Lovely ∝ Thomas Shelby

Chapter 19; Careless.

I walked into the Shelby house, making my way down the hallway and into the main room. When I entered I saw Polly sitting at the table reading a book and Arthur sat beside her smoking a cigarette.

I heard the door open behind me and I turned back to see John and Finn. They shuffled in behind me and I moved to take a seat beside Polly at the table. I looked through the archway and noticed Tommy stood in the other room, but when he noticed John and Finn, he began to walk toward us.

"Alright, Finn, thanks for coming. Fuck off." Arthur ordered. Finn nodded and was about to walk out but Tommy held his hand out to stop him.

"Finn, you can stay." Finn walked back to us and took a seat beside Arthur. I looked back at Tommy as he took a quick inhale of his cigarette before looking at John, "Sit down, John. Sit down."

Tommy gestured to the wooden chair beside John. John nodded and took a seat, and Tommy decided to lean against the archway in front of us.

"John, you cut Angel Changretta," I quickly looked at John with furrowed eyebrows and a slight shake of my head. "Even though Arthur told you to apologise. Polly told you to compromise. You chose not to listen to Mr. Apologise or Ms. Compromise."

I kept my eyes on John as he only stared blankly in front of him. He knew what he did was wrong, but he was going to be stubborn about it.

"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 asked, and I was glad that he was actually wanting to apologise or compromise. We couldn't afford to start a war.

I waited for John to reply, but he never did. He glanced up about to say something, but it seemed he quickly changed his mind and decided to remain quiet.

"Oh, it was just something John said as a joke." Arthur said, causing me to turn and look at him.

"A joke?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him. "Last I checked, Arthur, threatening to put a bullet in a someone's knee cap wasn't considered a joke in a most places." I turned back to John with an annoyed expression but he completely avoided my gaze.

"So, should be apologise in Italian or in English?" Tommy asked with furrowed eyebrows. "Or should we ask them which fucking language they prefer? I'm not clear."

I stared at Tommy for a moment in confusion, but he only stared at Arthur.

"You said while this business was going on in London, you wanted peace at home." Polly pointed out.

"And the only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless." Tommy stated. "If you apologise once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your fucking house."

I looked at Polly who sat on my left. Her expression mirrored my own of concern.

"If you're soft of rebellion, it'll grow." Tommy added, causing myself and Arthur to scoff in response.

"Soft of rebellion." Arthur muttered as he stood to his feet.

"You did the right thing, John." Tommy told him as my eyes went wide. "Now, we go on the offensive. We take two of the Changretta pubs, and we take them tonight. That's it."

"Tommy!" I called as he began to walk away.

"For Christ's sake, why?" Polly asked immediately after me. I got up from my seat and walked towards Tommy but he was already walking back towards us.

"Eh?" Tommy asked Polly as he walked past me.

"Why?" She repeated.

"Why? Because we fucking can!" He shouted as I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Because we can and if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel off their necks now, they'll just come at us!"