Chapter twenty-three: Hammer horror

"I live here," Kate says with a smile. "with my husband."

"Husband?" his voice raises as he slowly realizes that a dramatic change has happened in a mere two hours. "What are you talking about? You're not married!"

"Yes, I am." She holds out a hand towards him. His eyes bulge as he stares at the ring. "I married Thomas Shelby. Do you know him?"

Her brother swore violently as he cursed her. "You married that gypsy bastard Thomas Shelby?!"

"Kindly refrain from calling my husband names, he does take things personally." Thomas steps beside her, still holding her hand. Her brother shoots him a dirty look as he holsters his gun. "Tell your men to stand down; you cannot touch any of the Shelby family now."

"Well, you made damn sure I can't now. That was low of you Kate. Joining up with the enemy and forcing father to have to accept such a thing."

"Well, considering how he hated Emmett," she bit out. "he should find Thomas an improvement. Order those men to leave."

Thomas shakes his head. "No, I have a few questions for you that I want one of your men to answer for. Have them stand down."

Anton turns towards one his men and nods. "You heard him, no fighting today. Pass the word." As the man turns back down the stairs, Anton states venomously. "My little sister made sure of that." Kate exhales as Thomas guides her away from the door to allow her brother in. he steps in and kicks the door shut behind him. "So," he looks her up and down. "now, you're property of the peaky blinders." Kate glowers at him as his voice gets louder. "I can't believe this. Why the hell did you marry him?!" He shouted. "Why?!

"Because," Kate shifts back a step. "he's a good man and a wonderful father."

"I'm not buying it!" Her brother shouted in her face. "He forced you to marry him, didn't he?"

"Get out," Thomas warned him sharply. "of my wife's face."

"Thomas didn't make me marry him." Kate snaps at him, her patience starting to fray. "No man makes me do anything I don't want to do, even you know that."

Her brother chuckles darkly. "So you claim. But don't illusion yourself; the man bought his life for the price a wedding ring."

Thomas took a step towards him, but she held his hand. "Don't. He's not worth it."

"Are you sure you're married to him, and you're not just putting me on?" her brother demands. "You probably just put the ring on and didn't go through the ceremony and all."

She shook her head. "No, the marriage is real."

"I want proof." Her brother smirked at her. "Bring the bridal sheet down here and then we'll talk about how things are going to work now."

Kate blanched feeling absolutely sick to her stomach that her brother actually demanded that evidence. Yet relived that she and Thomas actually consummated their marriage because heaven knows what would have happened if they had not! "You're honestly going to humiliate me like that?"

"Not intentionally." He stepped towards her. "I know you Kate. You'll lie to save anyone….even scum like him."

"How dare you!" she almost shouts at him.

"Kate," Thomas grips her elbow and guides her towards the library. "stay calm, have a seat." She exhales as he sits her in the chair nearest his desk. He then turns to her brother Anton. "You will not say a word to her, until I get back."

"She's my sister."

"But she's my wife." Kate actually smiles at the way he puts emphasis on the word 'wife', makes it sound genuinely caring. "She's under my care now, not yours and you won't say anything to her. Understood?" Anton nodded and Thomas turned towards her. "I'll be back in a moment."

Kate nods and leans back in the chair, attempting to relax. She's almost tempted to close her eyes, but she doesn't dare appear too relaxed before her brother. He sits in a chair opposite her, seemingly compliant, until Thomas closes the door. The moment Thomas's footsteps are heard going up the stairs, he stands up and heads for his desk.

Kate shoots him a glower and stands up. "Get away from his desk."

Anton looks at her, amusement on his face. "Or what?"

"Don't test me." she warns. "I've had enough stress for one day. You're skating on thin ice already."

He snorts. "And you aren't? Do you really think dad's going to honor mom's wish because you married Thomas Shelby?"

"He better." Kate states. "Regardless of what your business dealings are, Thomas is a good man and I love him."

He snorts. "I'm not buying this one; you've been in love with Emmet for years, even after his death. Don't tell me he got you to fall in love with him; he's totally the opposite of Emmet."

"And that's a good thing." Kate states as she gestures for him to go back to his seat, which he does. "I fell in love with him because he's the opposite of him. Both men are different, but… there's a strength and protectiveness to Thomas that I've always been drawn too."

"Protective?" he snorts. "That remains to be seen."

She glowers. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let me put it this way. Our butler saw you run out of the house at 3:00 and you must have gotten here around here close to 4:00. It's almost 5:00 now and I've been here for at least 10 minute. The ceremony takes at least 15 minutes, even if it's being rushed. So, that means you had less than 20 minutes have some horizontal refreshment." Kate jumps up from her chair, her cheeks blazing in embarrassment. "And no man," he states as he crosses his arms over his chest, with a satisfied smirk. "if he loves the woman, is going to do her that fast."

"God, I hate you!" she snapped.

"It would have been your first time Kate." Hot tears streamed down her cheeks at that reminder. "And if he loves you, he wouldn't have done it. You deserve more than that."

"Well," Thomas entered the library and threw the sheet at her brother's face. "he didn't hurt me, so he must know something that you don't know."

He made a face of disgust as he examined the sheet. Kate turned aside, wiping her eyes. "I stand corrected."

A hand on her shoulder caused her to spin around. It was Thomas. "You alright Kate?"

"I'm fine." she croaked. He handed her his handkerchief and wiped her eyes. "Thank you."

"You did this," her brother declares. "just to spite me."

"Marrying?" Thomas stated. "No. we were going to marry eventually, you just made it sooner than either of us planned." Arthur steps into the library and closes the door behind him. "And now, down to business."

Her brother snorts. "Right, you're to stay out of family affairs."

"You forget," Thomas states coldly, his voice sending a chill down her spine. "I am family now. I'm making the demands now…you'll follow them."

Kate stands up. "If you'll excuse me gentlemen, I've no desire to know any business of this sort."

"Actually," Thomas states. "you do Kate, because it concerns you."

She frowns. "How-

"Because Anton," Thomas states darkly. "is about to tell me the name of the man who killed Emmet."

Kate's world sways as she grabs a hold of her vacated seat for support. "What?"

"Who did it?"

Her brother shrugs. "How should I know?"

"Because, I've been looking into the murder for months and all my sources confirm that you know." Kate stared at him in shock as he demands. "Answer, the bloody question." Anton makes the stupid mistake of smirking at Thomas, causing him to grab Anton by the shirt and wrench him out of his chair! "Who did it?"

"Thomas, what are you saying?" she demands.

"I'm saying, your brother hired someone to kill Emmett."

"He's my brother, he wouldn't dare!"

"I don't hear him denying it!"

Kate gasps as the blood drains out of her face. "You couldn't. You wouldn't dare do that to me!"

"Kate, I heard from a reliable source that it was a planned assassination," she could only shake her head mutely. "so I did some digging and this is what I found out." Kate sank down onto the armrest of the chair as Tommy's words began to hit her like hail. "He needed to do it at the wedding, because once you two were married, he couldn't raise a hand to him. But he needed to be sure he was in the clear, so he hired someone to do it at the wedding."

She began shaking her head in denial. "No. please, don't."

"Your father knew that it was planned," bile rose in her stomach. "this is why he didn't investigate into Emmet's murder." Kate shook her head as Thomas stated. "He covered for your brother."

"Tell me he's lying." She begged Anton. She didn't want to believe it, but somehow, it all made sense. "Tell me that you didn't do that to me."

"Damn right I did!" he shouted. "Dirty Kaiser had it coming!"

"The name!" Thomas demanded as he slammed him against the wall.

"I'll die first!" he shouts as he spits in Thomas's face!

"Fine with me!" Thomas shoved him against the wall and bellowed. "Arthur!"

"Kate!" her brother shouted. "Don't let him do this."

"Burn in Hell!" she screamed as she headed to the door, passing by an angry Arthur. "Mess him up good."

"I'm your brother!" he shots as he takes another punch from Thomas.

Those words made Kate's last hold on sanity snap.

She grabbed her gun from the holster on her leg, turned toward her brother and shot off the lobe of his ear. He howled and grabbed a hold of his ear as Thomas let him go and turned towards her as she shot off his second ear.

"Hold him!" she ordered as she advanced towards him. Thomas and Arthur were too shocked to argue with her as they held her sniveling brother on his feet. "Now," she orders furiously. "the name of the man you hired!"

"Never."

Kate cocks her gun and presses the muzzle of the gun right into his crotch, causing him to stop breathing for a second. "Now, if I fire, you'd have at least one hour to get to the nearest doctor. There's a huge blood vessel there, so you will drain out very quickly." She snarled. "There are major arteries supplying blood to your legs. You will also be the laughing stock off all of your men. Your ability to make love to a woman, or to even use the bathroom properly will be gone so, don't test me!"

"You wouldn't."

"I just shot off your ears." She snapped. "You killed the man I was to marry at the altar! My body is going through its monthly female course. I just got married! The ice is thing!" Kate shrieked! "You threatened my husband and family, I'll probably kill you myself!"

"Kate-

"Give me the goddamn name!" Kate shouts, drowning out Thomas's calming voice.

"Phillip Nash!" He shouts in her face.

"Fine!" Thomas throws him across the room towards the exit. "Get out!"

He looked to her. "He deserved it!"

"Just get out of here!" she screamed. "Get out!" she inhales sharply as she grabs her gun tighter in her hands. A strong hand around her waist causes her to shriek. "Let me go!"

"Kate," its Thomas. "Kate, Kate, wait a minute."

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" she screams.

"I'm not." He states. "Give Arthur the gun."

"I will not!" she snaps as she puts the gun in the holster again. "It's mine."

"Right." Thomas pulls his gun from his shoulder holster. "Follow me."

She frowns. "What are you doing?"

"It's not your office Kate." He stated. "It's mine." Thomas stepped out onto the doorway and shouted. "Phillip Nash!" Kate jumped at the sound of a gunshot. She around him to see a man lying there on the ground, bullet between his eyes.

Thomas holstered his gun and turned to her. She licked her lips. "Was he the one who-

"Yes."

She bit her lip. "I-I'm not sure how to feel."

He said nothing, just pulled her into his arms and held her tight. She held onto him and she reflected back on the moment in the club when he'd told her she'd never been with a man like him. And he was right, she hadn't. He was strong, dangerous, confident and yet calm.

He kissed her brow and whispered. "It's over. No one…will ever hurt you again." He kept an arm around her shoulder as he guided her back in the house. "Let's get you inside."

Angelo029: Could have been her nerves, she's always been overly dramatic, but at least her husband has a good heart. (Don't see this marriage lasting long though.) My friend is a terrible troll and confessed to me that he got his sister to super glue her favorite lipstick tube shut!

Idcam: And, here's your drama! I found it amusing, I could have punched him, but I suspect that I outweigh him by 60 pounds and could have hurt him. He was very wary and apologetic around me afterwards. Even saying things like, "I'm going to reach past you for my pen." I think he learned his lesson.