Page 237 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Accurate.

Silas stands near the aisle looking carved out of controlled violence and exhaustion. Hands in his pockets. Expression closed off.

And Annie… she’s terrifying tonight.

She stands near the front table in black jeans, boots, and a charcoal sweater tucked halfway into her waistband, electric blue hair braided loosely over one shoulder. Laptop open. Projector ready. Camera bag at her feet.

Calm.

Too calm.

Which is how I know she’s about to ruin somebody’s entire life professionally.

“Baby,” I murmur beside her, “you currently look like the patron saint of forensic homicide.”

Without looking up, she says, “That’s the nicest thing anybody’s ever said to me.”

Cody almost smiles.

Almost.

Town council members shuffle papers nervously while the mayor clears his throat into the microphone. “This emergency meeting has been called regarding allegations involving Ironwood Ranch operational finances and⁠—”

“They won’t always be allegations,” Annie says calmly.

The entire room stills.

Annie steps forward, plugging the laptop into the projector while conversations die one by one around the hall.

The first spreadsheet appears on the screen behind her.

“You all deserve transparency,” Annie says evenly. “Because the financial manipulation impacting Ironwood didn’t only threaten the ranch. It affected local vendors, staffing stability, land contracts, rodeo sponsorships, and county development projections.”

Dead silence. Even the mayor stops breathing.

Annie clicks to the next slide.

Cody built most of the structural tracing. Annie made it understandable enough to survive public scrutiny.

Which is somehow even scarier.

“These entities,” Annie continues, “were used to reroute operational funds away from Ironwood through layered holding structures disguised as maintenance and agricultural expansion accounts.”

Murmurs ripple through the room. Sheriff Miller folds his arms harder.

She walks everybody through it methodically. Calm voice, facts, no emotional grandstanding, which makes it worse because nothing sounds exaggerated when Annie explains it.

It sounds proven.

Jake’s approval chains hit first.

Gasps.

Tessa’s legal structures hit second.

Shock.

Then Vivian’s indirect oversight connections appear and the room goes so quiet I can hear somebody’s Styrofoam coffee cup crumpling near the back wall.