Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(80)

“No,” Josie said. “It’s fine.”

Misty wet a washcloth with hot water and handed it to Josie. She watched as Josie wiped her face and arms. “Josie,” Misty said. “This is not okay. Oh wow, look at your stomach.”

Josie looked down at her abdomen to see an angry red-purple bruise blooming across her skin. She placed a hand over it. Tears stung the backs of her eyes.

Misty said, “I think you should go to the hospital. Get checked out. What if you’ve got an internal injury?”

“There’s something I need you to do for me first,” Josie said. “Please.”

Misty listened as Josie explained what she wanted her to do. Then she put a hand on her hip and said, “Are you sure I shouldn’t call someone else? Your grandmother? Your sister? Your mom?”

“No, thank you,” Josie said. “Please. Just do this for me.”

Misty backed out of the bathroom. “All right. Let me get you a change of clothes first. You’ll be okay if Harris wakes up while I’m gone?”

Josie nodded. “Yes. Just please, hurry back.”





Fifty-Six





A half hour later, the two of them sat on the bathroom floor, staring at the white stick between them.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Misty asked. “Or anyone?”

Josie laughed. “I didn’t even tell myself. I mean, I thought with the way I was feeling, I might be pregnant, but I didn’t want to admit to the possibility, even to myself.”

Misty smiled. “You know, it’s not the worst thing. You’d be a great mom. You’re wonderful with Harris. He loves you so much.”

Josie smiled. “And I love him. It’s not that. I mean, it sort of is—when Ray and I were married, before we separated and he met you, we decided we’d never have children because we had both seen so much evil in the world and almost all of it was in our own families. What if we brought a monster into the world by virtue of our DNA?”

“But you were completely wrong about your DNA,” Misty pointed out. “The woman who raised you had no blood relation to you at all.”

“I know,” Josie said. “And that was a kind of relief, but I haven’t thought yet about whether I want kids.”

“You and Noah would be naturals,” Misty said, waving a dismissive hand.

Josie gently pressed her fingers against the tender, bruised part of her stomach, now covered with a T-shirt. “Well, that’s kind of the problem. Last month when I was working on that big case, I had to go up to Sullivan County to interview a witness. I saw Luke.”

“Your ex-fiancé, Luke?” Misty asked.

Josie nodded. “Things between me and Noah were bad. He had asked for a break. I was hurt and angry. I—I spent the night at Luke’s house.”

Misty’s mouth dropped open. “You slept with him?”

“No,” Josie said. “Well, I don’t know. I got drunk and blacked out and when I woke up, we were in bed together. I have no idea what happened.”

“But you think you slept with him?”

“Well, no. I don’t think I would have, but the truth is that I have no way of knowing for sure.”

“You didn’t talk about it?” Misty asked.

Shame burned Josie’s cheeks. “No. I left before he woke up.” She leaned over the stick and then checked her phone. There was still one minute left on the pregnancy test before the result would show up. “Why do these things take so long?”

Misty said, “You should just talk to Luke. I mean if nothing happened, wouldn’t you rather know that and have that peace of mind?”

Josie nodded. “I guess so, but…”

“But what if he tells you something you don’t want to hear?”

“Right,” Josie muttered. “I don’t—I don’t want to hurt Noah.”

“Well,” Misty said, picking up the stick. “I can’t speak for whether you hurt him or not, but now you won’t have to tell him about Luke at all if you choose not to. It’s negative.”

“What?” Josie gasped. She snatched the stick from Misty’s hand and stared at the minus sign in the small window in the center of the stick.

“You’re not pregnant,” Misty clarified.

“Oh my God,” Josie breathed. At once she felt relief, but not for the reason she thought she would. She wasn’t relieved not to be pregnant; she was relieved that the bullet that had hit her vest hadn’t hurt the baby—because there was no baby. The thought of there being no baby made her feel sad for some reason, even as the rational part of her mind argued coolly that she couldn’t cope with a baby in her line of work anyway, so it was all for the best.

Misty watched her closely. Josie was hardly aware of the tears rolling down her face until Misty reached over and smoothed one away with the pad of her thumb. “Oh Josie,” she said. “Maybe you do still need to talk to Luke. And Noah, too.”

She did need to talk to both of them, but now was not the time. Lucy was still missing. Josie said, “I’ll go to the hospital. Get this checked out. I just didn’t want to find out there for the first time if I was pregnant and then possibly be told that I had lost the baby. Not in a place like that. With strangers around.”