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“So I can better see who’s coming after us,” Dante replied honestly.
He immediately felt guilty, even if it was the truth.
Daniella slowed her steps. “Do you think the men who killed Mom will find us here?”
“They might. But they may think we ran to the East Coast. We just need to be diligent until they’re caught.”
“Do you think they will be caught?”
“Criminals like them are stupid, foolish men. Eventually, they won’t be able to stand it any longer and will brag to the wrong person that they were responsible for Simone’s death. Law enforcement will pick them up and that will be that.” Dante hoped so anyway. “Until that happens though, I am going to be as safe as possible. If that means parking a mile from the entrance to the grocery store so no one can ambush us, then that’s what I will do.”
Daniella didn’t respond but she did pick up the pace again. Soon enough, they were inside under the fluorescent lights of the grocery store, picking out things normal families ate, like apples and bananas, and checking the price of frozen turkey. Dante hated turkey, but he’d buy it for his niece.
“One of us is going to have to learn how to really cook,” Dante teased as they headed down the baking aisle so he could grab a bag of 00 flour off the shelf. At least the store sold proper flour for pizza dough. That he did know how to make.
“We could watch YouTube videos.”
“Yeah, not gonna happen.”
Paying attention to Daniella instead of where he was heading, Dante pushed the cart around the corner and straight into the Cooper Springs police chief.
“Oh, shit, sorry,” Dante said, backing the cart up. Dark circles stood out underneath André’s eyes. The man wasn’t getting enough rest. “You look like crap.”
“Uncle Dante!” Daniella scolded.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Just what I needed before a meeting with the mayor,” André said dryly.
“I’ve never lied, not going to start doing it now.” Daniella poked him in the kidney with her pointy finger. “What?” he looked down at her.
Instead of answering, Daniella extended a hand toward André, saying, “Hi, I’m Daniellaer-Brown. Dante is my uncle.”
André smiled and shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daniella. I’m André Dear, chief of police of Cooper Springs. How are you liking the town?”
“It’s fine, I guess.”
Before they could go any further and possibly open up the “what’s wrong with Cooper Springs” conversation or, god forbid, the “why Daniella needs a dog” one, Dante intervened.
“You’ve been busy lately.”
Because murder was always a great topic to bring up. Dante winced. Maybe right here was the reason he was still single.
André met his gaze of chagrin. “It’s always busy, but yes, it has been a bit overwhelming. No rest for any of us.”
“Well,” Dante said awkwardly, “we should let you get to your shopping.”
“I’d rather be called out repeatedly in the middle of the night in the pouring rain when I’m out of coffee.”
“Uncle Dante hates shopping too. I don’t get it.”
They both turned and looked at Daniella.
“Tell you what, when you get your driver’s license, I’ll pay you to pick up the groceries,” Dante said—and meant it.
“Let me know. I might want in on the deal too.”
The radio fastened to André’s chest crackled to life. André sighed and rolled his eyes. “I told them I needed an hour, one damn hour, to grab groceries, and they can’t even manage that.” Abandoning his basket, Dear moved toward the exit.
“We should get those for him,” Daniella said.
