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Dani nodded. “To hang out with Romy.”
“I’m not letting you go alone.”
He was still upset by Hatch’s call and the discovery of yetmoreremains made him fucking twitchy. Not to mention that fucking gray sedan. Had the driver been watching him? Was it his imagination working overtime? Something nasty was going on in Cooper Springs, and he did not like it one bit. If he wasn’t careful, though, Dani would pick up on his barely controlled emotions. He consciously took a deep breath and did his best to relax his shoulders.
“Okay,” she agreed simply, not fooled by his deep breathing techniques. Apparently, he was not as good at hiding his feelings as he’d thought. “But maybe you can sit somewhere else?”
As if he wanted to know what the teenaged population of Cooper Springs was talking about. Actually, he already knew. It was probably the remains.
And fucking dammit, he’d hoped she would be deterred by his insistence on being a chaperone.
Dani, Romy, and two other kids were sitting in a booth on the other side of the restaurant. Dante was nursing a watery Coke and attempting to blend into the background. He suspected he was failing because every time the door opened, he felt new eyes on him.
Eventually, someone he recognized came in. Vincent Barone. Vincent gave his kid a chin nod and headed for Dante’s table, not asking permission before he pulled out a chair and sat down across from him.
“Happy New Year,” Vincent said with an irritating smile, making himself as comfortable as was possible in the too-small plastic chairs.
“No offense,” Dante said, sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms over his chest, “but what are you doing here?”
Vincent smiled again and leaned onto the table. “Romy texted and asked me to come distract you. Apparently, you’re scaring people.”
“And you had nothing better to do?”
“Nope, not really.” He shook his head. “High school teacher, remember?”
Right. “Thanks again for having us on Christmas, and Happy New Year.” He wasn’t a monster; he could be social. Maybe.
“No prob. So, what are you doing here, looking scary?”
Dante debated what he should or could tell Vincent. The man wasn’t an idiot. He knew something was up. What normal adult person would hang out in Pizza Mart?
“The news.” Dante nodded in the direction of the forest. “It’s got me on edge.”
Vincent sat forward. “Me too. All of us, really. It sounds like the bones’ve been there a while, but damn, it makes me want to lock Romy inside the house and throw away the key.”
“That’s about where I am.”
But more like he wanted to wrap Dani in cotton and lock her in a fortress. Tomato, tahmahtoe.
“Are you in law enforcement?” Vincent abruptly asked.
“Not anymore. Why?”
“You have that look about you. Law enforcement or motorcycle gang.”
Reluctantly, Dante chuckled. Barone was too close on both accounts, considering his last undercover assignmenthadbeen infiltrating that OMC. That life was definitely over now.
“I do my best to tone it down, but I was a LEO for a long time. It doesn’t just go away.”
Vincent glanced at Dante’s nearly finished Coke. “You want another one of those, or do you want to leave the teens here and go have a quick beer at the Donkey? They’ll be fine for an hour and believe me, the food at the pub is more to our taste.”
Dante debated refusing. But Dani would be going back to school, and he couldn’t follow her everywhere. Might as well start practicing now.
Fucking hell.
“Sure, sounds good.”
Dani tried to hide her smile when Dante told her he’d be up the street, but she wasn’t quite successful.
