Liars And Thieves

Chapter 56

Grace needed a day of relaxation, a day to herself after the camp dramas. Yesterday she watched Colm hang and she couldn't be more happier to see that bastard swinging. Grace knew she wasn't normal in the head, everything she has seen these past years has changed. A normal person wouldn't feel pleasure of watching a person hang, they would find it disturbing. Hell, the person she was before she joined the gang would have never wanted to watch a person hang, it would have given her nightmares. However she felt like that Grace was coming back, wanting to ensure everyone in the gang leaves the country safely. That hope however was dying with Dutch, Dutch isn't the same anymore. The gang is going to fall apart any day now and her goal was to now make sure everyone leaves safely. Grace never believed the gang would fall apart but Hosea's death changed Dutch. It made him see the world as black and white, his vision was violence and noise. It wasn't what it use to be. Dutch was pushing Arthur further and further away from him and pulling Micah closer to him. Arthur doesn't know what to do. Grace was still trying to figure out a way to tell Dutch without everyone going insane. The only way she could think of would be to kill Micah or just shout at Dutch until he wakes up. If Hosea was here, he would believe the man straight away. 
The sound of shouting in the distance broke Grace from her thoughts from a tree she sat against in Roanoke Ridge. 

"You let us go!" A voice demanded, the shouting was nearing her. Grace looked up the road as she jumped to her feet, seeing a dodgy wagon rolling down. The two horses pulling the wagon looked exhausted and dirty, their manes knotty and uncared for. Grace immediately knew something was wrong, people care for their horses, no one in the right mind treats a horse like that. "You hear me? Let me and my wife go!" The voice demanded, sending shivers down Grace's spine.

"Please, let us go. We don't want this," the woman begged through sobs.

"Shut up, woman!" A screechy voice snapped before Grace heard a loud slap. Grace moved into the middle of the road that the wagon was riding down. She watched as the driver tapped the man beside him on the shoulder, pointing to her and mumbling something before the man beside him turned to the back. He was speaking to someone, it wasn't the two people they had captive though as a head popped up out of the back to look at her also. The wagon came to a stop.

"What we got here?" The man beside the driver asked as he jumped down from the wagon. Grace could tell they were murfrees just from their appearance of filth, explaining the lack of care for the horses. "Are you lost, miss?" He questioned, taking a step away from the wagon. Grace heard the driver snicker. 

"Help us!" The husband pleaded, hoping Grace would hear. Grace was surprised he thought that she might not hear, the two of them were screaming at the top of their lungs in the middle of the woods. The face of the driver fell as rage exploded onto his face.

"Tell him to be quiet!" The driver hissed into the back, looking away from Grace for a second. 

"Shut up!" The screechy voice demanded once again before followed by another loud slap. The woman cried out at her husband being hit. 

"Are you really going to pretend I don't know what is going on here?" Grace joked to the murfree boys. They all looked at her, including the one in the back as he stood up, looking down at her. "I know your kind, you ain't nice."

"What-what do you mean? They're just confused," the murfree continued, his hands flying around as he began to worry. He took a few steps towards her before pausing when his eyes darted to her hand that rested on her holstered revolver. 

"You're a gang of pigs," Grace hissed at them. The man in the back of the wagon shook his head at her before motioning to the other two murfrees.

"No, no, we're a brotherhood, a brood!" He corrected. "We ain't no gang, we are brothers."

"Okay," Grace nodded, not caring. "Look, just let them go, they're innocent folk."