NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY: RDR2

15. FATE WILFULLY MISUNDERSTAND ME

"I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate wilfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better."

― Robert Frost

Cripps had been off with me ever since I'd got back from the hunt yesterday. He had barely said a word to me all evening, only coming by my tent to say the stew was ready. Much the same had happened this morning as I helped him ready the wagon, he'd made a big show of being angry. I had just about had enough.

"Say it or don't say it." I snap, throwing a bag of goods down into the wagon. "But I swear to god if you huff one more time, I'll-"

"Kill me where I stand? Nice to know your new friend is such a good influence on you."

"I'm nearly thirty, Cripps. Ain't nobody influencing me." I mutter. "And besides it really ain't nothin' to do with you who I'm friends with."

"Oh? That so?" he says, crossing his arms. "It ain't nothin' to do with me if one of the most wanted men this side of the country is sneakin' around my camp?"

My blood ran cold. I stopped what I was doing, dropping the bag of goods I had been carrying, Cripps winced as it hit the ground.

"How do you know that?" I whisper. He pulls a crumpled-up piece of paper from his pocket and throws it at me. I catch it and unfold a Blackwater bounty poster, being met with a bad drawing of Arthur, but it was Arthur nonetheless. Five thousand dollars' worth of bounty, just for him. Damn.

"Like I always say, I keep my ear to the ground." he says, smug. I reminded myself that violence was not always the answer, and took a deep breath.

"You don't know what you are talking about." I say, quietly.

"And you do?" he replies, the satisfaction on his face was bringing my blood to boiling point.

"You are such a hypocrite, you know that?" I spit, venom spilling out in words. "You keep me up all night bragging about robbing that bank with those idiot friends of yours, and you have the gall to stand here and pass judgement?"

"Are you suggesting my robbing a bank is the same as a massacre?"

"I'm suggesting that you stay out of it. You are my business partner, not my father." I snap, picking up the goods again and throwing them into the wagon. "I hunt for the wagon. I hunt for the food. I go out there and make money to fuel your drinking habit. Don't think for a second I can't, or won't, do this without you."

I was angry, but I was well aware by now that I couldn't do this without him. However if the rule was to live under his thumb, I'd rather not be doing it at all. I had plenty of other ways of making money, none of which involved being treated like a child.

"I just don't trust him." he said, without the smug tone this time.

"Well, I do. So, trust me instead." I say, heaving the last bag onto the wagon. "Or are you going to turn him in for the money?"

"Would you ever forgive me if I did?" he asked, looking down at his feet, I barked out a sarcastic laugh.

"Not a chance."