Dutch made his real move in the third week of November.
Not to Ellie. Not through Cole or three men in a parking lot. He called Rafe directly, which was its own kind of message -- that whatever came next was above theater, above gestures. This was the actual conversation.
Rafe took the call in the garage after hours, alone, which was how he took all calls that might require him to be completely honest with himself about what he was hearing.
Dutch's offer was clean. The Road Kings would pull back from the Route 9 expansion. The border would stay where it was. The Saints would keep their territory, their operators, their income. Fifteen years of tension would be formalized into something that looked, from the outside, like peace.
In exchange: the Saints would give Dutch access to two war
