Destruction of the Mind / [Thomas Shelby | Peaky Blinders]

chapter / ten

Thomas walked around the streets of Small Heath in an attempt to search for Henry, after finding that the guest room in his home was empty. He stopped at the Garrison, which was his last idea of where the bastard could be.

"Tommy!" He heard a delighted male voice shout as he finally walked into the pub.

"Aye 'enry, let's get down to business. Come on, I wanna' show ya' some things." Thomas said, slapping a fake grin on his face.

Henry  grinned back before gulping down the remainder of his beer, then following Thomas out of the pub and down to the warehouse. The large building had hundreds of wooden crates that were stacked on top of each other. They formed small aisles for people to manoeuvre around with ease, and Thomas slowly took Henry around the whole place.

"So, I suppose I should tell ya' why yer' here then." Thomas said, lighting a cigarette.

"Yeah, what is it you want me to sell, Tommy?" Henry asked, gently running his fingertips across the wooden crates as they walked, "You sure as hell have a lot of it."

"I don't want ya' to sell anythin' for us anymore, you see," Thomas spat, stepping in front of Henry to stop him from walking any further, getting in his face, "I've 'eard that you've been messing 'bout with Florence Porter, and I ain't fucking happy 'bout it."

"What has she told you?" Henry growled, making Thomas grab the mans throat harshly.

"Enough to know that you're a bastard," He hissed, reaching into his blazer to grab his gun, jabbing it against Henry's stomach, "but if yer' promise to leave Birmingham, on yer' own, and tell nobody that Florence is 'ere, I'm willin' to spare yer' fucking useless life."

"Oh, Tommy..." Henry laughed, his voice raspy from Thomas' tight grip on his throat, "I just got back from visiting the bitch. Oh, the feeling of her body against mine was fucking brilliant. She ain't your girl, Shelby, don't make her seem like it. I spotted her first."

"What did you just fucking say?" Thomas shouted at him, moving the position of the gun to Henry's head.

"Oh yeah, I visited innocent little Florence earlier. We fucked for hours, she sure is good in bed. Too bad she ain't let you in her pants yet, right To-"

 BANG! Thomas pulled the trigger, aiming a bullet straight through the middle of Henry's forehead, instantly killing the man. He let the body drop to the floor as Arthur, John and some other Peaky Blinders came rushing over.

"Fuck, Tommy," Arthur groaned, "I thought we were just goin' to give 'im a few beats and be done with 'im, not kill the bloody mug."

"Get Charlie to dump tha' body in the cut," Thomas growled, still flaring with anger, "I've got to go an' check on Florence."

"That's 300 pounds a month, gone down the fucking drain!" Arthur yelled as his brother ran out of the warehouse to go to the bed & breakfast, "You bloomin' idiot!"

Thomas raced through the street, people moving out of the way to let him pass with ease. He eventually got to the door of the bed & breakfast, only to find that it was locked. He banged on the door loudly.

"Florence!" He shouted, continuing to bang on the door.

When he got no reply, he started to shout 'Cora!' in hopes she'd let him in instead. Which she eventually did, swearing under her breath as he stormed in uninvited when he spied Florence sitting in the kitchen crying. He grabbed her hand and stood her up before wrapping his arms around her tightly as she cried on his shoulder. He rubbed small circles on her lower back to soothe her, whispering 'It's okay' every now and then. When she finally calmed down a bit more, Thomas took his chance to talk.

"He said he 'ad sex with you," Thomas whispered into her ear, "Did he touch you, Florence? You need to tell me. He's gone, he won't be troublin' you anymore. You can tell me."

"He didn't have sex with me, but he kissed me. A real horrible forceful kiss, and he touched my body inappropriately. He was going to force me back to London." She mumbled, wiping her tears away as soon as they fell from her eyes. "What did you do to him?"

"It doesn't matter. But I need you to know that you're safe," He sighed, stroking her hair gently and kissing her forehead, "I want you to come and stay with me from now on. I need to keep you safe."

"No!" She cried out, forcing herself away from him. "You tell me what you did to him before I go anywhere with you! He said - He said you've killed people, Thomas...

Who even are you?"