The other side of Santa Fe was already waking up with lawyers, rage, and money.
Finally, Edge said, “How long before she can leave?”
Doc’s mouth tightened. “Give me thirty minutes to wrap her hand better, check her pupils again, and get something in her stomach if she can tolerate it.”
“Twenty,” JD said.
Doc glared. “Thirty.”
JD nodded once. “Thirty.”
Edge looked at Cal, who had come in quietly sometime during the chaos, dust on his boots, ranch still clinging to him like a second skin.
Cal didn’t wait to be asked.
“I’ll call the ranch,” he said. “No lights on the north side. Horses ready. Gate open on the wash trail. Nobody uses the main drive.”
Regan straightened. “I’m going with her.”
“Yes,” Edge said.
It was not permission.
It was gratitude.
Regan crossed to him and took his face in both hands. For a moment, they stood like that in front of everyone, his forehead almost touching hers, both of them breathing through the same terror.
“She’s our baby,” Regan whispered.
“I know.”
“She thought she had to protect us.”
“I know.”
“She doesn’t anymore.”
Edge’s hands closed around her wrists.
“No,” he said. “She doesn’t.”
The words sounded like a vow.
JD turned back to Hacker. “Phones stay here. All of them. Destiny’s phone goes dark. Regan’s phone goes dark after Houston noise is planted, not before. Edge, you do not call her from your own phone once she moves.”
Edge’s head snapped up.
JD didn’t blink. “You want to protect her or soothe yourself?”
That was the bravest thing I had seen all night.
For a second, I thought Edge might break his jaw.
Instead, Edge gave one short nod.
“Good,” JD said. “Hacker, coordinate with counsel before anything that could become evidence. Callum, keep your men clean on this. San Diego getting caught helping Santa Fe hide a minor at a felony scene makes everything uglier.”
Callum’s mouth curved faintly. “Clean is relative.”
