Think clearly.The two words he’d built a career on. He’d said them to every new hire in an orientation speech he’d given so many times Jodie mouthed along from the doorway.If you can’t think clearly, you can’t protect anyone. If you can’t think clearly, you’re a liability.
He stopped arguing.
Lachlan turned his gaze on Charlie next, then Shane. He didn’t have to say it twice. Charlie drew a breath and let it out slowly through her nose. Shane’s gaze went back to the wall, but the set of his shoulders had changed. He knew he wouldn’t like what he was about to hear.
Gina had not moved. Fleur hadn’t moved either, though her eyes tracked every face in the room in sequence.
“Who, then?” Charlie asked.
Lach turned to Kyle, giving him back his leadership, but with a look of warning in his eyes.
“Colin.”
Charlie tilted her head. Shane turned and stared at Kyle.
Kyle nodded. “Colin called this in from the gatehouse with exactly the right read on a situation he had no information about.”
And he had no skin in the game. Which was, Kyle realized, the entire point.
Charlie shook her head. “Colin doesn’t do kids. We all know that.”
“He’ll turn you down,” Shane said.
“Then Mac’s secondary,” Kyle told him. “He’s great with kids.”
“Juni asked for Colin,” Gina said. Kyle looked at her and she looked back steadily, golden eyes warm and entirely unreadable.
“I caught that, too,” Lachlan said mildly.
“Kids know. They always do,” Gina continued.
Kyle blew out a breath. He felt some of the starch go out of his shoulders.
Think clearly.
“Fine,” he said. “Colin primary. Mac secondary.” He was already running the assignment in his head—the rotation, the coverage, the briefing, the?—
“I want them at the ranch,” Arden said.
“Arden,” Gina said softly. “The ranch isn’t a safehouse.”
“No,” Arden said. “It’s better. Maren and Juni have been terrified for days. A safehouse feels like a jail cell. The ranch is a home.” She looked at Gina and Lachlan. “It’s as defensible as any safehouse. You know it is. The gatehouse, the road, the terrain—you helped us set it all up. And,” Arden added, “that little girl just met her family. I am not letting her be put in a safehouse.” She would not be persuaded. “They come home with me today. They’refamily. Blood family.”
Gina held up her hand. “It isn’t Maren’s safety I’m thinking about here. It’s yours.”
Arden’s eyes widened. “Mine? Why?”
Kyle felt his stomach clench. He squeezed Arden’s hand.
And this is exactly why Lachlan is right.Kyle had been about to agree. He’d been about to sayyeah, baby. The ranch.
And let a woman they’d known for less than two hours waltz right into their home.
He squeezed Arden’s hand harder.Dammit.
He was too close to it. Lach had said it out loud and Kyle had nodded and agreed and then turned around and almost done it anyway.
And Gina was throwing herself on the grenade for him.
