𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 ᵖᵉᵃᵏʸ ᵇˡⁱⁿᵈᵉʳˢ

54

The door to Tommys office opened, his head shot toward it. "Mr Shelby, this is Monsieur Paz, from Paris" his assistant nodded.

A man followed behind him. Tommys expression dropped slightly. "I heard you had trouble" the man spoke with a thick accent. "It's good of you to see me"

"You just came from Paris, eh?" Tommy asked.

The man unbuttoned his jacket, sitting down. "You know Paris?" he asked. "I left Paris in a cattle truck. And they said you were french" Tommy cleared his throat.

"Well, i came here from Paris..that does not mean i'm french" he leaned forward. "Guess where i'm from"

Tommy nodded, grabbing his cigarette. "Well, in my cattle truck in Paris, there were American soldiers who played cards." he said, lighting the cigarette. "They sound like you"

"Yeah. But did you win?"

"You didn't come on a train. Your suit is pressed, shoes are clean" Tommy observed. "Where do you get your suits made?"

"I have a tailor in New York City" the man pulled the jacket to the sides. "Look, Funacci, Italian, hm. He's my uncle. He makes suits in a basement of Mott Street. He is my uncle so every stitch, stitched with blood"

"I heard you dress well Mr Shelby, but now i see, not so well as me"

Tommy stayed quiet, staring at him coldly. "You know i have uncles as well" he finally spoke. "But they're not the sort of men who would work in a basement with a needle and thread,"

"Mr Changretta" Tommy said. He looked at Tommy, grinning.

"I am surprised how easy it was to get into a room with you."

Tommy pulled out his gun, pointing it at him. "And now?" Tommy asked. "And now you should know that during the trouble you had earlier on your factory floor, i sent an accomplice into your office in overalls, we found your gun" he whispered, pulling out bullets from his pocket.

Tommy double checked the gun.

He placed a bullet down. "Arthur Shelby" he whispered. He placed another. "Polly Gray" he continued, "Micheal Gray" he placed down more. "John Shelby" he knocked that bullet letting it roll across the table.

"Spent" he whispered. "Ada Thorne, Delilah Shelby and finally Tommy Shelby" he let out a slight laugh, standing. His hands formed fists at the mention of his daughter.

"None of you will survive" he whispered.

-

Luca thanked the woman who placed down the food. "Send my guests in" he said. She nodded and left. He read over the information sheets about each Shelby member, looking up as the two boys walked in.

"They didn't come back. Arthur Shelby is still alive" he said, referring to the attack they had planned on the eldest Shelby.

The two men looked down.

"Wire his village and tell them" Luca leaned forward handing one of them a file. "You wire Polo and let him tell the family" he pointed at the other.

"He has four kids. Don't you two have any other clothes to wear? You walk around this little place dressed like big city hoodlums" Luca insulted. "Now look at me, i'm here as a lover of theatre,"

"None of my clothes fit anymore" one spoke in Italian. "I can't eat anything it's all shit. It's inedible it's disgusting" he complained. Luca sat forward.

"They killed two of our men and you complain about ya fucking belly"

"Luca, with respect, you raised,"

"With respect?" Luca asked, grabbing a scone off the table and shoving it into the man's mouth. "You fucking dress like them, you can eat like them. Don't fucking talk to me about 'with respect" he shouted.

"Let's get this business finished then we can all go home and then we can eat some decent food" Luca scoffed. "Sit down"

He placed a tooth pick in his mouth. "What do you have?"

"We found another enemy, this family has a lot of enemies." the smaller one spoke.

"She lives inside our territory" the other, Matteo spoke.

"Arthur Shelby killed her son in a boxing ring four years ago, she says he's crazy in the head"

"To compensate her they look after her and her other kids" Matteo interpreted.

"She thinks if she asks one of the brothers to come to her house they'll come"

Luca nodded. "Shed do that for us?" he asked. "So she says. People in this place hate forever, like Sicilians."

"Okay. But make sure you go after the youngest sister, i don't care what you do but do something"

-

Polly walked through the den, stopping when she saw Lizzie. "What are you doing here?"

"On Mondays i do the inventory, make sure nobody's dipping their hand." She stated. "Well it's my job now" Polly said. "I'm back"

"And there's going to be nobody dipping their hand with me here"

The door slammed, Linda walking in. "I said to Arthur while i'm in this fucking place, i want something to keep my mind busy" She said.

"So she swears now?" Lizzie asked.

"What, you're gonna take bets?" Polly asked. "I've always been able to do addition and subtraction without pen and paper, Polly"

"But i'll need a telephone. Apparently we have special clients who take bets by telephone."

"Linda" Polly said. "This is a betting shop,"

"Look, Arthur said yes, Tommy said yes."

"But did God say yes. Gambling is a sin Linda" Delilah sighed. "It's not me who's doing the gambling i'm just taking the bets"

The door opened and Finn walked in. "The rule is that door should always remained locked until 9am" he said, looking around.

Polly rolled her eyes. "Right boy, where are you going?" she stopped him. "Well, Arthur's not coming in today he's taking the day off, so.."

"So what?"

"So today Tommy said that i'm in charge" he told them. "Sorry your in charge?"

"Yeah that's what he said"

Grins appeared on their faces. Polly handed the phone to Linda. "Ladies let's give our boss a first day he'll never forget"