The Summer House

Chapter 49

Inside his cell at the Ralston town jail, Staff Sergeant Caleb Jefferson is sitting cross-legged on his bunk, waiting, thinking, pondering. There’s a fresh smell of soap and bleach in the air, and he knows it’s from yesterday, from cleaning up the adjacent cell after Specialist Vinny Tyler — his man, his responsibility! — ended his life.

A good leader always takes care of his men, always brings them back, the best he can, and he feels bone-deep inside that he’s a failure. Not that he hasn’t lost men before, but that was overseas in the ’stan, where a sniper’s bullet, a mortar round, or an RPG could end a life in the blink of an eye. That was the job. That was the risk everyone took.

But not here. Not in this pissy little cell. Not in Georgia.

Corporal Barnes whispers, “How are you doing, Sergeant?”

“Shut up,” Jefferson says.

The other surviving member of their squad pipes up as well. “Sergeant, we all agreed about what happened. Vinny... he just couldn’t hack it anymore. That’s all. It’s not your fault.”

“Ruiz?”

“Yes?”

“You can shut up, too.”

They quiet down.

He continues to sit, brooding.

Out there is his other responsibility, his stepdaughter, Carol, though truthfully, he never really uses the word step. The two of them bonded almost instantly when he started seeing her mother, Janice, with none of the fighting and griping about “You’re not my real daddy,” and she was his daughter as much as any biological father’s out there.

He wonders how she is. He wonders about Major Moore, the battalion’s XO, if he got to Aunt Sophie in time.

The planning, the agreements, everything else must stay in place.

Jefferson realizes he’s clenching his fists.

But what if he’s wrong?

And what if all this ends up killing the last two members of his squad?