Devil | A Solomons

THIRTY - DRIED BLOOD

"What in God's name is going on in here? I've just had a bloodied and bruised MP stagger back into my party with a lot of very important guests. I had Arthur throw him out round the back and all he said was your name, Alfie."

Tommy had barged into the room with a look of fury flashing hard behind his blue eyes. He was ravenous, fist balled and finger pointed as he walked over to Alfie, grabbing him by the lapels of his overcoat and pinning him against the wall.

Irina stepped back out of fright and shock, never having seen Thomas lay a hand on a man before. She watched with intensive worry as he continued to rage war in Alfie's face, cursing every name under the sun to someone who Irina thought once upon a time, had been a good friend.

Alfie stayed quiet, his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched as he felt the wrath of an angry Thomas Shelby. His body relaxed but his lips remained sealed until he felt Tommy finally release his grip on his coat, loosening the force that held him against the wall.

"Your party? You're worried about your fucking party? Look at her."

Alfie cocked his head in Irina's direction. Tommy turned his body to face her, swallowing hard with wide eyes when he saw the mascara running down her cheeks and the dried blood on her forearm.

He closed his eyes in vain, taking a moment to compose himself after realising that he should've never listened to Mosley in the first place.

"She's fucking terrified, shaken to her fucking core and you come in here, all guns blazing, like your bastard party is the only thing that matters? Did you even notice she was in the room?"

Tommy sighed, not saying anything in response to Alfie but choosing to walk over to Irina slowly, his shoulders slouched and his lips pulled into a thin line.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Tommy."

Alfie scoffed, shaking his head, "Does she fucking look alright to you?"

Tommy cracked his neck on both sides before turning on his heels and walking back over to Alfie. Irina shivered as she listened to the two men shout insults into one another's faces, both of them growing angrier and redder in the cheeks with every word they spat out.

She cowered in the corner, hugging her arms across her body when her eyes caught sight of movement in the doorway. She saw Arthur stood with his arm against the wall, rolling his eyes at the scene that had unfolded before him.

He looked over at Irina, beckoning her with a wave of his hand. She promptly followed him out of the room, going easily unnoticed by the two other men, slipping out without a trace.

"Come on darling, let's get your arm cleaned up."

Irina followed Arthur down the hallway towards a washroom. She perched herself on the edge of a vanity while he grabbed a washcloth from the countertop, dampening it with warm water.

"I'm sorry about what happened. He's a fucking weasel that Mosley."

Irina shrugged, extending her arm while Arthur dabbed the wet cloth gently across her skin.

"It's alright," she sniffled.

Irina had only spoken to Arthur a mere handful of times, but she liked him. He was kind and warm, easier to speak to than Tommy. He had a look of sympathy in his eyes that Tommy rarely showed, proving there was a soul behind cold Shelby eyes.

"I'm sorry about those two n'all. Fucking idiots."

Unsure of what to say, Irina remained quiet, watching as Arthur cleaned away the blood on her arm, drying it with a clean towel.

"Look," he said, dusting off his hands and taking a swig of whiskey from a short glass, "There's something you should know. I never knew if I should give it to you or not but," he paused and let out a heavy sigh, "After the way I've just seen my brother choose to argue with a man over take care of you, I think you deserve to know."

"What do you mean? Is this about Tommy?"

Arthur reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out a blood-stained envelope. It had been torn open at the top but there remained a folded letter inside, Irina's name written in cursive on the front. She immediately recognised the hand.

"I killed Luca Changretta. I put a bullet in his chest. When we went through his pockets, I found this. I opened it, I'm sorry, but I was just curious. I've been wanting to give it to you for so long but I didn't know if it was the right thing to do. But it has your name on, so you should have it."

He handed her the envelope and took another sip of his drink, wiping his lips clean with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Does Tommy know about this?"

Arthur nodded his head, "Told me to get rid of it, but I couldn't do it. It belongs to you."

Irina pulled out the letter from inside the envelope and unfolded it, holding it between her fingertips. The letter too was stained by blood, but the words were still readable.

Irina,
Pure and true things are few and far between in this world, but should I die at the hands of a man in the name of my father, you should know the truth.

Before I knew you, there was an idea, a twisted goal that in the beginning, I had no trouble setting my sights on. Though after meeting you, spending nights together and listening to you tell me about your past, your dreams, everything I was working towards in the start became irrelevant.

I've fallen in love with you, Irina. It happened in the worst way possible and I so wish there could be a way to go back and start over, without a facade, without a ploy, but I cannot. All I can give you now, is my word.

I have a feeling I don't have much time left, there are more men trying to kill me than there are trying to keep me alive, and I know they'll tell you the hardened truth about who I am and what I wanted when I'm gone, but what they'll never know is the way I feel about you now, in my heart.

I love you in a sickeningly deep way, a way that keeps me up at night thinking about you and dreaming of your face when I do close my eyes. I long to hear your voice and feel your touch, for you to smile at me the way you do over a candlelit dinner.

There are endless ways I wish I could love you, but in the end, loving you is what's driven me here, to where I think will be my last night alive. And although I may not see another evening, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm sorry for the way you'll feel when they tell you the truth, but just know that I would never have hurt you.

I'll die loving you, Irina. Perhaps in the next life, I'll be able to love you again.

Luca

The deep red blood that stained the paper made Irina's skin crawl and her heart feel as though it had stopped beating. She ran her fingertips over the letter, feeling the smooth ridges of red against the paper, her tears falling down her skin for the second time that evening.

"He did love me," she whispered, reading the four letter word over and over again, the painful vision of Luca sat in the pale moonlight writing what she held before her, knowing he would never see her again, was perhaps the single most painful thing she had ever felt.

She had stored a vengeance in her mind towards Luca, a pure hatred that made her want to scream and cry, made her internally despise herself and question her intelligence and intuition. She had tortured herself night and day thinking about how she could've been so foolish, when in reality, none of it could've been further from the truth.

Luca had loved Irina, and the way she felt inside when she was with him had been so beautifully requited, but painfully too late.

And Thomas had kept the truth she deserved hidden from her.