Out Of Time | A Shelby

twenty three

Arthur sat bloodied and bruised tied to a chair in an empty stable. Hay was scattered across the floor, swept into piles at the sides. He could hear the crowd outside watching the horses run past on the track, but the ringing in his ears from the beating he'd taken was louder.

Darby Sabini stood before him. Arthur wasn't sure if he'd been knocked out or not, but he was almost certain that the man was wearing a different coloured suit when he saw him last.

Four other men stood surrounding Arthur, three of them with guns in their hands and one with Arthur's cap firmly in his grip.

Arthur spat on the ground beside him, his mouth filled with blood and dirt after being thrown to the floor. He opened his eyes, the bruising around them made seeing painful for him, but he'd felt worse.

"What brings you to the races today, Mr Shelby?"

Arthur chuckled sarcastically at Sabini's question, pulling his eyes up from the floor to look at him.

"Have a bet or two, drink some champagne. I like horses, what can I say?"

Sabini rolled his eyes and walked towards Arthur, grabbing him by the neck and forcing his head upwards.

"I know you and your brothers are here for more reasons than to make a few pounds on the horses, Mr Shelby. Now I suggest you tell us what your reasons for visiting Camden the other week were before I cut your throat myself."

"We we're in Camden for a holiday, Darby, believe it or not. Maybe you should come up to Birmingham sometime for a break, there's a lovely place called The Garrison that-"

The fist that struck Arthur's jaw knocked the words right from his mouth. He'd have been on the floor had his arms not been tied round the back of the chair and his shoulders been held firm by the grasp of a man stood behind him.

It took him a moment, but Arthur eventually got the breath back into his chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and cleared his throat, feeling what was either sweat, blood, or both running down his face.

He opened his eyes at the clicking of a pistol and the sensation of ice cold steel pressing against the underneath of his chin.

"I won't hesitate to blow your brains out, Mr Shelby."

Arthur scowled at Sabini as he held the gun against his face. He gulped, but didn't take his eyes away from the man stood with his life in his hands.

"Boss!"

Sabini looked up when one of the men called his name. Arthur saw him pick something up from the ground out of the corner of his blood soaked eye. He felt his heart sink right to the pit of his stomach as Sabini smirked, unfolding the piece of paper.

"Oh, how lovely," Sabini held up Vincent's drawing with a sarcastic grin on his face, showing it to the other men as they laughed along with him.

"Vincent," Arthur felt sick when Sabini said his name, "That your boy, Mr Shelby?"

Arthur clenched his jaw and swallowed, hesitating for a moment before finally nodding his head.

The curtain on the side of the stables was brushed to the side by another man. Everybody's eyes turned to stare as the woman with the his arm around her neck and gun to the side of her head screamed for help.

Arthur felt sick.

"Arthur, Arthur help me!"

Sabini turned on his heels with a wicked grin, "You know this woman, Mr Shelby?"

Linda was silenced after the man with the gun whispered something in her ear to make her stop screaming. Her eyes were wide with fear and Arthur could see her hands shaking as she tried to keep still, her chest rising and falling at an uneven pace and her bottom lip quivering.

"I saw them talking earlier boss, looked like she was in on it."

Arthur sunk back into the chair, staring at Linda as her eyes pleading with him to do something, anything, to help them get out of the situation. He wasn't quite sure what Linda expected him to do, he was unarmed, tied up and could barely see out of his swollen eye sockets.

It was a split second later that Linda screamed as a splatter of blood flew across her and the man holding her slumped to the ground, a single bullet flying through his skull, killing him instantly.

Arthur watched as his John sauntered through the curtain with a shotgun, firing at the men that surrounded him, killing all but one who immediately covered Sabini, firing back as the two of them escaped through the opposite side of the stables.

"Fuck me, how the bloody hell did this happen?"

John walked over to his brother and untied his wrists. He held his face in his hands and wiped the blood away from Arthur's eyes with the sleeve of his coat.

"You're welcome, by the way, Linda." John said smugly, looking over his shoulder at Linda who was hugging herself, still shaking in shock with blood smeared across her face.

Arthur scoffed, "It was her fuckin' fault. Distracted me and the next thing I knew a fella had a gun to my head."

He looked across the floor to meet his ex-wife's gaze. She was frozen, shivering as she cradled herself and tried to slow her breathing. She looked like a deer caught in headlights with the way she looked at Arthur. He almost felt sorry for her.

"Fucking hell Linda, you don't half screw everything up. Tommy's gonna kill us when he finds out what's happened. Stay here, I was supposed to meet him by the betting post five minutes ago."

John disappeared back outside, leaving Arthur and Linda alone. It was silent for a moment until she shuffled across the floor, stepping over a body and picking up the piece of paper that Sabini had discarded on the floor.

Arthur watched as her eyes melted as she looked at the drawing. He recalled conversations they'd had about starting a family together, Linda had always seemed so keen to become a mother but Arthur couldn't see himself as a father, not back then, anyway.

Though now, after learning what it was like to love a child, part of him felt guilty for depriving Linda of that. Perhaps their relationship would've been different had they had a child to bring them together and shower with love like they used to with each other.

"Linda, are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

She didn't look up at him, only kept staring at the picture in her hands. Arthur watched as a single tear drop fell from her eyes and landed on the paper.

She started with the corner, slowly ripping the picture before tearing the whole thing to shreds and throwing it over Arthur.

"No, he didn't hurt me, but you did."