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“I’m making conversation.”

She didn’t even have to look at him to know he was smirking.

“Is that right?”

“No,” she snapped. “It’s not. I just wanted you to stop messing with my radio.”

Somehow, she could sense that his smirk was a grin now. A smug one. “You’re going to have to come up with something better than that, Quinn. You’re pretty transparent. You like me now.”

Josie scoffed. “Like you? Please. I tolerate you, at best.”

Despite having peeled back the layers to get to the core of Kyle Turner and finding many redeemable qualities, he was still one of the most irritating people she’d ever met.

“Things are going pretty well, thank you very much,” he said, ignoring her comment.

Josie glanced over at him again to see a look of genuine happiness on his face. He didn’t bother keeping his douchebag mask on when it came to talking about his daughter.

“Oh,” Josie said. “Well, I’m glad. Are things still difficult with Dani?”

Through the course of their captivity, Cassidy had learned some things about her mother’s part in the breakdown of her parents’ marriage. They weren’t positive and Josie had sensed a lot of anger on Cassidy’s part toward her mother.

Turner sighed and drummed his fingers against his leg. “Difficult is being generous. The kid hates Dani right now. I’m doing my best to stop her from making Dani out as the evil villain in all this but it’s not taking.”

Josie didn’t say it because she knew as well as Turner did that people weren’t all bad or all good, but Dani kind of was the evil villain in the story of their family. She’d lied to Turner for years and blamed him for things he hadn’t done to deflect from her own betrayals.

“That will take time,” Josie said. “She’ll come around. From what I learned during the case, at the end of the day, Dani’s always been a good mother.”

Turner sighed again. “Yeah, she has.”

They were in uncharted territory here, having a serious conversation about real things. Meaningful things. They’d had them during Josie’s investigation into Cassidy and Dani’s abduction, but she’d had to force Turner into those discussions because she needed information from him. This was the first time he’d ever freely spoken to her this way.

Josie wanted to offer him something. That was the only reason she decided to bring up Wren. It wasn’t because she wanted his perspective. Definitely not. “Wren, um, she was really coming around and then Sunday night she didn’t speak to us. Or last night, or this morning.”

It had thrown Josie, especially given the night they’d had on Saturday. Playing Two Truths and a Lie, eating their body weight in appetizers, getting peppered with questions by a curious, bright-eyed Wren. After leaving Trinity at the hospital under observation on Sunday night, Josie had returned home with Noah only to be met with a stone-faced, sullen fourteen-year-old. She’d grunted something that sounded very much like good night before running up the steps and slamming her door closed. It was like the past month had never happened. Shannon, Christian, and Erica had given them sympathetic looks before leaving. It only reinforced Josie’s unease from when they were at the hospital that she’d somehow done something wrong but couldn’t figure out what.

“She’s a teenager,” Turner said. “That’s what they do.”

Josie had followed Wren upstairs and knocked on her door, asking if she wanted to talk. No. When Josie followed that up by asking how her day was, Wren had said fine and that she was going to sleep. She had avoided them most of the day Monday. Noah had reminded Josie that there were going to be ups and downs with Wren but for some reason, being shut out again felt like a major defeat. The kind that kept her up at night. As always, she felt like they were constantly trying to unlock a door using a key that didn’t work.

“She’s upset about the fire, Quinn,” Turner said.

Maybe Josie and Noah had both been too tired to think it through or make the connection but now that Turner said it out loud, Wren’s behavior made perfect sense. It was why Trinity and Shannon had commented on them not being at home with her. They were just too stupid to see it. She’d had a happy life with her mother until she turned nine and her mother died in a car accident. Then she’d had a happy life with her father until she turned fourteen and he died of pancreatic cancer. It had been Turner, early on, who’d figured out why Wren bonded with every person in Josie and Noah’s lives but wouldn’t open up to them.

The one thing this kid knows for sure, with one hundred percent certainty based on her experience, is that the people who are supposed to take care of her die. That’s a fact. Why would she want to get close to the third parent or parents in line? You’ll probably die, right? In her mind, anyway.

It was on the tip of Josie’s tongue to say that she hadn’t almost died but realistically, things could have gone sideways in an instant. Fires were unpredictable and could go from dangerous to instantly fatal in a matter of seconds. Then there was smoke inhalation. She and Trinity might not have made it out in time to avoid the worst effects of that—which could also prove fatal. Her stomach sank further when she realized that there wasn’t really a way to reassure Wren or to make it up to her. Josie hadn’t even officially been on duty and she’d been in jeopardy.

“Shit,” she muttered.

“Thought you were supposed to be smart,” Turner said. “The great Josie Quinn, and all that. Honestly, it’s disappointing.”

Without taking her eyes from the road, Josie flipped him off.

Chuckling, Turner said, “Now, Quinn, that’s not appropriate workplace behavior. If you’re gonna demand a high standard from me then I want the same in return.”

Josie turned into the Denton Memorial Hospital parking lot. “Well now you’re just asking to be punched in the throat.”

“Threatening violence?” Turner said, feigning shock. “I’m reporting you to our supervisor. I think the LT’s gonna take my side on this. Gonna make things real awkward at home, I bet.”