Black Beauty |T. Shelby|

xx.

'New lands, west coast, where my dreams lay
I trade amber clay roads for the
Sea foam and the endless sun rays'

1919, Birmingham

Finally reaching their shop, they see papers and chairs scattered around the floor with Scudboat clutching his face in pain. Arthur poured him a drink while John threw a fit in the corner.

"Jesus Christ!" He yelled.

"What the bloody hell happened here?" Arthur asked in an angry tone, though he didn't raise his voice.

"The Lees." Answered Scudboat. "All of them." Tommy slightly pulled Rowena closer to his body as if to protect her. "Cousins, nephews, even their bastards."

Polly returned from her search around the house. "They've taken anything they can lay their hands on. Four cash boxes." Tommy walked off and came back a second later with something in his hand.

"They left these." He slammed down a pair of wire cutters onto one of the tables that wasn't flipped over.

"Wire cutters?" Their Aunt asked incredulously. "Why would they leave wire cutters?"

"Nobody move." Arthur, if it was even possible, became more serious.

"I think our friends are playing the game." Tommy deadpanned.

"What game?!" Polly started to pace but John warned,

"Aunt Pol, don't touch anything."

"Erasmus Lee was in France." Tommy told the room.

"Fuck..." Winnie muttered as she grasped her hair in worry.

"Whenever we gave up ground to the Germans, we'd leave behind boob traps, set up with wires. We would leave wire cutters as part of the joke."

"Somewhere in here is a hand grenade attached to a wire." John looked at his feet, slightly shaking his head.

"Holy Jesus." Polly sighed as the men cautiously looked around.

"Don't move any chairs or open any doors." Arthur lightly moved Winnie away from the wall and into the center of the room where nothing was laying, just an open space. In the other side of the room, John tried to ease Polly into another room.

"No." Tommy suddenly let out. "Boys, no. It's not in here. If it was in here, it would have blown by now. It was my name on that bullet Erasmus sent. He's set a trap all right. But he set it up just for me."

"Tommy.." Winnie went to step forward but he held out his hand as a sign for her to stop her movements. Everyone eyed each other as Tommy rushed out of the building. After a few minutes they could hear Tommy's muffled voice scream "clear!" and an explosion could be heard.

A few minutes passed and in came running Tommy Shelby with little Finn Shelby in his arms. Polly's motherly role immediately kicked in when she saw Tommy's scared face that matched his little brother's. "Finn, boy, are you alright?!" Tommy set him down and slumped against the doorway.

Rowena went over to him and grabbed his face to bring him down to her level and kiss him. "When will you stop making enemies?"

"Not any time soon, love." He answered, wrapping his arm around her and bringing her into his embrace.

Sorry it's been a bit since I updated, with rehearsals I get tired easily and on days I don't have rehearsals I just haven't been in the middle to write so here's this little treat
NOT EDITED