The lights of the house shone from the windows as we came to what used to be the gardens Mom spent her mornings in. The once-lush plants were all but gone—surviving only as volunteers that grew from the seeds in the leftover rot of the previous year—or had been overrun by the mountain grass.

Dad had called it folly to garden this close to the tree line. Mom had rolled her eyes and done it anyway.

We rounded the side of the house, and I made note of the places where the siding had peeled back. The gutters drooped, and the drainage system was in shambles, if the small canyons that began at the drain spouts were any indication.

Dorothy met Dad on the front porch, and the two disappeared into the house while Captain Hall and Xander spoke at the base of the steps.

“That doesn’t look pleasant,” Gideon noted as we approached my Jeep.

I opened the passenger side and stripped down to my T-shirt, ignoring the bite of temperature as I threw the armored vest onto the seat. When I’d decided to keep my personal gear, it had been out of an unexplainable sense of attachment, not because I thought I’d still need to use the damn thing.

I put on my ruined coat as we headed for Xander.

“This can’t happen again,” Captain Hall lectured my brother, which immediately set me on edge.

“It won’t. I never thought he’d locate the key. You have my most sincere apology.” Xander’s mouth was set in a firm line, which was pretty much as upset as he’d ever get in front of an authority figure.

I took my place next to him as Gideon took his by his father.

“I respect what you’ve done, Alexander. I really do.” His forehead puckered in what would have been a worried expression had the porch light not thrown half his face into shadows that painted him an old-west villain.

Guy seriously needed to lose the cowboy hat.

“Thank you,” Xander replied. “Now, we’re going to go check on our—”

“But the time has come for you to put him in that assisted living facility in Buena Vista,” Captain Hall interrupted in that morally superior voice that had always led me to the opposite of what he demanded.

“That’s why I’m here.” I folded my arms over my chest.

“And it’s nice to see you, Camden. Really, it is. Been boring around here without you destroying everything. What do you know about caring for your father? How long are you here on leave? What’s going to happen when you go back to wherever it is you live?”

Gideon swallowed, his gaze darting between his dad and me, but he didn’t move or respond like he once would have. Guess some things had changed.