Using silence as a tool and waiting people out were tactics I was well versed in as a police officer-slash-junior detective for the Calla Bay Police Department. I let the tension grow as I sipped my beer.
“I’ve got to tell you something, and it isn’t good,” Reid started.
“Yeah. I kind of got that impression.”
“Yesterday, I was out getting coffees from Flour Power for Claire and I. Juliet was across the street. She didn’t see me.”
“Yeah. Her yoga studio is there. That makes sense.” Wherewas he going with this? Did everyone really think I had Juliet locked in the house while I was at work? She was her own person; she came and went whenever she wanted.
“She was with some guy.”
“Probably one of the trainers. Or someone from her class. There are more guys into yoga than you might think.”
“He wasn’t in workout gear.” Reid shook his head. “He held her by the waist, and when she turned around to face him…”
My heartbeat stopped. In the infinite time it took Reid to finish that thought, my mind conjured a thousand different endings. An instant headache bloomed in the front of my skull at the thought of someone else’s hands on my wife’s skin.
“She punched him in the face?” I asked.
Again, Reid shook his head, his lips in that tight line.
“Brother, let him get it out,” Wyatt told me, then turned to Reid. “Fuck off, Reid. Just tell him.”
“She kissed him,” Reid spat out.
My vision blurred. My arms went numb. My throat felt too tight to even swallow.
What. The. Fuck.
“Like, on the cheek?”
Wyatt looked at me, a mixture of unimpressed and pity.
“Come on, man,” he said, urging me to see the writing on the wall.
“Fuck,” I shouted. My feet hit the floor, propelling me out of my seat. I ran my hands through my cropped hair. “Who was it?”
“I don’t know.” Reid threw his hands out in front of him when I shot him a death glare. “Seriously. I don’t. I only saw the back of him.”
“I can ask Wes to look into it. Find out for you,” Wyatt said.
“No. Abso-fucking-lutely not. If I want to have my wife followed, I’ll do it myself,” I huffed. “Christ. I didn’t think I’d ever saythatsentence. Wes doesn’t do infidelity cases anyway.”
“He doesn’t. But he would if you needed him to.”
“I don’t,” I snapped.
I finished my pacing and sat back down on the couch, my head in my hands.
“She said she had a yoga class tonight.”
Wyatt and Reid both sat silently.
“She told me classes have been running longer and longer. Hours-long yoga classes. Multiple times a week.”
I scrubbed the back of my neck. My skin felt itchy with this new information.
“She’s not at a yoga class, is she?”
