A WEEK LATER

Arthur guided his horse off the road and up a dirt track that led to a small ranch house. He was on an errand to collect some debt money from one Mr. Thomas Downes.

He hated collecting debts for that sniveling Austrian Strauss more than just about anything else he did for the gang. Always felt wrong, somehow, having to beat and threaten money out of desperate people who started out with none and - more often than not - had none with which to pay them back. Even if this was legal, he much preferred a good honest robbery any day.

He took a deep breath, tensing his muscles and puffing himself up, trying to get into the enforcer's mindset. Angry. Impatient. Snide. Intimidating. Arthur dismounted from his horse (who he still hadn't named, poor beast) and strode towards the main house.

He faltered and quickly slipped into the shade of a stand of trees when he realized there was a dark figure standing with a gun drawn in front of the garden off to his right. The gun was pointed at a sickly looking man, sitting on his keister in the dirt between two rows of tomato plants, hands up in a pathetic attempt at placation.

Arthur heard a woman's voice. Her face was obscured by an old cavalry hat. "You got some men stayin' here with you, Mr. Downes? They're bandits, ya know? Killers. Bad men. Sheriff probably wouldn't like it much if I mentioned to him you been harborin' outlaws…"

Downes trembled and sputtered into a small coughing fit. "I, please I… there are some men, been payin' to sleep in our barn. My family needed the money! We didn't ask any questions! We don't know anything!"

Arthur watched the woman wave the pistol a little impatiently at Downes. "One of 'em named Everett? The leader? They here now?"

Downes shrugged, shaking his head. "They're usually out all day, most days. I, I'm sorry ma'am but what do you want from me? I swear, I don't know anything about 'em, or what they been doing!"

"Everett!" She stamped a spurred boot into the grass. "I want Everett goddamn it!"

Everyone whipped their heads around to look as the door to the house slammed open. A very frightened Mrs. Downes and a 17 or 18-year-old boy shuffled out through the front door, holding their hands limply above their heads. A trim man with slick black pomaded hair and a thin-cropped goatee came out close behind Mrs. Downes, a pistol pressed into the small of her back. He sported a scar that started under his left eye and curled down under his chin.

"Well hey there, little Mina! I was wonderin' when you were gonna show up. You always do, eventually, don't you…"

At this point Arthur had had about enough. He stepped out from amid the stand of trees and aimed his revolver at the man's head. "Now son, you'd be wise to let them folks go!"

Willa's jaw dropped. She should have expected Everett to pull a stunt like this, but why the hell was that bounty hunter here all of a sudden? Maybe he was hunting Everett too? She heard Downes let out a strangled cry behind her.

"Edith! Archie! My God, please don't hurt them!" His whimpers turned into another pathetic fit of coughing.

The corner of Everett's mouth curled into a predatory grin. "Oh, you brought a friend this time? Probably wise, since you ain't never been able to kill me yet, little sister." He ushered the Downes family forward, eyes shifting back and forth between Arthur and Wilhelmina.

Arthur thought he could hear hoof beats off behind the barn, but he did not let his attention waver from the man he could only assume was Everett. "I'm here on my own business. And I'd suggest, whatever it is you two need to sort out, you do it away from these folks."

The hoof beats got louder. Everett's grin widened even further. He positioned himself just so behind Archie, so that Arthur would not be able to get a clear shot at him.

"Mina dear, one of these days we will have to have a real sit-down chat, you and me. This silly game you're playin', while it has been entertaining, it's beginning to wear down my patience. I'm tired of lookin' over my shoulder for you. I've got better things to worry about." Everett reached his free hand inside the breast of the gray suit jacket he wore, brandishing a small pistol even as he kept the other gun pointed at Edith's back.

Willa's eyes flicked briefly to Arthur before returning to her brother. She saw that he didn't have a line of sight, and she couldn't even get a shot at Everett because Downes' wife was in the way. She was gripping her own pistol so tightly she could feel the cords in her forearm straining. "You son of a bitch…"

Everett erupted in a snort. "Our mother was a saint, dear heart. You, on the other hand…" He shrugged a shoulder, pointed the small pistol and fired.

Then, things happened quickly. The rider of that mystery horse suddenly came barreling out from behind the barn, horse lathered up in a full gallop.

Willa had screwed her eyes shut, sure her brother had shot her and that would finally be the sad end of it. After an agonizing second, she heard Mrs. Downes start to scream.

"Thomas!"

Arthur fired a shot at Everett, who turned towards the rider just in time to avoid a mortal wound. The bullet grazed his shoulder and he grunted, dropping one of his pistols. He in turn shot Arthur a glare full of evil promises as the rider caught his good arm and hoisted him up onto the back of the horse.

"Be a good little girl and go help that poor man I just shot! This is your last chance to forget about me, Mina!" Everett called over his shoulder as the horse was spurred back into a gallop. Arthur ran forward and fired a few more shots, but the horse made a beeline into the trees just in time.

"Christ!" Willa's head swiveled between the retreating horse and Thomas Downes. She stood frozen for a moment, desperation clear on her face.

Arthur rumbled, internally kicking himself. This was not how he'd imagined this day going at all. "Goddamnit, go on! I'll…I'll do somethin'…"

Willa opened her mouth, closed it, gave him a small nod, then hurriedly clambered up into Tulip's saddle and urged her off in the direction the men had disappeared.

Arthur stalked over towards the garden. Edith and Archie Downes were already there. Archie had a hand clamped over his mouth, wet tears brimming in his eyes. Edith wailed, her husband's limp hand clutched in her own. He was dead.

Arthur sighed, turning one way and then the other, flustered. Should he still ask for the money? Edith turned towards him sharply, her face a mask of rage and sorrow.

Arthur cleared his throat. "I'm, I came on behalf of Leopold Strauss, he lent your husband some money. Your husband knew the rules when he took it. Now, I'm real sorry about the way things turned out, but he had a choice. Ain't my fault about the way the world is…"

Edith's lip quivered. "Not even cold in the ground…" She bit her lip, bowing her head and hastily wiping at her tear-stained face. "He didn't have a choice! He was good, and he did good! There wasn't no choice in that…and you've as good as killed him yourself!"

After some more strained bickering with the woman and her son, Arthur eventually got Strauss' money. Truthfully, he felt like a real piece of shit about the whole thing. The only small consolation he could find was that it had been the money Everett Thorne paid them for being able to camp in their barn. But taking that bastard's money wouldn't bring back a dead husband and father, and it became yet another stark example that he was not there in any capacity that would afford him the ability to offer words of comfort. It was not his right to offer those words, nor did he believe he deserved to.

Arthur was bewildered by the whole encounter with Wilhelmina and her brother. He didn't think he had ever met two siblings with such a palpable chasm of hate between them. As he made his way back to camp that evening, thoughts of the Downes family were pushed from his mind as he began wondering about the Thorne siblings and whatever had led to that moment at the ranch house. And found himself hoping he wouldn't run into either of them again. They both seemed like more trouble he didn't need.