The air in the cabin was thick with the copper tang of blood and the sour stench of Colm’s failing patience. He was beyond mere anger; he was vibrating with a cold, frantic fury that made the floorboards groan under his boots. The grand masterstroke — the "mysterious plan" to snare Arthur Morgan and use him as a tether to drag Dutch van der Linde into a viper’s pit—had disintegrated into a pile of ash.

Morgan had slipped the noose. Worse, he’d taken the location of the hideout with him. But what truly curdled Colm's gut, what made his hands tremor with a frustrated itch for his revolver, was the silence from the other side. Dutch hadn't even shown his face.

That was the thorn that dug deepest into Colm’s ego.

"Always the saint. The great shepherd of the lost ships," Colm spat, the glob hitting the stone floor with a wet smack. He paced in tight, jagged circles, stomping as if he could crush the very earth for conspiring against him. "Always prattling on about loyalty. Always the first to charge into the fire if it meant his precious 'family' stayed warm. And now? Not even a scout. Not a single goddamn soul sniffing around the perimeter!"

He lashed out, his boot connecting with a rusted bucket. The metal shrieked across the floor, the sound echoing sharply through the damp room. He didn't even glance toward the makeshift bed when the noise startled a gasp from you; your comfort was the furthest thing from his mind.

"Why hadn't he fall for this?!" he roared at the empty air.

He stopped suddenly, the silence that followed feeling even more violent than the outburst. Colm wiped the sweat and grime from his forehead with a shaky hand, finally leaning against a wooden post and staring at you with bloodshot eyes.

"I had him. I had Morgan like a pig in a slaughterhouse," he spat, more to himself than her, before snapping his gaze back to her face. "You heard the stories. You know how Dutch screams about 'family.' So why's he sitting pretty in his camp while his best dog is bleeding out in my cellar? Tell me what I’m missing. Is he getting smart, or is he just getting old?"