Page 220 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Duke looks physically sick now. “She used us.”

Jake laughs once softly. “That woman’s been using all of you for years.”

Silas moves again.

This time Cody catches him before he reaches Jake.

The tension detonates. Rain. Mud. Fury. Grief. And standing in the middle of all of it, I realize: This stopped being about money a long time ago.

This is about control. And people who lose control after holding it too long?

They become dangerous.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Silas

The storm gets louder after Jake says Vivian’s name. Or maybe I just stop hearing anything else.

Rain hammers the barn roof hard enough to shake dust loose from the beams overhead. Wind tears through the open aisle between stalls carrying the scent of wet hay, mud, horses.

And betrayal.

For one brutal second all I can see is my aunt standing in the front row at my father’s funeral with one hand on my shoulder and the other wrapped around Ironwood’s future as if it already belonged to her.

All those years.

All those goddamn years.

Beside me, Annie goes pale beneath the barn lights. Duke looks ready to kill someone barehanded. Cody’s gone into that terrifyingly still headspace he gets when emotion becomes too dangerous to show externally.

Jake watches all of us carefully.

Me especially. He’s waiting to see what kind of man I become next.

That’s his mistake. Because I already know.

I step forward slowly. Jake straightens automatically. Predators recognize each other eventually.

“You’re done here,” I say.

The rain crashes harder outside.

Jake’s expression stays controlled, but I catch the shift in his breathing now. The awareness. The recalculation. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“I do.” My voice stays low. Even. “You’re leaving Ironwood tonight.”

Jake laughs softly through his nose. “That would be difficult considering half this ranch still answers to me.”

Duke moves. “Try that sentence again.”

“Duke,” Cody snaps.

Because Duke currently looks one inconvenience away from felony assault.

I don’t take my eyes off Jake.

“You’re going to walk out of here,” I say. “Then you’re going to sit with Sheriff Miller and every lawyer Ironwood can afford while we hand over the records you were too stupid to delete properly.”