though and Alfie knew he wouldn't react in such a situation. However, that didn't mean he wouldn't see how far he could push Tommy.

"As we agreed, your jeweler will now select items to a total value of seventy thousand pounds. When you have selected your chosen items, they will be put into a box and stored. When you have fulfilled your part of the deal, the box will be delivered to you."

Watching the young Russian woman, all of the Russian's, Maddie became aware why Tommy had such little trust in them. Just listening to the instruction that the woman had listed off Maddie had real doubt that the box of selected items would ever reach Tommy even if he held up his end of the deal. Working as a prostitute for a number of years Maddie had worked with women exactly like the Russian woman that was drenched in shining jewels. They were professional liars, and never to be trusted.

Free to wonder the room as she desired, Maddie moved away from her pretend husbands side to stand beside Tommy instead and allow Alfie to do the job he came to do. Watching the three Russians react to Alfie was almost comical to her, they very clearly didn't trust him even with Tommy there, and on top of that Maddie could see the subtle hint of fear. None of the reactions were a surprise to her, in fact they were both reactions that commonly happened when people met Alfie, but it struck her as odd that the supposed well to do Russian's were scared of one large Jewish jeweler.

"I think you might have to buy me somethin', Alfie. I don't think I want to leave here empty handed." Announced Maddie, as she eyed the glittering necklace that Alfie was currently inspecting. She had no interest in how expensive things were, she had grown up poor after all, but there was something entrancing about the shiny quality of expensive jewellery. Maddie's mothere had only had two nice pieces of jewellery and from a young age Maddie had been obsessed with them, but when her mother had died she couldn't bare to snatch them away from her deceased mother. So Maddie had instructed her father that she should be buried with them because she had loved them so much.

"See what you've done, Tommy? In askin' me here to do this job for you, you have in fact highered her expectations of me and are costin' me money."

Beside Maddie Tommy tensed visably. As much as he acted like he hated her it was painfully obvious to Maddie that the fake relationship between her and Alfie was making Tommy's jealousy spike rapidly.

"I doubt you are cheap Mr Solomons," The younger Russian woman said with a soft laugh. "The ring on your wife's finger looks to me to be very expensive."

Both Maddie and Tommy's attention were drawn down the engagement ring that sat on her finger above her wedding band. The woman was right in her assumption, the ring was the most expensive piece of jewellery Maddie owned, and her most favourite. The emerald sparkled up at her in the dimly lit room and brought Maddie's mind to her real husband, who was likely sat in hisoffice smoking his pipe with no real clue to what business she and Alfie were truly up to. Daniel might have known that Alfie wasn't a straight laced guy, but Maddie liked to keep the actualities of their business a safe distance from Daniel. It was safer that way, what Daniel didn't know couldn't hurt him, and it stopped him from worrying about her too much.

Throwing down a necklace onto the table the other two women in the room were sat at, Alfie stalked over to where Maddie and Tommy were stood his calculating eyes flitting between them rapidly as he answered. "That ring is a one off, made sure of it. If you knew me right, you would know that I am a very fair man. Very fair, right Tommy? And this woman here, she is also a fuckin' one off. I'm not a fuckin' beast, yeah. So I had to make sure that she got exactly what she deserved."

The speech that Alfie had given was to wind up Tommy more than anything, Maddie knew that, but she also knew that Alfie had meant every word. When Daniel had presented her with the ring when he had proposed he had proudly told her how he had Alfie hunt for the perfect ring, something that no other woman would have, at the time Maddie hadn't thought much of it. But now it had an entirely different meaning. Since Daniel had said how he believed Alfie felt for her, Maddie had been noticing little actions from him that made it glaring obvious that her husband was right. It may not have been love that Alfie felt for her, but she was certain that he adored her.

Reaching up with her right hand, Maddie trailed her thumb across the course hair on Alfie's cheek that made up his beard and rose up onto her toes. With a brief pause of hesitation she gently placed her lips against Alfie's chapped ones. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but even in that short amount of time Maddie could feel the emotions that Alfie held for her and it made a lump form in her suddenly dry throat.

Clearing his own thoat with a rough cough, Alfie turned back to the matter at hand. "Right, Rumplestiltskin, let's go over here and have a look what's in these boxes."

As Alfie listed off different figures, throwing down various different pieces onto the table, Maddie found herself glancing at Tommy. There was nothing romantic between she and Alfie, there never would be because she loved Daniel, it had just seemed like the right thing to do in the moment when she had kissed him. The stoney expression on Tommy's face however let her know that the small exchange had been more than a little convincing, the tight fists clenched at his sides were a dead give away. Tommy had had his chance though, she had given him numerous chances, but everytime he fucked it up. So it made no sense that as she glanced discretely at his cold face, Maddie felt the unwelcome pang of guilt hit her stomach. Maybe she was losing her mind like her poor mother had, she was approuching the age her mom had been when her brain slowly began to rot away.

"I'm guessing, right, that all the bad ideas around here, they're you. Right, they are you, aren't they? Hmm?"

Maddie almost cringed at the way Alfie was speaking to old man, who was clearly supposed to be incharge. They were underground, and out numbered, not the best time in Maddie's opinion for any of them to be mocking their hosts. Alfie clearly had other ideas.

"Yeah, all right. Tommy, see this, right?" Ignoring the older man following him over to Tommy, Alfie held the necklace out for the middle Shelby to look at. "It's got paste in it. That's paste." After allowing Tommy to inspect the item for a few moments, he returned his attention to the old Russian man. "Let me tell you somethin', son. If somebody comes into my shop with some paste like this, usually what I make them do, right, is fuckin' swallow it. Eh?"

That got the older mans attention. All Maddie could do was watch on as the two squared up against each other, the Russian's face turning an outraged shade of red, why did she associate with men who had no control of themselves? Really she should have known better than to think Alfie would behave, they had after all tied him up, and Maddie had thought straight away that they were mad for doing it. But the Russian's didn't know Alfie Solomons, they didn't know what he was capable of, and she was almost positive they didn't truly know what kind of man Tommy was.

Ever the dutiful leader, Tommy finally showed signs of life and cut between Alfie and the Russian, defusing the tense situation before it could get out of control and his plan go up in smoke. A small amount of tension left his shoulders when Alfie let the issue go with no argument, going back to the matter at hand. The reason he was actually there.

"Your husband has quite the temper." The young woman said directly to Maddie, a tight smile on her face. "I am surprised he would bring his wife to such an exchange, if he intended to be so rude."

Maddie's hand raised silencing Alfie before he could answer, this was a matter for her to put to bed. There was no way she was going to let some jumped up Russian Grand Duchess speak to her like that. The woman was about to find out that Alfie wasn't the only one with a temper. "What's you name?"

"Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna." Tatiana answered proudly.

Letting out a spiteful scoff, Maddie took a seat at the table beside Alfie and absently fingered one of the items he had selected if only to keep her temper some what controlled. "You think your title means anything to me? I've got no problem slapping royalty."

Any tension that had left Tommy's body when Alfie had left Leon Romanov alone come swiftly back the second Maddie began provoking Tatiana. "Madeline, enough." He chastized, gripping her shoulder tightly.

"No, no," Maddie shot back, shoving Tommy's hold from her shoulder. "This Grand Duchess wanted me to react, and now she's got it. Tell me Tatiana, with out your men the other side of that door with the dogs, who do you think would leave this room in a worse state? Me, or you?"

When Tatiana didn't answer, instead looking to her two companions, Maddie drove her point home. "Listen here you Russian bitch, I don't know who you are and I don't particularly care, but push me again and those men outside won't be able to get in here quick enough to stop me. I might not be royal like you, but I'm not stupid. If you were half as important as you think you are you'd still be in Russia, wouldn't you?"

How had Tommy forgotten what a pain in the arse Maddie could be? All this time he'd been worrying it would be Solomons who would put his plan in jeopardy, when he should have been looking at the petite brunette. Years apart hadn't changed Maddie in the slightest, really he should have put her temper into the equation when Alfie said he'd wanted her in on the plan. "Ladies, I think we can all get along and get this job done."

"Exactly, Tommy. Leave her alone, Maddie, leave her be. She did not know that she was pokin' a fuckin' bear." Chuckled Alfie. "But I wanna know one thing...have you got any eggs?"

Letting her temper subdue Maddie observed how the three Russian's reacted to Alfie's question. She had always been excellant at reading people, but the Petrovich's were difficult to pin down. It was clear as day they were not to be trusted, but who was, what was troubling Maddie the most was she couldn't figure out who was pulling all the strings. Leon was supposed to be in charge, he was the man after all, Alfie though had hit the nail on the head he was a terrible decision maker and the two women appeared to be sick of him.

"And now, Mr Shelby, you will join your brothers and Mr Solomons and his wife will take their leave."