Page 59 of Song Bird Hearts

“Get your gun out,” Knox barks at me, ever the leader.

“I don’t need it,” I mutter, but my voice comes out too wrong, too low.

Too late.

The man who gets out of the SUV is as familiar to me as Valerie is, but for different reasons. I’d learned everything about him out of necessity and survival. When I see him, I know I’ve fucked up, that I waited too long, but for just a while, I wanted to pretend like I belong here, like this can be my new reality.

Valerie comes striding down the porch, Gilden at her side like a dog who’d given his loyalty from a shelter, as they take in the man wearing a pressed black suit in front of us.

“What is this? Men in Black?” Gilden asks, narrowing his eyes on the man even as his gun hovers at his side. “You got aliens hidin’ in there?”

“You can put your guns down,” the man says, pulling out a wallet and opening it to flash the badge inside. “I’m not the Foundation. I’m the Feds.”

“How do we know they aren’t one and the same?” Knox barks.

The man grins. “You’re not wrong to question it. Many government officials are in their pockets. It makes sense they’d have a hand in my organization, too. Rest assured though, that doesn’t include me.”

No one lowers their gun. As expected.

“What do you want?” Valerie asks him.

“You’re stirring up quite the shit show, Valerie Decatur. Honestly, when I saw that first livestream, I thought you were a goner. Yet here you are, alive and well, with a whole town to back you.” He looks around appreciatively at the scene of the mountains. “My higher ups are interested in helping as we’re able to.” He grins. “Off record, of course. The 27 Foundation has long been a stain on this world’s soul, so, I thought I’d warn you that not everyone on your side is who they say they are.”

Valerie tenses the same time I stop breathing. “What does that mean?”

“Oh geez. How do I put this in a way you’ll understand?” the man says, all good golly and innocent charm. “There’s a snake in your grass? There’s an enemy in your midst?”

Her eyes flick from the man to Knox, as if seeing if he knows what the man is talking about. Knox only shakes his head, just as confused.

The man’s eyes find mine where I stand silently and he grins wide. “Hey there, Wolf! Long time no see.” He winks at me. “Didn’t think I’d see you again after the Denver op.”

My name hits like a gunshot as everyone turns to look at me. Val’s eyes widen, her whole body going still. It hasn’t been confirmed, of course. Not yet, but it’s coming, because the man keeps talking.

And every word cracks the world open a little wider.

“He didn’t tell you?” the man asks, casual like a Sunday barbeque. “Wolf here works for the Foundation you’re fighting. Always has.”

Valerie’s shoulders tense so hard, it has to hurt. She drops the dish towel she’d been holding, her eyes hard on where I stand next to Knox. Knox, to his credit, doesn’t turn the gun to me. He’d have every right to. But he doesn’t trust the man in the car just as much, and right now, he’s winning out.

It’s a bad call. I’m the bigger threat.

“Tell me he’s lying,” Knox snaps at me.

I don’t move, don’t breathe, don’t blink.

“Tell me he’s fuckin’ lyin’, Wolf!”

Taking a deep breath, I set the tool I’d been holding down. “He’s not,” I finally say quietly.

Valerie just looks at me. There’s no rage in her eyes, no accusation. She’s just silent.

It’s worse than a scream.

“You’re in the Foundation?” she asks, her voice steady despite what she’d just learned.

“Was. Am,” I admit. “Depending on who you ask.”

Knox’s bad decision to aim at the man in the SUV changes. He lunges toward me, and his fist connects with my jaw. I don’t try to dodge his strike. I deserve everything they give me. I don’t even flinch. I can’t. Not when she’s still looking at me.

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