I'll go with Scarlet.

“I couldn’t leave you to do your business with good conscience,” you tell Scarlet, who grins in response.

“I promise I won’t hog all the fun,” she clears her throat and looks at the foxes. “You three coming-”

“No,” you say firmly. “Arabella, Gwendolion, and Mikko are staying behind.”

Arabella steps forward, but you extend a hand out before she can say anything. “We’ll talk about this later, Arabella. But right now, I need you to not argue with this choice. I am your master, remember?”

Gwendolion shifts legs behind her. “Arabella, listen to him, please.”

Scarlet exhales. “I’m not getting between…whatever it is you three have. I’d offer to leave, but I have a feeling every limp dick son of a bitch out there wants to get me to strap me down fuck my shit up.”

Eight eyes flick over at Scarlet; she puts her hands out. “What? Do you want me to go to the other room? I’ll hear, you know? These walls are paper thin.”

“You can stay. I’d rather see your reaction than guess what while we chat anyway.”

Scarlet plops down on the couch she slept on and rolls her wrist. “Don’t let me prevent you any longer then.”

You regard Scarlet for a few seconds and then redirect your attention to Arabella. You gesture her to speak her mind, and she does precisely that. “Look, Master. I’m not saying I have to charge in with you but to leave me completely behind after I helped you seems like complete…crap!”

“It’s not CRAP. Alright? Christ only knows what they’ll do to you if we fail. I…saw what one of them did to you,” you lower your voice. “Imagine Gwen or Mikko with those fuckin’ barbarians, Arabella. Think!”

“Which is why you need at least to help ensure that doesn’t happen. Master, please let me go help you!”

“You will not be going. I have plans for you anyway.”

She crosses her arms. “Oh, wow. I can’t wait to hear what you have in mind.”

“I need you to start going to the next town over,” Arabella looks at you, as do the other girls. “Just skip town when we go, alright? Get somewhere safe and wait for me. If I make it, I’ll find you. Don’t wait longer than three days, though.”

Mikko steps in. “We’re not leaving without you.”

“You are,” you tell her. “All of you are because that’s what I’m telling you to do.”

Arabella’s fire loses its spit, and now she looks almost awkward. “Warren, I… why are…”

Scarlet watches with some interest but is otherwise unchanged by the conversation. Mikko understands much better than her counterparts. However, her expression is just as defeated. Gwendolion’s silence is her only offering, while Arabella’s frustration slowly builds. “So, you’re just going to throw us off to the wind and go off with your new girlfriend?”

“Hardly,” Scarlet chimes.

“Leaving Scarlet to handle this herself isn’t an option. I’d do the same for you guys.”

“Oh? Then, let’s go back and kill Amara! She’s done worse things to me!!” Arabella raises her voice to a shout.

You sat back down and rubbed your temples. “I’m not picking favorites, Arabella. Don’t make this complicated. You ought to be happy I’m placing this much faith in you to care for the others. Besides, if I die doing this, you’ll have all the freedom you’d ever want with a fair amount of funds to get you started.”

”I…” Arabella trailed off, looking at everyone in the room. “I don’t know what I’d do with you, alright? You’ve been holding my hands this entire time, and without you, I don’t think I can do this. I’m not ready for all this responsibility. It’s not that we need you. I need you.”

You’re surprised to see Arabella almost spilling out with tears. You exhale and consider. There was no turning away from this. You believed that Arabella handled herself and the others rather than Scarlet handling her **** trip alone. You figured having a girl like Scarlet as a possible contact wouldn’t be terrible. She put you before herself when burning the paperwork on the town’s hired contractors. Even though she wasn’t looking at you, you knew you were inside her mind.

“Arabella. You’re not giving yourself enough credit. You’re smarter than you realize. If the worst outcome happens, I know you’ll manage everything fine. Probably better without me doing my whole contractor spell in the background, ruining true normality in your lives. Contractors bring trouble wherever they go, despite being hired to handle problems.”

Scarlet glances her down. Unspoken facts of the career reflected in her eyes. Contractors had nightmare-ish pasts with memories that were often best forgotten or ignored. Your transactions weren’t because you were helping orphans find families or adopting puppies into good homes. Your cash was red, and your hands were familiar with morbid tasks. The lives you took weren’t always innocent. You half wondered if you felt compelled to do this as an attempt to bury some bad bodies on top of the good; you would feel better when you got old. Maybe this would lead to you finding Amara and dust her, too?

Arabella exhaled and walked over to you. She looked at you strongly and grimaced. “Go then,” she said softly. “But you better hug me before you go.”

…

…

The air was stale between you and Scarlet as you shared air between close distances. In the tall grass and thick brush, there wasn’t much moving. Every itch threatened to give away your position as you hid in the treeline. Scarlet fills you in some of the blanks.

The boss is called “Hetch” and has a gross reputation for being creepy with all genders, regardless of being mutated or not. There were contracts already issued out from Elko targeting this guy and his group. Still, without significant contractors taking the bounty, he grew more paranoid and aggressive with his expansion of influence and power. Apparently, she knew the man a little better than she let on initially, but this was her first time seeing him in person. However, she wouldn’t tell you where she got her information from, but if you had to guess, it had something to do with her previous outfit. You tried to pressure her into giving me info, but she was too loyal to secrecy to spill any of the beans she was withholding.

It must’ve been constricted to local business if neither the twins nor Arabella knew anything about this guy before last night’s unfortunate interaction.

Hetch had two dogs. Big dogs. You couldn’t tell what breeds, but they looked like they could tear off a head if commanded to. With Hetch were more dogs, but these were humans with rifles and rags instead of teeth and fur. There were more than 2, though. There were about six bandits, all chattering about you, Scarlet, and, of course, Arabella. You figured one of them must’ve been the guard that face-fucked her that night. You grumbled.

Scarlet rubbed the lens of her binoculars before leaning slightly forward. Something caught her eye. You watched the best you could, but without having your vision pushed further outward, there wasn’t much you could do other than count them and view the place that made up the big picture.

Scarlet lays in the binoculars down and curses. “Perhaps we should have Arabella do something to split these fuckers up more?”

”Not a chance in Hell anymore, so forget it.”

You felt her exhale as she smiled. “I’ll admit, Warren… You’re one hell of a guy. Saved me, and you’re not forcing those girls to whore themselves for you…. Even though you fucked Arabella in the shower last night.”

”Heard that?”

She clicks her tongue. “Oh, yeah. Sounded like you were trying to make a litter of pups there.”

”You sound upset.”

”No,” she was serious. “My type isn’t the kind that would satisfy his needs with three other girls. I appreciate your character, but your love life is backward.”

“What’s the plan here?” You change subjects, and Scarlet looks out.

She nods. “I’m sure he’ll split the bandits up down there. If I had to guess, I bet he’s issuing a bounty on my head to draw in some more outside help. Bounty hunters are bound to come, maybe even contractors…Ugh, I don’t want to kill the dogs.”

”You’re hoping to **** this guy, but you’re scared about shooting his dogs?”

”Of course,” she gets a somewhat distant look in her eyes. “Animals typically don’t know any better, but humans do.”

Scarlet shakes her head. “Don’t sidetrack me. Do you want to hear what I think or not?”