wishing wells - michael gray

ten

Elsie and Tommy walked through the proper offices where legitimate business was conducted.. Tommy stopped in front of Michael's office and Elsie turned to look, before seeing a girl run across the doorway. Michael smirked and stared at his cousin, but his smile dropped when he saw Elsie.

"Going to introduce us, Michael?" Tommy said, walking into Michael's office.

"This is Charlotte Murray, her father makes cars," Michael said as Charlotte came from behind the doorway. She stuck her hand to shake Elsie's hand, but quickly dropped it when she recognized her from the wedding.

"I really enjoyed your wedding, Mr. Shelby," Charlotte said, turning away from Elsie.

Michael leaned forward and attempted to ease the awkward situation. "Polly said you should call her. There's been some trouble."

"What trouble?" Tommy asked.

Michael shrugged. "I'm guessing it's stuff she doesn't like to tell me about."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Murray. Do me a favor and leave. Elsie stay here." Tommy walked out of the room, with Charlotte awkwardly following him, shuffling quickly away from Elsie's glaring eyes.

Michael stood up, walking around his desk to be closer to her. "Can we talk, Elsie?"

"Yes, we do need to talk," Elsie nodded, taking a seat. Michael smiled with hope in his eyes that there was a chance she wasn't upset with him.

"Well, I'd just like to start out by apologizing for the other night-" Michael started.

"Not about that, Henry. It's not important. Tommy took me to a meeting with someone this morning-"

"Elsie, fuck business. I'm trying to apologize," Michael interrupted her. "I'm sorry that you walked in when-"

"Henry, I'm being serious." Elsie groaned. "This is more importa-"

"Elsie, just let me apologize-"

"Michael!" Elsie finally yelled. "At the meeting I saw Father Hughes."

Michael leaned back against his desk. "Wh-...What?"

"Father Hughes was there. He has some sort of business with Tommy. I can't tell you of it, but he's going to be taking confession with the kids at the foundation."

Michael, in an extremely out of character way, slapped a stack of papers off of his desk. "He's going to fucking what!"

Elsie stood up to calm him down. "I've already talked to Tommy. There's nothing he can do to stop it-"

"Like hell!" Michael raged. "Like hell. I won't allow him to hurt anyone else-"

He cut his sentence short when he saw Tommy standing in the doorway.

"Kids," Tommy said, his eyes darting back and forth between them. "We need to go to Polly's. There's been some business."

"I thought it was business she didn't want me knowing about?" Michael said, gaining his composure.

"It's business I want you knowing about. It regards Elsie. C'mon."

* * *

Tommy, Michael, and Elsie walked through the Betting Den where Polly and Arthur were sitting. John came down the stairs with Finn.

"Alright, Finn," Arthur rasped. "Thanks for coming. Fuck off."

"Finn, you can stay," Tommy ordered as the three of them entered the room.

"Why are Michael and Elsie here?" Polly said sternly.

"I asked them to come. It's Elsie's man and I had Michael go with the boys to burn down the restaurant.

"You did fucking what?" Polly snapped.

"Sit down, John," Tommy ordered, ignoring his aunt. "Sit down."

The group sat in silence for a moment as Tommy seemed to be thinking.

"John, you cut Angel Changretta," Tommy finally said.

"He fucking what?" Elsie shouted. Michael shushed her to let Tommy continue.

"Even though Arthur told you to apologize. Polly told you to compromise. You chose not to listen to Mr. Apologize 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, John? Do we apologize or do we compromise?"

John looked down in silence as Elsie paced around the room with Michael trying to calm her.

Arthur licked his lips. "Elsie, it was just something John said as a joke. He said he was goin' to shoot his kneecaps in to keep him from buggin' ya, but then Angel started to threaten to kill John."

"Yes, but he's your brother as well, Arthur," Tommy cut in.

"Yeah," Arthur sighed. "I know I didn't want to start a war over something John said without meaning it."

Tommy rolled his eyes and pulled Elsie to a stop. "So should he apologize in Italian or English?" Tommy mocked Arthur. "Or should we ask them which fucking language they prefer? I'm not clear."

Polly put her arm out protectively across Arthur. "You said while this business was going on in London, you wanted peace at home."

"And the only way by guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless. If you apologize once, you do it again and again." Tommy explained as Elsie and Michael stood uneasy next to him. "Like taking bricks out of the wall of your fucking house. Do you want to bring the house down, Arthur?"

Arthur rolled his eyes in response before Tommy continued. "If you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow."

"Bloody soft on rebellion," Arthur grumbled, standing up to walk away.

"You did the right thing, John," Tommy pressed on. "Now we go on the offensive. We take two of the Changretta pubs and we take them tonight. That's it."

Tommy began to walk away before Polly shouted at him. "Oh! Right, for Christ's sake why?"

"Ey?" Tommy shouted back, flipping around at his aunt. Elsie backed into Michael to make way for Tommy to come back.

"Why?" Polly repeated.

"Why?" Tommy yelled. "Because we fucking can! Because we fucking can. And if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel off their necks, they'll just come at us. Remember these are the bastards that wanted Danny Whizz-Bang dead."

The room sat in an uncomfortable silence. Arthur paced around the back of the room and Michael smoked his cigarette in silence.

"You're getting soft, brother," Tommy said, taking a jab at Arthur. "Soft and weak. Save the Bible for Sundays, eh?"

Arthur and Tommy stared at each other for a moment, before Tommy turned to Michael and John.

"You take the Wrexham, you take the Five Bells, you get them signed over to us in the morning. You make sure the coppers stay away." Tommy paused for a moment, before looking around. "Don't use the fucking phones, alright? There's someone listening."

With that, Tommy turned around and left the group dazed in silence.