“No one is leaving until I get an answer,” I snapped at my dad. My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. “This is my house.” I wasn’t sure if I was telling them or reminding myself.

My father’s eyes bore into Kael’s. “You’re so close to that medical discharge you want. And if you don’t watch it, we’ll all be fucked! Your career will end before you even leave Fort Benning. What are you going to do with a dishonorable discharge, boy?”

“I’m not your fucking boy. And I’m not fucking afraid of you.” Kael stood, his back straight while talking to my father. It shocked and impressed me. “There’s nothing else you can do to me, or to Mendoza, to any of us.”

“And how much blood is on your hands, Sergeant Martin?” My dad growled at him before turning to me. “Did he tell you he’s on the verge of getting himself a dishonorable discharge? What kind of future would you have with him, Karina?”

Kael’s attention was on me, and his eyes were glassy like he was holding back tears of anger. “It’s him, Karina. He’s a senile narcissist who has convinced himself he’s some sort of god and he’s nothing.” Kael’s veil of composure was gone.

I stood there between them as their truths swirled around me, trying to stick.

“Are you denying that you came into my office, shivering, your leg all bandaged, and signed your name on the bottom of that page, Martin? You signed official documents, you even got a promotion after that. You signed it. Mendoza signed it. Lawson signed it. All of you! And now you decide, almost two years later, to come back and try to backtrack?”

My dad was in full-on officer mode. It was sickening to watch the way he knew just how to warp the tone of his voice to whip soldiers into submission, like he sometimes did with Austin and me.

Kael spoke in a detached, steely voice. “He was sent into the wrong house. Shots were fired at him because no one did a proper surveillance. You know that you neglected your command, keeping yourself entertained back at camp while Mendoza, Lawson, and I went in. He didn’t know who was inside when he fired!”

“Soldiers and civilians die, on and off the battlefield. It’s a part of the job. It’s what you signed up for. I’m sorry this happened to your friend. At least he’s still alive, unlike most of mine.”