Page 20 of Silent Shadows

Open. Friendly. Genuine. Like I’m not a complete stranger invading his life.

“Hi,” he says, jogging down the steps toward me. “Daisy, right? I’m Miles Adler.”

His handshake is warm, and surprisingly calloused.

“I know,” I say.

His eyebrows lift slightly.

Right. Weird response.

“You’re the Bigfoot guy,” I clarify.

“That’s not our official title,” he says immediately. “In fact, we’re a multidisciplinary field research team specializing in unexplained environmental and biological phenomena. That includes Bigfoot, but also missing time cases, light and environmental anomalies, cryptids, portals, extraterrestrial reports, really anything interdimensional…”

I blink, then blurt out, “You know your team name is STD, right?”

“We make fun of him for that all the time,” Taylor snorts.

“I didn’t think about it at the time. And we already had hats made when Jax pointed it out!” Miles explains, smiling as he defends himself.

“I feel like it’s fitting,” Taylor shrugs, still laughing. “You can’t get rid of us.” She winks.

“Do you know how many emails I've had to send with 'STD' in the signature?” Maya chimes in, a soft laugh escaping her as Miles elbows her.

He turns back to me, still smiling and unbothered. “Anyways, sorry again about timing. We lost service for a while, and then Taylor decided she needed gas station gummy worms even though we already had gummy worms.”

“The texture is different,” Taylor argues.

“It’s the exact same brand.”

“I’m as texturally sensitive as I am energetically.”

Miles sighs like this is an exhausting but familiar conversation. “Anyway. Welcome to the middle of nowhere.”

“Yeah…” I look past him toward the endless desert. There are more trees, hills, and mountains than I expected. “It really is, huh?”

There’s an awkward beat where I expect him to get weird about me being there.

Defensive. Territorial. Something.

Instead, he nods once, then grabs one of my bags before I can stop him.

“We’ve got a short drive before camp,” he says. “You hungry? We have protein bars and approximately nine hundred electrolyte packets because Jax thinks dehydration is death.”

“I did almost die once,” Jax says.

“You got dizzy standing up.”

“Same thing.”

Miles looks back at me again, open and relaxed in a way that makes me uneasy. No one wears their heart on their sleeve like that.

“Fair warning,” he says, “things are a little chaotic right now.”

“A little?” Maya mutters.

“Right now?” Taylor snorts.