Page 154 of Ride or Die

“Cooper’s extremely paranoid. And behaves erratically as a result.”

“More details. Less psychoanalysis.”

Saint moved the spoon around his syrup-with-coffee-on-top. “I moved here a few years ago, started the shop. Ryan was a frequent flier and brought Coop around to discuss some exclusivity. The mechanic they’d had in-club had retired, and they thought I’d be a good candidate.” His mouth twisted as shadows flickered across his face.

“I take it you didn’t agree.”

A glimmer of a grin touched his lips. “Nope. Cooper assumed I didn’t want to join because I had my own plans to take over and has been—erratic ever since. This was worse than usual. A few months ago, he declared the ‘Italians’ off-limits as some of his guys had gotten into it with them over expansion—”

“Was that related to the club? And why Cooper came the very next day after the docks?”

“Among other things.”

“Do these other things have a name that begins with D?”

Saint’s eyes glowed, but he stayed quiet.

Fine.

“Andrew got security footage of that night, somehow. That’s why he came to check up on me.” And then Nico had walked into and out of the station the same day that Andrew asked her for a statement about him.

Saint pressed his lips together and didn’t say anything.

“You don’t think—” Had he come to arrest her? Warn her? Save her?

“We’re all better off not knowing,” Saint said firmly.

She leaned forward and rested her arms on the table. The tree swayed overhead, causing pockets of light to jump around on the painted surface. “Not knowing hasn’t worked out so well for me, Saint. It’s why we’re having this conversation. Everything on the table.”

“There is a difference between being wilfully ignorant and investigating things that have nothing to do with you.”

Uh, rude. “Wilfully ignorant?” Kristi had called her naive at the bar. And after that.

He shrugged, tapping his spoon on his mug. “We all have our strengths.”

“Adorable.”

Maybe she had been naive. But she wasn’t anymore. “Fine.” She knew Andrew wasn’t the leak. And Aaron had vouched for Nia.

Past that, it wasn’t her business.

Discretion is the better part of valour.

Saint gave her that half-smile, and it did funny things to her insides. Riley set her mug down. “Next topic.”

He gestured for her to speak.

“Dante.”

“Ask, Ri,” he said, resting his hands on the table. They didn’t move. At all.

She bit the inside of her cheek and lowered her voice. “You can’t just go around blowing up your problems. Or my problems.”

Apparently, he could. And did. Saint didn’t respond, eyes on her. Shadows from the leaves shifted over his face, and his eyes seemed to flash black.

“You could have called the police—”

Saint’s eyebrows raised a fraction.