Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

93.

"God helps those who help themselves. But the Peaky Blinders don't" 

Ailbhe would have helped him. But Mickey had made a choice and he chose wrong.
 
"I'm really sorry, I didn't want anyone to die, honest I didn't! So I didn't tell them about your friend Maggie, I swear to God I didn't! That has to mean something!" 

He was sobbing now, his hand stretching out as if to grab Ailbhe.
 
As his hand gripped at her sleeve her mind started to race, thinking about her conversation with Maggie, how she had tried to keep quiet but how Mickey had been there. Maggie was wanted for treason and political terrorism, for murder.  If she got caught, she'd be hanged whether she was a woman or not, whether she was a mother or not.
 
Maggie, a mother and a wife, a woman who was getting free. She'd be dead within the hour if they caught her. They wouldn't bother with a trial. It would only make a martyr of her, of her cause. She'd be drowned in a river or shot in the back of the head, it would look like a suicide or a mugging. And the mistake she had made was telephoning Ailbhe to say thank you. That would be the mistake that would get her killed.

"What are you talking about, Mickey? Tell who?"
 
Mickey pulled his face out of his hands, looking between them.
 
"Some lads from London... they told me to phone them if a woman of Maggie Brennan's description or anyone with Irish connections ever got in touch with you, but I didn't I swear to God I didn't" He explained and Ailbhe felt her blood run cold in her veins.
 
Mickey was telling the truth, she could see that in his face but it didn't excuse him from betraying their trust regarding Younger and Titanics.
 
He had overheard scraps of Ailbhe's conversation even though she had done her best to keep her voice down and not give away any information. But Mickey was a rat and he'd hear the grass grow if it meant he could make money. But he heard that the woman had a child with her, that she was from home and although he reached for the phone, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
 
Ailbhe knew what was coming next as Arthur looked down at the table. Tommy looked across at Ailbhe, those blue eyes lighter than any sky Mickey was ever going to see again. She just nodded, her eyes lit with rage. She didn't turn her head away. Mickey might not have given Maggie away, but he had given Younger away, almost gotten Finn and her brothers killed for some cash.
 
"Ceiling would be cheaper, Tom" She warned Tommy, who nodded back.
 
Tommy's gun put a bullet through Mickey's head, from his jaw up through his head and spraying the ceiling and lodging the bullet into the ceiling. It happened so fast that Ailbhe doubt he even felt a thing. It certainly hurt less than the pain that Ben Younger felt and the little boy killed in the blast. It certainly hurt less than when that little boy's parents looked at the empty seat at the table where he used to sit.
 
"Look at that, shaking like the hand of a normal man" Tommy gasped, holding up his right hand and sure enough it was shaking.
 
Killing one man now made Tommy Shelby's hand get the shakes. Maybe Johnny Dogs was right. Maybe Tommy was going soft. But Ailbhe didn't necessarily think it a bad thing.
 
Ailbhe tried not to look at Mickey, the lifeless body and head with a hole in it. She tried not to look but she had to. As soon as she had, she looked away again. His head was blown open, the ceiling tiles marked with his blood and the bullet. That mess of blood and bone was something you never forget but it wasn't the first time Ailbhe had seen a man destroyed by a gun, she had only been a little girl that first time and every time after that, it got more and more ordinary.
 
She felt herself breathe easier. Maggie was alright, she would get out of England and get away from this mess.
 
"What about item five, Tommy?" Arthur asked, almost begging his brother.
 
Tommy just pulled on his coat, grabbing his things. But Arthur needed more. Arthur needed there to be another part to the plan, a part that would give him an escape from this life he was living.
 
"There is an item five, I'm fucking sinking here, Tom" He sobbed, grabbing at his head and squeezing as though he could squeeze the madness out.
 
If that worked then Ailbhe would put her head between two the strongest man in England's hands and tell him not to give up until she had a mind that ran like every other girl's. But it would never happen.
 
"You said there's an item five, I need it to start now, Tommy. It could start now!" Arthur sobbed, his voice hoarse and breaking.
 
Arthur was a tortured soul and it broke Ailbhe's heart to look at him like that. They had all seen and done bad things in France but Arthur had been fragile before France and whatever happened over there seemed to seal a fate for him. She wanted to reach out, to help him or comfort him but it seemed like he was beyond this. And after seeing everything she had seen, Ailbhe didn't feel like the comforting type anymore.
 
"We could go, Tommy. We could leave this place, leave it to the kids. Maybe Michael is right" Arthur sobbed, looking up at Ailbhe who just watched him with sad eyes.

"We could leave it to Finn and Ailbhe, they'll manage. Michael might be right"
 
But Michael wasn't right. He couldn't be. Ailbhe wouldn't let him be.
 
And if Michael being right meant Ailbhe being left behind by her family while they all moved onto a different life then she was sure that her fate would be exactly as Michael said it would, at the end of a rope. 
 
"Arthur!" Tommy screamed, finally losing his patience and spinning around to scream in Arthur's face and hopefully knock the words into his head "There is no item five!".
 
Stowing the gun that had killed Mickey who still sat in front of them, still and dead, Tommy dropped his voice again.
 
"Go and check that Polly is still on our side" He told Arthur, who although he was still sobbing, had started to pull himself back together.
 
Maybe Michael was right about something. Maybe Arthur wasn't alright, maybe he needed help, the kind of help that Barney needed. But then, maybe then it was a slippery slope. Maybe then Ailbhe would need help, and Tommy and Polly and the cycle wouldn't stop until they were all in padded cells with their hands tied down to stop them tugging at the restraints. 
 
Tommy turned towards Ailbhe who was standing between them, watching and tightly folding her arms across her chest.
 
"Ailbhe, go make sure Finn isn't getting any fucking ideas about New York" He warned her, needing Finn to be on his side and not to be flirting with the idea of taking the crown with Michael.
 
Ailbhe wanted to argue with him, wanted to defend Finn and say that he wasn't that stupid or arrogant. But she didn't have time. Tommy had seen the flash in Finn's eyes. He was sick of being treated like a kid when he had tried to prove himself again and again.
 
"Tommy, where the fuck are you going now?" She snapped, sick of Tommy disappearing on them.
 
"I've got to go to Margate" He snapped turning towards the door, before turning back and pointing a finger at Ailbhe

"And if Maggie Brennan ever comes here or calls here again, I'll cut her and her fucking kid!"
 
It sounded harsh and cruel but if Maggie Brennan put a link between her and Ailbhe again, Mosley would have even more evidence on Ailbhe's guilt and it could get Ailbhe hanged. And Tommy couldn't have that on his conscience.
 
But with Tommy acting as though he was King and that he barely trusted any of them, now apparently doubting his own brother Finn, Ailbhe's patience was already thin and she could feel it wearing. It had been a long day and it was barely midday.
 
"Tell Alfie I was fucking asking for him!" She snapped back with equal venom, grabbing her bag and pushing past him to leave, wanting him to know that she knew exactly what was taking him to Margate, who was hiding out there with no one knowing he was alive apart from those he chose. And now, Ailbhe too apparently.
 
He didn't know how she knew Alfie was alive, he didn't know how she knew anything but Ailbhe knew a lot more than any of them ever gave her credit for. She slammed the door behind her, leaving Mickey's dead body and her two brothers who thanked God she was on their side because if she was their enemy, she'd raze the whole of Small Heath to the ground along with everything they had built.