"You killed him!" Justin had yelled-almost screamed. "We could have helped him!"

"He was dead," Ahlund had growled.

"No, he wasn't!"

"He was."

"You son of a-"

"Nothing could have saved him," Ahlund had said. "Out here, a mortally wounded man and a dead man are one and the same."

"That wasn't a man," Justin had growled through clenched teeth. "That was a kid!"

Ahlund had walked away.

At present, Justin blinked against tears and squeezed ...