“It’s public information. Anyone can search it.” She was already typing, navigating to the state database. “Give me every vendor name Rose has mentioned. Anything Denise has referenced,companies, suppliers, contractors. Even casual mentions. The more names I have, the more cross-references I can run.”
I thought back through every conversation I’d had with Rose. “Ridgeline Supply is the one I’m sure about. Rose also mentioned a farrier service, something Creek, maybe? And there was a hay supplier she said had raised prices twice this year.”
“That’s a start.” Olivia typed the names into a document. “I’ll pull the filings, look for anything that connects them. Shared agents, overlapping registration dates, addresses that don’t match real businesses. If it’s there, I’ll find it.”
The weight I’d been carrying since that hallway eased, just slightly. Not relief. Just the feeling of not being alone with it anymore.
“Olivia. Thank you.”
She looked up from the screen. “Don’t thank me yet. Public filings only show what people want on record. If whoever set this up was smart enough to use layers, holding companies, out-of-state registrations, nominee agents, I might not find anything from a laptop in a ranch house in Colorado.” She held my eyes. “I’ll do what I can. But I want you to be realistic about what I can actually access from here.”
“Understood.”
“And Graham?” She closed the laptop halfway, her expression going serious in a way that went beyond the professional concern I was used to. “If this is what you think it is, if someone is genuinely embezzling from Rose, then at some point, this is going to need more than me running searches on my lunch break. This is going to need a professional. Forensic accountants, financial investigators, people who can subpoenabank records and trace fund flows. I can look for the smoke, but I can’t kick down the door.”
“I know. But let’s see what you find first.”
She nodded, opened the laptop again, and was already back to typing before I’d fully stood up.
I was almost to the door when she spoke again.
“For what it’s worth?” Her eyes stayed on the screen. “You’re doing the right thing. Messy, complicated, probably going to blow up in your face, but the right thing.”
“You sound like Dex.”
“Dex would’ve told you to stay out of it.” The corner of her mouth twitched, the closest Olivia came to a smile when things were serious. “I’m telling you to let me help.”
I left her there, backlit by the laptop screen, already pulling apart a problem she hadn’t known existed ten minutes ago.
Outside, the sun was still shining. The mountains were still beautiful. Rose was in the barn. I could hear her voice carrying across the yard, low and steady, talking to the horses the way she did every day. Like they were the only ones who got the real version of her.
I wanted to walk over there. Lean against the stall door. Watch her work and pretend the world was as simple as the one we’d built in her cabin this morning.
Instead, I went to find Hank and asked if he needed help with the fence line.
Because, while I wasn’t lying to Rose anymore, I was keeping something from her, and I hadn’t figured out yet whether that was wisdom or cowardice.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ROSE
I strolledinto the main house kitchen with a weird giddiness I hadn’t experienced in ages. The kind of feeling that made me want to hum, which was so unlike me that I almost checked myself for a fever.
Kaya was already at the stove, scrambling eggs. She took one look at me and her spatula stopped moving.
“Oh my God,” she said.
“Good morning to you too.”
“Oh myGod.” The spatula pointed at me like an accusation. “You had sex.”
“I did not?—”
“You areglowing. Rose Gracen, you are standing in this kitchen glowing like a woman who got thoroughly, comprehensively?—”
“Kaya.”
“—railed.”
