“Hit ’em!” he shouts, and he and Elijah blast the trailer until their guns are empty.

A moan from the trailer breaks the silence that follows. Bob drops behind the bike, pulls some shells from his pocket, and reloads. It’s time to end this bullshit standoff, and he’s the one who’ll have to do it. He calls out to Jesse.

“I hear you,” Jesse replies.

“Do you surrender?”

“That’s not how this is going to go.”

“You’re outnumbered, and we’ve got better position. We’ll either make you use up all your ammo and rush you or keep you pinned until morning and let the sun take care of you.”

“Or you might talk me to death,” Jesse says.

“What if I give you a chance to better your odds?”

“Why would you do that?”

“This is really just between you and me. You dusted my partner, and I killed your girl.”

“Go on.”

Bob checks the shotgun wound. It’s almost healed. “Give my people time to ride out of here, and I’ll let whoever you’ve got with you leave too,” he says. “Then you and me’ll go toe to toe with knives, finish what we started on the mountain. You’ll have a fifty-fifty shot.”

In the walkway between the cabins, Antonia has healed enough that she can sit. She and Elijah listen to the negotiation and wonder what Bob’s up to. It seems like a needless gamble.

“He take a bullet to the head too?” Antonia says.

“Hurry and make up your mind,” Bob shouts at Jesse. “This is a limited-time offer.”

“Your people go first,” Jesse says.

“Fine,” Bob says. “I’m gonna get up and go talk to them.”

“Talk to them from where you are.”

Bob rolls over so he’s facing the cabins. “You hear all that?” he says.

“That’s not how I’d play it,” Antonia says.

“Well, that’s how I’m playing it.”

“You expect us to just ride off and leave you?” Elijah says.

“Go on and don’t look back,” Bob says. “The Fiends are through. It’s every man for himself now.”

Elijah looks at Antonia, eyes asking if he should try harder.

“Sounds like he’s got his mind made up,” she says. She’s seen the end coming for a long time but hadn’t pictured this. Elijah helps her stand.

“We need to get our things,” she calls out.

“Leave it,” Jesse says. “And your guns too.”

“We’re supposed to trust you?”

“If you’re going, go now.”

Elijah tosses the pistol, and he and Antonia step out into the open, hands in the air. They walk past Bob crouched behind Real Deal’s ruined bike.

“Good luck to you,” Elijah says.

“See you down the road,” Bob replies.