I quickly spotted John from across the room. I walked confidently over to him, taking his hand and pulling him away from the Blinders he was talking to. "What, Eve?" He asked, tense. "Can we go find a room somewhere?" I asked, looking up at him through my eyelashes. "I'm meant to be dealing with business." He told me, looking around. "I've got something that can make this party more interesting." I told him, holding up a small blue vial. "Evie." He laughed, taking it out of my hand and looking around again. "Come on." He told me, taking my hand and pulling me out of the room.
I giggled as he pulled me down the hallway, stopping every so often to push me against the wall and kiss me. "In here." He said, pulling me into an empty room. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me against him. I brought my hands down his chest as he brought out the blue vial, looking at me with a twinkle in his eye. I grinned as he pulled me over to a small table, taking out a small picture frame off the wall. I kissed John, taking his hat off him and ripping out a blade from it.
He tapped some of the white powder onto the frame and took the blade from me, cutting the powder into lines. "Only one." John told me sternly, taking a note from his pocket and rolling it up. I nodded, giving him a mock salute before he handed me the rolled up note. I leant into the table, John holding back my curls as I inhaled a line of the powder. I handed the rolled up note to John so he could do his own line as I inhaled deeply.
I watched him with heavy eyes as I felt the drugs course around my body. I don't know if it was desire or guilt driving me towards John but suddenly our lips were together and his hands were on my body. His kisses were unusually chaste as I roamed my hands down his arms. I pulled away from him, looking at him through my eyelashes and biting me lip. "Fuck me, John. Please." I begged, searching his blue eyes. His own eyes searched me before crashing his lips back to mine, he walked me backwards until my legs hit the arm of the sofa and we both went toppling onto it.
Without breaking contact, John was on top of me. Kissing my lips and neck as his hands gripped my thighs, pushing up my skirt as he went. I quickly removed his jacket, waistcoat and shirt, wanting to feel his toned chest and stomach against me. I wrapped my legs around his waist pulling him down and closer to me as I arched my back up to him.
"John Boy! Tommy wants you outside." Arthur's voice came from the doorway. I groaned, putting my head back on the arm rest. John matched my groan above me and went to move away from me. I frowned up at him, tightening my legs and arms around him. "No! Don't go!" I told him, looking into his eyes. "I've got to, Eve. All this business going on, Tommy needs me." he told me, brushing a thumb across my forehead. "I need you." I replied, scratching my fingers along the back of his neck. "Come on, Eve. Don't do this. Go join the party and I'll come find you later." he told me, pulling himself away from me and collecting his discarded shirt, waistcoat and jacket.
I sat up on the sofa, curling my legs up under me as I pulled my skirt over my knees. "I won't be long." he told me, pressing a kiss to my cheek before leaving. I looked around the room, unsure of what to do before my eye caught the blue vial on the nearby table.
I don't know how long I was sat on the floor, watching the fire but Ada startled me as she called my name from behind me. "Jesus, Ada, Scared the life out of me." I said without turning around and I was surprised how emotionless my voice was. "Are you okay?" she asked coming around to me. I sniffed before looking up at her. "Oh, Eve. What's wrong?" she asked, sitting next to me. "I'm fine, Ads." I told her, turning back to the fire. "Yeah, sounds it. Tell me what's happened." she told me, putting an arm around me.
"Nothing's happened, Ada. There's just so much going on. My head's a mess." I told her. "This shit doesn't help." she told me, pointing at the empty vials and bottle. "I know, you're right." I replied, resting my head on her shoulder. "Do you think John will ever choose me over his brothers?" I whispered, watching the fire. "What are you talking about?" she asked, a frown in her voice. "I just feel like he's bored of our life and he jumps at the chance to go off with Tommy and Arthur and do blinders shit. Why am I not enough for him?" I asked.
"You're being stupid. John loves you and the kids. You know what happens when Tommy gets something in his head, everyone else has to fall in line." she assured me. We sat in silence for a few moments. "Ada, I've done something really stupid." I said, pulling my head up from her shoulder and looking at her. "What?" she asked as the door opened. We both turned to watch John walk in. He looked disheveled, like he'd been fighting. "You're still here! Ready to go up to bed?" he asked. I looked at Ada. "Yeah!" I said before standing. I could feel Ada's eyes on me as I picked up the half empty bottle and walked over to John.
Lily and James climbed into the back of the car, giggling, as John and I got in the front, Benjamin in my arms. John leaned over and kissed my lips as Tommy and Arthur got into the cars beside us. The drive back to Small Heath was quiet and the kids quickly fell asleep. John put his arm around me, pulling me into his side as he drove and I rested my head on him.
Pulling up to the houses in Watery Lane was a relief, Arthur coming round to our car as John took Benjamin out of my arms. Arthur lifted the two sleeping children into his arms, both resting their heads on his shoulders as we walked towards the house. I followed Tommy confidently as we went through the house, through the shop and straight to the safe.
Once inside, I undid my coat, pulling out stacks of notes and placing them on the shelves. Tommy doing the same behind me. "More money than all those fucking toffs put together, eh?" Tommy said, dryly. "And you're willing to gamble it all on one robbery." I told him, disapproval in my voice. "I'm a gambling man, Eves." he replied as I rolled my eyes, leaving him in the safe.
"All right, Finn, thanks for coming. Fuck off." I heard Arthur tell his youngest brother as Tommy and I walked across the shop. Finn turned and walked towards us, a scowl on his face. "Finn, you can stay." I told the teen, Tommy nodded in confirmation beside me as the three of us made our way into the kitchen. It was a few weeks after the wedding and although I had been staying out of Birmingham, Tommy had turned up at the house, demanding I go to the shop with him. "What are you doin' here?" John asked me, looking between Tommy and I as I removed my coat. "You tell me." I responded, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Sit down, John. Evie." Tommy told us, gesturing to the table as he leant against the door frame. John sat opposite Polly and I sat between him and Arthur, crossing my legs and looking around the room. "Right, who wants to tell me what's going on?" I asked, crossing my arms against my chest. "John, you cut Angel Changretta." Tommy began and my head turned to my husband. "Even though Arthur told you to apologise." Tommy added, John nodded in confirmation, avoiding my gaze.
"Polly told you to compromise." Tommy continued and John nodded again. "You chose not to listen to Mr. Apologise or Mrs. Compromise. And now I have got an Italian walking around my backyard saying he's going to kill my brother. So what do we do, John. Do we apologise or do we compromise?" Tommy asked. John sighed, looking down at his lap and there was a long moment of silence. "Oh, it was just something John said as a joke." Arthur defended. "Yeah, but he's your brother as well, Arthur." Tommy reminded him. "Yeah. I know I didn't want to start a war over something John said without meaning it." Arthur replied, all eyes on him now.
I looked over at Tommy as he rolled his eyes, matching my gaze. "So, should he apologise in Italian or in English?" Tommy asked, turning back to his older brother. Now all eyes were on Tommy and I could see from the corner of my eye that Polly wasn't happy. "Or should we ask them which fucking language they prefer? I'm not clear." Tommy offered.
Polly put down her cup. "You said while this business was going on in London, you wanted peace at home." she reminded him. "And the only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless. If you apologise once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your fucking house. Do you want to bring the house down, Arthur?" Tommy told them, earning a grunt from his brother that had turned away from him.
"If you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow." Tommy added. "Bloody 'soft on rebellion'." Arthur muttered, standing from the table. "You did the right thing, John. Now we go on the offensive. We take two of the Changretta pubs, and we take them tonight. That's it." Tommy told everyone. "Oh! Right. For Christ's sake, why?" Polly demanded. "Why? Because we fucking can." Tommy shouted at her. "Because we fucking can and if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel off their necks now, they'll just come at us. Remember these are the bastards that wanted Danny Whizz-Bang dead." Tommy continued, his voice still raised.
There was a moments silence. "You're getting soft, brother. Soft and weak. Save the Bible for Sundays, eh." Tommy said, lowly. There was silence as the two eldest Shelby's watched each other. "Evelyn is coming back to the business, full time and permanently. She will be keeping an eye on things around here and everything is to be ran past her before any actions are taken." Tommy informed everyone. Johns eyes snapped up to me. "What about the kids?" Polly asked, looking at me. "We've got it sorted. I'll be hiring a nanny. Grace has recommended a couple and Tommy will assign a Blinder to the house each day." I told the room.
"Finn? I need to get to Hockley and then home. It's been a long day." Tommy said, not breaking eye contact with Arthur. Finn moved from behind me, putting a hand on Johns shoulder as he went past. "You take the Wrexham, you take the Five Bells, you report to Evie once it's done. You will go with her in the morning to get them signed over to us." Tommy told Arthur who had once more turned his back on his brother. Polly picked up her book and started reading it. "Don't use the fucking phones, all right? There's someone listening." Tommy added before leaving. "Well done." Arthur said to John, walking behind me and out of the kitchen. Polly slurped her tea and John and I looked at her, her eyes trained on John.
A/N So Evie is firmly back in the fold but what does this mean for her/Michael or her/John? What has everyone thought about the last few chapters? I love hearing your opinions!