“I know.”
That made Regan look at me again.
I shrugged, uncomfortable under her attention. “She patched me up after the first night. Not like a girl playing nurse. Like she knew what she was doing.”
“She apprenticed under the healer on the res,” Regan said. “Woman was nearly ninety and still going strong. Taught Destiny herbs, poultices, teas, old remedies, prayers, old spells, all of it. Destiny would tell you it was better than medical school.”
“Probably was.”
Regan smiled sadly. “Probably. But the old ways don’t fly in the world she has to enter now.”
“Don’t I know it.”
The words came out before I thought better of them.
Regan caught them. Filed them away. The woman missed nothing.
“Where?” I asked.
“Malibu.”
My brows drew together. “Malibu?”
“Pepperdine.”
I stared at her.
She lifted her drink. “For the purposes of this story and her life, they have exactly what she needs.”
“Pepperdine,” I repeated.
“Beautiful campus. Ocean. Distance. New people. No one from Santa Fe breathing down her neck every time she gets coffee.”
“That’s close to the Malibu charter.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the black water beyond the beach bar. “Rick and Eddie.”
“They’re good friends,” she said. “And one of them is loosely related to Destiny through Mandy’s side. It gets complicated.”
“Everything does.”
“Unbeknownst to all of us, Eddie’s been building a trust for her for years. He never had kids. He was Mandy’s godfather, or as close as Mandy ever had to one. He’s leaving everything to Destiny.”
My hand stilled on the tequila glass.
Everything.
That word carried weight.
Land. Money. Property. Power. Freedom, if handled right. A target, if handled wrong.
I looked at Regan. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“What are you asking?”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
