Lovers Not Without Sin | Dutch van der Linde x OC

Chapter 2

"They've got another camp by Teller's Yard. We get a group together to ride out and we can take them no problem," Roy Vickers is stood over Fred Ralston's desk with a file in hand. The two of them were friends before they worked here and joined only 6 months ago. Despite this, they've got four times the respect that Ada has already.

"Sounds good to me. How many?" Roy responds as he blows at the hot coffee in his hand.

"The usual, I'm assuming. 'Bout fifteen men."

"I reckon we wait until evening when they're good and drunk, easy pickings that way."

Fred nods in agreement. "They make it far too easy for us."

This is their usual performance. The agency likes results, and they consider dead bodies the best result of all. So naturally, Fred and Roy always opt for the murderous route because it gets them brownie points. It's all performative though. It provides Milton with proof for whoever he's on the job for (the government in this case) and keeps his income coming.

"It's pointless," Ada sighs from her desk. The two of them turn and look at her like an annoying fly buzzing around their food. It's their usual response whenever she interjects.

"Pointless? Killing bad men is pointless?" Roy laughs and elbows Fred playfully.

"They could have information. Just because killing them is the quickest way of dealing with it, it doesn't mean it's the best," Ada's thankful for the cool tone she's mastered at times like these.

"We don't need information. We have information. That information tells us where they're camped, also known as the place we need to bring our guns," Fred snorts.

Ada rolls her eyes. "That's not good information. It doesn't get you any closer to Colm."

The two spend most of their time after the O'Driscoll gang. Nothing much to say about them except there always seems to be more. Every time they've eradicated one camp, another pops up. It's like they're continuously spawning new members. Ada went out to one of their camps just last week to assist in a raid where they gunned down everyone there. Worse still, she saved Roy from getting his head blown off but he hasn't so much as uttered a thanks to her.

"If you get to him, you'll get to the root of the problem and then bang. No more O'Driscoll's." She adds on and they respond with a bored expression.

"Or we put a gun to their heads and bang. They're dead," Roy laughs. "You're picking holes and being sour because you're not working on this case."

"That's right, I'm not. If I were, there'd be no case to work on because I'd have dealt with it by now."

"Perhaps," Edgar Ross stands from his desk after eavesdropping on the conversation. He's in his forties and is Milton's right-hand man. "But how about you focus on your own case instead? Leave these boys, they're doing a fine job."

Fred and Roy clap each other's shoulders and throw her a smug look as Ross walks to her desk. She only ever gets petty cases thrown her way, and that's if she's lucky. Truth be told, she's a glorified secretary. That's why she's been researching the Van der Linde gang in her spare time.

"My case is dealt with. Please give me something interesting. I've been looking at the Van der Linde gang and -"

He holds a hand up for her to stop talking. "No, I've told you before. There's no point putting you on it. Van der Linde is like smoke, there's no catching him. Plus, they've got robberies on their mind and people are much more scared of the O'Driscoll's. They do proper killings."

Don't make any mistake, Ross doesn't value people's lives over money. The real reason he focuses on the O'Driscoll's is that they provide easy results, therefore an easy paycheck.