DAWSON
The ledger satopen on the desk in front of me, its pages yellowed and brittle, ink faded but still legible enough to ruin everything.I'd spread out three months of stock records beside it, cross-referencing bloodlines and ownership transfers, looking for inconsistencies I could explain away.
There weren't any.
The knock on my office door pulled me back.I glanced up to find Torin filling the doorway, his uniform still looking fresh despite it being the end of the day.
"Ruby said you needed to talk," he said.
I gestured to the chair across from me."This isn't social."
"Figured."
He sat, his gaze dropping to the ledger, the records, the notes I'd scrawled in the margins.I watched him take it all in…methodical and deliberate, the way he processed crime scenes or accident reports.Torin had been a deputy long enough to recognize when something small threatened to crack wide open.
"First, there was the marker Slade found," I started."And now this."
I turned the ledger toward him, tapping the page where Kincaid and Hollister were listed side by side, shares noted in neat, careful script.Torin leaned forward, his jaw tightening as he read.
"Shit."
"Yeah."
He flipped through a few more pages, his silence heavy.When he finally looked up, his eyes were sharp."Have you shown this to anyone else?"
"Just you, though Ruby knows something’s up."
"Good."He sat back, exhaling slow."You know what this means."
"Tell me anyway."
"The feud narrative doesn't hold," Torin said."If these families shared ownership, shared stock, cooperated on land use—this isn't ancient history, Dawson.This is foundational.And if the marker backs it up, if there's more documentation buried somewhere, the current property lines might not be as clean as everyone thinks."
I'd come to that conclusion on my own.But hearing it laid out like evidence instead of suspicion made it real in a way I couldn't ignore.
"The rodeo," I said.
"Would be fucked."Torin didn't soften it."Stock eligibility, insurance, permits… hell, all of it hinges on clear ownership.You blow this open now, you'll bury the event before it starts."
"And if I don't?"
His gaze didn't waver."Then you're complicit in maintaining a lie."
The words settled between us, cold and unforgiving.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, the exhaustion creeping in at the edges."What's the play?"
Torin considered for a long moment, his fingers drumming against the arm of the chair."Document everything.Get legal counsel involved.Someone outside the families, outside the town politics.Protect the rodeo stock in the short term, but don't pretend this doesn't exist.You build a paper trail now, and you’ll be able to control the fallout later."
"That's not a resolution."
"No," he agreed."But it's responsible."
I nodded slowly.It wasn't the answer I wanted, but it was the only one that didn't involve either burying the truth or detonating it prematurely.
Torin stood, his hand resting briefly on the edge of the desk."You're doing the right thing.Even if it doesn't feel like it."
"Doesn't feel like much of anything yet."
