Hi all! Sorry for the delay again; my thesis is my life right now. This hasn't been proof-read since I just wanted to get it out ASAP. Enjoy!
It takes her a few weeks to heal, as Tommy had told her, and she spends this time thinking about how she's going to handle Sabini. He's used to everyone fawning over him, she decides, so she needs to become unattainable: a hard task for a paid whore.
When she's healed, albeit with a few tiny white scars all over the backs of her legs (she doesn't mind them - she already has a few scars from her time spent at the orphanage with Joe and a few more won't hurt) she meets with the Shelby brothers and Alfie to decide how this will work. Alfie trusts that she knows what she's doing but Tommy, and Arthur especially, need proof of her talents; after all, they are resting their entire London campaign on her ability to garner secrets from Sabini through sex. John just stares sullenly at her when she walks in and Arthur doesn't even look up from picking the dirt from underneath his nails. They hate her, she knows. But after finding out that Tommy's been alive this whole time and not one of the Shelby's deigned to inform her, she's pretty fucking mad at them too.
"Gentlemen," she says coldly, throwing a small smile in Tommy's direction to let him know that he's not included in her anger. In the few times they've seen each other since the glass incident, they've called a truce somewhat. They've let go of their anger at each other and are… friends? No, she thinks. They can never be friends. They've been through too much. They loved each other too much, too hard, too long.
She walks over to Alfie who is sat behind the desk, fingers steepled. He's not happy with this, she knows. He thinks it would be a good idea if her and the Shelby's weren't so involved. He doesn't like it when emotions are involved in business. She told him it isn't business because they weren't paying her, but he just laughed humourlessly and told her that everything in London was business. She drops a kiss on his cheek, smiling at him warmly before perching on the desk since the men of the room are occupying all the chairs. Nobody in here cares for her reputation and so nobody stands up. She would like to think Tommy would stand if he was seated, but he is pacing the length of the office slowly. He looks calculating and walks with a confidence she's not seen since… well, since him, all those years ago.
"So 'ow's this gonna go, then?" Arthur mumbles from the chair, still not looking at her. He manages to sound disbelieving and apathetic all at once.
She shrugs delicately. "There's a race next week; I'll attend and see what I can do."
John scoffs lightly. "That's it? We're having to cancel our plans about this whole thing so you can 'see what you can do'? We're gonna need more than that!"
Daisy rolls her eyes and fixes her steely gaze on John. I'm pretty fucking mad at them too, she chants over and over in her head. She can't let them get to her - yes, she is partially at fault for this whole mess with Tommy. But so are they. So is Tommy. She has accepted her role in the fallout and she has apologised… she can't do any more than that. And they owe her an apology, too. These last few weeks have been helpful to her. She has spent them at home, by herself, recovering mentally and physically. Her legs were nothing in comparison to the ache in her heart and the constant feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach that everything would go horribly wrong with the Sabini idea, and Tommy would get hurt. She knows, therefore, that there is no room for error in this. There is only one outcome she will ever accept: the plan working. She wants Tommy to be happy, even if it is not with her, but moreover she wants herself to be happy. She wants to find the comfort in her life that she has only ever had for one year. One year in her life she was happy and safe. She knows, despite her questionable moral system, that she deserves more than that. She deserves to be happy just as much as Tommy does. She hopes and prays that she is happy with him and he with her, but she tells herself that if she does this right, if she helps him like this, she will have corrected any mistake she's made regarding him. When she told Alfie about this epiphany of hers the day before this meeting, she remembers his sad smile and his quiet question: "What's he doin', Flower, to make up for his mistakes? Hm? He didn't try after the war either, remember."
She hadn't known what to say to that. But all she knows is that they both deserve happiness. And she can only hope that they can work through their differences and find it together again.
"Trust that I know what I'm doing," she tells Arthur with a secretive smile, knowing that she is telling herself that too. If there is one thing she knows in this stage of her life, it's seducing men. She can do this. She knows she can.
"I trust you know your way around a man's heart and his cock too," Arthur snarls, sniffing and rubbing his nose roughly as he glares at her.
She expects it when Alfie stands up, a gun appearing from nowhere and pointing at Arthur, Alfie quietly and calmly telling him, "Disrespect her again and I'll blow you to fuckin' pieces."
She expects Alfie's defence, even though she doesn't need any help.
But she doesn't expect Tommy's.
"Shut the fuck up, Arthur," he snarls quietly. Why are the men in my life so calm? She remember's Joe's shouting and yelling and that had terrified her when she was younger… but Tommy's and Alfie's calm, steely voices scare her even more. Because she knows that they are not 'all bark, no bite'. Their bark is nothing, so one is always astounded when their bite is deathly. They are deathly.
She places her hand gently on Alfie's arm and rolls her eyes at him. "Aren't you in a dramatic mood," she teases him cautiously and quietly, always a little worried for Alfie's mental state. The war destroyed many men physically, but it damaged them all mentally. So many of the men she has serviced wake up in the night screaming; she wonders if Tommy is scarred in such a way. She knows he is harder than before… colder. She wants to be the person who knows his private thoughts as she one had been. It had always felt special to be the one person who Tommy trusted with this knowledge. She had felt special at sixteen when she had watched him 'do business' with his brothers, watched the harsh line of his mouth and the tension in his body, then only a short while later being the one to put a smile on his face and have him relax entirely in her hold. He'd always felt safe with her too, she realises, just as she felt safe with him.
"You'll have to trust me, boys, if this is ever going to work. The races, next week, will be the beginning. Just… relax, and let me do my job."
The races have never excited her much. She doesn't like the idea of leaving anything to luck or chance, so when Daisy walks into the arena, into the VIP box Tommy or Alfie had bought her, she just sits straight down and doesn't bet a single penny. Sabini is stood with his friends by the bar behind her, and she can hear the group laughing obnoxiously every so often. She doesn't turn around.
Oscar, a man she has been hired by before and not one she much likes (a selfish lover she can deal with - after all, her job isn't about bringing pleasure to herself - but a selfish man in every aspect, and one who bad-mouths his wife at every opportunity) approaches her and only then does she stand up and turn so that she has Sabini is her sights.
"Well if it isn't my little Fleur," Oscar grins salaciously, winding his hand around her waist and pulling her closer. It makes her skin crawl, but she still smiles idly and kisses his cheek in greeting.
"Good afternoon, Oscar," she replies, casting a quick glimpse at Sabini. He is approached, she sees, by a woman much like her in occupation but one lacking the reputation of 'upper class men only' - Roxie will take on whoever she fancies, even if that someone is a common worker (she had to applaud Roxie for her lack of judgement; it was nice in a way). Daisy witnesses him completely dismiss her with a look of disgust and it is then that she realises that this will be difficult. Much more so than she had expected.
Oscar is babbling away at her and she's not hearing a word he is saying. She needs to focus on the plan she has: make Sabini want her more than he's ever wanted anything in his life. And what do men want the most?
What they can't have.
Oscar, she knows, is a rich and affluent man in London, so despite his lacklustre character, she knows what she must do.
"… she's always nagging about that bloody house her friend Maria has, and—"
She places her hand on Oscar's shoulder, stepping closer to him. "I'd love a drink, darling, would you accompany me?"
He smiles, clearly thinking what they all think - he is the one who is better than the others. It is him that she wants to spend time with. She can't even judge them anymore because she knows what it's like to want to spend time with someone because they make you feel special. She loved knowing that it had been her who captivated Tommy. Everybody wants to feel special… even those as cruel as Sabini.
At the bar, she makes sure that she stands right by Sabini but not close enough to raise any suspicion. She orders a Martini (it's gaining traction at the most popular drink in London right now - she idly remembers drinking cheap beer at The Garrison when she was younger and thinks how much she preferred it to this) and as she turns around to smile coyly at Oscar again, she 'accidentally' spills her drink down Sabini's posh jacket.
He jumps back slightly, astounded that anyone would dare be stupid enough to spill a drink on him, but she just puts her hand daintily to her mouth and gasps a little.
"Oh dear, I am sorry," she tells him, not sounding that sorry at all. Daisy grabs a few napkins from the bar and hands them to him to clean himself off. She barely glances at the thugs around him that are now glaring at her for daring to spoil his suit.
"Are you fackin' blind?" He asks her, again, not shouting. His accent is as harsh as the lines on his face, his moustache barely hiding the hard set of his mouth.
She feels Oscar pulling lightly on her hand and she feels that it's a little clammy. He is scared of Sabini she realises. A man who was born into wealth, from the true upper class of London, is scared of this thug. This crime boss. Then again, from the way he is looking at her now, she can understand. But Daisy Smith didn't grow up in upper-class London. She grew up around the Peaky Blinders.
So she laughs, a tinkling sound that makes one of the men he's with do a double take. "Oh darling, I said I'm sorry. Besides, I'm sure you can simply buy a new one." She smiles at him cheekily, acting aloof and girlish. She knows that's not what he wants. He's used to women being scared of him, of men being terrified. He's used to airheads and people who fawn over his power and money. She will not be that.
"Do you know how much this cost?" He gets very close to her, and she is somewhat impressed when Oscar's gentle pulling grows more insistent.
She hears his throat clear and then, "Sorry Mr. Sabini, she's er, kind of new around here."
That's not what she needs right now. She lets the smile fall slowly from her face and lets her eyes steel with the true strength she has gained over years in the slums of Birmingham and through four years of horribly bloody war. She turns her head slightly towards Oscar, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on Sabini. He is like a snake, she thinks - any sudden movements were a bad idea. "It seems I'm in need of another drink."
Unsurprisingly, Oscar is pleased to leave the group and turn to the bar once more. She barely spares him a second glance.
"I'm not new; it was simply an accident. If you can't afford to buy a new one, I'll be happy to—"
"It's not a case of not bein' able to fackin' afford it," he spits, rubbing his hand over the damp material looking repulsed.
Rolling her eyes, she grabs a new set of napkins and, before his thugs can stop her, she takes a step forward and begins rubbing down the jacket herself. She sighs as though it is a chore. "If you're that upset by it—"
"Who the fuck are you?" he asks, looking incredulous and angry, still… but not bored. His body has tensed from either the contact from her or her closeness or simply from anger, but she sees the anger leave his eyes and sees the spark of interest in them. She wagers that it'll be the most exciting moment of his day, the most unpredictable. Sabini loves being unpredictable.
She smirks, throwing the damp cloth on the bar. "If you're that upset by a ruined jacket, I'm certainly not someone you can afford, darling."
And with that she turns away to grab Oscar and strides back onto the balcony, arm in arm with one of the richest men in the room.
She smiles coquettishly at Oscar, who looks relieved to be out of the bar area, and turns her eyes to the intense set of blue ones staring at her from the other side of the seating area. And with that brief moment of eye contact, she knows that he is the only one here who knows that her heart is beating a mile a minute in fear, and that the hard set of her jaw isn't from a sense of entitlement like many of the other working ladies like Roxie thought, but determination to make sure Darby Sabini remembers her. From the look of pity in his eyes, he saw right through every performance she's put on so far tonight and knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that she hates, hates, her job. He knows that she would rather be on his arm that Oscar's right now, and she knows that he knows she sometimes wants to just run away, far away, from this persona she's created for herself.
He nods once at her, one side of his mouth lifting in an apology.
She nods back.