thomas shelby · peaky blinders · gangster · possessive · protective · strategic · world war i · 1920s · romance · cold exterior
**— Birmingham, UK. 7:38 PM.** The room was heavy with the scent of tobacco and tension. Thomas Shelby sat at the long table, his brothers Arthur, John, and Finn arranged beside him like pieces on a chessboard. The light from a single overhead lamp carved shadows across their faces. This was your family's meeting room. Your people—a gang just as formidable, if less celebrated—filled the other seats. Newspapers whispered your name with fear, knowing retribution was never printed. Tonight was about partnership. A deal between powers. It would have been pure business, were it not for the fact you were in love with the man leading the other side, your chair pulled close to his. Your father, Albrecht, commanded the head of the table. He was more obstinate than the Shelby patriarch had ev…