“How do you know that?”
“She just wasn’t. Couldn’t have been. That would mean that?—”
His voice cracked and for a moment he looked sad and broken and Josie could envision the boy he’d been, throwing himself between his father and mother. Taking whatever violence had been meant for her. With an extra helping of spite, she was willing to bet. How many other scars did he have? Was that why he always wore a suit? To cover up his past? Armor? Both?
“Turner,” Josie said. “I told you. I don’t know that she had an affair but it’s a possibility. I know this is hard for you, but?—”
“No,” he said. “No. I didn’t hang on, didn’t try for all those years just to end up the one lied to, betrayed. Do you understand what this would mean? All that time, everyone?—”
Again, he clammed up.
Spot stopped shuffling his food around and canted his head in Turner’s direction, almost like he could sense his owner’s agitation. He probably could. Trout had always been able to tell what Josie was feeling even before she did.
“Everyone what?” Josie asked.
This was beginning to feel like more of a therapy session than anything else. She needed information from him. His family’s lives might hang in the balance and yet, she couldn’t help but feel like she wasn’t going to get what she needed until they waded through this, whatever it was.
But then he started to shut down. She saw it like he was on a stage performing it for her. His face slackened, then hardened into angry lines. His eyes went blank. His shoulders drew up a little, chest puffing out.
He was armoring up.
“For God’s sake, Turner,” Josie said, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice. She almost felt sorry about the harshness of her tone but the smirk crossing his lips told her that he welcomed it. “You don’t need to do this. Just tell me. What were you going to say? Dani wasn’t having an affair because if she was, that would mean what? Everyone what?”
“And you don’t need me to finish those sentences in order for you to do your goddamn job.”
Josie had a sudden flash of being in the car with Wren, trying to pry emotional secrets from the girl whose heart was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. Spot appeared between them, dropping his octopus and flopping onto the tile next to it.
Josie glared at Turner. Her irritation flamed into anger, searing the lining of her stomach. “What if I want to know?”
A blip of surprise appeared in his eyes, there and gone in an instant. Then he said, “You’re the one who’s always telling meto stay out of your business. To stop standing too close. Stop eavesdropping. Because you don’tlikeme.”
Josie narrowed her eyes. “You don’t want me to like you.”
He chuckled. “Do I seem like the kind of guy who gives a shit whether people like me or not?”
“Do I seem like the kind of person who can’t tell when someone is full of shit?” she shot back.
“You never noticed before.”
“Yeah, I did, Douchebag. I just didn’t care because you were so infuriating, and if you want to be an irredeemable jackass, well, you do you. But you know what? My sister likes you. Worse, she respects you. When my husband was missing, you risked your job to get me information about the case. Maybe you are just a garden-variety asshole but there is some part of you that’s not. You don’t want anyone to know that though, do you?”
“Why the hell would I?”
“Because the most important person in your life has spent the last year and a half, probably longer, pining over you from a few miles away when you’re right here! You saw Cassidy’s corkboard?—”
“Don’t,” he snapped venomously.
But Josie was past caring about his stupid fragile ego. “Don’t what? Point out the obvious? Your daughter worships you, and from what I can tell, despite your many, many flaws, you’re a good dad. Or you want to be. You keep her at arm’s length and it’s killing you. Why?”
She hadn’t even realized how badly the question had been eating at her until now. Sure, he and Dani had been on the outs for a long time, but their relationship was separate from his relationship with Cassidy.
It went against everything she knew about him, strangely enough. Well, everything she’d come to find out about him in the past twenty-seven hours. Kyle Turner was a study incontradictions. As a colleague, he was lazy, his reports were subpar, and he often disappeared during shifts, but when he actually showed up and put in the effort, he was good at his job. He was a jackass, a douchebag, an asshole and an irritant but more than anything else, beneath all that nastiness, he was loyal. Even when it didn’t serve him.
As a scared, scrawny eleven-year-old shielding his mother from his abusive father.
As a husband doggedly trying to keep his marriage alive.
As a fellow investigator breaking the rules for Josie.
