Page 223 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Not physically, maybe. But I know trauma when I see it.

And then Annie looks toward Benji. He won’t meet her eyes.

“Oh wow,” she says softly.

“You should’ve stayed out of it,” he mutters. “I tried to warn you. I did everything I could to make you uncomfortable.”

I hit him again for that. For being the boogie man hiding in the shadows.

This time it’s hard enough that Cody actually grabs my arm. “Silas.”

I barely hear him.

All I can see is Annie standing there trying not to shake apart while rain pounds the barn roof and betrayal bleeds through the entire goddamn ranch.

Benji spits blood onto the floor. “She wasn’t supposed to matter this much.”

My vision narrows.

Annie goes pale again beside Cody. And suddenly I understand.

They never saw her as a person. Just leverage. An obstacle. A variable. A temporary woman they thought they could scare away before anybody got attached.

Too bad for them.

Because now?

Now Annie belongs to us.

So no one can touch her again.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Annie

The ranch feels different after violence.

Quieter.

Every shadow feels occupied.

Sheriff Hank Miller arrives twenty-three minutes after Silas calls him. By then the ranch is already locked down.

Jake sits handcuffed at the kitchen table with Cody standing behind him like a very scary executioner.

Benji’s in the mudroom with an ice pack pressed to his jaw and two deputies watching him like he might try something stupid.

I’m wrapped in one of Duke’s jackets even though I’m indoors because my body cannot seem to figure out temperature anymore.

Cold.

Then hot.

Then shaking so hard my teeth nearly chatter.

Adrenaline is a scam invented by the human body to make sure emotional collapse arrives fashionably late.

Sheriff Miller takes statements one at a time.