In The Bleak Midwinter | T Shelby

THIRTY TWO - THE KITCHEN TABLE

It wasn't long before Thomas found himself at the door of an old warehouse not far away from the dark side of the canal. The reflection of the moon shimmered in the ripples of the water, forced by the wind in the dead hours of the morning.

He held the piece of paper tightly in his fist, reading the note over and over again to check he was in the right place before walking inside. He knew he was in the right place, but truth be told, the pounding in his chest was too deafening to him to be able to think about putting one foot in front of the other. He needed a moment to compose himself.

With his hand pressed against the iron door, he closed his eyes tightly. He allowed his mind to wander, to take him to a place of solace and happiness, the same place he hoped he'd be after all of this was over. He saw himself with Kaia, his arm around her shoulders as they walked through the snowy fields watching the horses run free outside their stables, a comforting silence between them that carefully cradled the love that they had for one another.

It was then that Tommy realised his vision of paradise with Kaia wasn't somewhere new, it was somewhere they'd already been, a moment they'd already shared.

Pushing the door open he squeezed the pistol in his fist, his jaw clenched and throat dry as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he suddenly found himself drenched in.

There was a rustling to his left, but the echo of the empty room with a roof suspended over thirty feet above his head made his mind struggle to know which way to turn. He felt his heart begin to pound louder and his palms become sweaty, his bones shaking beneath his figure that externally stood tall and strong.

The striking of a match was too loud to his left for him to be mistaken, his head snapping in the direction of soft flicker of fire that began to glow less than six feet away from him.

Luca Changretta stepped towards him, lighting the lamp he held in his hand before dropping the match to the ground, stamping on it with his heel. The room began to slowly illuminate with more lamps, matches lighting up yellow circles like individual deathly suns, casting black shadows across faceless men.

"You made it, Mr Shelby."

Thomas said nothing. He held his ground, his eyes scanning the room as they slowly began to reveal more of his surroundings to him. They widened in fear when he saw Bonnie hunched over in the corner, his head tilted down against his chest and his hands tied with rope behind his back, blood staining his dark hair and the skin on his forehead.

He looked around more, though he saw no sign or Kaia and no sign of Finn, either. Through the broken darkness, he couldn't quite work out whether Bonnie Gold was dead or alive, but he knew that making decisions like the boy was dead wasn't ever going to be an option, just in case.

"What can I do for you, Mr Changretta?" His voice was monotonous, the same flat tone that everyone was used to, even though he thought his heart might break through his ribs at any second.

Luca smirked, a wide grin with a sadistic sparkle in his dark eyes that made Tommy's stomach sink even lower than it already had.

"Funny," he chuckled, "That's almost exactly what your girlfriend said to me earlier."

***

"Ada! Ada!" John barged through the door of his sister's home, short of breath with his hands on his knees when the warmth of the fire in her front room burnt against his cold skin.

"Christ John, what's wrong?" She came rushing out of the front room in her night slip with a dressing gown tied around her, her brows furrowed angrily at her brother's late night arrival.