Reckless Hearts

Chapter 15

You hated every single day that you were in the mountains. The only consolation you had was your book, and the fire.

You spent everyday avoiding Micah and Hosea. For different reasons, but kind of the same. Although Dutch had said he would protect you. You still didn't trust that Micah wouldn't try and kill you. You felt it was partially your own fault, because you had made him look stupid, when you were shooting the bottles. You didn't think he'd ever forgiven you for that. Hosea, on the other hand had been kind, until the night he had drugged you. Now you didn't trust him either.

Arthur, who you did trust always seemed to be off doing things. Either rescuing John from a pack of wolves, or hunting with Charles, or riding with Dutch and everyone else, whilst he put his many plans into action. At least when Dutch was out with the boys, you didn't have to worry about Micah.

But Hosea was always there. He didn't go off with Dutch and the other boys, when they raided the O'Driscoll camp, or when they robbed the train.

You hadn't heard of the O'Driscolls, until you arrived on the mountain.

The poor woman, who Dutch and Arthur had brought in the first night, had apparently been left a widow, when they broke in to her homestead. You could tell from overhearing snippets of conversation how much everyone hated the O'Driscolls. Especially Colm O' Driscoll, who had killed someone called Annabelle.

You felt sorry for the poor boy that Arthur had brought back, tied up. He was apparently an O'Driscoll, and they planned to get some information out of him, one way or another.

It made you feel like you were on a bit of a knife edge again. It appeared that Dutch Van Der Linde could be either a good friend or a dangerous enemy. You'd had experience of both sides.

Each day was also tinged with sadness. You managed to get little snippets about what had happened in Blackwater. A couple of people had died. You didn't really know them, but Sean was also missing. They didn't know if he was dead or alive. You liked Sean, he was probably one of your best friends, next to Lenny and Arthur. The chances of you seeing him again, weren't very likely.

The weather had finally begun to break, and there was talk of coming down off the mountain. Dutch was in good spirits after robbing a train. Hosea, on the other hand wasn't. He wasn't too happy about the gang heading east, when apparently the plan had been to head west. His bad mood wasn't helped, when he came to see you, to look at your arm. It had been bandaged up for almost three weeks.

You sat in the cabin. The wagons were pretty much loaded up. There wasn't a huge amount you could do to help, still only having one arm available. So you sat in the cabin, keeping warm by the fire.

You looked over your shoulder as the door open. To see Hosea standing there.

"I need to look at your arm, Kara," he stated.

You stood up, and glared at him, "I don't think so!" you retorted.

His eyes narrowed, "What do you mean by that, I need to check your arm to see if its healing, to see if the bandages can come off."

You shook your head, "You think I would let you anywhere near me, after what you did!" you exclaimed.

Hosea raised his voice, "Stop being so bloody stupid! It was in your best interests!" He shouted.

You laughed, mirthlessly. "Really, in my best interests to be drugged without me knowing. What if you'd given me too much. I could be dead. If I let you anywhere near me, then I would be fucking stupid, and I'm not!" You had now started to raise your voice.