Wear Iron//Thomas Shelby

twenty eight

To no one's surprise John has gone and made things with the Italians worse. Tommy's called a family meeting. John and Finn step into the Shelby kitchen.

"All right, Finn. Thanks for coming. Fuck off," Arthur tells him.

"Finn, you can stay," Tommy tells him. "Sit down, John. Sit down." John takes a seat. "John, you cut Angel Changretta. Even though Arthur told you to apologise. Polly and Helena told you to compromise. You chose not to listen to Mr Apologise or Mrs Compromise. And now I have got an Italian walking around my backyard saying he's going to kill my brother. So what do we do, John. Do we apologise or do we compromise?"

John doesn't answer.

"Oh, it was just something John said as a joke," Arthur insists.

"Yeah, but he's your brother as well, Arthur," Tommy tells him.

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

"So, should he apologise in Italian or in English?" Tommy questions. "Or should we ask them which fucking language they prefer? I'm not clear."

"You said while this business was going on in London, you wanted peace at home," Polly states.

"And the only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless," Tommy explains. "If you apologise once, you do it again and again and again. Like taking bricks out of the wall of your fucking house. Do you want to bring the house down, Arthur? If you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow."

Arthur stands up from his chair. "Bloody "soft on rebellion"."

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

"Oh! Right. For Christ's sake, why?" Polly asks.

Tommy stops walking. "Hey."

"Why?" Polly questions.

"Why? Because we fucking can," Tommy tells her. "Because we fucking can and if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel off their necks now, they'll just come at us. Remember these are the bastards that wanted Danny Whizz-Bang dead." Tommy looks at Arthur. "You're getting soft, brother. Soft and weak. Save the Bible for Sundays, eh." He turns to Finn. "Finn? Helena and I need to get to Hockley and then home. It's been a long day." Tommy points at Arthur. "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. Don't use the fucking phones, all right? There's someone listening."

Tommy and I sit in the study I have taken over at Arrow House. With all of this planning for the foundation dinner I've needed somewhere to work.

I sigh as I move further into Tommy's side. He tightens his arm around me.

"You going to show me what you got in Hockley while you made me sit in the car?" I ask.

"Close your eyes," Tommy tells me.

I do as he says. Tommy moves to sit up. After a moment I can feel him drape a necklace around my neck. I open my eyes and see a rather large sapphire pendant sitting against my chest.

"This is what you bought?" I ask him.

"You can wear it to the foundation dinner," Tommy tells me as he kisses my neck.

I laugh lightly. "Rather much for a charity dinner."

"Hel, this is fucking Birmingham. "Good taste" is for people who can't afford sapphires," Tommy tells me.