Kimber's Daughter - Tommy Shelby x Reader Fan Fic

Tommy Pov 1 - after the demands

He was fuming. Fucking fuming.

It wasn't like him to be unrattled, not like this. He stormed from the room. He couldn't let the Kimber girl see.

It's because Billy Kimber isn't giving an inch, he told himself. The plan might just fail, and Tommy didn't like to lose. That's all.

That's why he'd said they had to kill her. Not for any other reason. Not because he felt a strange, swooping sensation in his gut in her presence. Not because he looked forward to seeing her each day, eagerly awaiting her smart retorts to anything he'd say.

And definitely not because he couldn't focus on his work, silently counting the minutes until he could return to the house and see her once more.

He knew it was wrong. Alright? He knew it was fucking wrong. He had kidnapped her. Kept her handcuffed to whichever bit of furniture was nearest. She despised him, loathed him. And he felt nothing for her in return.

Or so he told himself.

"Tom," Arthur said, following him through the house, his face pale. "Are you sure that's the way to go about this?"

"Next time you have an idea like kidnapping Billy Kimber's daughter, Arthur, write it down. Yeah? Write it down. Piss all over it. Wipe your arse with it. And fucking burn it." Tommy knocked back a glass of whiskey.

"If we just give Billy Kimber a few more days, he'll give in, I'm sure of—"

"And if he doesn't?" Tommy asked, eyebrows raised. His patience was already wearing thin. "We have two options here. We let her go, and we look like fucking imbeciles. We become the laughingstock of Birmingham. Or we kill her. And that's only going to get more difficult the longer she's here. The more attached we become. I wouldn't be surprised if John's already setting her free, like that fucking horse we had to kill when we were kids."

Tommy's jaw clenched. His brother's fondness for the girl shouldn't bother him. Didn't bother him. Nor the easy, carefree way John had always been. The way Tommy noticed Kimber softened slightly around him, her shoulders relaxing as they exchanged insults, smiling every now and then. But even Tommy couldn't dismiss the pang of jealousy at the thought. So many layers of jealousy. He wondered if he might have ever been able to smile like that, to be so likeable, if not for the war.

If he was being completely honest, he wished she would look at him that way. Instead of with disgust and loathing.

"Alright," Arthur conceded. "Just... make it quick. Okay? Don't let the girl suffer."

***

Aunt Polly was next. "You're going to kill her? Just like that?"

Tommy sighed, sat behind his desk. He'd been trying and failing to work for almost an hour, hoping he could distract himself from what he had to do. The last thing he needed was Polly making him feel worse.

"We have no other option, Polly. You know it."

But she didn't know, Tommy realised. She had no idea that the Chief Inspector had paid Tommy a visit. How much leverage he had when it came to the guns. How he'd said, if Tommy could just bring him Billy Kimber, the whole thing would be forgotten. Arthur had already suggested they kidnap the girl to get at Billy. And at Campbell's words, the whole thing clicked into place in Tommy's mind. All he'd have to do was hold her hostage, draw Billy out to rescue her. The girl would walk free, and the guns would be safely secured in the hands of the Peaky Blinders.

Now everything was getting fucked up. Billy Kimber wasn't coming.

But he would if his daughter got killed.

Polly slid an envelope across Tommy's desk. "Another option," she said. "I trust the girl values her life enough to take it. Let everyone else think she's dead."

"You think she can be bought?" Tommy said. "Not a chance."

"I think she's smart enough not to throw her life away," Polly replied. She turned to leave. "And if you don't hurry up and choose a Lee girl, I'll have a marriage arranged for you," she warned. "This turf war is getting ridiculous. We all sacrifice for this company, Tommy. You're not exempt."