I tell her about the Miller land.
About what I found out there and what it means now that I understand the context behind it.
I watch her face as I talk. She doesn't interrupt, doesn't flinch, doesn't do that thing people do when information gets heavy where they start to pull back from it. She sits with it, her eyes steady on mine, processing in real time the way I've seen her do with Hadley when something's wrong and she needs to understand it before she can fix it.
When I finish, she’s quiet.
"Colt Ramirez," she says, "I dated him for a while once a long time ago. He didn't take the break up very well. He was here tonight. I saw him near the chutes before the ride."
I go still. "You used to date him? And you saw him near the equipment tonight?"
"Near enough." Her jaw tightens slightly. "I didn't know what I was seeing."
That shouldn't surprise me. Riley notices things. She noticed the truck before I confirmed it. She noticed the shift in the crew before I pointed it out.
She's been reading this situation from the rail with the same instinct I've been using from the inside, and the fact that I didn't account for that sooner sits uncomfortably in my chest.
"You should have told me what you knew earlier," she says, and there's no accusation in it, just honesty delivered clean. I had no idea you used to date Colt. That could explain some of this.
"I know."
"I could have helped."
"I know that too."
She holds my gaze for a moment, something working behind her eyes, and then she nods once, like a decision just got made that she's not going to walk back from.
"So what do we do with it?" she asks.
That single word lands somewhere it wasn't standing before.
We.
The word settles heavier than it should, not just a shift in phrasing but a line neither of us has crossed in a long time. I feel it land somewhere solid, something I’m not pushing away.
I look at her. This woman came back into my life carrying a secret and a daughter and more composure than anyone I've ever known. I feel something settle in me that has nothing to do with the investigation and everything to do with her.
"First," I say, "we make sure Hadley is somewhere safe."
Riley's expression doesn't change, but something behind it does.
Because she already knows what I'm not saying yet.
If Colt is scared enough to leave warnings in my trailer…
He's scared enough to use whatever leverage he can find.
And the most visible thing in my life right now…
Is that little girl.
I need to call my brothers.
Not because I can’t handle this. Because that’s not how we do things. Whatever is buried on that land, whatever Colt has been protecting, it’s McCallister land now. Which means it’s a McCallister problem. All four of us.
Brooks would want the facts laid out clean. Wade would want to hit something. Luke would ask the question none of us thought to ask yet.
Right now I could use all three.
