Josie had never seen him so frantic, so completely focused on demolishing something. Noah wasn’t a destructive guy but the faux wall didn’t stand a chance against his frenzy. Over the splintering of wood, Josie finally heard the sounds she’d been praying for since they entered this godforsaken house.
The screams of Dani and Cassidy Turner.
FIFTY-SEVEN
Cassidy clung to Josie as she guided her up the steps and into the kitchen. Behind them, Noah helped Dani along. Already, Josie could see the divide between mother and daughter which meant that Dani had told her daughter the truth while they were captive. Both of them looked pale and bedraggled. The cut on Cassidy’s cheek was healing but Dani had a long gash across her forehead that would need stitches. After their initial screams—first for help and then of relief—they’d both gone quiet. They were in shock, no doubt.
As they moved through the living room, Cassidy said, “Is my dad here? Does he know we’re okay?”
Carefully, Josie smoothed Cassidy’s hair away from her face, breath catching as she noted the resemblance between father and daughter. “Areyouokay?”
Before they went out there, toward the ambulances, the questions, the interviews, the madness, their freedom, Josie had to know. Once they crossed that threshold, it would be easy to lie, to omit. They didn’t know whether Cassidy had been separated from her mother for any length of time. Not yet. It was one thing if Cassidy didn’t want to talk about things that hadhappened—Saul was dead now, she wouldn’t need to testify—but she’d need help. The right kind of help.
Cassidy lowered her voice, understanding Josie’s question instantly. She gave a slight nod. “I’m okay, yeah. He didn’t touch me. My mom wouldn’t let him near me.”
Josie exhaled in relief and squeezed Cassidy tightly. “Good. That’s good. Your dad’s at the bottom of the driveway.”
Noah and Dani came to stand beside them. Some of the uniformed officers began to approach the house.
“Dad’s here.” Cassidy’s voice was filled with so much excitement it nearly made Josie bawl right then and there.
Dani nodded, wiping at the tears that flowed down her face.
Josie took out her phone and found Turner’s number. “Quinn,” he answered.
In the quiet of the cavernous living room, all of them could hear him. Cassidy screeched, “Dad!”
Turner made a strangled noise that barely sounded human before managing, “I’m coming, kiddo.”
Cassidy let go of Josie and crashed through the front door, sprinting toward the driveway. Josie heard the shouts of her colleagues and laughed. It was the kind of laughter that could easily turn into sobs. It was fear and happiness and relief and catharsis all rolled into one. As they stepped outside, Josie could see Turner’s tall figure dashing up the hill toward his daughter.
A hand touched her forearm and Josie managed to quiet her laughter. She looked over to see Dani watching her. “Thank you,” she said, voice shaking. “I, um, know you must have found out about the?—”
Josie cut her off. “I’m not the one you need to have this conversation with. My job was to bring you back to him. That’s it.”
They looked back toward the driveway. Cassidy was nothing more than a blur. Her voice rose above everything as shescreamed for her father. Then they slammed into one another, and Josie felt the impact like tectonic plates shifting beneath her feet. A cataclysmic event of the best kind.
“Was the trick with the wires your idea?” Noah asked Dani.
Josie knew he didn’t care. He just sensed that she was at her emotional breaking point, and drawing Dani’s attention elsewhere, bringing all three of them back into the present, would stave it off. Later, in their bed, in his arms, Josie would cry it out. They’d probably cry it out together. Every last emotion from the past week.
Dani nodded. “Yeah. It was risky, I know, but we agreed that we’d rather die in a fire than let that sicko get his hands on us. We couldn’t be sure, but we thought we heard creaking over our heads like more than one person was walking around, so we tried it.”
“Good call,” Noah said. “Let’s get you checked out. I think that gash might need stitches.”
He ushered her toward one of the waiting ambulances, leaving Josie where she stood.
She kept her eyes on Turner as he held a sobbing Cassidy against his chest, stroking her hair and talking into the top of her head, rocking her back and forth.
Dad shit.
There was a flurry of activity around her now that the women had been rescued. People moving in and out of the house around her, shouted questions, vehicles being rearranged to make room for more of their colleagues who were on their way. For Josie, everything fell away. She was suspended in peaceful silence, a rightness with the world. It didn’t happen very often in her line of work.
It broke when Turner looked up from where his chin rested on Cassidy’s head and met her eyes. He was crying openly, looking as un-Turner-like as Turner could look in his rumpledcasual clothes, with his wild hair. Even his beard had started to become unruly.
Josie nodded at him and he nodded back.
FIFTY-EIGHT
