The Girl and The Gangster
Summary: After being turned down from every secretarial role in Birmingham, Alice becomes desperate. Unable to provide for her sick mother, herself and more importantly, her young child, she takes a chance on joining the Shelby Company ltd. But when she runs into a familiar face, her whole world comes crumbling down around her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
There was trouble in the waters, he didn't know what it was, but he had a feeling in his gut that was screaming at him that something wasn't right. He watched as his fellow Irishmen loaded up their cars early in the morning from the upstairs window and wondered why he hadn't been told of any plan or why he wasn't being involved in any of the discussions that were happening downstairs. He heard the stairs creek behind him and glanced over his shoulder at one of the young boys the IRA had brought over from Dublin.
"Ruari wants to see ya."
"Why now? I haven't been a part of any plans." He noticed the number of guns and ammunition that was being thrown into the car and knew that something was about to go down.
"Just come downstairs." The boy returned to the front room and waited by the door for Danny.
He let out a sigh and pulled his glare from the window before descending the stairs and stepping into the living room. He looked at the faces of the ten men that filled the room as they all stared back at him. He wondered if he would be able to talk himself out of this one. When Ruari finally came into the room, he waved for Danny to take the seat that they had left for him in the middle of the room. When he complied, Ruari pulled up a chair and sat in front of him and when he pushed his coat to the side, Danny caught the twinkle of his gun that hung from a strap.
"We've got a lot to talk about, Finlay."
"So, that's the reason you lot tracked me down and brought me to this house? Just for a chat?" Danny leaned forward and raised a brow. "When you tracked me down a week ago, you said that there was no bad blood between us, that must be why you're dangling that revolver in front of me."
"It's just here in case you decide to run again and there's no bad blood, that's why you've been able to come and go from this house."
Danny shook his head and laughed a little. "Then what's all this?"
"Just collecting some information." He nodded to one of the men behind Danny and watched as he gripped his hand tightly, ready to break Danny's fingers. When he started to struggle and fight back, another man kept him still. "How did the Peaky Blinders find out about the bomb we were planting when most of the men in this room didn't even know about it?"
"Sheer luck. Maybe some of the men you told have loose lips." He looked up from his hand and watched Ruari nod once more and prepared himself for the pain. His finger cracked at the knuckle and the pain raged across his hand. He let out a yell, throwing his head back in agony.
"The only one with loose lips is you, ya gypsy bastard. Why'd you tell them?"
He wasn't going to answer until his broken finger was pressed on. He was vibrating from the pain and his veins bulging from his neck, so he finally gave into the question. "Because I didn't want my sister losing her husband."
"Family ties? You told us that Alice wasn't going to be an issue. Now because of it, Mick is the Peaky's prisoner. Because you couldn't make your sister a widow? Pathetic."
Without any warning, his middle finger was yanked and broke quickly. He stamped his feet on the ground as he tried to keep the pain out of his mind, but it was unsuccessful.
"Your ego is your greatest enemy, Finlay." Ruari got onto his feet when there were three knocks on the door. "Mick is worth ten of you, he's got loyalty. Something you gypsies know nothing about." As he stepped towards him, Ruari drew his revolver and shot Danny on the knee, watching him topple over in agony. "Tie him up in the basement and keep him alive. I'm not done with him yet." He crouched down in front of him, spitting on him. "You better pray that Mick's alive." He left the house and got into one of the cars, glaring one last time at the house. "Let's get this over and done with."
He waited for her in his dark office, his feet rested comfortably on his desk and his hands clasped on his stomach. Mary had no idea he changed his schedule and he made the phone call himself to cancel the debate that was supposed to happen this afternoon. He was going to catch her by surprise, and he couldn't wait to see how she reacted. He could hear her heels as she walked down the hall and as she got closer to the door of his office, he lit a cigarette and kept his eyes fixed on the door.
She turned on the lights and jumped when she saw Tommy sitting there. With her hand over her chest, she took a few steps forward and smiled as her heart started to calm down. "You startled me; I wasn't expecting you to be here yet." Mary fixed the bag on her shoulder and her smile started to fade away. "I thought your debate was at one, was I wrong?"
"The debate was cancelled. Apparently, the IRA were planning on planting a bomb, at least that's what I heard through the grapevine." Tommy removed his legs from the desk and waved at the seat in front of him, his stare telling her that she had no choice but to sit down.
"The IRA? Do you really think they would be that ballsy?" she asked once she was seated.
"I don't know, you tell me Mary. Are they?" he poured her a drink and watched as she took in into her hands, holding it by her chest for a moment before taking a small sip.
"They are dangerous, from what I know but I don't know much."
"Oh, come on, I wasn't born yesterday. I knew where you stood as soon as you mentioned Listowel. Drop the act." When she didn't say anything, he stepped around the desk and rested his hands on the back of her chair. "It would really save a lot of hassle if you just told us what your fellow Irishmen are planning."
"You're not making any sense Mr Shelby." She became very tense and rigid.
"Let me see what's inside that bag of yours." She glanced over his shoulder at him as he continued to peer down at her. "What are you carrying with you?"
"Have you actually lost your mind?"
He could hear the nerves in her voice, either she was telling the truth, or she was terrified that her cover had been blown. "You know that I'm not going to lay a finger on you, you've been around me long enough to know that I have some morals." He took his hands off her chair and heard her let out a relieved breath. He opened his office door and left it open for her to see who was coming in. "If you're wanting this to be as pain free as possible, I'd tell my aunt Pol everything you know, and quick."
Pol stepped into the office and glared down at the woman with a smirk. "Us Shelby's have quick tempers, so you may start talking."
His head was splitting, and he could hear the blood dripping from his knee onto the floor below him. That was when he realised, he was tied to a pipe on the ceiling and his feet couldn't reach the floor. He looked up at his hands that were bound above him and questioned how he was going to get himself free. He could hear chatter above him and their footsteps as they paced back and forth. When the door that led upstairs opened, he closed his eyes and let his head drop, wishing that whoever was coming down here wouldn't realise he had come round. Whoever was in front of him, they were so close to him that he could feel their breath on him, and he had to stay still for as long as he could.
"He's still out," he called up, "he better come round soon and give us some information on those Peaky bastards before Ruari calls or he'll be pissed."
Danny could hear banging on the door, it sounded as if someone was trying to kick the door in. Then he heard shouting and gun shots. He opened his eyes and wrapped his good leg around the guy in front of him, pulling him closer.
"Cut me free and I'll make sure you make it out alive."
"What use would you be gypsy? You won't even be able to walk." He pushed Danny's leg from his body and took out his pistol.
"Don't you hear that? Those are machine guns. The Peakys are here and you're out gunned. Your mates are probably dead or will be in a minute and you're going to go up there by yourself with a pistol?" he could tell that the young lad was thinking about it as he glanced towards the stairs. "Let me go and I'll get you out of here alive."
"If I let you go and we make it out of here, will you tell us what you know about Mick?"
"If that's what you want. Just cut me down." The lad was too naïve, and Danny knew it. Once he was cut down, he fell onto the floor with a thud and tried his best to get onto his feet without assistance. The lad watched him struggle for a moment before getting tired of watching him fumble and helped him up. "Go close that door up there, quietly."
"What?"
"If they catch a glimpse of us, we're dead." When the lad raised a brow at him, Danny rolled his eyes and motioned to his leg. "Do you really think I'm going to make it up those stairs before they come down here?"
He let out a disgruntled noise and did as he was told. Once his back was turned, Danny pounced on him, his arm wrapped tightly around his neck. With his free hand, he fought with the man to take his gun. With the right amount of pressure, it didn't take too long to have him out cold and on the floor. With the pistol in his pocket, Danny turned to the tiny window at the very top of the wall that looked onto the garden. With a bit of willpower and the need to survive, Danny was gone before The Peaky Blinders even realised that he was there.
"Search this place, see if there's anything that'll give us an edge for when we get back to Birmingham." Arthur watched as the Peakys scattered throughout the house and ran a hand over his hair, flattening it down to his head.
"Have you found anything?" Tommy asked as he stepped through the front door, glancing down at the bodies on the floor. The boys that were here were just that, young lads that were sent to the slaughter.
"Nothing yet. Has Pol got your secretary speaking?"
"All she got out of her was that there are thirty or so men heading down to Birmingham. Means that Paul is going to be outnumbered and from the looks of things, they've took their best."
"Right, we'll wrap up here and make our way back."
"I'm sure Paul can hold them off until we get there," Tommy glanced at his pocket watch and glanced at Finn as he came into the room, "what have you found?"
"I was downstairs and there was a body there, No gunshot wounds, no blood on him. But there was a pool of blood on the floor. Looks like someone was shot and tied up there."
Arthur looked from Finn to Tommy and rubbed his hands together. "Sounds like Danny to me."
Tommy nodded in agreement and put his watch back in his pocket. "Where did Danny go then?"
"The window that led into the garden, was open."
"It's up to Alice now, let's hope she knows what she's doing." Tommy placed his hands into his trouser pockets and stepped towards the door. "Round everyone up and get them back to Birmingham."
The streets of Birmingham were eerily quiet, it made Ruari and his men feel on edge, they didn't know where the shots were going to come from and they had no clue who they were going to come face to face with. They stopped in the market square, face to face with someone they had never seen before and he was alone. Ruari raised a brow and let out a smug laugh.
"Are you lost fella?" when he didn't reply he let out a deep breath. "Tell us where the Peaky Blinders are, and I'll let you walk away."
"Those are my guns that you've got in your hands." Paul was calm and having thirty guns pointed at him didn't make him flinch.
"I was starting to wonder when I was going to run into you Polish pricks."
"This Polish prick's got your boy, Mick."
"For all I know, you've killed him already." Ruari moved his foot forward and was greeted with a bullet that came from above. He looked up at the roofs and noticed that every house had a man with a gun pointed at them.
Paul wet his mouth and placed two fingers between his lips, his whistle echoing through the street. Within seconds, two of his men had Mick's limp body laid in between Paul and Ruari. Paul watched as Ruari looked for a sign of life and it came when he let out a laboured cough.
"There's your boy."
Mick looked pretty beat up; his face was swollen and covered in blood. Ruari rushed over to him but he was shot before he could get close enough to help. Ruari raised his gun and shot at Paul as he retreated into the shadows. This was going to be war, and Ruari didn't care about ruining the city until he got the Peakys and the Polish.
It was a battle getting to his father's grave; he had managed to talk someone into driving him to the bottom of the hill, but he still had to walk up it with a bullet hole in his knee. He was determined to say goodbye to him on his anniversary before he left for good. He stood over the grave and took out his hip flask, taking a small sip before pouring a little bit of the whiskey onto the ground. "Our final drink together, until we meet again." He struggled to get the cap of his flask back on with his broken fingers and eventually gave up on trying to close it. "I've got to get out of this place because I'm going to end up losing everything and I know that you're probably not proud of the things that I've done but I can't take them back." He took another swig and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Perhaps if you were still here, you could've shown me how to do better."
"Even if dad was still alive, you'd still be a degenerate." Alice replied as she slowly approached Danny. He hadn't even heard her car pull up.
He lifted his head and turned to face her; he was surprised to see a gun pointed at him. "Are you really going to do this here?"
"Why not here? You weren't going to come and say goodbye to me before you left. Besides, it's the only place I knew you'd be."
Her face was emotionless, he had expected to see anger at the least, but she seemed so cold.
"Do you really think you have what it takes to put a bullet in your own flesh and blood? Do you think you are capable of putting a bullet in anyone?"
"You'll have the honour of being my first."
"I'm your brother, Alice. I know I haven't been the best brother and we've had a few rocky patches, but do you really think I deserve to be gunned down like this?" he raised a brow at her, wincing slightly as he shifted his weight. "If you let me leave, I guarantee you that you'll never see my face again; you can tell that gangster of yours that you ended me, in fact you can tell him whatever you want, just let me go."
Alice glanced down at his leg before shaking her head. "I can't let you walk away, not after everything you've done. You betrayed me, you could've got my husband killed and then you put him in the hospital… I can't forgive you because you brought those IRA devils to our doorstep." She tightened her grip on the gun, her finger rested firmly against the trigger as she took a step towards Danny. "Did you know that the IRA sent someone to plant a bomb in our home with the kids in the house?"
His face dropped a little, he thought that he was involved in every decision, but it was at this moment that he realised he was being played. "You've got to believe me when I say that I had no clue. You, Johnny and the baby were never supposed to be a target."
"I don't believe you."
"Why would I want to hurt you or the kids? It doesn't make sense, Alice."
"But the thing is, you did hurt me and the kids when you attacked Michael with such viciousness," she stared him in the eye and tried as hard as she could to keep herself calm, "you could've killed him. How many times did you kick him in the head? It looked like a lot. What about the shot you took at him?" she aimed the gun and shot Danny in the shoulder. He dropped onto his knees and let out a roar as he clutched at the puncture, failing to stop the blood from oozing out.
"What do you want me to do…? Lie to you and say that I'm sorry?" He glared up at her as she stood above him, the gun now pointed at his head. "Look at what he's done to you! You used to be a good girl, dad's golden child and now you're nothing but a thug like those Peaky Blinders."
"The only thing that has made me like this is my hatred for you."
"Hate me all you want, but don't punish my kids by taking away their father."
The only thing that would make her change her mind about Danny was those children, but he didn't care about her own children as much as he claimed he did, and she knew that for a fact.
"Yet, you tried to take Michael away from mine. I wish I could forgive you, but I can't. I loved you, even though you tried to control me, even when you betrayed me but any love I had for you left when I saw my husband in that hospital bed." In the distance, she could see a car coming towards the hill; she had to finish what she set out to do. Their family could never be at peace with Danny still alive.
She looked down at him once more, watching the life leave him as she shot him in the head. A wave of relief washed over her when she realised that it was all over, all the drama he brought to her life was gone and she was finally free from his grip but just as quickly as that relief came, guilt took over when a car came from behind the graves and when it stopped, Danny's wife jumped out of the car. She could imagine the pain that Theresa was feeling, and she knew that she would want to take her own revenge out on Alice. She didn't know what to say to her as she watched Theresa cradle Danny's lifeless body, there was nothing she could say that would make things any better.
"Take your kids and go back to Listowel. Don't ever set foot Birmingham, I'm only giving you one chance, if I hear that you and your gypsy clan are anywhere near me or my family, I will hunt you down." Alice said coldly as she placed her gun back in her pocket.
As Alice started to walk away, Theresa looked up at her and started screaming at her, "I hope you never have peace, his face will haunt you for the rest of your life. You're evil, pure evil!"
She listened to her words, but she didn't let their effects show; Alice kept her head held high. She did what she had to for her own family, she wasn't going to apologise for putting them first. She got into her car and drove off, refusing to look back. Alice wiped away the single tear that escaped and took in a deep breath; was Michael, right? Should someone else have done this act? If she hadn't had saw Theresa's distraught face and the fury in her eyes, would she have still felt relief? She took reached across the seat for a cigarette and raked it down as she tried to come up with answers to her own questions. Only time would answer those doubts.
Things weren't looking good for the Polish; their high ground allowed them to pick off a few of the IRA, but their explosives had them on the ground before they could level the playing field. Paul was injured and took cover behind a car; a shot in his right arm was enough to render him almost useless. There were shots being fired all around him and he had no idea how many of his men were left. This wasn't how he had envisioned this; his plan was crumbling around him, and it wouldn't be long before he was gunned down.
But the tides turned when he heard a few cars screech to a halt and when he came out of his cover, he was greeted by the glorious sight of the cavalry; Tommy and his men returned and they put the machine guns to good use. Paul joined them, taking a gun from the youngest Shelby, and tried his best to help them finish off the rest of the Irish.
"I'm glad to see you!" he exclaimed over the sound of their ammunition hitting the IRA.
"Did you really think we'd just sit up in London and let you have all the fun?" Arthur replied with a grin. "Enough of the talk, let's end this."
Once the dust was settled, Paul and his few remaining men gathered up the bodies of their men and started to prepare to send them home. Even though they won, the feeling of loss outweighed their high. Tommy approached Paul, his hand on his shoulder and his eyes on the blood-soaked street. "We'll have a drink for them. Celebrate their lives, give them a send-off they deserve."
"None of that gin, vodka only." He replied as he turned away from his friends, blessing himself as he did. "They knew what they were getting into and they still joined in my crusade for justice. I'll be drinking plenty for them."
"Of course, and as promised, all the machine guns will go into your possession."
Paul nodded. "I'll meet you at your pub once I collect my friends."
"Take your time and get that arm looked at, your vodka will be waiting." Tommy patted him on the back before he left him, returning to his brothers.
"One of us should get Michael, he should be here to celebrate with us." Finn said as he looked between Arthur and Tommy.
"I'll give him a call and tell him to get to the Garrison." Tommy fixed his coat and stuffed his hands into the pockets. "The whole family should be at the Garrison so put the word out. As of now, our enemies are gone, and no one is standing in our way. All is right in the world again."
"For now." Arthur reminded him.
"That's another day, as for today, we've won. Let's just leave it at that."
A:N I hope everyone has been keeping safe during lockdown, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but now that things are starting to calm down a bit, I intend to update more regularly. I still have plenty more to come, even though Danny is now gone. Hope you enjoyed! Keep staying safe!