i found you .. and you found me // Thomas Shelby

58 - borderline

"Baby I just want you to be mine, won't you give me a bit of your time, oh ... chasing you no I won't stop trying, just meet me, at the borderline," Ariana Grande-Butera

Giorgia had been roaming the streets of Small Heath all morning looking for her husband. She was used to him disappearing at all sorts of times during the night, but now was not the time to play fucking hide and seek. 

She'd exhausted all attempts of locating Tommy through his family, and so she turned to those on the street to ask if they'd seen the man they were feared of. 

All sorts of scenarios riled up in her head, and she began to panic. Had he been wiped out by the Italians? Had they finally got their hands on him? Tommy had looked after the children whilst the Italian worked a night shift, but once she'd come home to an empty house with no husband or children at seven in the morning, Giorgia well and truly feared the worst. 

Thankfully, her children were safe with Polly after she'd confirmed her nephew had dropped them off at hers in a rush. However, she didn't know of his whereabouts and so after hugging and kissing her children for twenty minutes, she went out looking for the bastard in question. 

She'd checked everywhere. Every house the Shelby's owned, every office, every warehouse, even the fucking whorehouses. He wasn't by the river, he wasn't with Lizzie, he wasn't at work, he wasn't at home, he wasn't at the stables, nor with Charlie Strong at the boat yard. Had the bastard gone back with Mae? 

No, he wouldn't have the fucking balls.

Truthfully, whether or not Tommy had fucked Mae Carlton was the least of her never ending worries. She'd dealt with him fucking other women for years, one more to the list was not going to push Giorgia over the edge. She wore the ring on her finger, she was his wife. 

As she stood in the boatyard smoking her second cigarette in minutes, she felt like screaming. She felt like diving head first into the fucking river in hopes it would either wake her up, or drag her down stream to the point of no return. Gia wasn't quite sure what she felt, how she felt, or why she felt the way she did. Tommy was the reason, and that had been confirmed by every bastard who took one look at the couple, but the pain never seemed to cease regardless of her husband's actions.

Giorgia finished her cigarette and made her way back to the Lanes where she passed some Italian men whilst mid an interesting conversation. "Ho sentito degli spari Artillery Square," (Heard there was some shootout at Artillery Square).

The second Italian man turned around with a look of surprise. "Il tipo de Shelby?" (The Shelby bloke). 

Giorgia was adamant that her worst fear had been confirmed. He'd been wiped out by the bastards who killed John. She didn't have to listen to much more before she was on her feet running in the direction of Artillery Square, hoping, praying, that she would be faced with her husband unscathed. 

But, she didn't pray hard enough. When she arrived all she was faced with was Moss and a shit ton of bullet cartridges scattered across the floor. "Where's Tommy?" Gia panted, helplessly looking around for her husband. 

"Not sure love," Moss shrugged before turning away from the woman to instruct his men. 

"Have you seen him?" 

"Yes, about fifteen minutes ago. He walked that way," Moss pointed, and Giorgia once again took off in the direction back to Watery Lane, running as fast as her legs could take her. She was sure she'd taken the front door off it's hinges before running through the den to be faced with the bastard. 

Out of breath and wide-eyed, the whole of the Shelby clan turned to face the woman. Marching towards her husband, Giorgia was quick to throw punches at the man who stood there as still as a brick fucking wall. Arthur had been the one to pull Giorgia off him, only to be left with an elbow to the ribs. "Do you want to die, Tommy? Is that your fucking plan?" 

"Stay out of it," Tommy instructed, but was only faced with more fury. 

"I've been looking for you all fucking morning thinking you you'd been killed!"

"Today I killed three men. Now, our enemies are down to eight." 

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Gia scoffed, head in her hands as she listened to the abominable bullshit leaving his lips. 

"I suppose they, er, I suppose they took you by surprise, did they?" Arthur piped in, clearly as fuming with Thomas as the Italian-American woman was.

"No," Tommy shook his head. "I knew they were coming." 

"We have fucking kids, Thomas!" Giorgia argued, shouting at her husband as her emotions got the better of her.

"Just after Christmas, I recieved a letter from Luca Changretta," Polly told the group, and Giorgia near enough lost it. "Offering to spare my son if I gave up Tommy. I gave Tommy up." 

"Are you fucking serious?!"

"Because that was the plan," Tommy interjected his wife, hand up to her. "A plan that Polly and I agreed on. I knew goddamn well that Luca would want to pull the trigger himself, so I used a set-up as bait to bring him here."

With a line of cocaine on the table, Arthur snorted it loudly before Giorgia did the same. The baby growing inside of her was of no consequence to her at this point. Her husband was lying to her, cheating on her, and also leaving bruises on her skin when the sun went down. 

As Giorgia did the same as Arthur, he interjected. "You're a fucking idiot, Tom." 

"Giorgia," Polly warned as she watched the woman snort a line, or two, of Arthur's holy snow.

"Fuck you," she spat. 

"Look, I didn't get Luca, but I got three, alright? That's it, that's what happened." 

With her head in her hands, elbows propped against the mantlepiece watching the flames rise in the fireplace, Gia sighed. Maybe it was her culture, or what she had witnessed growing up in New York with the exact bastards in question, but she didn't understand why Tommy could not see what she was seeing. They were both born into gangs, had commited the worst of humanity and had a special welcoming awaiting them at the gates of hell. They were the same person, but equally so different. Tommy wanted to protect his family in a way he felt fit, but Giorgia wanted to do the same. Tommy had only dealt with local gangs, ones no bigger than his own that he had always defeated in the end. But the Changretta's were a different ball game. They'd gunned down John as he'd protected his wife and children. They were dangerous of a different kind, a kind that Gia had known back in New York City. It all boiled down the fact that she was a woman. A woman living in her husband's world. A woman who was dearly respected by everyone but the man she'd married. He didn't agree with her logic or her plans, so instead crafted his own because he was the gang member. He was the Blinder. He was the man. 

With Charlie stood in the doorway, Tommy picked his boy up and rested him on his hip. "He's alright," Johnny Dogs smiled. "And I thought you'd gone soft. So you got three?" 

Clarifying, Tommy nodded. "Yeah, I got three." 

"Well I'll drink to you, Tom. You mad bastard," Charlie Strong chimed. 

Approaching his brother, Arthur put his hand on his shoulder. "Pretty soon you'll, you're going to ger the shakes when you're bloods cooled down. Let's go get a drink." 

"Dad, you got three what?" Charlie asked, looking at his father. 

"I got three shillings for a two shilling horse, my boy. You come with us, eh?" Tommy asked, and with an excited nod of the head, Tommy smiled at his son. Turning to his daughter who was still playing calmly with her toys on the floor in the next room, Tommy asked, "Issy, you coming with me and Charlie?" 

"Is mama coming?" She asked as she walked over to her father, standing in the doorway. 

"Giorgia?" Tommy asked, awaiting her response to their daughter's question. 

Turning around, Giorgia plasted a fake smile on her face for her kids. "No baby," she told her, "you go with daddy." 

As a smile beamed on her face, she jumped up at her Uncle Arthur who swung her onto his shoulders, the men leaving to head to the Garrison. Just as Thomas got to the door, Gia grabbed his wrist to stop him. "You have two hours. I want them back with Ada when you're done. You meet me in your office in two fucking hours. Don't be late."