Birmingham | Tommy Shelby x Reader

Part 2

A week had passed since Tommy assured that (Y/N) would be safe as long as she was living in Birmingham. Within that week, nothing much happened. She went to her shifts at the Garrison, she got some more sideways looks from Grace, and she continued with trying to make her apartment into a home.

She had been asked to stay at the pub later than usual tonight. A large shipment of stock items had arrived only an hour before closing, so she was stuck with unpacking it. This would be the first time she'd be at the pub at night since the incident that occurred a little over a week ago. To say her nerves were on high alert was an understatement.

Humming to herself quietly while she worked on organizing and stacking crates, she didn't even notice the man standing in the doorway to the stockroom. "(Y/N)," he called out, making the woman jump in her spot.

"Mr. Shelby, I didn't see you there," she said as she tried to collect herself, her hand going up over her heart. "You scared me," she stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I need to have a word with you," he told her, and although he didn't explicitly comment on her reaction to his presence, a hint of an amused grin played on his lips.

"Ok," she nodded, moving to walk to the door once she was completely calm again. "Is something wrong?" she asked the same question as she did a week ago while they walked down the hallway to where the establishment's office was located.

"No," Tommy responded with a slight shake of his head. When they got to the office's door, he opened it, allowing (Y/N) to step into the room first before he followed her and closed it behind him.

(Y/N) immediately noticed that she and Tommy weren't the only two people in the room. Standing in the corner were two men, who looked to be around her age. They wore straight-faced expressions and similar garb to what Tommy and his brothers donned daily. "I'm...confused?" she couldn't help but comment on the two random guests that she didn't expect to be meeting.

"These men have been brought on to watch over you," Tommy answered her question as he moved over to the leather chair, "to protect you," he continued after sitting down.

"To do what?" (Y/N) was still confused.

Tommy ignored her question and continued on with his explanation: "their names are Ian and Mason. They will be with you when you are traveling from your home to here; and to wherever else you decide to go. They will act as surveillance and will make sure that there will be no surprise visits from your family. In the act that that would occur, they know how to neutralize the situation."

(Y/N) let the silence hang in the air for a moment, allowing the information she'd just been hit with to sink in before she responded to him. "That's very nice of you, Mr. Shelby, but I think I'll be fine on my own," she finally said, trying to politely decline the help he was offering her.

"I told you that you would be safe here, (Y/N)," Tommy told her, his eyebrows raising slightly before he continued, "this is me keeping you safe."

"And I appreciate that, I really do," she stressed to him before taking a deep breath and thinking over her next words. "I don't think having two men follow me around is necessary though."

"You've had two men come to try and take you back to Sheffield after you were only here for a handful of weeks," he reminded her of the very event she was trying to forget, "I find it hard to believe that your brothers will give up after this first attempt...especially after their men didn't return home."

That was just that one time. Those words were hanging on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't say them. He brought up a good point. She just wished she wasn't still caught up in the middle of being involved with a gang. "Mr. Shelby..." she sighed as she trailed off, not knowing what to say next.