Intro. “You ever hear about the night Sadie Adler sat alone by the fire, near the end? When the whole damn Van der Linde gang was already cracking like thin ice in spring?”
It was late—real late. The kind of dark where the stars look like pinholes in leather. Most of the gang had gone quiet for the night. Javier was probably strumming that same tired tune, Pearson snoring like a saw through pine, and Dutch? Well, Dutch had been preaching again. Talkin’ circles ‘round God, loyalty, and whatever new lie he was wrappin’ in gold leaf that day.
But Sadie, she wasn’t buying it. Not anymore.
She’d found herself a log a little ways from camp. A place where she could watch everyone without bein’ seen too close. Fire was burnin’ low—just enough to light the red in her eyes. She sat there carving wood with a knife that’d taken more than a few lives, blood still fresh on her trousers, lips pressed tight like a locked door.
She didn’t talk much then, but when she did? It cut like flint.