Liars And Thieves

Chapter 33

"Davey, Mac, Jenny, Sean and now Kieran," Grace muttered, her fingers tracing Arthur's veins on the back of his hands. "Too many people in a short time, Arthur. Who's next? Me? You?"

"No one," Arthur sounded confident. His arms squeezed around her body, comforting her. "Maybe if we never met up with Colm, none of this would have happened."

"That ain't true, it's Colm. If any man can hold onto a small grain of tension, it's him," Grace sighed, her fingers stopping as she looked out into the field they sat in. They both needed to get away from camp for a few hours at least, what happened today was a nightmare. "I just don't want us to suffer like Kieran from Dutch's past. Dutch caused all of this, killing Colm's brother."

"When we get enough money, we'll be out of this shithole. Away from Colm, the pinkertons..."

"Until the time comes where it all bites us in the ass," Grace grunted. 

"Grace, come on," Arthur sighed. 

"No... no," Grace began, turning slightly to look up at Arthur. "Today was fucked up. Dutch would never decapitate on of Colm's boys and ride them back to their camp. Colm is capable of anything, he proved that today. Arthur..." Grace trailed off, turning back away from his and resting her back against his chest once again. "This is getting too dangerous. I-I don't want to die, not over this."

"I understand," Arthur breathed. There was silence for a moment before Arthur continued. "Dutch isn't to blame though. Colm did this, Dutch tried to make peace but Colm keeps coming back for more. Yes, they have a rocky past but if anyone is to blame, it's Colm."

Grace felt guilt for blaming Dutch but she couldn't help it. If Dutch had never killed Colm's brother maybe there wouldn't be a gang feud. 

"Thanks for helping me put up those posters, again. I needed to take my mind off of Kieran," Grace thanked for the hundredth time. After they had helped clean up the camp, Grace asked Arthur to ride with her to Saint Denis to put up the posters for the horses. 

"It's fine," Arthur chuckled lightly, telling her that for the hundredth time again. 

"And you'd be happy to help me with selling them too?" 

"Of course, I like acting as your bodyguard," Arthur joked. Grace laughed. "See? I made you laugh. Keiran was a good man, he saved my life. He wouldn't want us all to mope around and feel sorry for him. He hated Colm just as much as we all do."

"Except some of us still held the fact he was an O'Driscoll against him. I feel bad to think that he was treated badly by some of us. Sure, I treated him poorly when he first got dragged around with us, we all did because we were afraid. But, I realised I shouldn't treat him that way, I wouldn't like to be treated like that so I gave him a chance. Why would he want to stay with people like us?"

"Because we became his home. He was happy to be with us. Compared to Colm, we are good people. Compared to good people, we are bad. It's funny how things turn out." Arthur chuckled. Grace nodded in agreement. 

"Yeah, I guess so. You're good in my eyes though," Grace grinned, leaning her head back on Arthur's chest to look up at him. He smirked, grabbing her chin with one of his hands, keeping her eyes on him. 

"That'd be the first," he joked before pressing his lips against her forehead. Grace's eyes fluttered shut from his touch, her eyes opening softly once he had finished. She grinned again, reaching a hand up to cup the side of his face.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," she sighed before sitting back up and turning her body around to face him, her legs crossed in front of her. He grinned, Grace knew he had felt touched from that. "And I don't want to imagine what it would be like to lose you."