The Queen Of Small Heath

Angel Changretta.

Auroras POV

"Finn, Isaiah. Entrance." Arthur orders, pointing to the entrance of the scrapyard, where a group of Italians approach. "Check them." John calls after getting a thumbs up from Finn. "You asked for a meeting out in the open, fresh air and the fine aroma of shit. Neutral ground, you said." Arthur greets the three men.

"This is hardly neutral ground." Mr Changretta replies. "Well, it's what you've got. So por favavor, sit the fuck down." Arthur grunts, taking his seat as Finn and Isaiah move to stand behind us. "Where is Thomas?" Mr Changretta asks us. "He got called away." John tells him. "He said he'd be here." Mr Changretta says and I can hear the anger in his voice.

"My husband's busy." I add. "And I just told you he got called away. What do you want?" John asks him. "There has been a peace between the Peaky Blinders and the Changretta family for two years now." He spoke. "Do you want some tea or not? Hey Finn, pour the Italians some English tea. Go on." John orders.

"We don't want fucking tea!" Mr Changretta exclaims as Finn finishes pouring a cup. "We want an explanation." He adds, looking between me, John and Arthur. "Well, I'll have fucking tea." Arthur smirks, pouring himself a cup.

"Explanation for what?" I question him. "The little Venice restaurant on Forge Street was burnt down." He says. "No, no, couldn't have been us. We was at a wedding. Aurora's wedding." John cuts in. "You burnt it down to stop my son being at that same wedding." Changretta says.

"Yeah, he wasn't missed." I remark making John laugh and Arthur smirk. "You are such big boys now, but once you borrowed clothes from us to look like men." Changretta says. "I've saved one of your mens life before. I'm pretty sure we've done more for you than you have for us." I say.

"Please tell Tommy, that we pay him whatever he asks us to pay. We stay out of the city and off the tracks. But you tell him from me that my son will walk with any woman in this city. Could even walk with his wife if he so pleased." Changretta tells us, pointing at me making us snort.

"Sorry, excuse me. Bestie, you want to walk with his son?" John asks me. "I like my men with a Peaky cap and razor blade. And unless his name is Thomas Shelby, well...I'm not interested." I tell him, a smirk on my lips. "You know, it would be hard for your son to walk anywhere with a bullet in each knee, wouldn't it?" John taunts, cocking an eyebrow at Changretta. Me and Arthur share a look, knowing John is causing trouble.

"Too much. You say too much. Sabini says 'suck and swallow'." Changretta says. "I bet he does." I say making John chuckle. "But no. Too much. I spit." Changretta continues, spiting near the leg of the table before he walks off. One of his men picks up the chair Changretta sat on and slams it to the ground, breaking it. "Is that really necessary?" I ask as they walk off.

"Isaiah. Put two extra guards on our pubs in Nechells." Arthur commands. "What are you talking about, Arthur? We're not scared of fucking eye-ties anymore." John responds. "Don't tell Tommy about the chair and clean this fucking shit up." Arthur orders as me and him walk off. "We're not scared of fucking wops. Arthur!" John calls out.

******

"Family meeting. Everyone that ain't family, get out!" Arthur orders everyone in the betting shop as I walk in with him. Everyone ushers out quickly as me, Arthur and Polly take a seat at the table. "Sit down, John. Sit down." Tommy orders, walking into the room, pecking my lips quickly before he leans against the wall.

"John, you cut Angel Changretta...even though Arthur told you to apologise, Polly told you to compromise. You chose to not listen to Mr Apologise or Mrs Compromise. And now I've got an Italian walking around my backyard saying he's going to kill my brother. So what do we do, John? Do we apologise or do we compromise?" Tommy asks, swirling his glass of whiskey before he downs it and slams it down onto the table. "I didn't want to start a war over something John said without meaning it." Arthur tells Tommy.

"So should he apologise in Italian or in English?" Tommy asks Arthur as me and Polly look up at him. "Or should we ask them which fucking language they'd prefer? I'm not clear." He asks. Polly places her cup down and places her hand on Arthur's arm as he glares up at Tommy.

"You said while this business was going on in London, you wanted peace at home." Polly says. "And the only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless. If you apologise once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your fucking house. Do you want to bring the house down, Arthur?" Tommy asks as Arthur turns away from him. "No." He answers lowly.

"If you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow." Tommy tells him as Arthur stands up and begins to pace. "Bloody soft on rebellion." He growls. "You did the right thing, John." Tommy tells John who has stayed quiet, only making eye contact with me.

"Now we go on the offensive. We take two of the Changretta pubs, we take them tonight, that's it." Tommy tells us. "Oh!" Polly exclaims, throwing her hand up. "For Christs sake, why?" I ask him as he starts to walk away but stops when he hears my voice. "Eh?" He asks me. "Why?" I repeat. "Why? Because we fucking can!" He yells, walking back.

"Because we fucking can and if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel of their necks now, they'll just come at us." He says looking at me. "Remember, these are the bastards that wanted Danny Whizzbang dead." He adds before he looks up at Arthur. "You're getting soft, brother. Soft and weak. Save the bibles for Sundays, eh?" He says sarcastically before he walk away, leaving us in silence.