Though only a day had passed since Ferris had last seen his front door, it felt as if he’d been gone for a year. It was the same feeling as seeing the stoop of his family’s brownstone after a semester in New Haven, where every detail of the entrance...

Ferris didn’t see the bullet go in. There was only a scream, muffled through the blood pumping behind his eardrums. The sound petered out into a grunt as Hassan clutched his shoulder, fingers clawing through the reddening fabric. The man sucked in a chestful of air, his breath audible...