King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 6)

“Right, she was worried sick. Yet Tyler was gone for two hours and she wasn’t even wet until she came down to slap him. If it were my kid I would’ve run down the street after him. It’s not like he took a car. He was on foot. She couldn’t go after him? What, was she afraid of a little rain?”

Sean started to say something but then stopped. He finally said, “I don’t know. The soldiers weren’t wet either. But maybe it’s not their job to go chasing after a kid. We weren’t there. We don’t know how it went down. Maybe she went after him in the car.”

“She still would’ve been wet. They didn’t have a garage. Not even a carport. And remember what Tyler said? After he pushed her away he said she could stop pretending now that his dad was gone. Stop pretending what? That she cared about Tyler’s dad?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But it’s none of our business.”

“And why would Tyler take his dad’s collectible gun, of all things?”

“What part of ‘none of our business’ did you fail to grasp?”

“I don’t like things that don’t make sense.”

“Look, we don’t know anything about him. Maybe the gun meant something to Tyler. Maybe the kid was so crushed finding out his dad was dead that he just grabbed the first thing he saw of his and took off. And why are we even talking about this? He’s back home where he belongs.” Sean glanced down at his waistband. “Crap, I’ve still got the gun. I was going to give it back until you gave me the evil eye. And why exactly did you do that?”

“Because it gives us an excuse to go back there, preferably tomorrow.”

“Go back? Why?” he exclaimed.

“I want to find out more.”

“We found the kid and brought him home. Our work is done.”

“You’re not the least bit curious?”

“No. Why would I be?”

“I saw how he looked at his stepmom. I heard what he said. There was no love there.”

“That’s life. All families are dysfunctional. It’s only a question of degrees. But it doesn’t make me want to jump into the middle of the traumatic situation they’re going through. Right now they need family and friends to support them.”

“We could be Tyler’s friend.”

“Look, why the hell are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Inserting yourself in the lives of people we don’t even know?”

“Don’t we do that all the time as part of our work?”

“Yes, our work. Not something like this. It’s not a case, so don’t treat it like one. No one has hired us, M

ichelle. So we move on.”

“I feel like I know Tyler, or at least what he’s going through.”

“How can you? Your dad is still alive—” Sean broke off.

Michelle’s father was still alive, but her mother wasn’t. She’d been murdered. And Michelle had initially suspected her father of committing the crime. And that had eventually led to her coming to grips with a memory from childhood that had eaten at her like a cancer throughout her adult life.

A psychologist friend of Sean’s had subsequently gotten through to her and had done some investigation into her past. With his help, coupled with some traumatic moments at the home where she’d grown up, Michelle had finally righted herself. But none of it had been easy. And he never wanted her to go through something like that again.

The knife wounds had healed. The emotional scars she had suffered would remain just that. The weight of each one was immense. He didn’t know how many she could carry around before being crushed.

Sean tapped on the steering wheel to the beat of the rain on the truck’s roof. He glanced at Michelle. She was staring off, seemingly lost. And a part of him felt like he was losing her again, when he had just gotten her back.

“We can at least return the gun,” said Sean quietly. He wiped wet hair out of his face. “Let’s do it tomorrow, hopefully when it’s not raining.”