Dagger to the Heart

Chapter Two

Bobbie woke with a start.

Disoriented she tried the best she could to take in her unfamiliar surroundings. It was light but she could tell it was late morning, sitting up on her elbows all she could see was sand and weeds covering the ground in all directions, this wasn't home. Where the hell was she? It took her a minute or two to stop the panic that had set in, things started to come back to her, the regulators, the fire, her father laying dead in the stables. God her poor father.

"Hey." Startled she whipped to her left. "You okay?"

All she could do was stare at the blonde man that was stoking the fire in front of him, for the life of her she couldn't think of his name. "What?"

It was only then she had noticed someone out the corner of her eye heading her way, when she looked up Chavez was just kneeling down to her eye line, his arm outstretched. She was honestly surprised that she'd been able to remember his name but not the other mans. She took him in for a moment, she noticed his eyes, brown almost hazel in colour but they held such intelligence. Safe to say she was mesmerised, when she had found herself back to reality she finally looked down at the battered metal cup in his hand, she'd been that distracted that she hadn't even noticed how parched she was, so she gratefully took the water. Chavez almost cracked a smile at her, admiring the way she gulped the liquid down but he made sure to hide it.

"We only stopped for a rest, I'll get the horses ready." With that Chavez walked away, it took everything in Bobbie not to burn a hole into the back of his head, for she was sure he would be able to sense it.

"You didn't answer my question." She turned back to where blondie had been sat observing the entire encounter between her and Chavez. Doc! that was his name! He was now fully focused on sharpening his blade.

She just looked at him confused. "Sorry what?"

Doc focused his gaze back to Bobbie. "I asked if you were okay, you look startled." He gave the blade one last strike against the stone before burying the tip into the soft sand and chucking the stone aimlessly behind him. "but to be fair, can't say I at all blame you it's been a rough night."

She smiled at him, all that effort just to ask if she's okay. "I'm fine, I think. A little disoriented after every thing but I've been through worse plus, some of the company isn't so bad." Doc nodded in understanding. "I'll be fine, thank you though."

Just as he was about to say something else they both heard two people bickering, one of which sounded frantic. It was coming from just around the corner of a big rock to their right, both Doc and Bobbie stood up to see what was happening. Chavez had already beaten them there and was trying to calm the situation down but to no avail, Charley just kept walking in circles and ranting over and over again.

The only word Bobbie could make out was 'hanging', at this point she had no idea exactly what she'd gotten herself into but she sure was about to find out. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse Steve brought over Billy which made Charley freak out more. She hadn't even been around Billy for more than a day but there was just something about him that she already detested. And she was right, straight away Billy was describing hangings that he'd been witness to and of course Charley was incredibly distressed and getting worse, Billy even went as far to tell him that he most likely would be caught and hanged, just to rub salt further into the wound he also started to laugh in his face.

Bobbie had, had enough. "Hey Billy, why don't you cool it down a bit huh?" He gave her a look, one that she didn't like at all, one that instilled fear into her.

"Why don't you just keep your mouth shut huh? You're not apart of this gang little girl." He started to move towards her but to her surprise Chavez stepped in front of her.