“We have some,” she said. “Not all.”
“Get all,” JD said. “Quietly.”
Nyla wiped her face. “What if they delete things?”
Hacker snorted without looking up. “Then they’re adorable.”
JD shot him a look.
Hacker lifted one hand. “Sorry. Serious room.”
JD looked back at the kids. “They will try to turn Destiny into the monster of the night. We show motive, provocation, intoxication, possible drugging, and a pattern of targeted harassment against a minor. That doesn’t erase what happened, but it changes the battlefield.”
Tris nodded fast. “We can do that.”
Jake looked at Edge. “She didn’t want you hurt.”
Edge’s face went tight.
Jake swallowed, then kept going. “She said you all already had enough scars from Mandy. She said she wasn’t going to be the reason you had more.”
Regan turned away and pressed her hand to her mouth.
Edge closed his eyes.
JD’s face softened, just for a second.
Then he looked at Callum. “San Diego still has a meet with Santa Fe?”
Callum’s expression went dry. “This feels like it.”
“No. This is family triage. The meet waits, but the reasons for it don’t. If cartel movement was enough to bring you in,then tonight’s chaos is smoke cover. We can’t get tunnel vision on Destiny and miss someone using the fire to move something worse.”
That earned him a look from Callum.
Then a nod.
Because he was right.
I hated that he was right about everything.
My mind went back to the explosion. The first boom. The way the party had been too drugged, too easy, too ready to become chaos. A rich-kid disaster, maybe. Or something uglier wearing one.
“Someone dosed her,” I said.
The room turned toward me.
I hadn’t meant to speak.
But once I did, I kept going.
“Maybe it was just some spoiled kid with party drugs. Maybe not. But I saw her out there. She was too far gone too fast. Whatever she took hit hard. And those kids were already talking about ghosts, curses, Mandy. Like the story was primed before she ever picked up fire.”
JD stared at me.
Callum did too.
Edge came down the last step.
