“I’ll be fine. Will you?” I motioned back to the house. “I know you need a break.”

“I’ll take one once Dad comes to his senses.”

Ha. Like that was going to happen.

“Look.” His voice softened. “We all know you didn’t kill Sullivan. Dad just…” He shook his head.

“I gave the order. May as well have pulled the trigger,” I said quietly, staring at the front porch. Our team had been called in to support a combat outpost under fire, and when our chopper managed to land, all hell had broken loose. I’d been ordered to head toward a break in the defenses with whichever soldiers were available.

“You relayed orders. That’s all.”

“I chose a squad leader to reinforce the side of the outpost taking the heaviest fire,” I corrected him. “That sergeant took his squad and did just that.” We’d split what was left of that platoon down the middle. I could have chosen the staff sergeant on my right. Instead, I took the one on my left and headed for the wall with his soldiers. “Sullivan was in that squad.”

“You didn’t know that.” He shook his head emphatically. “How could you have? I’ve read the report. There’s no way you would have seen him in a mess like that.”

By the time I’d recognized Sully, it was too late. My hands tightened on the wheel. He’d been shot ten feet away from me.

If I had just chosen the guy on the right, Sullivan would be alive. That was where Dad had stopped listening.

“I’ve got to get out of here.”

“The back way is still open,” he said. When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to reply, he mumbled something about my stubbornness and shut the door.

I waited until he was clear, then started the engine. Instead of taking the road back to Alba, I followed the fading dirt road west, putting the Jeep into four-wheel drive and skirting the edge of the Bradley property line for a few minutes until I climbed the next ridge and turned north.

I crept through the open, rusted gate and crossed onto Uncle Cal’s land. Guess it really was mine now, according to the property taxes I’d been paying. Still felt like his, though. He’d died the year before Sullivan, and I’d been deployed again, unable to bury the man I’d loved more than my own father.

A few minutes later, I put the car in park.

In the sunlight, I’d be able to see what remained of the ruins at the hot springs down the ridgeline and the tip of the abandoned Rose Rowan Mine below those. But given the sight my headlights illuminated, maybe it was a good thing it was dark.