Partner (Micah Bell)

3. Bounty Hunt

Ashley spent the morning around the camp fire, mostly talking to Lenny and Javier. She felt like she was just waiting for Micah to come along and give her the bad news that they had to go on that job he was talking about. "What's the job that Micah was talking about?" Javier asked Ashley, wondering what Micah had heard about or how he heard about it.

"I don't even know" she shrugged, running her fingers through her hair.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad, you'll be fine. Just ignore him" he advised.

"Easier said than done" Ashley shook her head.

"Come on, partner. Time to go" Micah walked up behind Ashley and patted her on the shoulder roughly, once again making her jolt. Before she could even respond, Micah had walked off towards the horses.

"I swear to god if he hits me on the shoulder one more time, I'm going to shoot him. Seriously, I'm going to kill him" she promised as she stood up.

"At least let us watch" Javier laughed, shaking his head at her as she walked away.

Ashley walked over to Micah and the horses and mounted her horse, Micah had already mounted Baylock and was watching her with a bored expression. Once they were both ready to leave, Ashley followed Micah out of the camp. They rode in silence for some time, Ashley just following along with Micah since she didn't know where she was going or what they were meant to be doing.

"What you name that horse anyway?" Micah asked, breaking the silence as they rode along side by side.

"Robin" Ashley answered, brushing her hand over her horse's mane with a small smile.

"Why?" he asked, looking at her with a furrowed brow. Why would somebody name their horse 'Robin'?

"Because of the white patch on his chest" she smiled again. She hadn't seen a horse with a different colour patch on its chest like this at the time and it made her fall in love with the horse in the first place.

"Robins ain't white" Micah shook his head before returning his attention to the road.

"I know that, the pattern just reminds me of them" the woman rolled her eyes, why did he even care?

"It's a stupid name" he scoffed, laughing drily to himself.

"Oh yeah? And 'Baylock' is such a clever name? What is your amazing reason for naming him that?" she asked, turning to look at him expectantly.

"Shut up, Black" Micah muttered, not even looking at her.

"Whatever, Bell" Ashley smiled victoriously to herself, she won this one! They rode in silence for a few more minutes before she got bored and had to know what the job was. "So what is this job anyway?" she asked, following the man down another winding path.

"Went into town this morning and saw a bounty for a pretty good score" he explained and Ashley wondered why he didn't just tell her that before they left.

"A bounty hunt? That's the score? You can't do that on your own?" she asked, almost in disbelief. Surely he could manage a simple bounty hunt on his own.

"I was gonna do it on my own, but Dutch said that I have to take ya along" he shrugged, letting her know that he wasn't happy with it either.

"Damn it, Dutch" Ashley muttered to herself.

"His name is Thomas Adams, $500 dead or alive. Meant to be hiding out in a camp by the river just down here" Micah told her the details of the bounty before they both went silent again.

The rest of the ride was silent, Ashley following Micah to the location that the bounty was meant to be hiding out. They rode up to the small camp, hidden in a natural alcove in the rock. The man shot to his feet when he saw the two horses riding towards him, becoming nervous as the pair of outlaws dismounted.

"Thomas Adams?" Micah asked, confidently strolling into the camp.

"Stay there! Don't come any closer!" Adams shouted at them as he pulled his gun out and aimed it at Micah. The blonde man sighed and slowly raised his hands to show his surrender while Ashley stood a few feet away from him, watching them both carefully.

"Don't do anything stupid, we don't have to hurt you" Ashley tried to defuse the situation but it didn't seem to be working. Adams' hand that was holding the gun began to shake, the pair of outlaws noticed that he kept looking over Micah's shoulder. Micah wasn't going to risk turning around and getting shot, so Ashley began to subtly look over her shoulder to see what he was looking at.

"Micah!" she gasped but before she could act, another man had hit Micah on the temple with a blunt rock. Micah fell to the ground with a thud, rolling over onto his back as this new man straddled his waist, ready to punch him.

Adams dropped the gun and began to grab his things, getting ready to leave. Ashley reacted quickly this time, grabbing her gun and shooting the man who was about to punch Micah in the face, even if she would've loved to see that. She then turned to Adams and aimed her gun at him, he froze and raised his hands like Micah did earlier.

Micah grunted as he pushed the man's lifeless body off of him and stood up, dusting himself off before walking towards Adams. He grabbed his bounty roughly and shoved him to the ground. Ashley holstered her gun as Micah tied the man's hide behind his back and tied his feet together. She just mounted her horse as Micah threw the man over the back of his horse before mounting it himself.

They rode into the town silently, but Ashley did glance over at Micah when she noticed him reaching up to touch the spot where he was hit on the head. They carried Adams into the jail and threw him in a cell before collecting their bounty and walking back out to their horses. They mounted their horses at the same time before riding out of time, and Ashley couldn't help but smirk to herself.

"So, you ain't going to thank me for saving you back there?" she asked, only glancing at him.

"You didn't save me" Micah scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Sure I did! If I wasn't there you would've had your ass kicked by the mystery man" she teased, knowing that she was getting under his skin, knowing that she was annoying him as much as he annoyed her every day.

"I would've been fine without your help" he shook his head, tightening his grip on his reins.

"No, you almost got knocked out and I saved your life" she continued to brag, smirking to herself.

"You did not 'save my life'" he denied it again.

"Well that's the story that I'm going to be telling back at camp. Unless you just admit it and thank me" Ashley shrugged, almost feeling the frustration radiating off of Micah.

"Fine...thanks for helping me out" Micah rolled his eyes.

"You're welcome, but now you owe me" she smiled to herself, feeling pretty proud and only smiling harder when she heard Micah groan from frustration.