Page 154 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Her brows draw together. “What are you doing?”

“Returning your weapon.”

“My camera isn’t a weapon.”

“Today it is.”

That earns me a real look. Suspicious. Too perceptive.

I continue before she can dissect me. “You’ve got the photos. I’ve got the next steps. Duke is finding Silas, which means in approximately ninety seconds there will be enough overprotective male energy in this area to cause a weather event.”

Her mouth twitches.

“But right now,” I say, “you’re at the rodeo. You’re working. You’re good at it. And half the town has been shouting your name like you’re the only person capable of documenting them making poor decisions on livestock.”

“I mean, I am.”

“Yes. Unfortunately.”

She laughs then, and some of the tightness leaves her shoulders.

“So what?” she asks. “We just pretend I didn’t see him?”

“No.” I adjust my glasses, then remember I’m not wearing them, and hate that my hand gives me away. “We don’t pretend anything. We document. We preserve evidence. We increase awareness. And then, for the rest of the day, we do not give him the satisfaction of making you disappear from your own life.”

She goes still.

I regret nothing. Which is new.

“Cody,” she says softly.

“No.”

Her brows lift. “No?”

“I don’t want to hear whatever self-protective argument you’re about to make.”

“You don’t even know what it was.”

I smile. “Yes, I do. It was probably logical, emotionally avoidant, and irritating.”

Her eyes narrow. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“I’m familiar with the genre.”

Another laugh. Warmer this time.

Then Duke appears at the end of the path with Silas beside him.

Silas takes one look at Annie’s face and goes dark. “What happened?”

Annie shows him the photos. Duke leans over her shoulder, his jaw flexing as the images move across the camera screen.

Silas studies each frame without speaking.

When he finally looks up, his eyes cut across the grounds. He means to physically separate every threat from every innocent person by force of will alone.

“I’ll get Hank,” he says.