Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Annie
“The answer is no,” Silas says flatly for the third time in under two minutes.
“I wasn’t aware this was a monarchy.”
“It’s not.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
We’re standing in the downstairs office while rain lashes the windows hard enough to blur the ranch lights outside. Thunder rolls low across the valley, rattling the glass in uneven bursts.
Perfect weather for discovering your workplace is apparently run by supervillains.
Duke stands beside the desk with the burner phone still clenched in one hand, jaw tight enough to crack stone. Cody’s near the computer pulling up location maps and staff logs simultaneously because apparently that man copes with stress by becoming eighty percent spreadsheet.
Silas is the only one looking directly at me.
Which is unfortunate because his full attention feels like standing too close to a wildfire.
“You’re not going near Jake tonight,” he says.
“And you think I’m staying here while the three of you confront a man who just got caught coordinating sabotage and threatening me? I’m the one who saw him coming back here!”
“Yes.”
The speed of the answer almost impresses me.
I stare at him. “That’s deeply unreasonable.”
“That’s survival.”
“No,” I snap, stepping closer, “survival is me refusing to become the terrified woman everybody pushes into another room while men make decisions about her life.”
Silence slams down hard.
Oops.
Well. Not wrong, though.
Emotion flickers across Silas’s face.
Duke exhales beside me. “Baby…”
“No.” I fold my arms tighter. “I found the inconsistencies. I tracked the shell vendors. I connected the rodeo contracts. Jake tried framing me because I’m dangerous to him specifically.”
Cody finally looks up from the computer. “Which is exactly why we don’t want you near him.”
“And if he lies?” I demand. “If he twists things? If he tries spinning the records?”
“We have proof.”
“I understand the proof better than anybody else in this room.”
They know that’s true.
I see the exact second the argument starts collapsing behind Cody’s eyes.
Silas notices too. “Cody.”
“She’s right,” Cody says.
Silas looks personally betrayed by this development.
Duke mutters, “Traitor.”
“I’m not saying I like it,” Cody replies. “I’m saying Jake’s more likely to talk if Annie’s there.”
“Why?”
“Because he underestimated her.”
That settles heavily into the room.
Because yeah. He did. Everybody did at first.
Blue hair, piercings, temporary contract worker. Easy to dismiss if you weren’t paying attention.
Unfortunately for Jake Dorsey, I’m very difficult to outthink once I start paying attention back.
Silas rubs a hand across his jaw slowly. His exhaustion shows harder tonight, worry carved deep around the edges.
Finally, he looks at me again.
“If you come,” he says, “you stay beside one of us the entire time.” I nod. “And the second I tell you to leave, you leave.”
“We’ll negotiate that later.”
“Annie.”
“Fine. Probably.”
Duke groans softly. “You are genuinely the most stressful woman alive.”
Warmth flickers briefly through my chest despite everything.
Then thunder cracks overhead hard enough to shake the windows and the feeling disappears again.
Business mode. Fear mode. War mode. Whatever this is now.
We find Jake near the barn office. He might have cleaned up his office, but he hasn’t gone anywhere. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.
Rain falls around us as we cross the ranch yard together. Mud slicks beneath my boots. Wind cuts through my cardigan despite the hoodie Duke practically forced over my shoulders before we left the house.
And there he is.
Jake Dorsey stands beneath the overhang outside the barn office like he’s waiting for a fucking dinner reservation instead of the collapse of his entire life.
Calm. Dry. Hands in his jacket pockets.
The sight of him standing there so casually after everything he’s done makes me feel sick to my stomach.
Beside me, Duke goes terrifyingly still.
Silas steps in front of us automatically. Cody stays near my shoulder.
Jake’s eyes land on me first, and then he smiles. That’s when I understand. He never thought I’d get this far.
“You found the archive,” Jake says calmly.
Rain patters hard against the barn roof.
Nobody answers.
Jake glances between the four of us slowly, gaze flickering briefly on the burner phone in Duke’s hand. “Guess that means Sherry panicked.”
Duke’s voice could freeze blood now. “You threatening her?”
Jake looks almost bored by the question. “If I wanted to threaten anyone, you’d know.”
Silas moves before I fully register it.
One second he’s beside me, and the next he has Jake slammed against the barn wall hard enough to rattle the siding.
“Careful,” Silas says softly.
Even Jake looks briefly startled by the sheer violence packed into those two syllables.
“Silas,” Cody says.
Not because he disagrees. Because murdering people before answers happen is apparently inefficient.
Silas releases him slowly.
Jake straightens his jacket like this is mildly inconvenient customer service. “You boys always were emotional thinkers.”
“You sabotaged the ranch,” Cody says coldly.
“No.” Jake brushes rainwater from his sleeve. “I optimized an unstable asset.”
I step forward before the brothers can stop me. “You rerouted operational funds to manufacture instability,” I say evenly. “You were trying to make the ranch look unstable.”
Jake looks at me with open surprise now. Not because I’m wrong. Because I understood it. “That’s impressive.”
Revulsion crawls up my spine. “You tried framing me.”
His smile returns. “Temporary employees exist for a reason.”
Behind me, Duke mutters something that sounds deeply homicidal, but I can’t stop looking at Jake. Because now that we’re here, now that the mask slipped, I can finally see what’s underneath him.
He thinks he’s right.
“You endangered people,” I say.
Jake shrugs lightly. “Ironwood was collapsing under outdated leadership.”
Silas goes rigid beside me.
Jake notices. Keeps going. “You think this place survives because of sentiment?” he asks. “Because ranch hands sing country songs and everybody plays cowboy dynasty together?”
“This is our home,” Duke snaps.
“No,” Jake says calmly. “It’s land. Infrastructure. Political leverage. Development opportunity.”
The disgust that rolls through me is immediate and complete. Because that’s the difference between people like Jake and people like the brothers.
The Harlans love Ironwood like blood. Jake only sees dollar signs.
“You were going to get it sold,” Cody says.
Jake glances toward him. “Eventually? Of course.”
Rain lashes harder across the roof.
Thunder rumbles somewhere deep in the mountains.
“You don’t understand how expensive legacy becomes after a while,” Jake continues. “Maintenance. Expansion. Staffing. Public expectations.” He laughs softly. “The ranch was bleeding long before I touched it.”
“You made it worse,” I say.
“I accelerated the inevitable.”
“No,” I cut in. “You manufactured it.”
“You really are smarter than they realized,” Jake snarls.
Silas steps closer. “Don’t talk about her.”
Jake ignores him completely. “That’s what scared Vivian most, actually.”
Everything stops.
Beside me, Cody goes completely motionless.
Duke’s fingers tighten around the burner phone hard enough to crack plastic.
Silas’s voice lowers dangerously. “What did you say?”
And finally Jake looks less composed.
“You heard me,” he says carefully.
The rain suddenly sounds deafening.
Silas stares at him with an expression I’ve never seen before in my life.
“She knew?” Duke asks.
Jake exhales through his nose like he’s exhausted by all of us. “You really think I had enough pull to move development investors toward Ironwood acreage alone? Who do you think wants to buy it?”
“She was involved,” Cody says.
“Oh, wow,” I whisper.
Because suddenly every piece clicks together so perfectly it makes me nauseous. The pressure, the control, the obsession with legacy, the threats, the desperation to remove me specifically once I started finding the truth.
Vivian wasn’t protecting Ironwood. She was trying to own it.
Duke looks physically sick now. “She used us.”
Jake laughs once softly. “That woman’s been using all of you for years.”
Silas moves again.
This time Cody catches him before he reaches Jake.
The tension detonates. Rain. Mud. Fury. Grief. And standing in the middle of all of it, I realize: This stopped being about money a long time ago.
This is about control. And people who lose control after holding it too long?
They become dangerous.