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“So? Wren’s an old soul and so is Erica. They’ve both been through a lot. They relate on that level. They do have things in common, remember?”

“You mean a person.”

A person Josie had known all too well. Lila Jensen. When Josie and Trinity were three weeks old, Lila had been on the crew of housekeepers assigned to the Payne family home. After she was fired for stealing, she set the house alight and abducted Josie. For thirty years, everyone believed that baby Josie had perished in the fire. No one had a clue that Lila had brought Josie to Denton and passed her off as her own baby in a scheme to get her ex-boyfriend, Eli Matson, back.

“Don’t even speak her name,” Trinity said.

Lila had been abusive and cruel to Josie, even more so after Lila murdered Eli and staged it as death by suicide. When Josie was Wren’s age, Dex had started dating Lila. He’d moved in with them, and he’d given her a reprieve from Lila’s brutality. He’d taken care of her, parented her, provided for her and most of all, been kind to her. His obvious affection for Josie had eventually sent Lila into a rage. She’d set his pillow on fire while he slept, causing him to be severely disfigured for the rest of his life. The police couldn’t prove it, so Lila remained free.

“She wreaked enough havoc in all of our lives,” Trinity added. “I don’t want to give her more oxygen.”

Dex had been lucky that his disfigurement was his last interaction with Lila. He had disappeared from Josie’s life, moving on. Lila, too, had finally left Josie in the custody of her grandmother—or rather, the woman she believed was her grandmother. Unbeknownst to Josie, Lila had then given birth to Erica, whose upbringing was not much better than Josie’s. Erica had come into their lives a few months before Wren. She was the one who had found Noah after his abduction and saved his life. Josie and Noah had welcomed her and her father into their found family.

Now, despite what Erica’s mother had done to Wren’s father, the two were close friends. Josie, with her connection to both Lila and Dex, was heartened by that fact.

More laughter drifted in from the living room.

“She’s hanging out with Kyle’s daughter now, too, right?” Trinity asked, interrupting Josie’s thoughts.

“Yeah,” Josie said.

Cassidy Turner was the sixteen-year-old daughter of Josie’s colleague, Detective Kyle Turner. A month ago, she and her mother had been kidnapped. Working the case had caused Josie’s mercurial relationship with Turner to become far less contentious, although she still had to fight the urge to knee him in the balls several times a week. Wren and Cassidy had already met at school but in the aftermath of Cassidy’s ordeal, the two girls had become close.

“It’s like a trauma club,” Josie muttered.

Trinity laid a hand on Josie’s arm. “She’s fine. She’s doing extraordinarily well considering everything she’s been through. If she’s happy—and it sounds very much like she is—then take the win, okay?”

Trout whined, as if in agreement with Trinity.

“Fine,” said Josie.

Trinity waited a beat and then said, “I’ll bring this stuff into the living room on plates when it’s all cooked.”

Josie knew when she was being dismissed. She turned away, starting toward the living room, knowing that Trinity was already opening her laptop. Soon, the sound of Sylvia West’s voice was at her back. Josie paused in the hall, listening.

“I never got a good look at him. Like I said, it was pretty dark. Everything happened so fast, I didn’t have time to adjust or get my bearings. It wasn’t until I started to pass out that he stopped strangling me. Then he flipped me onto my back, on the floor. He straddled me. Pinned my arms against my sides with his knees so I couldn’t move. He was big, really big, and had on one of those masks. A balaclava, I think they’re called. He was wearing long sleeves. My eyes were watering so bad that my vision was blurred. I couldn’t see much more than that.”

“What happened then?” asked Trinity.

Sylvia’s voice dropped. “That’s when he, um, put the lipstick on me. Then he kissed me. It was a quick thing. Right afterward, he wiped the lipstick off with his thumb. His eyes. Oh his eyes were so dark. Pure evil.” She sobbed. “God was with me that night. He wasn’t ready to call me home yet.”

Trinity’s voice was filled with compassion. “How did you get away from him?”

“I don’t—I don’t know what happened,” Sylvia said in a near whisper. “There was some noise outside. Car doors slamming, shouting. The police said it was one of the neighbors and his friends getting home from the bar. I guess it spooked him. All of a sudden he was gone. When I didn’t hear him, I crawled over to the coat closet and hid inside until I was sure he was gone. Even when I worked up the courage to come out so I could call 911, I was terrified he was waiting to pounce on me.”

Josie shuddered and continued on to the living room where Wren, Noah, and Drake were still talking and laughing loudly. They glanced at her briefly when she entered but Wren’s smiling face was fixed on Noah like he was a riddle she couldn’t figure out while Drake watched Wren with a smirk.

“Am I right?” Wren asked.

Slowly, Noah shook his head.

Wren’s eyes went comically wide. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“Language,” Josie and Noah said at exactly the same time.

She flushed and looked around the room at each of them. “I’m sorry. It’s just that— Drake, he’s lying, right?”

With a grin, Drake leaned back into the couch, folding his arms behind his head. “He’s telling the truth. Ask Josie. Better yet, ask Noah to show you his scar.”