Heaven On Hold | Peaky Blinders

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Family. Friends. Lovers. That were the things I gained from that wrong encounter, but my head never left that one thought alone; What would have happened if I was never searched for? Even with that thought in the back of my mind, I never seem to regret the decision I made.

Smiling to myself, I focused my eyes on the fight that was about to start before me. Just willing to enjoy this, because sooner or later war was about to begin.

~~~

Feeling bored, I was spinning a bullet between my fingers in the office of Tommy while he was rushing through all his appointments involving very important business and information.

The longer I was spending time in his office, the more respect I had growing towards Tommy for doing this almost every single day because it sucked to be honest. He had to deal with these morons, rich assholes and dangerous fuckers without losing his temper or shooting an bullet through their heads almost every minute of the day and you needed real self-control for that patience to last. Especially if you were being confronted by women who had nothing to do with your business and worker's payments. The woman today was Jessie Eden, who had the balls to warn Tommy about a so-called revolution in the air before taking her leaving. Tommy's fabric manager knocked on the door as he nervously stepped back and forth before the door.

"Yeah, come in." Tommy sighed and I had accidentally let the small bullet fall from my fingers.

"I did say this would happen." The man said while holding his clipboard before his chest, clearly meaning Jessie Eden and her complains about his way of handling workers.

"Who's next?" Tommy ignored him and took a seat beside me.

"Um... he's a, a delegate from the European Council for Trade. He's here to talk about the import of car parts to France."

"Right." Tommy cleared his throat a bit before nodding impatiently.

"He's come all the way from Paris, but given the circumstances I could send him away?"

"Given what circumstances? Send him in." The man hurriedly closed the door behind him, a bit afraid he had said something wrong, while he left and Tommy immediately stood up again, staring out of the big windows while rubbing his eyes. He was tired and I don't think he was really doing okay. Minding my own business, I spotted the man being escorted to Tommy's office through the reflection of the windows in and the manager once again opened the door.

"Mr. Shelby, this is Monsieur Paz, from Paris." Thomas gazed at the man as if it was his enemy and I inhaled deeply, shifting a bit on my chair. I didn't want to be part of a new sort of drama.

"I heard you had trouble. It's good of you to see me."

"You just came from Paris, eh?" Tommy questions, not for a second trusting the man. Monsieur Paz pushed a chair back and sat down, sweetly smiling at me and I scoffed in responds. If Tommy didn't trust him... then I wouldn't either.

"You know Paris, Darling?"

"Mhuh." I laughed. "But your accent isn't quit similar."

"Well, I came here from Paris... that does not mean I'm French, Darling."

"Stop calling me that."

"Guess where I'm from?" Paz finally glanced back at Tommy instead of paying attention to me.

"Well, in my cattle truck in Paris... there were American soldiers who played cards." Tommy started as he pulled out the box filled with cigarettes out of his jacket, the same one from the day that he had found me, and he lit it up between his lips. Sooner or later this place was lacking oxygen. "They sound like you."

"Yeah. Did you win?" Paz pointed out, biting on a piece of wood that was first between his teeth. He was trying to get somewhere and it annoyed me he didn't get straight to the point. He was hiding something.

"You didn't come on a train. Your suit is pressed, your shoes are clean. Where do you get your suits made?" Tommy weirdly stated and I checked everything he had made a comment about. It was a way for me to know what Tommy was aiming for... and this time he was aiming for a piece of information that would change the whole situation. It was bold to assume it, but as I examined him a bit, I had unnoticeable nodded at my older nephew.

"I have a tailor in New York City. Look." The man held his jacket open and had let his fingers trail down the soft fabric. "Funacci, Italian. He's my uncle. He makes suits in the basement of Mott street. He is my uncle, so every stitch, stitched with blood. I heard you dress well, Mr. Shelby, but now I see.... not so well as me."

"You know, I have uncles as well.... But they're not the sort of men who would, who would work in a basement with a needle and thread, Mr. Changretta."  There it was. The accusation. The man turned quiet and I had silently slid one of my knives down my sleeve into my hand as he out of a sudden began to laugh horribly.

"I am surprised how easy it was to get into a room with you."

"And now?" Tommy hissed through his teeth while aiming a gun at Luca Changretta who dramatically and sarcastically held his hands high. Something was off and suddenly I changed my mind. I was happy I was involved.

"And now? And now you should know that during the trouble you had earlier on your factory floor, I sent an accomplice into your office in overalls. He found your gun.... and unloaded it." Luca opened his hands to let the bullets rain out of his hand and Tommy impressed opened his gun to see that it was indeed empty.

"Arthur Shelby...." Luca placed the bullets one by one onto the table and I let the other knife slide into the palm of my hand. "Polly Gray, Michael Gray, John Shelby, spent." He pushed the little bullet over and threw it our way. "And finally.... Tommy Shelby. None of you will survive. Your level of security is pitiful and we are an organization of a different dimension. I could've killed you when I walked through the door.... But you see.... I want you to be the last. I want you to be alive after your entire family is dead 'cause my mother says that is what will hurt you the most. You people have traditions of honor, as do we. Instead of sending you a black hand, I could've had you killed in the night. You don't know why.... But I want you to know why, and I wanna suggest to you that we fight this vendetta with honor." The man glared my way.

It seemed as if he hadn't targeted me at all and I thought deeply why he hadn't listed me. Didn't he know? Of course he knew that I belong to the Shelby family..... so why didn't he added my name? Was I useful to his group? Questions filled my head while he just winked at me and I couldn't help but return the kindness. Perhaps I could play his games. See what he was up to, but not now. No... I had to keep my eyes out for him not to kill my family.

"No civilians, no children."

"No police." Tommy had a small smile on his face and the two nodded at each other as I started to relax a bit.

"Welcome to Birmingham, Mr. Changretta."

"Grazie."