Kimber's Daughter - Tommy Shelby x Reader Fan Fic

Chapter 49

"Are you going to tell me which one of my Boys snitched?" I asked Arthur.

I folded my arms across my chest. We were no more than silhouettes, lit only by the distant torch I'd placed on the floor.

"You know I can't do that, Kimber." He shook his head. "I shouldn't even be here at all. What are you playing at with all this?"

"It's just business, Arthur," I said. "You know how this game goes."

"I know we've left you alone from the moment you left us," Arthur said. "Not bothered you once. And believe me, we've had the chance. Kept tabs on you? Of course we have. But trying to steal from you? We wouldn't be so stupid. And I thought you wouldn't, either."

My hands clenched into fists as I spoke. "You've already stolen from me. I'm only taking back what is mine."

"Yours?" He asked incredulously. "You didn't go through with the marriage, Kimber."

"Because it was a farce!" I stomped my foot in anger. The sound of my heel making contact with the concrete sounded through the warehouse. "You tried to tell me so yourself."

"So what? So the Inspector wanted to trade your father for immunity in the guns case, so Grace manipulated us all. You think Tommy's willing to go through a fucking marriage, to sleep with you each night, to appease some fucking copper who doesn't have shit on him to begin with?"

I shook my head and took a breath. It was time to come clean. "It was always a ruse, Arthur," I said quietly. "The day he was meant to shoot me, he made me an offer. Marriage in exchange for a share of the business."

Arthur sighed. "If it was always a ruse, Kimber, why didn't you go through with it in the end? Eh?"

I didn't have an answer for him. And it angered me. I was already fuming about the guns, and about Tommy, and I didn't want to listen to reason. I didn't want to talk it through with Arthur. I wanted to taste blood.

"Word is that you're building something for yourself here," Arthur continued. "Don't go fucking it all up on petty revenge. And don't touch our shit again. I don't want to hurt you, Kimber. I don't want to go to war."

"Then don't," I answered coldly.

Arthur stared at me for a moment in the darkness. "We used to drink together like we were kin," he said quietly.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. "Don't think I don't miss it."

"I've never had to get properly angry with you," he said. "I can be one nasty fucker when I'm angry. You make a move against us again, and you'll see."

I smiled and gave a short, muffled laugh. "I've spent a lifetime around angry men. You don't scare me, Arthur Shelby. None of you do."

"Then you're an idiot. Or, my guess is, ignorant. You've never had reason to be scared of us because we treated you like one of our own." Arthur walked towards me. I refused to retreat, and he did not stop until our faces were inches apart, so close I could smell the liquor on his breath. "I'm giving you one more chance. Don't make me regret it."

I stared right back at him. Tension hung thick between us for a moment. "Why is it you that came?" I asked.

"Because John's about as likely to tell you off as I am to sprout wings, and Tommy refuses to hurt you again."

"Bullshit. He hurts me everytime he fucking looks at me."

"From what I hear, Kimber, it hurts him too."

I broke the eye contact then. Looked at the ground, at the shadows we were casting. "This can't go on forever," I said quietly. "One of us will have to kill the other in the end."

"Then why not just draw our guns now?" Arthur asked. "Get it over with, eh?"

I smiled as I answered. "Because that would be no fun." I walked slowly past Arthur, pacing. "Alright, then. Let's work something out. You tell Tommy he can have five percent of Cheltenham. My price is the guns. I'll be at Fakenham this Saturday if he wishes to discuss the matter."

Arthur considered for a moment. "Alright. I'll tell him."

"If he discloses the rat in my Boys, I'll negotiate up to ten." I walked the length of the warehouse, wrapping my trench coat tighter around me and picking up my torch. "It was good to see you, Arthur. Stop by for a drink next time you're passing."

He chuckled in disbelief. "Sometimes I think you've got more nerve than even I do, Kimber."

"You love it."

He shook his head, but still grinned in the torchlight. "Go on, get your crew out of here. Oh," he snapped his fingers, suddenly remembering something. "Uh, Tommy wants the handcuffs back."

I pulled them from my pocket. "These? Oh, no. You tell your brother if he wants them, he needs to come and get them himself. And I'll be sure to keep them very, very well hidden."

I had been looking forward to shooting kneecaps, I realised with a twinge of sadness on the drive home. But the way things had transpired, in the long run I was getting something better.

Revenge.