You're not constantly thinking about six ways to cover your back. . Alex couldn't help but laugh a little at that and it wasn't the sort of happy laugh that was normally out of his mouth.

"That's exactly why I agreed to go into the Air Force," he pointed out. "Because I wanted to do something more than just sit around on my hands whe someone I cared about was in danger. It's what they trained us to do. Sometimes I think it was the only worthwhile thing I came back with."

The memories, the nightmares. He didn't want those. And he didn't want the expectations his father had that Alex would just fall in line like the good little soldier he'd been. A Manes Man. Maybe that was the family curse. He wondered if any of his brothers had broken free of it or whether they were all good little soldiers like Flint.

He sighed. He really didn't want to think about how being an airman had changed him. That was a long, involved conversation that he wasn't even comfortable talking about with a therapist. It certainly wasn't fit conversation during the hunt for the Guerin-Evans's. But you could always trust Kyle to have a witty comment to fall back on, so Alex finished on that.

"Clearly I'm going to have to find something else to grouse about. You always give me something, so I figure it won't be hard."