March // John Shelby x Reader - Peaky Blinders

Chapter 44

John

Alfie lifts his hands in the air and stands slowly to his feet.

"Now, now, now, boys," he says slowly. "We've been over this, ain't we?" Sighing exasperatedly, he continues, "If you keep coming in here with your fucking guns raised, there's gonna be questions."

"Oh, we've got fucking questions," Arthur says as he moves forward into the room.

"Look, it ain't my fault the shipment got held up, alright?" Alfie says. "You can't be trying to fucking kill me for it."

"No?" Arthur snarls. "Fucking watch us."

"Easy, Arthur," Tommy warns, but his eyes are full of ice as he considers Alfie. "You sent men to hurt us. Why?"

Alfie blinks. "The fuck you on about?"

John aims his gun at Alfie the whole time Tommy speaks, burning for a reason to pull the trigger at anyone who's tried to harm you.

"The guns for hire," Tommy says.

Alfie's face is genuinely blank and confused. "Don't know what the fuck you're talking 'bout, Tom."

"Men, coming to our weddings, saying they've been hired to hurt our family. Saying you're the man in charge."

"Tommy." Alfie leans on his hands on the desk. "I haven't got a fucking clue what you're on about."

John's brothers look to him. This is for him to decide, as it's your honour he's fighting for. He stares at Alfie with loathing, wanting more than anything to pull the trigger and know you'll be safe once more.

But he knows Alfie's telling the truth. He can feel that killing Alfie will not protect you in any way — in fact, it'll only bring more violence into his life, and endanger you even further.

So he turns to his brothers and nods.

They all lower their guns.

"Now," Alfie says, rolling his eyes. "Do you want to explain to me what this is all about?"

He sits back and listens as they explain what's been happening, and how the man they interrogated had name-dropped Alfie.

"See, what I don't understand," he says, "Is what they'd have to fucking gain by dropping me in it. Obviously, this is someone aware of our partnership."

"Sabini," Arthur says quietly.

Alfie nods and gestures at Arthur. "Could very well fucking be."

"And why is he targeting John's wife specifically?" Tommy asks as he lights a cigarette.

Alfie shrugs. "Don't fucking know. She Jewish?"

"She's a baker," John says. "That a coincidence?"

Alfie leans back again. "If that's the reason, that makes it personal. More personal than Sabini would give two fucks about."

"We don't even know that it is Sabini, alright?" says Tommy. "Alfie, I'm very glad you're not trying to fuck us over. And if I find out you've lied here today, you'll pay in more than blood."

"Happily," says Alfie.

"We need to find another of the hooded men," Tommy says to his brothers as they leave. "Ask more questions."

"We killed them all," John points out.

"There'll be more out there," says Tommy as he starts the car.

John stills for a moment, hand still on the car door. "Fuck off, Tommy," he says.

"It's the only way forward John, and you know it," says Tommy.

"Would you do it, if I asked? If you had a wife?"

"I'd let her choose for herself. And so far, everytime your wife is asked to choose, she wants to help us."

"Because she doesn't realise what she's fucking getting herself into!"

Arthur holds up a hand, like he's calming a nervous horse. "I'd say by this point she's got a fair idea."

"You don't know what it's like," says John, slamming the car door shut behind him. "Either of you. I'll die before I let any harm come to her."

"You've killed five men for her," Tommy says curtly. "Or we have, as the Peaky Blinders. And I'm assuming we'll need to kill a lot more before this is over."

John shakes his head and looks out the window. All this killing. All the bodies, never ending, ever since France...

He chews a toothpick and stares out the window, bleary-eyed but wide awake the whole drive back to Birmingham.