"You weren't a monster," Alex said absently. "The monster was who shattered Michael's hand and you were never that." There'd been words that hurt and a few shoves on both sides, but Kyle had never been particularly violent. And that was the problem he was having with shooting a gun. Alex could sense if not see the way his hand would be shaking. Give the man an open wound and he was a professional, but no one should have to deal with his father without a significant amount of training.

He frowned as he thought about it. Was Guerin really jealous of a friendship? Or had he somehow intuited his childhood crush on Kyle? Not that it would be really hard to figure out. Lots of kids had crushes on their best friend when they were the opposite gender and he'd just happened to prefer his own. And there Kyle was.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll ask him about it when we find him. We were supposed to talk." And now he wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be worried that Michael hadn't come back or angry that he hadn't.

"Do you know that I'd thought about not leaving the Air Force because I thought it would keep me one step ahead of my dad?" He shook his head. "I really should have known better. I've never managed to keep up with him."

He'd only managed to catch his dad flat-footed because his father had never assumed that Alex would have the guts to stand up to him.