The first bullet tore through the boarded window.
Wood exploded across the cabin.
Rebecca dropped behind the table.
Jonas fired through a narrow gap beside the door.
A man shouted outside.
Deputy Pike moved toward the back wall.
Caleb covered the northern window.
“Two near the barn!” he yelled.
Jonas fired again.
Despite his fever, his aim remained steady.
Rebecca crawled toward him.
“You’re bleeding.”
His shoulder wound had reopened.
“I’m fine.”
“You always say that when you’re clearly not fine.”
Another shot struck the chimney pipe.
Smoke began seeping into the room.
Pike cursed.
“They’re trying to force us outside.”
Then a voice came from the darkness.
“Rebecca!”
She froze.
Elias.
She had not heard that voice in nearly a year.
Smooth.
Controlled.
Civilized.
It carried through the storm.
“Rebecca, this has gone far enough.”
Jonas looked at her.
Every bit of color had left her face.
“Stay down.”
Elias called again.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Rebecca’s fear turned into anger.
She moved toward the door.
Jonas grabbed her arm.
“No.”
“I need him talking.”
“For what?”
“Pike needs confession.”
Pike understood.
He pulled a notebook and pencil from his coat.
Rebecca stood behind the wall beside the door.
She raised her voice.
“You murdered Thomas.”
Silence.
Then Elias laughed.
“Thomas killed himself with his own foolishness.”
Pike wrote.
Rebecca continued.
“He found your ledgers.”
“He should have burned them.”
Jonas glanced at Pike.
Pike nodded.
Keep him talking.
Rebecca’s voice shook.
“You had him killed.”
“He forced my hand.”
The words echoed.
Pike wrote quickly.
Rebecca swallowed emotion.
“And now you want to kill me.”
Elias sounded almost offended.
“I offered you chances.”
“You sent men into my house.”
“To recover stolen property.”
“You threatened me.”
“You misunderstood.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
Even now, Elias could not stop pretending.
Jonas whispered, “He’s close.”
Rebecca nodded.
She could hear the arrogance in Elias’s voice.
He believed himself untouchable.
That made men careless.
“You followed me across the country.”
“Yes.”
“Why not let me disappear?”
“Because people like you always convince themselves truth matters.”
Elias paused.
“It doesn’t.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Thomas once said nearly the same thing about him.
Truth was merely another commodity to Elias.
Something to purchase.
Something to bury.
Something to kill for.
Pike leaned close.
“Enough.”
Rebecca nodded.
Jonas shouted, “Mercer! Federal deputy inside!”
Silence.
Then gunfire erupted.
“Down!”
Windows shattered.
Caleb fired.
A man screamed.
Pike shot through the front wall.
Then came smoke.
Real smoke.
Not from the chimney.
“Fire!” Rebecca yelled.
Elias’s men had thrown burning kerosene against the cabin.
Flames climbed the outer logs.
Jonas’s face changed.
“We got minutes.”
Pike pointed toward the rear.
“Back window.”
Jonas shook his head.
“They’ll be waiting.”
Rebecca looked toward the floor.
“The cellar.”
Everyone stared.
Jonas blinked.
She pointed beneath the bed.
“The storage hatch.”
He had shown it to her weeks earlier.
A crawlspace led beneath the cabin to an old root cellar entrance twenty feet downhill.
Jonas nodded.
“Go.”
Caleb opened the hatch.
Rebecca descended first.
The crawlspace smelled of earth and smoke.
Jonas followed, barely conscious.
Pike and Caleb came behind.
Above them, fire crackled.
They emerged behind a snowbank.
Elias’s men watched the front door.
Jonas whispered, “Tree line.”
They crawled.
Rebecca reached the pines.
A man appeared.
She raised the revolver.
“Stop.”
He laughed.
Rebecca fired into the snow beside his boot.
The man stopped laughing.
“Drop it.”
He dropped his rifle.
Caleb tied him.
Gunfire continued near the cabin.
Then Jonas collapsed.
Rebecca caught him.
His fever had returned.
“Jonas.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you are not.”
Pike looked toward the ridge.
“I need to get Mercer.”
Rebecca stared through the trees.
She saw him.
Black coat.
Tall horse.
Elias Mercer looked almost exactly as she remembered.
Handsome.
Elegant.
Untouched by hardship.
She felt something inside her settle.
For months, she had imagined him as a monster.
Now he looked small.
Just a man.
A cruel man.
But a man.
Rebecca handed Jonas to Caleb.
“Stay with him.”
Jonas grabbed her wrist.
“Where you going?”
“To finish this.”
“No.”
Rebecca kissed him.
“I’m done running.”
She moved through the trees with Pike.
They circled behind Elias.
One of his men spotted them.
Pike fired.
The man fled.
Elias turned.
He saw Rebecca.
His expression changed.
“Rebecca.”
She aimed the revolver.
“Get off the horse.”
He smiled.
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Maybe not.”
She cocked the hammer.
“But I have learned a great deal since St. Louis.”
His smile faded.
Pike stepped from the trees.
“Elias Mercer, federal deputy marshal.”
Elias reached inside his coat.
Rebecca fired.
The bullet struck his arm.
His pistol fell into snow.
Elias screamed.
Pike rushed forward.
Within seconds, Elias was facedown with iron cuffs around his wrists.
Rebecca stood over him.
He glared.
“You stupid woman.”
She looked down.
“No.”
For the first time, she understood something Thomas had tried to teach her.
Elias survived because people feared him.
His power depended on that fear.
Rebecca no longer had any to give.
She turned away.
Behind her, flames consumed part of the cabin roof.
Jonas sat against a tree.
When he saw Rebecca walking back, relief crossed his face.
She knelt beside him.
“It’s over.”
“Mercer?”
“Alive.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Dead men don’t testify.”
Rebecca smiled.
Even sick, he was practical.
Pike approached.
“We need to get Hargrave down mountain.”
The storm made travel dangerous.
But infection made staying worse.
Caleb knew an abandoned mining road.
They bundled Jonas onto Bess.
Rebecca walked beside him.
For six hours they descended through darkness and snow.
Twice Jonas lost consciousness.
Each time Rebecca spoke to him.
“Stay with me.”
At dawn, they reached Georgetown.
A doctor treated the infection.
Rebecca sat beside Jonas for thirty hours.
When he finally woke, sunlight filled the room.
He looked confused.
Then saw her.
“You stayed.”
Rebecca laughed through tears.
“I told you.”
Jonas reached for her hand.
“Elias?”
“In jail.”
“Pike?”
“Taking him east.”
“The papers?”
“Safe.”
Jonas closed his eyes.
Rebecca leaned close.
“What?”
He opened them again.
“Cabin burned?”
“Part of it.”
His face fell.
Rebecca squeezed his hand.
“We can rebuild.”
Jonas looked at her.
“We?”
She smiled.
“Did you really think you were getting rid of me that easily?”
For the first time since the attack, Jonas laughed.