Red Dead Reborn

xvii) A Social Call

On the far side of camp, where the gang had strung up the alleged O'Driscoll, Kieran Duffy, the same hospitality expressed by certain gang members had repeated over and over. Now, Danny was granted the pleasure of watching a widow confront Kieran.

"I've met some of your boys before."

"Oh yeah?" Kieran replied, intrigued.

Unfortunately, he naively mistook how Sadie Adler addressed him in such a nonchalant voice for friendliness. In her hand, she held a bowl of soup that she held in front of Kieran's face, mocking him for being strung up and left to suffer.

"You must be hungry," taunted Sadie.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"Well, I'll leave this here then."

Sadie tilted the bowl, causing its hot contents to spill on the ground, torturing Kieran that there was no empathy for his case.

"In the dirt... where those other O'Driscoll's left my husband!"

And she stormed off, barely satisfied.

This left a little smirk on Danny's face as he too enjoyed watching an O'Driscoll suffer, especially after what suffering had fallen unto him. But that smirk quickly turned sour when he noticed his love approach with her plate of soup and spoon-fed the captive.

"Here you go. Oh. You poor thing." Mary-Beth cooed.

Kieran instantly latched his mouth over half the spoon and swallowed the food whole, leaving him pleased to know that there were some good souls in the camp of outlaws.

"Thank you miss... thank you kindly."

The little interaction left a churning feeling in Danny's stomach, a feeling that he could not tolerate. Danny stormed over and shielded the brunette with his arm.

"Get. Away. From. Her!" Danny seethed through his teeth at Kieran.

Mary-Beth was utterly shocked to see this side of Danny. 

"Danny! Calm down. What's the matter with you?" Mary-Beth scolded lightly as she put her hand on his chest, gently pushing and guiding him away from Kieran.

Danny was seething out of anger. He couldn't bear to watch Mary-Beth act friendly with an O'Driscoll.

"I don't want you near him." It was more of a request compared to how it came out, sounding like an order. Danny meant well, but his attitude said otherwise.

"What's got into you all of a sudden? Can't you see that poor man is starving over there? None of y'all have compassion." Mary-Beth fired back.

"He's an O'Driscoll, MB. We don't do business with their lot."

"He's suffering!"

"So are we," he countered. "We don't have enough food or medicine, Mary-Beth. We can't waste what we've got on him. Uncle Dutch says we wait, so we wait. No questions asked."

Mary-Beth scoffed crossly. "I can't believe you, Danny. I thought you were better than this. What's this really about? Hm?"

Their arguing was so painful for Danny, having to vocally protest with the love of his life over trauma he was fighting to prevent from occurring a second time. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Danny shut his eyes and focused hard on blocking out all noise. That concentration was diminished when he heard Kieran yelping.

"YOU SICK BASTARD! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" A helpless Kieran Duffy cried.

"Well, you are going to talk; the only question is now, or after we get the little feller off?"