Anna [J.Shelby]

CHAPTER EIGHTY

Anna could hear the commotion in Artillery Square from her house situated on Watery Lane, so she knew when Finn showed up, that a family meeting had been called. They were minus Ada, because she had attended to some of Tommy's business the night before.

Anna entered the room confused as to what was going on, and very importantly, why she was still invited to these meetings. The answer was simple for the Shelby family, John died as a result of the vendetta, and they felt Anna had a right to know how close they were to bringing Luca down.

"So," Arthur began as he tipped cocaine onto the table, "what the fuck happened today Tom?'

"We all heard, shooting in Artillery Square"

"Yeah, there was," Tommy admitted, "today I killed three men"

The family members stared blankly back at Thomas, nobody expected him to say such words, be so open about them.

"Now our enemies are down to eight"

"I suppose they er, they took you by surprise did they?" Arthur asked the question on everyone's mind.

"No, I knew they were coming"

Anna could see Arthurs face twitching from the corner of her eye as she sighed and crossed her arms.

"Do elaborate, Thomas" Anna urged him.

"Just after Christmas I received a letter, from Luca Changretta," The name from Polly's lips cooled and boiled Anna's blood both at the same time.

"He offered to spare my son if I gave up Tommy, and I gave Tommy up"

"Because that was the plan that Polly and I agreed on" Tommy added.

"And I knew that Luca would want to pull the trigger himself"

Arthur took the moment to sniff the cocaine he had previously tipped out onto the table, Anna looking his way in annoyance.

"Essentially, you lured him in. Except, you didn't get Luca" Anna deduced.

"You're a fuckin' idiot Tom" Arthur swore.

"Look, I didn't get Luca but I got three, alright. That's it, that's what happened." Tommy finalised, picking Charles up as he appeared in the doorway.

"Ah but he's right, I mean I'd thought you'd gone soft." Johnny laughed, "so you got three?"

"Yeah, I got three" Tommy clarified.

"Well I'll drink to you Tom, you mad bastard" Charlie's words brought laughter to the family, besides Anna who stared back at Tommy before standing up and grabbing her coat.

"So you got three, yes? You got three. And Luca Changretta is still out there, the man who shot your brother on our fucking doorstep." Anna's words silenced the family as she stood in front of Tommy.

"Small steps, Anna. I can promise you he won't be here for much longer" Tommy cleared his throat.

"You promise a lot of things, Tommy"
***

Over the weeks following Christmas, Anna grew more questionative about the circumstances surrounding Christmas day. The suspicions she held were proven by getting Finn and Isaiah to pry, find out who had been lurking around these parts. And Anna wasn't as surprised by the findings as she wanted to be, because John had warned her countlessly.

This brought Anna knocking on a door in a different part of Birmingham, with some junior peaky's courtesy of Finn.

A girl answered the door, she was polite and a beautiful young lady and she led Anna swiftly through to her father.

Mark Hainsley wasn't surprised to see her either.

"You have a lovely daughter, she's lucky to still have a father, unlike my children" Anna commented as she hung around in the closed doorway.

"Look, Anna, he threatened my daughters if I didn't tell him-"

"Mark, I know, I know that you've been keeping tabs on me for 2 years, I know that you never stopped following me. I know that you was the one who gave Luca Changretta information on where we lived, it was you who led those bastards to my fucking doorstep. You may not have killed John, but you did as good as"

"I didn't want to lead them to you specifically, I've never wanted to cause you harm Anna, but I had to keep tabs, because Luca threatened my daughters, even from America. He didn't tell me why I had to watch you Shelby's and report back, if I had known that John would be his first target then I would have warned you"

"But it's too fucking late now. The way I see it, you now owe me a favour, and its a very big favour. You'll forver be indebted to me. You don't have a choice either. It's that, or I tell Arthur that you was the one who helped them target John, and your children will be left fatherless. The Shelby men don't much like spies."

"What's the favour?" Mark questioned.

"Whatever you find out, you report it to me. The rest of the favour, I have yet to figure out. You know where I live, I want information whenever you have it"

◇◇◇

Around 4 or 5 chapters and Anna's story will be coming to a close. Though the rest of the story is roughly planned and wrote, there's still a lot of space for fillers, emotions and your ideas. Hope you carry on reading until the very end :)