Under The Eyes of The Wolf (an rdr2 Arthur Morgan x oc story)

37-Homeward Bound

As the warm sun rose on the fourth day of the children's time at Shady Belle, Arthur and K woke early and had started packing for the journey to Valentine and Emerald Ranch to return the children to their families. Lee was helping Arthur get the horses hooked up to a wagon while Miguel and Jess helped gather all their gifts they'd acquired from the van der Linde gang members over the course of their stay. Clothes, toys, books, combs and hair brushes were amongst they're new possessions.

Once they had everything packed the children made their rounds saying goodbye to all their new friends. Jack did his best to be a big boy and not cry and he managed to hold it together until they rode out of camp in the wagon, waving their final farewells. As soon as they were out of sight he ran to Abigail, bawling his eyes out.

They headed to Valentine first. Along the way, K played games in back of the wagon with Miguel and Jess mostly. Lee had chosen to ride up front with Arthur however he and Arthur both couldn't help but to join in when K taught them all how to play "I spy".

They stopped at the store in Rhodes to pick up some food and supplies. K stopped and bought a newspaper off of the boy selling papers on their way out of town. She opened the rolled up paper and right on the front page in bold black letters she found what she was looking for.

ANGELO BRONTE-WEALTHY
BUSINESSMAN PRESUMED
DEAD!

Dungeon of horrors discovered hidden deep underneath his lavish home. Italian crime lord possibly responsible for abuse and deaths of at least 25 missing children!

It then went on to explain everything that had been found and how they had found it. It detailed the massive amounts of blood along with a number of dead henchmen that had been found but any sign of Bronte's actual body had yet to be discovered however he was presumed dead.

K read the entire article out loud to the group.

"Does it say what's gonna happen to his mansion and all of his assets?" Arthur asked.

"Uuuhhhh, let's see....AH! Here we go. It says that due to the files, documents and evidence found at his home, the estate and all of his belongings will be auctioned off by the police and in addition to that a large sum of his cash will be given out to the families of the missing children as restitution. Well that's good to hear."

"Won't replace the loss of their children." Arthur grumbled.

"No, obviously not but better to them than to the cops. Most of them were on Bronte's payroll anyway. At least the victims families deserve it." She reasoned.

"Yeah, true."

• • • • •

It was evening when they decided to camp out for the night on the shore of Flat Iron Lake, close to Gill Landing. Arthur made a fire while K, Miguel and Jess set up everyone's bedrolls and Lee scoured the area for more firewood.

Once the fire was going and everyone was comfortable Arthur pulled out some venison steaks he'd brought along for everyone. After everyone had eaten and they all relaxed around the fire for a bit K finally broke the silence.

"So Miguel. Tell us about your family. I bet they miss you."

"Si. Mi papa works at the auction yard. He shears sheep, tags them, brands them, cows too. He works all day, every day except Sundays. We all go to church together on Sunday. Mi madre works at the Saint's Hotel in town, cleaning rooms and managing the wash room. Mi hermana's will not be happy to see me return. They always yell at me and say I just get in the way. All the same I still miss them." He said fondly.