Page 53 of Song Bird Hearts

“Gilden!”

“He needed a push,” he shrugs.

“He’s gonna kill you,” I laugh, watching as the people around Knox start pushing him toward the stage.

“Probably,” he chuckles. “But it’ll be worth it.”

The crowd has picked up the chant now. “Knox! Knox! Knox!”

I realize suddenly that I probably need to do something about this when Knox pales as he’s shoved through the crowd. I start to move toward him, to intervene, but he’s already being firmly shoved through the crowd. A pair of local girls shove him toward the stage like he weighs nothing. Someone slaps him on the back. Someone hands him a mic.

He’s standing on the stage now, his face pale, and it’s a strange sight, to see someone so stoic suddenly so panicked. His eyes find me in the crowd, his gaze sharp with panic, but as I move to help him, something shifts in his expression. He straightens and holds up his hand when I go to step onto the stage.

“Don’t,” he says quietly. “Don’t save me.”

I stumble to a stop, my eyes wide.

He turns to Dwayne. “Acoustic. Just. . . give me the acoustic.”

The lights dim and the bar hushes as the first soft chords roll out like honey.

Knox stands stock-still for a long moment. Then he closes his eyes, and starts to sing. The song is familiar, one of the old, classic country love songs I grew up with. It’s pretty and full of yearning the way all those old country songs seemed to hold.

His voice isn’t trained. It isn’t exactly smooth. But Knox has a great singing voice. It’s real, raw, and intimate. And as he sings, his eyes find me and lock on, and he doesn’t look away.

It feels like every word is for me.

I can’t breathe as I listen to him. He’s not performing for the crowd. He’s not trying to impress anyone.

He just. . . means it.

The whole bar is spellbound. I’m locked in place, my heart throbbing painfully in my chest as our eyes stay locked on each other. The crowd stares between us, watching as he sings to me alone. They disappear, until it’s only me and him, an acoustic guitar strumming, his voice filtering through the air.

When Knox finishes the last line, the silence stretches so long, it almost becomes sacred.

And then comes the applause. It’s thunderous, endless, the whistles and hoots and hollers mixing with the clapping. It immediately makes Knox flush, as if he hadn’t even realized they were there to begin with. He was so lost in the song, he’d forgotten he was standing on a stage.

I smile, my eyes welling, my heart in my throat as I raise my hands to clap with everyone else.

CRACK!

I duck on instinct as the first gunshot rings out, cutting through the applause and immediately sending everyone into a panic as the light above the stage explodes, raining sparks. The second shot hits the bar behind us, shattering glass and sending people screaming. The doors are too small for everyone to push out of at once and panic sets in as everyone tries to push out it anyways. The stampede of people shoves me against shoulders and trips me on feet.

“Get down!” someone shouts.

I hit the ground instinctively, trying to avoid any of the bullets flying overheard and being trampled on by those rushing toward the door. Strong hands wrap around my waist as I move. Familiar hands.

Knox.

“I got you,” he growls as he scoops me up and tosses me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing at all.

“What the hell are you doin—” I shout, kicking, worried he’ll get shot for standing up and running with me.

“Keepin’ you alive!” he shouts, his arm wrapping around my thighs and keeping me solidly on his shoulders.

The back doors slam open as people rush out of them. Gunfire rattles the air behind us. Wolf and Gilden surge from the crowd, flanking us on either side. We push from the Boot Skoot together, a unit trying to find where the gunshots are coming from. Wolf surges ahead of us, a pistol drawn as his eyes sweep the area. Gilden brings up our rear as he shouts directions to everyone running. He turns and starts to return fire as bullets ping off the ground around us.

“Where are they?” Knox shouts.

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