IN BAD FAITH | peaky blinders | T.S

SEVEN

LONDON, ENGLAND

TOMMY

7.

"I want you to get a message to Sabini."

Alfie looked up from his drink and stared at the man, tilting his head sideways as though deep in thought.

"You've got a very strange face, you know that Tommy?"

Something inside of Thomas snarled with impatience, disinterested in Solomons' theatrics.

"A very strange face indeed. You look like you've been through the wars."

Tommy coughed and straightened his back, leaning forward slightly. He was bored entirely by Alfie's immaturity.

"Well then you'd be right, Mr Solomons. Just one war this face has been through."

Alfie looked across the desk to the man in front of him and wondered what would happen if he raised his gun and shot him in the middle of the eyes. He loathed the way Tommy's icy glare seemed to dance over everyone in this room, as if he had all of their secrets harboured in that arrogant head of his. Maybe if he blew it open, their secrets would come spilling out.

"Well, funnily enough Shelby, me and Sabini aren't  exactly on speaking terms. So come back to me with a more realistic proposal, yeah?"

Thoughts of shooting Solomons in the skull ricocheted around Tommy's head too. He could kill him easily, right here, right now, but if his mother had taught him anything it was to never let the heart lead the brain. Tommy knew where he was going, step by cautious step with his end goal in mind, but he couldn't get there by making rash decisions that would end in him and his family's death — and of course, they were the most important thing.

"I need to see one of your boys," Tommy said cooly, staring into the unpredictable face of his alleged ally.

"Well," Alfie chuckled slowly. "After all the stories I've heard about you Mr Shelby, I can't say I expected you to be interested in that sort of thing."

The laughter that bellowed from Solomon's moustached-lips only emphasised his unhinged nature. The sound bounced around the room, screaming into his ears. Taunting him. Thomas ignored the crude joke and cleared his throat.

"He was in here the last time we met," Tommy stated. "Standing in that corner."

"Ah," Alfie breathed dramatically, bringing a finger to his beard. "That would be Marsden. Louis Marsden."

"Where is he now?"

Alfie checked his stopwatch. "My guess is that he's about fifteen minutes away from getting on his knee and asking her to marry him."

Tommy furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Some girl," Alfie continued. "Never met her. He seems to be besotted with her though, Tommy. Saves his money to take her to the pictures and all that jazz. Real love, that is. Makes my heart go warm and fuzzy, does it not yours?"

Tommy paused, ignoring the way Alfie's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Real love, eh?" He asked. "What else has Louis told you about this girl?"

Alfie narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You see, Mr Shelby," he began. "Love doesn't really mix well with this sort of business, does it? Love doesn't thrive when you're always on the run. He doesn't speak much of her because he wants to keep her innocent, wants to keep her safe, as all men do their women of course. He's done a decent job of it so far," Alfie smiled, and Thomas could already tell by the squint of his beady little eyes and the sharp edge of his voice what words were to fall from his mouth next. "Unlike you."

Tommy had to clear his throat again, swallowing the anger that rose from his stomach. He had suppressed his emotions for long enough now that they rarely resurfaced, but the way Alfie's lips curled around those two words caused everything he'd ever felt to bubble back up from the depths that he'd stowed them in.

Thomas leaned backwards in his chair and lit a cigarette, staring Alfie directly in the eyes.

"You asked me to find Sabini's messenger, Mr Solomons."

"Oh I did, didn't I," Alfie mused, as though he had forgotten.

"I found her."

Alfie narrowed his eyes, then, twisting the hair of his beard between his fingers in thought. He wasn't expecting a woman to work so closely for Sabini, and much less did he expect Tommy Shelby to actually find her.

Tommy saw the previous night play out in his head; the way the girl fell from the side of the building and disappeared before he could catch her. The same girl that he'd seen that morning. There was no mistaking her: big eyes and a square nose and full lips puckered into a scowl. Hair, dark and unruly, a flash of blue laced through it. It was the girl who had refused his money, the girl who bounced over to Alfie's boy with a hug and a kiss.  The girl in love with Louis Marsden. It was clear that Solomons had no idea.

Alfie looked around the room comically, still trying to squeeze something comical from the tension between them. "You can't have been very successful then, Shelby. I don't see her here."

Then, Thomas pulled out his pocket watch, it's metal cool against his fingers.

"That's because, according to you," he nodded, "she's about fifteen minutes away from being proposed to."

Alfie paused in thought. "What are you trying to say?"

Tommy leant forward. "There's a girl, here in London, who carries Sabini's messages for him. And he likes her 'cos she's quiet and easily hidden and pathetically paid."

He took another drag of his cigarette and crossed his legs in confidence, feeling the tables slowly turn in his favour — feeling his power rise above Alfie's.

"But she's going to betray Sabini," Tommy continued. "She's going to betray Sabini because she will accept my offer of three pounds to do so."

Alfie licked his lips slowly, visibly confused.

"I still don't quite understand your point, Shelby. What has any of this got to do with me?"

"Because she's your boy's woman, Alfie. This girl that you talk of — Louis' girl — she's Sabini's messenger."

"Well what do you need me for?" Alfie snapped, frustrated by Shelby's cocky demeanour.

"With your help, Louis will convince his girl to deliver a message for Thomas Shelby — she'll get paid more than enough money for her troubles. When she eventually flips to our side, you'll expose her. Sabini will discover that he's been infiltrated, and when that happens, we take him down completely."

Alfie paused for a moment, weighing up his options; and in the back of his mind he still considered shooting Thomas right here, right now.

"Hmm," he breathed. "But why are you offering her so much?"

Tommy leaned forward and pressed the end of his cigarette into the dish in front of him, sending a haze of smoke up into the air.

"Because I'll only have to do it once."

* * *

a/n: i know this is so short compared to all my other chapters, i'm currently editing this entire story and aim to add a little more to this part in order to flesh it out! thank you for understanding! please vote / comment if you're enjoying the book so far!