Van Der Linde Savior (Red Dead Redemption 2)

In The Dust

Celina had a daring thought, "And what if I refuse?"

Dutch was taken aback for a second at her question, "I'm sorry?"

"What if I refuse to leave the gang and decide to stick around instead. What's going to happen then? Are you going to kill me again? Maybe break my neck or shoot me this time."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Celina, there's really no need to take the conversation there."

"No, tell me what you're going to do, Dutch." Her face was getting red the more she thought about what she had been ordered to do. "The gang is my family too and you can't just make me walk away from them if I don't want to. I have a life here just as you do. They are my life.  So tell me... what are you going to do if I refuse to leave?"

He dropped his hand from his face and stared wordlessly at her, "I would hope you wouldn't make me decide."

She stared right back, not showing any signs of intimidation from him even if she did feel threatened, "If you would kill me, you would just be proving my suspicion right again."

He scoffed, "When did I say anything about killing you?"

She raised a brow at him, "You didn't, just figure since you did it once you would do it again. The more you do it the easier it should get for you, right?"

He sounded tired, the fight faded from his voice, "I never wanted to kill you."

"And yet you did," she reminded him simply, "Why?"

"I-" He stopped talking abruptly with a shake of his head.

"You did it because it came to the point that my existence- our relationship challenged what you believe in. It made you question things and you didn't want to change your ideals even though you could feel them slipping. Isn't that it?" She wetted her lips, "So you thought the only way to keep your sight on your goal of making the Pinkertons pay was to cut ties with me- remove me from your life so you could truly put revenge first. Right?" She held up a finger to keep him from talking, "But cutting me out of your life wasn't  enough, was it? So you killed me, you thought if you killed  me your feelings for me would fade and would no longer stand in the way of your plan and ideals for this country. You killed me not because you hated me for making you want other things in life."

"I-" He slowly looked over at her, his eyes shining in the light. She knew that look on him, there were tears in his dark eyes, "I don't know. I... I don't know."

Celina sniffled back her own tears, "Oh, Dutch." She reached up and wiped the ones which had escaped from her face, "What has happened to you?"

Dutch turned away from her again, tapping The Count in the sides with his spurs and getting him to begin walking away slowly, "I expect you to be gone by morning... and as far as Javier so clearly being sweet on you... I suggest you leave without a word."

She gave her own steed no command to move.  Instead she sat there on him in the clearing, "So that's it, huh?" She bit down on her bottom lip enough to cause pain, "You want to take them all away from me, do you?" She raised her voice at him, "You know you'll lead them all to their deaths, Dutch. They'll follow you until it kills them and it will.  Hosea? He could be dead before the year is through. Is that what you want for them? For him?"

Dutch only kept riding, not bothering to even look back at her, "I have a plan, miss Knoll, and you're not in it. We will all be more than fine without you." It was as the last words left his lips that he and The Count disappeared into the thick cover of the woods.

Celina stared in the direction he had left in, her heart pounding in overdrive.  She shakily let out the breath she had been holding, feeling as if she could vomit. It was only after Dutch had to have been a safe distance away that Arthur emerged from the cover of the brush with Javier. He dusted off his pants and looked at at her with a grim expression, "Looks like we'll be talking to people tonight."