No. I listen to her plan.

“Won’t have to be fancy. We’ll cut in when it dies down. Dispatch whatever skeleton crew is left and go inside.”

“And the dogs?”

Scarlet hesitates. “All good boys go to heaven.”

You think for a moment, noticing her expression waver. “I’ll do it if it bothers you so much.”

“This was my problem, not yours,” she scratches her chin, looking back at you. Her age is again timeless as she’s partially hidden in the undergrowth. “You’re a real charmer to help a girl like that. Those fox girls probably don’t even know.”

You exercise your neck. “They might have a clue.”

Scarlet chuckles slightly. “I suppose they might.”

After your painstaking effort following Hetch, it isn’t an option to go back to Elko, so you stay in the bush, occasionally moving so you’re not staying in one place for too long. Generally speaking, this is easy since all of Hetch’s groupies are turning the town upside down, not the area.

In Montana, ample trees and floral patches kept someone hidden. Out here, however, your options were few and far between, and the nights were still cold.

So, you rotated the same few locations until his men went back to town. Around 2 in the morning, his regular crew withered down to a much more manageable three-man crew. Two of them slept on the porch with their rifles leaned against the wall, a fair distance away from where they slept.

One of them doped up on something, tweaked out, and started to trail off in your direction. You tensed, getting ready to tackle the guy when he got close enough. Before you could, however, Scarlet sprung forward and started to stab feverishly. There was a brief gasp of pain from the bandit, but it soon melted down to something indescribable. You were much more familiar with shooting someone, so the sounds of single-sided hand-to-hand were almost disturbing.

Scarlet’s figure moved in the ink above the man. He was still, and you saw neither movement of sound. All that comes after is her reduced breathing. “I can’t wait to get my hands on the mother fucker inside.”

“Keep your head cool, Scarlet. Anything could make this go sideways.”

“I know,” she scoffs. “I know that, alright? Don’t baby me like I’m some kind of rookie.”

“I’m not. I just have to worry about three other heads other than my own. Don’t take it personally.”

Scarlet doesn’t reply. Instead, she pushes forward, finding her way toward the house where all other guards were unaware of the attack. You take care of them, too. In their rest, they don’t see it coming.

Once you’re inside, you suspect the dogs to become an issue. However, all you find of their existence are the food bowls. The kitchen is empty, and the bathroom has nothing worth mentioning. The living room has all of Scarlet’s original equipment. Scarlet snatches her pistol belt and checks her handgun to scrutinize it. As she exhales, you hear every curse and insult escape her mouth. She loads it and racks the slide, promising her worse.

All that’s left to search is the bedroom, and you’re ready for a fight. In your hands is your prized MPL. You shoulder the wire stock firmly into your shoulder’s pocket as Scarlet twists the knob, her pistol gripped tightly in her other hand. The door creaks open, and inside, you see nothing.

The softest creak tenses your muscles. You squint to strain your eyes with your ears. Was Hetch in here? Something in front of you moves, and you hear the popping of finger joints just a few feet ahead of you in the dark.

“Who’s there?” Hetch says.

Neither you nor Scarlet replies with the word, but Scarlet pulls the trigger of her pistol, and the flash that emits in the room is all you see before he returns fire. Judging by his loud reply, you figure he must’ve armed himself with a revolver. You keep your finger off the trigger as you lower yourself to the floor.

Scarlet rolls backward, and she warns you not to kill him. Your finger finally slips to the trigger, and you pull, using the entire magazine in a long, uncontrolled burst in the direction of Hetch. He isn’t idle and returns fire, too. He misses his return fire despite the flashes of your weapon’s report.

Your submachine gun slams home, but nothing happens. You don’t have to announce that you’ve become dry. It’s kind of challenging to reload in complete darkness, especially with your ears ringing. Despite that, you can hear frantic reloading in the room between muffled breathing. Scarlet pushes past you and flicks the switch on.

The room floods with an unimpressive light. It’s more than enough to highlight Hetch on the floor, his leg bleeding with his hands fumbling with the cylinder of his shooter. His pupils shrink as he sees Scarlet charging at him.

He and Scarlet end up on the floor in a primal fight. However, Scarlet has a clear advantage. She pummels Hetch with her pistol, whacking his head over and over again as she blasts him with verbal ****. The hard thuds of her handgun striking his head are heard from the doorway.

“You fucking asshole!” Scarlet hisses, striking him so violently with her pistol that his head jerks in one direction. His teeth fly out with blood as his skin splits. Her pistol is splashed with blood. “You should have just fucking killed me! You piece of shit!”

Scarlet spends all her energy on her ****, hardly showing her endurance as it wavers. She eventually drops her pistol, grabs Hetch’s shirt collars, and starts punching his already pulpy face. Her insults continue with the blows. She only stops when he lets go of her wrists.

“Is he dead?” You ask.

Scarlet bleeding hands shakingly press against his neck, searching for a pulse. “No,” she confirms. “Not yet.”

She presses her knee against his chest and reaches behind her. She finds the handcuffs from her “hired help” days and cuffs him. “Help me strap this cunt to one of the chairs downstairs.”

Hetch is out cold. Comparing his current face to the face you saw the first time makes your head spin. You look at Scarlet’s split knuckles and nudge her. She brushes you off, shaking her off your touch. “You want in on this, too?”

“Want in on what?”

She gestures to the man. “He fucked your girl, you know? Get your payback!”

“One of us should keep watch-”

“No one’s coming,” Scarlet stares at Hetch and grins. “It’s just us, Warren. We got him…This isn’t my first time doing this.”