“Do it,” I say.
The prospects move after that. Efficient. Quick. They don’t look at her. They don’t come close. Every single one of them feels it.
Blaze lingers a second longer. “You sure you don’t want—”
“No.”
He exhales through his nose, nodding once. “Yeah. Didn’t think so.”
Joker finally speaks. Quiet. “Brought the cage.”
“No one touches her,” I say.
Joker’s eyes flick down to her, then back to me. “Figured.” That’s all. No argument. No push.
Hammer shuts the SUV door and looks at me. “You driving it?”
“No, Joker will.”
“You riding like that?”
“I’m not putting her down.” That ends it.
Blaze mutters under his breath, “Yeah, that tracks,” but he doesn’t argue.
The street noise is getting louder now. Voices. A door opening somewhere. Someone saying they heard a gunshot.
Time’s up.
I adjust my grip on her, making sure her head is supported, her body fully shielded against mine. Still out. Still breathing. That’s all that matters. “Move,” I say.
The men don’t hesitate.
Joker opens the driver’s side of the SUV for me without a word.
I get in with her still in my arms. I don’t set her down. I don’t shift her away. I don’t let anyone else touch her. Not now. Not later. Not at all.
Blaze leans in just enough to meet my eyes before I shut the door. “Logan’s gonna want answers.”
“Then he’ll get them.”
Blaze studies me for half a second longer. Then nods. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “I figured.” He shuts the door.
The engine turns over.
And as Joker pulls away from the curb with her still held tight against my chest, one thing settles in deeper than anything else that’s happened tonight.Not instinct. Not reaction. Not even anger. Something else. Something final.
They didn’t just make a move. They picked wrong.
And now…
She’s not leaving my sight again.
Something pulls at me. Not hard. Not sharp. Just…there. Like I’m being moved through something thick, something slow, something I can’t quite fight or follow. The world doesn’t come back all at once. It bleeds in around the edges, distorted and wrong, like I’m hearing it through water.
Sound reaches me first.
Low. Broken. Voices, maybe.
