Page 100 of Second Chance

“Thank you,” Tony says.

Daniel glares at him. “Yeah, well, I’m not willing call the police until I know she won’t be—” Daniel looks away abruptly.

“She won’t be what?” Colette asks.

“She won’t be abandoned like Andrew was, or like she was last year, all right?” Daniel snaps.

Colette’s fingers go to her shoulder, looking for a braid to toy with only to find it gone. “I knew you blamed me for that.”

Daniel stares at her, incredulous. “I don’t blame you. I blamemyself.”

“He was my student.”

“And you didn’t think he needed counseling. I did!”

“Yes, you were right, and I was wrong. But—”

“It’s notaboutright or wrong, Colette—”

The buzzer snaps through the incipient argument.

Tony answers the door on autopilot.

“Hey,” Emilio’s voice says, far away at the bottom of the stairs and, at the same time, very close. “Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”

Chapter Fifteen

“Iwas meaning to ask how you met Tony.” Daniel makes Emilio coffee, seeming for all the world like a friendly, calm host and not someone who was kidnapped at gunpoint a day ago. He fumbles over Colette’s coffee maker, but everyone else is too frozen solid with nerves to do it for him. “Thanks for helping us start the car, by the way, Mr. Lawrence.”

“It’s Emilio.” Emilio leans against the kitchen counter. “Glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.”

“You got a lot of people here who care about you.”

Daniel gives Tony a shadow of a smile. “I guess I do.”

“Well.” Emilio crosses his arms over his chest. The unimpeded view of his biceps highlights that he’s easily the biggest and strongest person in the room, and it’s a little ridiculous how this concern occurs to Tonynow, when they’ve fully eliminated him as a suspect. “Colette and Tony, here, were trying to find you, and obviously, they succeeded. They searched my house in the process though.”

Daniel’s eyebrows climb up his forehead. “You didwhat?”

“To be fair, he invited us to,” Tony says. It’s a weak defense for impoliteness, and if Ma were here, she would tell him so.

“Their original plan was to park right across the road and watch me, I think.”

Daniel rubs a hand over his face. “You promised not to get involved in any more murder investigations.”

Utter shock at the hypocrisy stops Tony from forming meaningful thoughts momentarily.

“Technically, it was a kidnapping.”

“Thank you for the distinction, Professor Ravel.”

“Daniel—” Tony tries.

“No, no.” Colette waves him off. “Daniel is angry, and he has every right to be. Everything is my fault.”

“I didn’t say it was your fault.” The coffee maker bangs against the stovetop as Daniel sets it down.

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