Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

81.

She climbed the stairs, checking both corridors before slipping down the hall and into the first door on the left where she knew Finn was meant to be staying the night.
 
Maybe the whiskey had gotten to him or even the long nights working between the betting shop, meetings with Billy Grade and now the deal with Chinese, it all meant that Finn was exhausted. And Ailbhe wasn’t surprised to find him asleep on the bed, over the covers and lying back as if he had sat down for a moment and just drifted off.
 
She felt herself smiling when she saw him, as though it was a reflex.
 
“Finn” she whispered, putting down her purse and kicking off her shoes. But he didn’t even move, his chest rising and falling with the steady, slow breaths he took.
 
She slipped off her bracelets and left them on the table with her earrings before she slipped out of her dress and stockings. The fire was still lit in the room and it was quite warm so she didn’t feel the chill even in her thin shorts and bralette.
 
She went over to the side of the bed he lay on, leaning down and pressing a kiss to his lips and cheeks before she knew he was half-awake. He kept his eyes closed, but the almost smile that appeared on his lips let her know he was really rousing now. But he still kept his eyes closed, even when Ailbhe slid her hand down his arm and sat down on the bed beside him, up near the pillows. He could feel her close but not close enough so he rolled, resting his head into her lap and feeling her fingers massaging his scalp.
 
“I love you, you know that?” She whispered.
 
Hearing her, he tilted his head to the side to get a look at her. The way she had said it, it seemed so quiet and vulnerable. And she looked it, undressed and so small like he could wrap her up in his arms and pull her into his lap. She didn’t look like that often, always looking like an absolute force to be reckoned with.
 
Finn sat up quickly, moving closer to her and putting his hand on her cheek looking for signs of whatever had just happened that made her look like that, made her look like she was trying to take a mental picture of him lest she forget what he looked like.
 
“Hey hey, what’s going on?” He asked, searching her face for anything that didn’t look normal.
 
“Mosley knows...” She sighed, putting her head into her hands and her shoulders almost shook with a sob for a moment but tears didn’t come. Her eyes were dry, not feeling the need to cry tears over something she had done so long ago. As though her body resisted her urge to regret ever helping Maggie.
 
“Knows what?” He asked, grabbing her wrists and pulling her into his arms, until she felt him wrap around her.
 
She took a deep breath, deeply inhaling his scent that was more addictive than snow or booze. He rubbed his thumb across her back in a feather like touch that she was used to when they’d lie in bed together. He always preferred to have a hand on her. Whether it was his possessiveness coming through or his utter addiction to the feel of her, he always had to keep a touch on her. Even if it was just a hand on the small of her back, or his hands on the back of her chair. She loved it, how Finn always found her hands and laced their fingers, always played with the ends of her hair or traced the skin of her back while she slept on her stomach.
 
She loved everything they had together but she had to remind him that there was something out there, someone out there that could drive another wedge between them.
 
“He knows about Maggie... about what I did, about my record” She sighed, not looking up at him.
 
Finn’s eyes widened, before his eyebrows fell down low on his eyes in confusion.
 
“What? How?” He questioned. Tommy and Finn had done everything they could, greased palms and did favours until Ailbhe’s name was wiped off the record and officially, she had nothing to do with the murder.
 
She just shrugged. She had no idea, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was Mosley knew and he now had the power to blackmail the family, to use it against them as a threat or as a punishment. Mosley knew that putting Ailbhe behind bars and having her meet her end at the end of a rope would be enough incentive to have Tommy Shelby stay in line.
 
“Tommy says he has a plan” She sighed, knowing that Finn’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour. She could practically hear the cogs turning.
 
Finn practically scoffed. Tommy always had a plan but there were a lot of Tommy’s plans that didn’t work, that worked only after people had gone to prison or after people had to do things that would keep them up at night for months after.
 
But Ailbhe looked scared and she didn’t need Finn to be angry or stressed out. She just needed him to be calm and be there. He pulled her in until she was in his lap and wrapped around him, his arms around her and his head nestled in her neck.
 
She didn’t want to tell him about Mosley handing over racecourses and betting pitches to McCavern. She knew it would only make him angry and want to go argue with Tommy, but Tommy had enough on his plate. The worn-out expression on his face as he told her to go to bed was practically seared into her mind. She felt the need to protect Tommy, after all the times he had protected her, she felt like now he needed someone looking out for him too. And selfish as it may sound, she wanted Finn to herself. She decided to keep it to herself only for Finn to interrupt her thoughts.
 
“We could kill him” Finn said so casually Ailbhe knew he was joking but she needed a laugh.
 
“I think that’s a part of Tommy’s plan, Finn” She replied, feeling a smile start to come.
 
Finn shrugged.
 
“Tommy’s plans take ages. We could kill him tonight, me and you”
 
He squeezed her side, trying to get that spot that made her laugh. She turned over, lying on her back and letting her head in his lap. The way his hands instinctively went to her hair, threading his fingers through from scalp to ends repetitively was enough to almost put her to sleep.
 
“Shut up Finn” She smiled tiredly, knowing that killing Mosley would cause more problems than solve them tonight.
 
“I’m serious, he’s in the Princess Amelia. We wait until he’s asleep and then bam, slit his throat”
 
He ran a finger across Ailbhe’s neck as he said it, making her roll her eyes and let out a laugh.
 
She wasn’t sure why she felt a rush of love for him as he was plotting to kill a member of parliament, but she did. She felt it at the strangest of times now, while he bickered with Isiah, while he read letters and his lips moved with the words, while he scratched his head and closed his eyes while working on the runners’ odds for a race.
 
She looked up at him, he was all glassy eyes and pink cheeks from the whiskey, easy smiles and clingy hands from her. The thought of being sent away from him again made a sinking feeling in her stomach and she wasn’t sure they’d make it this time. Finn might not wait for her, might not forgive her, might not accept that her decisions she made without him had consequences for both of them.
 
“Oi” He called her back, his thumb smoothing out the creases between her eyebrows that were setting in as she clearly worried and stressed.
 
“Tommy has a plan and it’s going to work” He promised her, leaning down and pressing a kiss to her lips.
 
She loved him for trying to reassure her, but she couldn’t be certain yet.
 
“And if it doesn’t?” She questioned, not being able to help it.
 
If it didn’t, what would happen to them? Her whole family could get locked up or hanged? Better case scenario was that they would all have to scatter and vanish, hide and hope Mosley didn’t go as far as America to find them.
 
He looked down at her, shrugging.
 
“Then we’ll kill him ourselves”
 
She started laughing, knowing Finn was only partly joking.
 
“I really love you” she laughed, tilting her head and kissing his hand that was cupping her face.
 
That smug smirk and feeling his thumb and forefinger grip her chin was all she noticed before he leaned down and joined their lips slowly.
 
“I know” He replied after pulling away, that smug smile still in place that made her roll her eyes.
 
But there was something still there, something bothering her.
 
“You sure that’s it?” He asked her, tilting her chin up to look at him.
 
She could’ve told the truth, could’ve told Finn that Mosley had given McCavern permission to take racecourses and betting pitches, could’ve let Finn try talk Tommy out of it. But she didn’t. She just shook her head and smiled, lying to Finn for the first time.
 
“Yeah, that’s it” She promised. The lie tasted like vinegar in her mouth and she wished she hadn’t said it as soon as the words left her lips. But there was the selfish side to Ailbhe that needed him with her, knew that if she wasn't in his lap right now she probably would be guzzling a bottle of whiskey and pacing her room until she wore down the carpets. She felt like she needed him now more than ever and she wasn't going to take that chance that he might get up and walk out. She couldn't. No matter how wrong she knew it was.