Hidden Secrets - Thomas Shelby//Peaky Blinders

Discovery

The Shelby brothers entered Mr. Zhang's laundry shop with the infamous Shelby stride.

As his brothers and men spread out to browse and survey the shop, Tommy approached the counter, noticing Mr. Zhang's quieted conversation with one of the Chinese women who was crying.

Taking notice of the gentleman waiting, Mr. Zhang approached the counter with a forlorn expression, watching as Mr. Shelby silently counted out the money he laid on the counter in payment.

"You want to hear something funny?" The Chinese man asked Tommy before he could fully walk away.

Taking the man's silent hint, Tommy laid another pound on the counter with a huff and leaned forward to listen.

As the man pulled back, finished sharing his 'joke', Tommy glanced at the back, amazed at what fate had just dropped in his lap.

Making his way to the back room, Tommy stepped through the curtain, raising and cocking his pistol in the direction of Inspector Campbell.

"I am unarmed," the Inspector called, adjusting his freshly donned suit coat.

As much as Thomas Shelby loathed and abhorred the abomination of a man that stood before him, he chose to maintain the moral high ground-- a feat obviously easy to do in such company, and holstered his weapon.

"It's curious, Inspector," Tommy said, eyes traveling around the room as he held his hands casually clasped together in front of himself. "I thought you came to clean up the city. Not to sleep with its whores."

Campbell gave a disgusted smirk to Tommy in the mirror before turning around to face him.

"You're no different from any other copper that came before you."

"I'm no different from those who would follow should I choose to leave," Campbell responded, maintaining the distance between himself and the gangster.

"You've no reason to stay." Tommy shook his head. "You have what you came for."

"Yes, I have what I came for," Campbell began. "I have a meeting with Mr. Winston Churchill at midday. No doubt he intends to congratulate me on finding those stolen guns." Campbell calmly adjusted the sleeves of his shirt and turned himself to face Tommy straight on. "And you still don't know how we found them, do you?"

Tommy's only response to this question was a smug smile. Tommy wasn't stupid. He had his suspicions, all of which pointed at one person. But there was no need to stop the Inspector in his egotistical monologue.

"Good," Campbell replied with his own smug tone.

"No, you got lucky."

"Did I?"

"Yeah."

"One thing I have learnt," the smug inspector began to take steps towards Tommy, "is that you and I are opposites but also just the same."

Tommy waited patiently for the man to continue, intrigued to see where this would go, but doubtful at it's truth.

"Like an image in a mirror. We hate people." Campbell turned his back to Tommy, adjusting his suit coat in the mirror as a power play. "And they in turn, hate us. And fear us."

Campbell turned back to Tommy with a sour look. "Before the day is over, your heart will be broken, just the same as mine."

Tommy's face turned cold, his body becoming still at these words. Did Campbell speak of his supposed feelings towards Grace, ones only those close to him knew to be false; or did Campbell speak of his heart being broken by the one who truly held it?

"Men like us, Mr. Shelby, will always be alone." Campbell draped his coat over his bent arm as he approached Tommy. "What love we will get, we will have to pay for." The man finished with a glance at the disheveled and recently occupied bed.

"You forget, Inspector." Tommy confidently voiced to the mustached man stood in front of him. "I have my family."

With a small smirk, Campbell scooted by Tommy with the final word. "Enjoy your day."

*

The three older Shelby brothers walked through the double doors to the Peaky Blinders' offices. The family meeting that morning had ended on the high note of welcoming Ada and Karl home at last and plans of taking down Billy Kimber finally set to take place the next day at the Worcester races.

Before they could get more than a couple feet in, Ada's angry voice broke through the light atmosphere. "Are you fucking kidding me?" The sound of something slamming sounded through the rooms. "Where is he? Where is that bastard?"

John chuckled over his toothpick behind Tommy. "Uh oh. What've you done now, Tom?"

Ada's storming figure quickly approached the brothers, her angry face stopping in front of Tommy. "What the fuck is this? Was she your spy all along? Your way of tricking me into coming back so you can could have full control of my life again?" Ada' voice was full of fury as she held up the pile of notes in her hand.

Tommy stood there completely dumbfounded for a few seconds. Finding his tongue, he quickly replied, "Calm down, Ada. I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. What are you doing with those?

"I went looking for a pencil for Aunt Pol. Found them on your desk."

Tommy's mind finally caught up with his sister's original statement. "Wait, what do you mean 'she'? Do you know who Miss A is?"

Ada looked between the brothers, her rage turning to annoyed disbelief. "Like you fucking don't?"

All three of the men shook their heads at the sister. Her annoyance turned to slight amusement at knowing something the famous Shelby gangsters didn't.

"These are all written by Lis," Ada simply explained.

Tommy's brain froze. 

That wasn't possible.

Arthur spoke up after a moment. "But they're signed 'Miss A'. I might not've had a lot of schooling, but I fucking know how the alphabet works."

"That's because Lis is her nickname," Ada answered, shuffling through the notes. "Her full name is Adelicia. Her brother Robbie couldn't say her name when he was little, so he called her Lis." Ada looked at the men like they were idiots for not knowing this.

And maybe they were.

They had claimed her as family, protected her, had fallen in love with her, but somehow didn't even know her fucking name. How had he managed that?

Tommy needed answers to so many questions, but he knew which he needed first. "Do you know where she is?" He almost begged his sister.

Ada looked at him, clearly contemplating whether to answer his question or not. Tommy was about to demand it from his sister when Aunt Polly suddenly spoke up behind him, "I do."

Tommy spun around, a frantic energy with a mixture of sudden betrayal racing through his body. How long had Aunt Pol know? Why hadn't she told him? These questions could be addressed later. Right now there was a light at the end of his dark tunnel he needed to get to.

It didn't matter that Lis had never told him her full name, that there were still so many things about her that he didn't know. He just knew he wanted to spend the rest of what was left of this lifetime discovering every last bit of information about her in every way he could. But he needed to find her first, and Aunt Polly had just given him the first drop of water required to quench the thirst inside of him.

"But you're not going to like what you find." Aunt Polly's words could've held innumerable meanings, but the look in her eyes told him he was going to kill a man by the night's end.

Tommy's face turned hard, his eyes sharp as ice. Without having to look, he knew his brothers had taken on the same demeanor.

With the address now in hand, the four Shelby siblings exited the building, razor lined caps now atop the men's heads.

Anyone who looked their way knew that look.

The Peaky Blinders were out for blood.