Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

44.

"The Peaky Blinders don't wait for anyone"

That is what her brothers always told her. They didn't have to wait around for people, to be tolerant of tardiness or to beg for scraps. And yet Luca Changretta was fifteen minutes late and nobody said a word. They stood among the distillery, quiet enough to hear the dripping water from the leak in the roof.

Finn had come to collect her almost thirty minutes previous. He had come to the door and pulled her into an embrace as soon as the door opened. They stood like that for a moment, his arms around her shoulders, his chin resting on her head. She just focused on breathing, on the smell of Finn that she adored and the feel on his coat against her cheek, taking that last few moments of comfort before the pain that the meeting was bound to bring. The conversation with Liam had unnerved her to no end and she was beyond lost on what they would do. They seemed to be stuck, backs against the wall and no more turns to make.

What would they do without John, without Niall and without Arthur? Were they even the Peaky Blinders anymore? Would the Changretta's allow them to stay in Small Heath? Even if they did, would their wounded prides allow them to?

She had thought it bizarre that Liam wanted to go back to Ireland, there was nothing there for them anymore. Ailbhe also knew she wouldn't leave Finn; she wouldn't ever leave him like she did when her mother died. And Finn wouldn't leave Tommy. He wouldn't leave Polly, Ada and Karl. But if Tommy really was going to sign everything over, to surrender this war then they would have no choice.

Ailbhe checked the clock on the wall. Luca Changretta was eighteen minutes late when he arrived with six of his men carrying rifles. A table and chairs stood between them but nobody sat, everybody was facing off.

Luca sneered something in Italian, looking at them. Stepping forward he almost laughed.

"All that's left of the Peaky fucking Blinders" he sneered, looking around at them as if he thought it was the most pathetic thing he had ever seen.

It might have looked it. Tommy, standing with Finn and Liam on either side a few steps back. Polly and Ailbhe stood beside them. Polly stood with her hands on her hips, looking anything but pathetic. Ailbhe tried to look as convincing but felt like a fraud. She was afraid and there was only so much she could do to pretend she wasn't.

Luca came up to Tommy, getting right in his face and snapping his fingers. One of his men approached them, putting a briefcase on the table and pulling out a stack of documents.

"I've had my lawyer draw up these papers. They cover every enterprise in your possession. Bars, restaurants, warehouses."

He explained, spreading the papers out on the desk. It was their life's work right in front of him, in his hands. It seemed so fragile, how someone could just take it right from them.

"Every fucking thing that you've taken all these years to gather together."

The way he said it made Ailbhe's fists clench. He said it was though it was pathetic, that it was laughable that this was all they had.

"You will sign them all over to my family, or you're gonna die right here."

He explained, approaching Tommy again and standing so close their faces were inches away.

Tommy stayed silent. They all did. Tommy had given them strict orders to stay quiet, not to react.

"And I will kill all of them first" Luca whispered, waving his hand in Ailbhe and Polly's direction "Exactly in the way you killed my father and brothers"

Ailbhe's heart was hammering in her chest but she stayed calm on the outside, she kept her breathing steady and her arms folded so her hands couldn't tremble. Not even when he said the next sentence.