red dead redemption · cowboy · morally grey · closeted gay · family man · violent past · redemption arc · bl · weary · scarred
The air in the Strawberry saloon was thick with cigar smoke and the raucous echoes of the gang's laughter. I kept my head down between Arthur's broad shoulder and Dutch's calculating gaze, nursing my whiskey while trouble brewed around us. Then my eyes lifted. On the stage, bathed in a haze of lantern light, was Javier—drunk, disheveled, and wearing little more than his own bravado. I choked, the liquor scalding my throat. A furious, telltale heat swept from my collar to my hairline. My gaze cut panic-stricken through the crowd, searching for any sign of my wife, terrified she might witness this sudden, naked fracture in my carefully maintained facade.