Chapter 2:

A/N: Thank you so incredibly much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! I am so happy to see that you enjoyed the start of the story and are back for more! Pretty please drop me a note in the review box and tell me what you thought. I'll be forever grateful!

~o0o~

"Ada…"

Ada's mouth pressed hard against his, but he never stopped moaning. She could feel his body tighten, ready for release. She needed him to hold out longer. These moments had to be rushed for so many reasons, but that never did her any favors.

"Ada, I can't love, I'm…" the apology was lost on his lips as he came, thrusting wildly inside her. The strokes almost took her to the edge, but when he faded, the withdrawal of her pleasure left her gasping and annoyed.

"Fuck, Freddie." Ada didn't leave her place on his lap as she brushed a strand of hair, damp from her sweat, out of her face. They were nestled in the shadow under a bridge over the Cut. He was seated with her straddling him, her knees braced against the mud.

"Sorry." Freddie Thorne kissed her forehead and then both of her cheeks. "Just a few more weeks' work at the factory and I'll have enough for my own room and we'll have plenty of time to be alone then. No more sneaking around."

Ada finally got off of him and he tucked himself back into his trousers. "You're a sight. Muddy knees and a dirty dress. What will Polly say?"

Ada only smirked in response as she offered Freddie a hand and he took it and stood up, just as muddy. She was sure she could sneak back in the house without a second look. She had been doing it for six months yet. Freddie kept hold of her hand and pulled her into his arms as he leaned against the damp underbelly of the bridge.

"So I heard there's been a new addition to the Shelby clan."

"What a romantic thing to say. Right after you fuck me in the mud. You are a prince, Freddie." Ada laughed and shook her head.

"And you're an angel, Ada. But that doesn't answer my question."

"Why do you want to know about her? She's nothing." Ada looked away from him and down the river. Since Sophie had arrived, Ada had made a point to speak with her as little as possible.

"Because she's been in your house for three days without you so much as mentioning her. We tell each other everything, Ada. Always have." Freddie touched her chin to pull her gaze back to him. "Boys in the Shankhill said there's a pretty girl that's been coming out of your place. So who is she? John found himself another?"

"In a way." Ada was hesitant, but there was no point in hiding it. She simply felt that telling him about her would mean that she was really staying and she had honestly thought Tommy would have sent her back to London by now. "Do you remember Sophie Davies?"

"It's Sophie?" Freddie's eyebrows furrowed in disbelief and then his mouth broke into a wide grin. "Well, fuck me!"

Ada slapped him playfully against his chest. "I just did you bastard!"

"I remember that summer she was here. It was the summer I fell in love with you and look where we are now." He hugged her close again. It had never been anything serious with Ada until Freddie came back from the war. But even though she had only been thirteen that summer, he still followed her around with Tommy as if his life depended on being near her. He told himself it was like the love a brother has for a sister because he didn't have any of his own, but every subsequent year made the lie he told himself harder to believe. "Tommy must be happy she's back."

"Why would he be? He's just as bothered about it as I am." Ada pulled Freddie closer to the Cut to walk along the water.

"Tommy adored her." Freddie shrugged. He remembered it so well because it was the summer before he and Tommy went to war. A time when they were still best friends and shared the same hopes and ideals. The war changed both of them and turned them into bitter enemies. But Freddie held onto those memories in hope that one day it could be like that again.

Every day that summer Freddie would meet up with Tommy and they would keep a watchful eye on Ada and Sophie as the girls ran around Small Heath. Tommy always said it was because Polly asked him to, but Freddie knew that was shite. Freddie followed Ada around because he loved her and before Sophie moved in with John and his wife, Tommy merely kept an eye out for his little sister when he could, but would never have followed her around what with his little gang starting to take shape. He had to have felt something more than just responsibility for Sophie, even if she was much too young for him.

Ada laughed. "He just put up with her because she was my friend."

"And why can't she be your friend now? Freddie smirked as he watched his lovers' face darken. "You could use a friend."

She knew he was right; girls in Small Heath weren't exactly keen on going to the pub with someone who had Blinders for brothers. Sophie had been her last friend that had meant something to her. Now her only true confidant was Freddie.

"She's changed." Ada said, noticing how bitter she sounded. "She's just this priss who thinks she's better than everyone because she got a fucking education at some school in London."

"You're jealous Ada." Freddie squeezed her hand. "Yeah she went to London, but she didn't get to stay with her family like you did. You never said you wanted to go to school. It doesn't make her better than you because she did."

Ada nodded as their walk came to an end. She chose silence because she knew she wouldn't hear the end of it if she agreed with him on this. It was high time she got home and she knew Freddie was leading a rally with the BSA factory workers soon.

"Maybe, Freddie. Now be careful tonight." She rose up on her toes to kiss him goodbye.

"Clean up your knees, Ada. You look like you've been fucking in the mud."

~o0o~

Sophie struggled to keep a smile on her face as she ushered the children into the kitchen and closed the door behind her. The room was empty, but she could hear the familiar hum of activity behind the closed double doors leading to the offices.

"George can you put the bread on the table? Finn can you take them all upstairs to wash up?" Sophie beseeched the youngest Shelby who had accompanied her to the bakery.

"What's wrong, Sophie?" Finn asked when he saw her wipe her eyes. Her emotions were starting to get the best of her. He shoved his hands in the pockets of the suit trousers that were still a little too big for him.

"Just something in my eye, now go on…" she nodded towards the stairs and Finn led George, Mary, and Emma up to the washroom. Sophie sat two-year-old Henry on the long, wooden dining table and started to cut the fresh, crusty bread she had picked up for dinner. She pulled back the dusty lace curtains to look out the window over the sink to Watery Lane. Everything was covered in two inches of black mud and dismal grey. London had been grey and dirty, but not like this.

"Soph?" John walked over to her after closing the office doors behind him. He had taken to shortening her name in an attempt to be more familial with her, but it only made her feel even younger than she was and he anger flared again. He gently turned her around by the elbow so she could face him. He knew something was wrong the second he looked in her eyes.

"I didn't expect anyone in here for an hour more. The other children are washing up…" Sophie couldn't look at him. Her heart ached for London because as nice as John was to her, he was lying to her. She sniffled and wiped her eyes again even though she had been trying to hold it in.

"Why are you crying, love? No need to cry. I'll take you for a pint at the Garrison tonight eh? How's that sound to ya?" John did his best to make her smile but she couldn't. He was doing his best, but it wasn't enough.

"Why does no one look at me when I walk down the lane? Why do they whisper and go out of their way to keep their distance from the children and I? Why do I never have to pay for bread and for fruit? Everyone else has to pay, so I want to know why." Sophie was confused and her voice began to get louder with each question. This wasn't Small Heath as she had left it.

"You're a pretty girl, that's why. Of course you dun hafta pay for nothin'." John smiled and touched her cheek, but she didn't believe him. Another lie. It made her tears stop as her anger took over once again.

"I'll go back to London." Sophie wasn't sure if she meant it as a threat or an offer, but either way she hoped it would prompt the truth.

"You aren't happy here?" John was instantly concerned and mentally blamed every member of his family. He cared for Sophie dearly and didn't want to see that happen.

"I'm happy with you and the children, but I know that Tommy and Aunt Polly are talking about me when I walk into a room and they go silent. You all whisper around me like you can't trust me hearing anything and now the whispers on the streets the last few days. I don't want to stay where I'm not wanted." Sophie felt relieved to finally speak her mind. John stood next to her, silent and thinking for a few moments before scooping his youngest boy up in his arms.

"Before the others come in from the office, let's go talk upstairs." John sighed and started toward the stairs. After setting Henry down in his crib, John led Sophie into his room and closed the door.

"Are you angry with me?" Sophie asked. She had raised her voice to him and didn't know how he would react.

John shook his head. "Soph, what do you think you know? Because the two of us gotta get some things straightened out." He sat down on his bed and patted the quilt for her to sit next to him.

"Whatever you do in that office isn't legal is it?" She looked into his eyes, afraid of the answer.

"No love. It's not legal. But it makes us money and it isn't nothing that Billy Kimber hasn't done." He looked at Sophie and smiled. She wouldn't be able to fathom what he had done since he last saw her.

"I want to know everything. I don't think that it's fair that I've come here and been lied to!"

"No one's lied to you, Soph. Tommy just doesn't want you involved, that's all." John had many talks with his brother about Sophie since she arrived and each had ended in an argument.

"Why does he hate me?" Sophie bit her lip. Tommy had barely spoken to her the last few days and when his intense blue eyes did fall on her, they weren't friendly.

"When he gets his mind on somethin', there's no tellin' him otherwise, ya know?" John sighed. "He feels responsible for Ada and he doesn't like that she's not involved with the business anymore as our sister. I don't think he wants this life for you. But he doesn't hate you."

"I wouldn't have come if I wanted to be protected, John. I could have stayed in London at the school, maybe taught one day, and stayed sheltered." Sophie was shocked to realize how truly privileged she had been in London after only a few days in Small Heath. Crime and prostitution were things she read about but never lived amongst. Her young adult life had been spent in the four walls of her school, with only other girls, church on Wednesdays and Sundays, etiquette lessons, and studying. In the last hour she had seen a whore and a drunken man stumbling down the street and Finn hadn't even batted an eye. "I need you to tell me what this family does if I am ever going to feel a part of it."

John's heart and common sense warred with each other for a moment. He trusted her and that was enough for him but he would have to deal with Tommy later. "We call ourselves the Peaky Blinders. Finn will grow up to be one. George and Henry too." John removed his tweed cap and placed it in Sophie's hands, pointing to the razor blades carefully stitched under the brim. He watched as her green eyes widened in understanding. "But Ada and Polly and the rest of the boys…Nipper, Danny, Lovelock, Scudboat, Uncle Charlie…all of em's Blinders too. Hell, my little girls are Blinders, so why can't you be?"

Sophie smiled as her fingers lightly touched the cool metal blades. "And everyone is afraid of you."

"This town respects us. That's why you didn't have to pay for bread, love. The businesses in this town pay us and nothing bad ever happens to them. No coppers when things happen. That kinda thing. We'll make sure everyone gets to know ya and you'll be treated like a princess. Just like Ada and Polly, alright?" John took her hand.

"But, what exactly do you do?" Sophie felt conflicted about everything he was saying. He was her only family. This house was now her home. But doing things that were illegal went against everything she had been taught.

"We take bets for the horse races in the office. But we stack the odds in our favor, if you know what I mean." John winked. "There is this family, the Lee's, that do it too, and of course Billy Kimber and his gang. We are trying to establish ourselves among them. Higher stakes mean more money for all of us. You won't want for anything Soph. Starting next week, I'll make sure you have an allowance like all the Blinders do, on top of your pay from me for taking care of the children."

"I don't work as a Blinder, so I can't accept that." Sophie shook her head. She really didn't want to spend dirty money if she didn't have to.

"Well, Polly thinks your schooling could be a real help in the office. It's just a matter of bringing Tommy around. You could work a little when you aren't with the children and earn it if it makes you feel better." He suggested but she still didn't agree. Even though she knew they had all kept something from her, she hadn't expected it to be an illegal race-fixing scheme. He patted her lightly on the knee. "Think about it. I'll see you downstairs for dinner."

As John walked back downstairs and found Tommy shooting back some whiskey as he sat at the table with his free hand clenched, he decided to put off any mention of Sophie working as a Blinder for the next day. He didn't need another argument.

~o0o~

Tommy reeled as he took a second drag from his opium pipe and rolled onto his back on his bed in the house. He hadn't left his office till well after midnight and decided not to go back to his place, so he found his way upstairs and tried to relax himself in the only way that worked lately.

He had asked for four motorcycles and ended up with a crate of numbered military weapons bound for Libya because his men had pulled the wrong crate off the barge. Fucking idiots. And now he was sitting on these weapons until he could figure out what to do with them. It would have to be tomorrow, he thought, as he took another drag that he hoped would send him to sleep.

Sophie jolted upright in her bed when she heard a cry in the night. She quickly wrapped a robe around her small frame and headed into the room next door, but found all of the children sound asleep. The next time she heard it, there was not a chance it could be mistaken for a cry of a child.

It was tortured and raspy. She put an ear to John's door and ruled him out. There was nothing but faint snoring. Then the cry pierced the silence one more time and she couldn't believe no one else was awake.

It was loudest this time, and coming from the room Tommy used at the end of the hall. "Tommy? Are you okay?" Sophie asked from her side of the door to no answer. She knocked lightly. Nothing but another pleading scream. He sounded hurt and she panicked.

She turned the handle of the door and stumbled through, surprised when it gave way to her touch. Tommy was thrashing in the twisted, sweaty sheets on his small bed. The muscles in his neck were taut and the noises he made frightened her.

"Tommy, please stop! Let me help you!" She tried to keep her voice quiet, and she reached out to touch his arm.

"Get off me!"

He gasped as if he hadn't been breathing for minutes and the rush of air caused him to choke and cough. His pupils were so big she could barely see the blue of his irises when he looked up at her and sat up in the mess of his bed. There was sweat dripping down the planes of his bare chest. Sophie backed away and recoiled her hand. His lamp was still on and his room was hazy from whatever was left burning on his bedside table and it made her eyes water.

"You were…screaming…" she spoke, apologizing as he stared at her.

"Get the fuck out of my room." His voice was a whisper now and it is more terrifying to Sophie than when he was shouting.

"Tommy, I was just trying to make sure you were alright…"

"Now."

A/N: Please review! Thank you!