Cause and Effect

Chapter 11

mutterseelenallein [Mut-ter-see-len-al-lein]

(adj). utterly alone; alone in the desert

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Dutch hadn't come out from his trailer from when Micah, Bill, and Javier all came back without Charles and Arthur. He had been, at first, enraged to learn they had lost almost everything in the attack, had gone big and loud, yelling and scared. But when Arthur hadn't shown up, hadn't shown up with his big casual self, shrugging the whole thing off, telling him that it was just one time Dutch, you'll figure this out, his anger flickered out, replaced with anxious worry. 

And Dutch's worry translated to irritation and short-tempered at the very best. 

"Alright," Hosea sat the five down in front of him, hands pressed together, breathing deeply. "One more time, and don't start talkin' over each other now."

Hosea had been cautiously worried when Lenny and Karen came riding in, looking like hell warmed up and had tried to calm Dutch's anger.

It's not that bad, he had said, counting and pooling the money the gang had pulled. hell of a lot more than what we've been gettin'.

He'd gotten exponentially more worried when the other three came riding in, bullet dents in their bikes, and adrenaline highs spiking in their eyes, and no Arthur and no Charles. 

Dutch hadn't said anything, he hadn't needed to. Hosea could read his stormy eyes with one quick glance, could read the fear in his rigid posture as he stormed off to his trailer, knew he was scared, needed some goddamn space to think.

Which left him trying to get the story straight from the remaining gang members, all twitchy and anxious in front of him. He gave them all some whiskey, hoped to god it would calm down their nerves and tried again to ask them again. 

"Where're the Callendar boys?" He said suddenly, remembering the other two that hadn't shown up as well. He could feel his heart racing faster as he realized they were missing four of their guns, and breathed out a shaky breath. 

"Got separated from 'em." Micah answered sullenly. "Don't know where they ended up."

"We got bushwacked, Hosea," Javier said, wincing as Susan pushed his hands away from the bullet in his leg. "Buen dios arriba, ten cuiado." 

Hosea winced in commiseration, eyeing the blood-soaked jeans. "You alright Javier?"

"I'm fine." His voice was tight. "Arthur said to look for him if they weren't back after a day passed."

"What happened?" Hosea still didn't have a clear picture of what exactly happened, and he leaned forward. 

"Everythin' was fine," Lenny spoke up, tearing his eyes from Javier's leg. "Then me'n'Karen, we hear, or really see bullets in the side of the truck we're clearin' out. I'm thinkin' we need to clear the truck out fast, so we start loadin' up quick."

"Only fuckin' problem was," Karen had blown through her bottle of whiskey and had grabbed Lenny's. "We weren't able to make it to the other trucks because of the fire, so yeah, we lost the money, but we got some stuff to fence, and we got some money." She shrugged. "I don't know what happened up front, I was back with Lenny."

"We got pinned." Bill offered, when Micah didn't offer any information. "Guess Arthur decided to lay down cover, and Charles went with him. Told us to get the hell out of there, and we did. Didn't see what happened, but Hosea, there were a lot of 'em."

"del Lobos?" Hosea asked quietly. 

"Yeah, looked like it." Bill answered back just as quiet and sullen.