He looked back at me in the rearview mirror. “I can make it go away, Elena. If you want mercy for them. Just say the word.”

I looked at Chloe being folded into the back of a cruiser. I remembered the heavy glass swinging toward my face. I remembered my father looking a man in the eye and declaring me dead.

“Mercy is for mistakes, General,” I said quietly. “They made choices. Let them choke on the consequences.”

Sterling nodded slowly, a grim smile of respect touching his lips. “Driver. Andrews Air Force Base. The General needs to get home.”

One month later.