Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

31.

An urgent family meeting was called. Tommy summoned everyone to their old house on Watery Lane, making sure no one was followed and that everyone was guarded carefully. He would never make that mistake again. Tommy arrived last, bringing Lizzie and Polly and following them into the sitting room.

They rushed straight to Ailbhe, kneeling beside the chair she sat on and trying to get a proper look at her. She didn't look alright at all. Her hair had dried with the blood matted into it, her neck had scratches and redness from where the rope had bitten into her skin, her wrists had the bruises to show where Changretta's man had gripped her so hard it left a mark. Blood stained her dress and had soaked onto her skin. Ada had tried to wipe some of it off with a cloth and get her to shower but Ailbhe wanted to be there for the meeting, she told them she could handle it.

She had a blanket around her shoulders now but her hands still shook slightly. The adrenaline was wearing off and Ailbhe knew that she was going to get the shakes soon, that she would crash down from such a rush and panic.

"Drink this sweetheart" Lizzie told her, holding a cup of tea with some whiskey in it to take the edge off.

Ailbhe pushed Polly's hand back from her face, telling her she was alright, that the boys had gotten to her just in time. Liam sat across from them, his hand holding a cloth to his head as the cut on his forehead was still bleeding. He had a pounding headache and the last thing he remembered was getting knocked out. He was furious when he came around, when he was told what Ailbhe had gone through but Ada sat with him, trying to stitch his forehead and remind him it was not his fault.

He had pushed her hands away twice already, saying he didn't need stitches and that he was fine but the blood was still pumping out from the cuts on his temple and scalp from where the Italian's punch had cut into the skin. Therefore, both times she had persisted, eventually smacking him upside the head and telling him to shut up and let her give him the stitches before he passed out from blood loss. Liam shut up and let her do it, knowing she was even more stubborn than he was.

Tommy cleared his throat, standing before his family and nodding at Ailbhe to check she was alright to begin. She nodded back, wincing slightly at the pain in her neck.

"Today we got tricked, the Italians caught us out and while we waited at Artillery Square, Changretta and two of his men moved on Shelby Company Ltd offices where they attacked Liam and Ailbhe who they intended to blackmail into betraying me or kill her"

Finn gripped the back of the chair he stood behind, his knuckles going white at the thought of them killing her. Even if he was angry with her and she wouldn't even look at him for more than a second, she was his and he was hers. And if the Italians thought they would ever get away with laying a hand on her they had another thing coming to them. The man Ailbhe had been trapped under when they found her was now on a boat to London without his eyes and his tongue left in his corpse. Finn had also made sure that Niall cut off his hands, knowing that they were the hands that he had groped Ailbhe with.

Tommy cast his eyes to Ailbhe who looked back at him, she didn't seem over emotional nor too upset to continue.

"Ailbhe refused to give me up and therefore they intended to kill her, making it look like a suicide hence the rope"

Tommy explained to the others but he noticed how Ailbhe tensed up, how Polly and Ailbhe's brothers' mouths dropped open at the horror of what the Italians were going to do. Tommy knew he was missing something. Ailbhe looked around, knowing the family were confused. After all, they didn't know that Ailbhe, Niall and Liam's mother had died by suicide, they were told it was pestilence.

"Those sick fucks I'll kill Luca Changretta with my bare fucking hands" Liam growled, throwing the blood-stained cloth in his hand down.

Ailbhe spoke up for the first time since they had found her. Her voice was a little hoarse but she sounded more like herself than anyone expected.