I turn to my dad slowly, or maybe it only feels that way because of my head injury. “Are you kidding?”

“I told you. I came here to die. I don’t need to be rescued.”

I stare at him a long minute. The light flickering from the growing fire deepens the lines in his face.

“You’re planning to starve to death?”

My dad holds up a gun. “Not letting it get that far.”

I grit my teeth. “Well, you can’t do that now. I’m here. You’ve already fucked me up enough. You sure as hell aren’t shooting yourself in front of me.”

“Then I suggest you leave. You said it yourself, you’re not the lost one. What’s it to you?”

I groan against the throb in my skull, feeling a warm trickle down the back of my neck. “I don’t have the energy for this, Dad. I’m not here to convince you to live your life. I’m here to fucking search for and rescue you. So, let me do my job.”

“You found me. You can leave now.” His voice trembles, and it’s suddenly clear to me that he’s not brave enough to do this. “I’m not going back to prison, Micah.”

I settle back. Angry and sad and exhausted. “Dad. I can’t leave you like this.”

“I left you.”

“You sure did. But I’m a different kind of man than you are.”

“No one would blame you for walking out. Your mom, even.”

“Oh, she would definitely blame me. You’d be surprised at the amount of blame I’ve gotten for things out of my control.” The way I see it, I don’t have a whole lot of time to negotiate. Best to lay it on the proverbial table. “So, you decide. I’m cold and bleeding pretty bad and probably going to die of hypothermia if I pass out from blood loss. If that happens, it will be your fault. You want to kill yourself? Then you’ll have to kill me, too.”

You jump, I jump, I think wryly.

“Someone will come for you,” he says, but even I know he’s not certain.

“Probably,” I say. “But will they come in time? It’s dark, and Cash won’t leave me. He’s no Lassie.” Duke could find me, maybe. But who knows if he’s on his way or still in Marquette working, thinking I let my phone die.

My phone never dies.

Duke has to be on his way.

“I didn’t ask for you to come here.”