Page 238 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Nobody interrupts her.

Nobody can.

Because Annie built this presentation well. Every accusation supported by records, every record duplicated, every duplicate archived publicly enough that burying it now would show guilt.

Which means Vivian lost before the meeting even started.

Cody leans toward me. “She’s cornered them.”

“Yeah,” I whisper back.

Then I watch Annie glance toward us, and my heart catches hard in my chest. Because she’s not looking for approval. She’s checking whether we’re still beside her.

Silas notices, too. He moves closer automatically until he’s standing near the edge of the stage beside her.

By the time the meeting ends, the shell company accounts are frozen, outside investors are under investigation, and Ironwood survives by approximately the width of a human stress fracture.

People crowd Annie afterward.

Town vendors shake Silas’s hand.

Ranch staff look relieved enough to cry.

“This isn’t amateur fraud,” Sheriff Miller says grimly. “I can’t believe you managed to catch it.”

Cody says, “Thank you.” Which might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.

Eventually the hall empties.

Rain taps softly against the windows now instead of storming. The fluorescent lights hum overhead while workers stack folding chairs near the back wall.

And suddenly it’s just us again.

The four of us standing near the front rows surrounded by exposed secrets and cold coffee cups and the aftermath of surviving together.

Annie finally exhales hard enough for me to notice.

“There,” she mutters. “Public accountability. My favorite coping mechanism.”

I laugh softly. Then stop laughing almost immediately because everything feels different tonight.

Quieter.

We’ve all been running at full speed for so long nobody noticed the cliff edge approaching until now.

Silas steps closer first. “You were incredible.”

Annie looks up at him.

And man… I’ve watched my older brother negotiate land disputes with armed ranchers and stare down men twice his size without blinking.

None of that looks remotely as vulnerable as the way he’s looking at Annie right now.

She swallows once. “We all did this.”

“No,” Cody says softly behind her. “You walked into a room full of people who could’ve turned on you and told the truth anyway.”

Annie’s eyes flick toward him.