#they were definitely robbed but i guess it's ok since both charities got the money

[madeofitzits]

The moral victors of the Vanity Fair Cocktail Hour trivia game 💕

[reddeaddenial]

The Politics of Outlaws

Introduction Chapter of my RDR2 OCs: The Teale Brothers. 

Summary: Arthur goes to collect a loan for Strauss and finds himself in a situation that makes collecting a little more complicated.

Words: 5166

Chapter: 1/?

Arthur Morgan had spent most of his life as an outlaw. Sure, he had old far off memories of his blood family, but the gang was family now. And like any family, they provided for one another in some way. ...Even if that meant killing, robbing and threatening to get it done. But despite Arthur being the perfect specimen of a true outlaw, there were ways of the profession that just...didn’t sit right, even for him. Beating down already broke folks for loan payments was one of those.

He really disliked Strauss’ preferred ‘way of income’ for the gang. Especially since half the time Arthur was doing all the dirty work. He wasn’t sure how the bastard did it, but Strauss always seemed to find the ones desperate and destitute enough to take the money, yet with enough spirit to make the situation of repayment... difficult. So Arthur more often than not ended up playing the violent cruel outlaw, spilling some blood until they handed over their dues.

And here he was, riding up to the Downes quaint little piece of land, ready to rough up a sick man until he gave what was owed to Strauss and the gang. Fantastic.

As he turned the bend and entered the clearing of trees, Arthur slowed his horse to a stop to take in the...strange atmosphere surrounding the homestead. Something felt off about this place and yet he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He wasn’t one to ignore his gut instinct though. But it didn’t seem like the Downes had run and skipped town either. No… He could definitely see a man tending the meager garden, coughing loud enough for Arthur to hear from his horse.

The outlaw grumbled to himself and dismounted his horse, Arrow, hitching her to a nearby tree. He approached the gardens warily, passing the porch and front of the house, reaching the fenced area. Mr. Downes still had his back to him, oblivious and just about coughing up a lung. Sighing, Arthur squared his shoulders and put on his ‘outlaw voice’ as John liked to call it, readying himself for the inevitable.

“Mister Thomas Downes… You owe me money.”

The man in question had jumped in surprise hearing the rough threatening droll on the other side of the garden fence. He stammered, fumbling to stand upright, face pale and sweaty; from the sun or sickness, Arthur couldn’t and didn’t care to tell.

“O-Oh n-no I’m-!”

“We ain’t a charity Mister Downes.” Arthur cut him off, moving to the gate and entering the garden. Getting closer usually got his targets nervous seeing how he meant business.

“Y-You won’t find anything on this property.” Mr. Downes coughed and looked nervously at the outlaw in front of him, glancing briefly back at the house, where his wife and son were undoubtedly hidden away. “I’m afraid your trip here...h-has been in vain.”

Arthur sighed and roughly grabbed the front of the man’s shirt, ready to ‘convince’ him to start feeling more generous. But then two things happened: he heard the familiar loaded click of a pistol not far off from the left of him. And then a voice. Clear, young, but definitely meaning business.

“Sir, would you be so kind as to release Mister Downes? I believe we can resolve this money situation without a violent end.” Arthur loosened his grip at the words, Downes scrambling away to the farthest patch of garden. The outlaw turned towards the voice and eyed his newest problem with a scowl.

It was a man, roughly around Javier’s age if he had to guess. Light brown hair, short scruffy beard, green playful eyes and a sly grin as he pointed his blue steel pistol in Arthur’s direction. What made him do a double take was the...exact same man standing next to him, same hair and eyes, staring at Arthur with a thoughtful frown on his face. The one holding the pistol chuckled. “Yeah we get that a lot. Twins y’know? Now would you please release dear Uncle Thomas here? He doesn’t got the money after all. We do.”

Arthur glanced back at Thomas Downes, then back at the stranger. Huffing he gestured with an annoyed wave to the sickly man, who quickly scrambled out of the outlaw’s reach and back to his feet. He ducked between the fence posts and ran over to the twins, hesitating as if he wanted to go into the house, but not wanting to leave them alone with Arthur, Mr. big bad outlaw.

“Go on Uncle. We have this handled. Go talk to Auntie Edith, maybe make her see reason before she and Nick rip each other’s heads off.” With those words, Downes was finally convinced to rush inside the cabin, especially after the rise of muffled shouting and the crash of a plate breaking. The twins winced at the sound but kept their eye on Arthur, who was growing more frustrated with not understanding the situation. “Right then. You best not be playin’ me for a fool here. You say you got the money? Fine. Get me the money. Don’t really care where it comes from as long as I get what’s mine.” “Excellent!” The one with the pistol smiled, but didn’t lower his weapon just yet. “Hope you don’t mind. Just don’t want ya tryin’ anythin’ till Nick gets out here. You Van der Linde boys are slick bastards. I ain’t takin’ a chance. Wish he’d hurry up though, my arm’s getting tired.” Arthur’s eyes narrowed, “Who said anythin’ about me bein’ a Van der Linde?” The quiet twin spoke up for the first time since the confrontation, who had just been watching Arthur like an eerie statue until now. “I did sir. Moment I saw yer face from the window, I knew who you was. Arthur Morgan, part of Dutch Van der Linde’s gang, wanted for the incidents down at Blackwater.”

The outlaw in question shifted uneasily, fingers getting twitchy for his pistol. He didn’t like this. Not at all. The gang just barely got settled in the area and now here’s these….these kids! Knowing exactly who he is by sight!

“Hey now, I think we’re bein’ a bit impolite, knowin’ your name but you’s not knowin’ ours.” The chatty one with the gun piped up, he seemed to read Arthur’s body language and realized he needed to diffuse the situation quickly. “Theodore Teale at your service.” The man tipped his hat with his free hand and then gestured to his brother who went back to just watching Arthur silently. “My younger brother by four minutes, Leonard Teale. Don’t mind him knowin’ your name Mister Morgan. Leo’s a bit...different. He’s got a crazy memory. Looks at somethin’ and just… remembers it all. He makes it a habit to study up on the wanted posters.  Just so we don’t step on anyone’s toes. Y’know how it is, politics and all. Moment Leo told us yer name, we knew, we ain’t gonna mess ‘round with Van der Linde’s boys. So we’re gonna be good upstandin’ citizens and pay our loans good and proper.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow at the...odd excuse. Remembering everything after looking at it once? Sounds fake but ok, sure, he’ll buy that for now. “Somethin’ tells me you don’t usually play the ‘good upstandin’ citizen’... Who you run with boy?”

Theodore laughed and shrugged his shoulders in mock defeat. “Ha! You’re pretty sharp Mister Morgan! Guess ‘takes one to know one’ is a spot on phrases huh? Well, we’ve been free roamers as of… Over half a year I think? Leo you ‘member?” “August 27th, 1898.” “Over half then. Before then we’ve been runnin’ with Edgar Wolf and his boys. For ‘bout 8-ish years I’d say. Split up after that shit robbery in Bandera. We almost died with him if he didn’t insist we split off with another group. To throw the law off our tracks y’know? But they was gunnin’ for him and ignored us completely.” Theodore grimaced at the memory and quiet Leonard folded his arms and looked away.

Weird reactions for outlaws to lose a gang leader. Most just moved on. But Arthur heard stories about the old ‘Wolf of the West’ from Hosea. The two apparently use to run together in their very much younger days. If Arthur had to take a guess, maybe Wolf was their Dutch, so to speak. It’d explain the lost puppy looks on the both of them. Didn’t suit somebody who was suppose to be a cold hearted outlaw. But before he could question the twins further, the cabin door burst open and an argument carried outside. A gruff man, young, dirty blonde hair and those same green eyes came stalking out of the house. A woman whom Arthur could only assume was Mrs. Downes followed as far as the porch steps and called out in an angry tone as she leaned over the railing, clutching it tightly.

“I should have known better than to think you three could ever do right your own blood family! This is it Nicholas Saxton! No more letters! No visits! I don’t ever want to see you three here again!”

The man, Nicholas apparently, barely glanced back as he continued to walk over to his brothers. “Believe me, you won’t need to worry ‘bout us returnin’. Leo! Get the horses ready!” The twin perked up and nodded, running off behind the back of the house.

Nicholas stopped beside Theodore and glanced between Arthur and him. He reached out and pulled Theo’s gun hand down, having the weapon no longer pointing at Arthur. He shooed Theo to go help his brother and looked back to Arthur and nodded his head. “Nicholas Teale. Grab your horse Mister Morgan and we’ll take you to your money. We hid our cache out a bit west across the river. We’ll take you to it. You’ll get your money and we’ll go on our way. Everyone wins.”

Arthur blinked, thrown off guard by the plain-spoken way of this third brother. He seemed straight to the point, not having the patience for pleasant conversation like his chatty brother. It was like getting whiplash from switching from one to the other. Arthur may have found that forthright attitude rather refreshing, if it wasn’t for the circumstances and his own growing frustration of a simple job getting more and more complicated than he bargained for. But fine, he’d play along for now. He had a gut feeling these boys were being sincere, or as sincere as a fellow outlaw could be. They seemed to have an odd respect for the Van der Linde gang at least. So with that decided, Arthur huffed and hopped the garden fence, whistling for his horse and calling over his shoulder. “This best not be a damned trap boy. Else I’ll be leavin’ with your money and your blood on my hands.”

If Nicholas said anything in return, he didn’t hear it. Arthur’s rose gray andalusian, Arrow, came trotting up. With a few pats, Arthur saddled up and rode over slowly by the front of the Downes’ residence. The twins were ready to go. One of them was on a dark brown horse, the other was manning a two horse wagon, filled to the brim with crates and supplies, the wagon sturdy but clearly well used and lived in. Nicholas was near the porch talking to a young man while Thomas Downes was trying to reason with his still upset wife who was arguing with him in harsh whispers. Arthur rode in close enough to hear the tail end of the outlaw’s talk to the younger boy. “-for the best, cousin. Wish we had more time to know you, but it is what it is. Listen… you’ll find a box under the porch. I’m sure your Ma’ will call it blood money but just try and convince her to swallow her pride and put it to use? Invest, buy another life, do whatever you need. But live happy and well. You got that Archie?” The young man nodded, looking torn as he backed away and went over to his mother and father. Nicholas sighed and rolled his shoulders, walking over to the wagon and climbing up to sit next to his brother. The twin on the brown horse spoke up, revealing himself to be Theodore with his way of talking. “Uncle Thomas! I’m sorry for the circumstances. But we’re very grateful for your hospitality and we’re happy to have finally met you. Even if… Well...Just...Make your time count, yeah?. Archie. Auntie Edith...Farewell.” And with that painfully awkward goodbye, Leonard got the horses moving the wagon, and soon they were pulling away from the Downes Ranch. Arthur followed on one side of the wagon and Theo on the other. As soon as they turned around the bend, hiding the house from the treeline, Theo sighed dramatically and slumped on his horse. “Finally! Christ, glad we’re permanently outa there! Thought Nick here was gonna go mad if we had to stay ‘nother week!”

“Shut it Theo.” Nicholas halfheartedly glared at his brother. “Doubt Mister Morgan here wants to listen to you jabber the whole way there. Here, eat somethin’ and stick quiet for a bit will ya?” With Leo driving the wagon, the blonde turned around rifling through the back of the cart, pulling a can of fruit out and chucking it at Theodore. The chatty man cursed, not expecting the throw and almost didn’t catch it in time. With a smug look, Nick glance back over to Arthur and returned to his serious demeanor. “If you do have any questions Mister Morgan, we don’t mind explainin’ more. This whole mess shouldn’t have never have happened and I apologize on behalf of our Auntie and Uncle.” Arthur was once again a bit thrown with the odd behavior for supposed rough riding outlaws. The rough talk was there, but so were these odd out of place manners. He had watched silently as they left the ranch, observing the trio and how they carried themselves. It was… strange. They walked like they had the years of experience under their belt, but their manners and politeness spoke of…something else. Not your usual posse of thieves and murderers.

The older outlaw finally responded with an awkward shrug “As long as I get my money, it’s fine I guess.” There was several minutes of silence. Tense... A bit uneasy... But Nick was true to his word of not trying to push conversation and Theodore was contently picking away at his can of fruit. And that quiet twin… Leonard was it? Well he was still damn quiet so it didn’t matter much. But the silence gave Arthur time to think. And the more he thought, the more curious he became. Curiosity killed the cat as they say, but he wasn’t a damn cat so surely it couldn’t hurt to have a little conversation, right? Finally he caved and spoke up once more. “Your family… Don’t seem to really approve of your... ah ‘profession’. Makes me wonder how- or why you even got into helpin’ with a loan that’s got nothin’ to do with you boys.” Nicholas who had been leaning over in his seat, sat up slowly with a stretch cracking a few joints and contemplated the implied question. “Well… To keep it simple. Auntie was a runaway. And we was runaways several years after her. Some stuff happened. We were able to start writin’ each other on occasion, think she sympathized with us y’know? Letters happened less when she learned what we was doin’ of course. Our ‘profession’ as you say.” Theodore had quickly scarfed down the rest of his food to butt into the conversation as well. “Yeah, we didn’t hear much from her most the time. Then we get a letter ‘bout three weeks ago now. Sayin’ how she saw the papers about Wolf months back and wondered if we was plannin’ to pass through the area and wanted to stay for a while. We thought… well it’s stupid lookin’ back now…But we thought she...” Theo trailed off and clearly skipped that thought, getting back to the story ”So we said yes and got to Valentine in six or so days of travelin’. We meet her for the first time in years and we can tell somethin’s really botherin’ her.” Nicholas cuts Theodore off before he gets into more unneeded detail. “She barely waited till after dinner that first night to tell us Uncle Thomas, borrowed money from a loan shark. She found out on accident, but the moment she learned, she thought of us and that we could ‘get rid of the problem easy’. She basically thought if we killed em, the debt would go away, and what better to do the job than her murderous degenerate outlaw nephews?” Arthur let out a low whistle, the pieces all clicking into place. “She understands that’s not how that works right? We woulda just kept comin, but then wed have a grudge ‘against her.” Theodore scoffed and shook his head. “That was the problem! She’s grown up with the spooky stories of that life but doesn’t know the real ways of it and refused to understand! It’s all politics ya know? Yet here she was tellin’ us to kill someone! Pretty sure that’s what all that yellin’ was when Leo told us you ran with Mister Van der Linde and that we couldn’t do somethin’ so stupid as to try and kill ya. She had this scary look on her face-”

A gunshot suddenly cut off Theo’s jabbering, a bullet whizzing past Nick and Arthur’s side of the wagon. The shot reflexively had Nick and Arthur pulling out their pistols and aiming them at each other, yelling at the same time. “You set us up Morgan?!” “You set me up boy?! Another bullet flew past, this time having Theo duck low as a bullet almost nicked his horse. “Both of ya’ll stop bein’ paranoid bastards for two minutes and look! It’s them O’driscoll shits that tried to rob us outside of Strawberry!” And look they did. Rolling on up on horseback through the treeline were at least a dozen or more riders, guns drawn with cocky smiles. The green scarves and vests were clear as day of who was ballsy enough to give the group trouble.

“Lookie here boys! Arthur Morgan waltzing right to us with a wagon full of goodies!” One of the horsemen called out and Nick whipped around to glare at Arthur accusingly. “And it seems ol’ Van der Linde is expanding his posse with fresh faces! Raisin’ the numbers to have a go at Colm again no doubt!” “Wha-?? Oi we ain’t part of Van der Linde’s-!”  A bullet cut Nick off as he ducked again. Scowling he looked to Arthur who nodded, gun at the ready. “Leo, keep us on course, we got your back. Theo! Let’s show em you don’t fuck around with the Teale brothers!” Theodore flashed a feral grin and on cue, the elder twin and Arthur broke away from the wagon on their horses and started to engage the O'Driscoll hoard tailing them.

If Arthur had doubted these boys to be outlaws before, he definitely didn’t now. They worked smoothly, like they had done this hundreds of times, for several long years. Leonard keeping the wagon moving, Theodore, zipping quickly about on the back of his horse, getting some solid shots from his pistol, and throwing knives of all things when they got too close. When Arthur had rounded back to the wagon to take out a nearing O’Driscoll, he spotted Nick leaning on one side of the cart with a scoped long barreled rifle, taking out riders with little trouble, protecting his brother, with clean fatal shots to the head and torso.. Leo was expertly driving the horses down the road but quickly made a sharp left into the fields, going off path when two riders tried to cut them off. Arthur quickly dealt with them in speedy procession and Theo picked off one more before the echoed cracking of gunshots were no longer returned. Horses with no riders or their corpses hanging by a stirrup ran off spooked from the fight and Theodore and Arthur quickly caught up to the wagon which slowed down to a trot again. Nicholas however was still looking down his scope, pointed over to the forest’s edge where Arthur could make out three horseless riders scampering between the trees. A shot rang out and one of the fell instantly from the headshot. Nick loaded and took aim again in seconds. Breathing out, trigger pulled, a hit to spine and another crumpled to the ground like a lifeless doll. By the time Nick reloaded the last figure was out of view, hidden by the dense trees and the blonde cursed loudly. “Want me to go after them?” Theo asked, cleaning some of the knives he had gone back to retrieve, still high off of the adrenaline and itching to finish the job. “We don’t know that forest, he may have more of his buddies in there.” Leonard surprisingly piped up. “And we’re close to the cache too. Best grab it and relocate. Lingerin’ ain’t wise ‘round here.” Nick nodded and shouldered his rifle, scowling at the forest, then glancing at Arthur. “You alright Mister Morgan?” “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” he waved off the question and trotted up beside the wagon again. It seemed they didn’t need the road anymore. Leo was intent on still cutting through the meadows here, which was fine by Arthur. Maybe they could avoid more run ins with those damned O’Driscolls. They were more like locusts than people with how they suddenly swarmed. “You boys are pretty handy with a gun back there. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised if you were able to run with Wolf and his boys like you said you did.” Nick shrugged as he looked over the meadow, searching for something, a landmark perhaps. “You think we’d lie ‘bout somethin’ like that? We’ve been doin’ this for nearly a decade now. Gotta learn to shoot. Gotta learn to kill quickly. Shoot or die. That’s life for ya. I uh.. Also apologize for thinkin’ you set us up. We’ve been burned before and I assume the worst usually.” Theo snickered at that. “Ya both pulled guns on each other! Never thought I’d find someone to match my brother’s paranoia.”

“Shuddup Theo. Someone’s gotta think for you- ah! There it is!” Nicholas pointed out a lone dead tree in the meadow and hopped off the slowing wagon. Arthur left his horse near the cart as it stopped and all three brothers and the outlaw approached the tree. Well hidden in a digged out spot in the base of the tree, hidden by a medium sized rock which when pushed away, revealed a wooden box. Leo dragged out the box and opened it to reveal a decent amount of cash for just three lone outlaws. Nick bent over and took a good portion of it and passed it over to Arthur.

“There ya are, and some extra for puttin’ up with all the inconvenience… and the O’Driscolls.” he gave a tight smile, more of a grimace at the mention of the gang.

“Nick…” Leo spoke up, frowning as he was counting the rest of the money in the box. “We have a lot less in here than the last time. No one would find this and only take some of it. ...Theo?” “Don’t look at me! I haven’t been here since we hid it!”

Nicholas sighed and looked away from the two. “I came here a few days ago. Took a chunk of it and put it in a box under the porch. Told Archie ‘bout it. I just… Wanted to leave him somethin’ y’know?”

Leo and Theo shared a look and smiled. “Ain’t even mad brother. It’s goin’ to family, to someone who needs it, whether she’ll take our ‘blood money’ or not. Maybe Uncle Thomas will convince her before he… passes. Poor guy. A bit of a fool, but I liked him well enough. Speakin’ of which, Mister Morgan!” Arthur was pretending to count over his money, acting, quite badle mind you, that he wasn’t eavesdropping on these boys. These pathetically soft excuses for outlaws. Honestly, hearing them like this, giving money away so easily…  He could barely believe them when they said they had been doing this for about ten years. Then again… lately, for reasons he couldn’t explain, he’d been pulling the exact same shit. Micah’s been sayin he’d gone soft in his old age too... Horseshit. Maybe he was just… tired. Tired of hurting people. Who’s to say these boys weren’t the same? Not to mention the Downes, not matter how strained and awkward it was, were family as the boys had said. Not like they were giving it away to complete strang-

“Mister Morgan?” Arthur looked up, spooking himself right out of his heavy thoughts. It was a bad habit of his when he started to think about the… morality of the outlaw life. “What is it Mister Teale?” Theodore snorted at that and waved a hand. “Forget that sir. There’s three of us. Gonna be more confusing than an inbred family tree, tryin’ to keep to Surnames. Call me Theo. And I was askin’ before you got so focused on your money countin’ there, if Uncle Thomas coughed on you at all? Any spittle, hell- any blood?” The older man looked confused and shook his head. “No…? Don’t recon he did. Ya’ll ‘convinced’ me away from him before I got up close and personal. Why?” “Well, before the robbin’ and shootin’ I was learnin’ to be a doctor yeah? Well I kept up with the book work and have been patchin’ up my brothers since. I like to think I got an eye for illnesses now a days. And what Uncle’s got… Well after I convinced to let me to take a look at him, pretty sure he has a nasty one. Tuberculosis I think. Man is a bit weak to begin with and he knows it too, despite Auntie convinced he’ll pull through it all. So… just wanted to make sure.”

Oh.

“...Oh... Well, no need to make sure then. Nothin’ happened. Besides, doubt a little coughin’ woulda took me out.” Arthur pocketed the money and looked away scratching his chin. He didn’t know these kids. Why the hell were they looking out for his well being? Soft. Too damn soft. “It’s good you won’t be dyin’ anytime soon then.” The other twin, Leonard spoke up, walking to the wagon again. “We’ll need you so we can speak to Dutch van der Linde.” Theo, Nick and Arthur all looked at him like he was crazy. “The hell Leo?” Nick said what they were all thinking. Leo just hopped up onto the wagon, in his seat, waiting for the others, casually swinging his legs.

Arthur just eyed Leo like he grew another head. “You drunk boy? I got my money, our business is done. This is the part where we go our separate ways and never see ya’ll again.” “Well, business ain’t that easy. Didja forget? Them O’Driscolls thought we were runnin’ with Mister Morgan and through him, the Van der Linde’s. O’Driscolls are everywhere ‘round these parts. Colony o rats they are. We’re tryin’ to lay low. But if they see us, they’ll think we’re some of Mister Van der Linde’s boys and have it out for us, seein’ as there’s some obvious bad blood there.” he explained and the slow dawning of realization spread on Nicholas’ face. “Christ... You’re right… And thinkin’ they recruited us may make em think ya’ll are expanding your numbers. An’ they may think you’re up to somethin’ and try and take you out before ya’ll do to them..” Nick trailed off and Leo nodded. “Shit… and that one smarmy green scarfed hick outran us through the trees before I could pick him off. Shit you’re right Leo. Dammit why you always gotta be right?” Leo smiled and shrugged. “It’s a blessin’ and a curse~”

Three pairs of eyes looked expectantly at Arthur and the outlaw swore. He felt like he was cornered by three very determined wolf pups. “Oh no no! Hell no! I ain’t takin’ you straight into camp to see Dutch. Are you insane?!” “Who said anythin’ ‘bout just waltzin’ into your camp? I choose life, thank you very much.” Theo rolled his eyes. “We just need to meet up somewhere an’ just have a lil talk. Work this all out seein’ as it affects both parties. Politics y’know? Hm... You know Caliban's Seat? We’ll camp out top of the rocks. You can find us bidin’ our time up there for the next few days alright?” “What makes you think we won’t just come up there an’ rob you three blind?” “You won’t.” Leo stated simply, looking not even the least worried, still kicking his legs.

Arthur let out a long tired sigh and threw his hand up in the air. “Sure, whatever. It’s Dutch’s call in the end. What a damn mess I gotta explain to him…” he kept on grumbling while walking back to Arrow and climbing up.

“Why do I get the feeling you lot are gonna be a permanent headache for me?” He adjusted his hat and looked at the boys. Theodore looked quite entertained by the turn of events, while his twin looked stoic and unreadable as usual. At least Nicholas looked how he felt, pinching the bridge of his nose and going through some sort of mental pep talk to himself.

Arthur clicked his tongue, getting his horse to start moving and turn back the way he came, nodding a farewell to the three brothers. Theodore called out to him as he climbed onto his own mount, waving an arm. “Hope to see you in a few days Mister Morgan! M’sure we can all figure this out with as little trouble! Who knows? Maybe this’ll be the start of a wonderful friendship!”

The older outlaw was glad he had his back turned because Arthur visibly grimaced at those words. Those boys seemed like the type who had trouble follow them. Skills aside, with their personalities combined, they could only bring trouble...and headaches in Arthur’s case. But he had a feeling Dutch would take one look at them and see an opportunity. He always did. And if not, Hosea would surely convince him instead, what with how the older man had a fondness for taking in strays like they did with Marston. Yep. History was doomed to repeat itself and he knew as he made the journey back to camp, this wouldn’t be the last time he’d have to deal with those Teale brothers.