Nothing’s free, mate.
Especially when you give an ex-con a badge and a budget.
Taryn stood at the front now, where he used to stand.Badge clipped, files in hand.Facing his team, with the glow from the widescreen shining like a halo around her.
They were all there, Craig and Izzy, Romy and Stone, Amara and Porter, taking up space at the round table that held his maps, sipping coffee and spreading pastry crumbs.While Finn held up the back wall, not because they’d pushed him there, but because he didn’t feel he deserved a seat anymore.
‘Everlight Energy Solutionswas the start of everything…’ Taryn was finally giving that PowerPoint presentation she’d once threatened him with as a joke, only now each dot point was just another nail sticking into his spine.
‘Everlight bought land, all strategically set in places that were high value areas for livestock across the country.They installed a few solar panels and cleverly collected federal grants.And as we all know, there was no energy being generated.It was a front that Izzy figured out.’She nodded to Izzy seated at the table beside her husband, Cowboy Craig.‘And it’s what got Meghan Forrester killed.’Taryn’s voice faltered for the first time as she announced, ‘Meghan was my cousin.’
A heavy quietness settled across the room on that revelation that Finn had never shared with the team.
Stone sat back, wiping his mouth, to stop speaking.Amara blinked, then gave a sympathetic look to Izzy and then to Taryn.Craig slid his arm around his wife’s shoulders and whispered something, but Izzy didn’t flinch.But her knuckles whitened around the coffee cup in her hands.
Finn saw it.
Saw the tight line of Izzy’s jaw, where the pain was buried deep, but not forgotten.
Meghan Forrester’s murder may have been solved in the eyes of the law.Renzo had done it.Izzy had seen it.
But Renzo had died before he could stand trial.
And Finn knew without a doubt just from Taryn’s stance, that she had worked out the connection—because that woman only came to this town to seek justice for her cousin.
And with no fanfare, Taryn announced, ‘The guy behind it all is the Federal Agricultural Commissioner, Andrew Bannon.He’s the man who wrote the grant applications and is the face behind Everlight Energy Solutions.’
It was like someone had pulled the plug on the entire room.Even the air felt stunned.
‘Big Daddy is the bad guy?’Stone let out a low whistle.
Taryn nodded.
Craig just muttered, ‘Well, I’ll be damned.’
Finn knew it’d hit Amara the hardest.She’d backed this squad like gospel, believing in Drew, the job, the badge—him.
And now?
Amara sat frozen, eyes fixed on the table, her thoughts probably spiralling, trying to retrace every conversation she’d ever had with Drew.All those so-called secret check-ins, all those quiet meetings she thought were routine.When she finally told him—only after Taryn caught it—and told her to report it to the correct chain of command.
Only now, Finn could see the truth dawning in her eyes… Drew hadn’t been guiding her, he’d been recruiting Amara, to wedge her out from under Finn’s shadow without her even realising it.
Slowly, Amara turned to face Finn.Guilt and a raw, wordless apology filled her eyes, that gutted him more than anything Taryn had said.
Finn held her gaze from across the room and gave the smallest shake of his head—No.You didn’t do this.
And in that moment, he knew she understood.
he bad part was that Amara now knew the sting of being betrayed by someone you trusted.
Beside her, Porter squeezed her hand, while murmuring something only she could hear.Whatever it was, it worked.Her jaw loosened.Her shoulders came down.And for the first time since Taryn had dropped the bomb, Amara breathed.
Thank you, Porter.
‘How did you work that out?’Izzy asked, shifting in her seat.
‘It started when I found a sealed juvenile file that linked Drew directly to Renzo,’ started Taryn.‘Drew had buried Renzo’s charges when he was fifteen and brought him into a so-called rural mentor program.’
