For a long moment, nobody in the barn moved.
Wren felt the floor tilt beneath her, that specific vertiginous drop she associated now with catastrophic revelation — the same lurch she'd felt walking into her parents' kitchen and finding Marcus's hand tangled in her sister's hair. The stranger in the doorway held her gaze with an intensity that had nothing to do with the general watchfulness of a room full of armed men and everything to do with her, specifically, personally, in a way that made her skin crawl with a recognition she couldn't yet name.
"Sheriff." Birdie was on her feet, her voice pitched carefully neutral, positioning herself half a step in front of Wren without seeming to think about it. "This isn't really a good time."
"I know it isn't, Selene." Sheriff Okafor's eyes moved
