To Be Alone | Tommy Shelby

Chapter 11

"I need to do what?" Celia asked incredulously, her eyes so wide they could have fallen out of her head. "I am not going to just leave my apartment," she shook her head then, not even entertaining the idea for a minute.

"You need to," he didn't want to hear her, the decision clear his in mind.

"Why?" she asked then, looking between the two men. Tommy was obviously gritting his teeth, his jaw clenched tightly, and Arthur, well, Arthur was still confused. "Please tell me why I have to up and leave my apartment, which I have been paying you the correct amount for at the correct times, right?"

"Yes, you have love. It's just that...ah, fuck," Tommy breathed then, running his hands over his face once more. "Arthur, read this fucking letter would you," he said then, holding the piece of paper out to his brother. The room fell silent once more, attention on the oldest Shelby sibling as his eyes scanned the paper.

"Fuck," Arthur's reaction was much like Tommy's, and he tipped his head back for a moment then before he handed the note back to his brother.

"Can someone please tell me what is going on here?!" Celia was starting to get impatient. She hated not knowing things, especially when everyone else in the room had been clued in on what was going on.

Tommy abruptly pushed his desk chair back and stood, moving to the ledge that the decanters of alcohol sat on, where he poured himself a full glass of amber liquid. He tipped his head back with the glass and downed half of it before he spoke; moreso to himself than the others in the room: "on top of everything else I've got going on, now this fuckin' happens."

"Tommy," Celia's voice was void of any emotion and it made his eyes snap to her's. He hadn't heard her speak in such a way before. It certainly got his attention. "Tell me. Please," she practically demanded him.

He let out a long sigh then, eyes trained on the window. Celia felt like she could die waiting for his statement. "Arthur killed a man..."

"What else is new?" Celia's remark slipped out before she could stop it, and it made Tommy look at her with raised eyebrows. She was happy that Arthur was out of her line of sight, because she didn't want to see how he took her statement. "Well, I mean, I've heard...stories..." she trailed off, feeling embarrassed when she couldn't talk herself out of the hole she'd so quickly dug. So she decided to shut up and listen to him.

"This wasn't like that. They were fighting, a boxing bout. It went too far. But now the boy's mother's talked with him and I," Tommy continued after the unexpected comment, "she wants Arthur killed. We held the meeting at the apartment you're currently living in," he then explained why she had now been caught up in this mess.

"This isn't right, Tom," Arthur spoke up then, pacing where he once stood close to the door. "She took the fucking money and called it done, and now she pulls this shit?! If I see her I'm gonna fucking..."

"Oi! Don't start talking like that, brother," Tommy cut Arthur's anger-filled rant off before he could finish, his voice alone leveling his older brother out, "I'm going to deal with it," he assured him then before he looked to Celia. "I'm going to deal with it. You've just gotta get out of there for now."

"Tommy, I'm not going to..."

"No, you're going to get out of there because it's not safe for you!" he cut off her objection, making her go silent as she just blinked at him. He wasn't yelling, but he was clearly frustrated and worked up by this along with whatever he had been talking heatedly about before she had even come into the office. "You need to fucking listen to me and just go somewhere for a bit. I will get this straightened out. I promise," he assured her then.