Little Shelby's

Four

"The boys are down in London!" Frankie shouted as he darted into the office, and all the boys looked at him "The boys that hurt Tilly, they're in London, I have an address!"

"Arthur" Tommy said, and Arthur immediately sprung into action

"On it" He said, taking the piece of paper Frankie was holding and walking out of the room.

"John, stay put" Tommy said to his brother, who'd gotten up to follow Arthur.

"You've got to be fucking joking" John scoffed

"John, if you go down there you'll lose your head and get yourself fucking hung. Let our men deal with it" Tommy explained, causing John to shake his head, but he didn't argue.

"There's actually something I want to ask you" Frankie said to John, a slight nervous tone to his voice.

"What's that then?" John asked

"I'd like to take Tilly out to dinner tonight" Frankie said, and John just looked at him, speechless.

"You... I... You fucking what?" John said, causing Tommy to laugh

"He wants to take our Tilly on a date" Tommy said

"No" John said "She's too young"

"With all due respect... she's sixteen. She's marrying age" Frankie replied, and once again John shook his head.

"Oh, so you're gonna marry her, are ya?" He lit up a cigarette, clearly stressed about the thought of his oldest baby being old enough to start going out on dates.

"Well, I'd at least like a dinner with her before I decide that" Frankie chuckled, but stopped when he saw John's unamused face.

"What if I go with them?" Charlie offered, realising that Frankie was getting nowhere "A double date, I'll take Mia"

"Mia?" Tommy asked "Who's Mia?"

"She's erm, just a girl I've been seeing for a while"

"She your girlfriend?"

"Um... Kind of" Charlie said

"How long have you been seeing her?" Tommy asked, not liking that his son had been seeing someone and he didn't know about it. He liked to keep tabs on who was sniffing around his family.

"Erm, a year? Ish?"

"A fucking year? And you've never even mentioned her?! Who is this girl?" Tommy demanded, clearly not happy about this.
"Amelia" Charlie replied simply

"Amelia, who?" Tommy asked through gritted teeth

Charlie sighed "Look dad, you're not gonna like it but I really like her so can you not make it a big deal? Please?"

"Amelia, who, Charles?"

Charlie sighed once again, refusing to look his father in the eyes "Amelia Solomans" he mumbled, really not wanting to see the look on Tommy's face.

Tommy was silent for a few seconds, taking in what his son had just said to him. Amelia Solomans, daughter of Alfie Solomans, his friend and foe. He honestly didn't know how to feel about this, Alfie was a slimy piece of work, but they'd be on good terms recently, and maybe Charlie and Mia being an item will keep the peace between them longer. But god, if anything went wrong in that relationship, a war would break out.

"Do you love her?" Tommy asked simply, causing Charlie to look directly at him

"What?"

"Are you in love with Amelia Solomons?"