Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (16 page)

When they finally took a break for punch, they found Daniel, Nevia, and Heaton sitting on the sidelines looking a bit out of place. Danato had at least found a group to converse with and she blew him a kiss, which he smiled at, but didn’t return. Given his position and the number of subordinates around, he could hardly be blowing her kisses across the room.

“What’s with you two?” Ethan asked his friends. “You can’t just leave a pretty girl on the sidelines.”

Nevia didn’t seem offended that neither of them had asked her to dance, but Cori knew Ethan’s chivalrous side was always in overdrive. “Daniel’s too chicken, and Heaton’s afraid I might smell his deepest darkest secrets.” Nevia had meant it playfully, but the look of ire, Heaton threw her squelched her smile.

Heaton suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto the dance floor gruffly. Both Ethan and Daniel took steps to stop the manhandling, but stopped to observe before making an unwelcomed rescue. Heaton pulled her to the dance floor and drew her in close. As they began to dance, the moment of concern died and Ethan turned back to Daniel.

“What the hell is that all about?” Ethan said loud enough to be heard over the music, but not so loud as to make him sound angry.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said still staring after them. “He’s…” Daniel looked to Cori, and rethought his decision to speak about the topic.

“Are they an item or something?” Ethan asked not willing to let it drop.

Daniel shook his head. “Not that I know of. He’s been avoiding her ever since we were last here.”

“Is that why he’s smoking again?” Ethan asked.

Daniel nodded. He glanced at her again. Some part of the conversation was not going to come out while she was still there. She started to excuse herself, but Daniel changed tactics. “You mind if I take your wife out for a spin?” He winked at her and she rolled her eyes.

Ethan looked between the two of them suspiciously. He eyed Cori’s outfit, as if he were debating if he wanted to share her or not. He raised his brow to her asking for her permission to give the consent. She shrugged.

“There’s the enthusiasm I was hoping for,” Daniel quipped and extended his hand. Cori took it and he led her out onto the dance floor. He brought her in for a close but respectful slow dance.

He was taller than Ethan by a few inches, and his shoulders were broader. He wore a goatee now, as did Heaton. Cori barely knew either of them, but of the two, she knew Daniel better, and since this afternoon, was doubly indebted to him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Daniel’s attention drew down to her. She glanced back at what had been holding his attention and saw Heaton and Nevia. They were conversing, but it didn’t look angry or potentially violent. “What?” he asked.

“Thank you, for healing me. I know you don’t like lying to Ethan.”

“I don’t like hurting Ethan.”

“It’s amazing what you do. My neck looks better than it did before.”

“You haven’t seen me destroy life. That part isn’t pretty.” He sounded bitter, like someone had foisted this power on him against his will. Perhaps they did. Or perhaps it just felt like that to him. His gaze returned to Nevia and Heaton.

“I don’t know if there is anything going on between Heaton and Nevia, but there is definitely something between you and Nevia.” Daniel looked back at her as if she had just ripped the mask off his façade. “You have a lot of anger toward her.”

“That’s because she’s making me practice my healing power on her, and now you.”

“You must care for her a lot.”

Daniel’s face scrunched. “How does scarring up someone’s body translate to caring?”

“Because if you didn’t care about her, than you would have just refused to do it in the first place.” Daniel thought about that, but didn’t comment. “She must care for you, or she wouldn’t risk her own body to help you learn.”

He shook his head at her somberly. “That’s the sick thing. She wants nothing to do with me. She’s just fascinated by my abilities. I’m like a weapon that just needs to have the sights adjusted. I’m a freak show to everyone, but to her I’m the fecking eighth wonder of the world.”

“Maybe she…”

“Can we just dance? I’m trying to make your husband severely jealous, and this conversation is ruining it for me.”

Cori reluctantly agreed. He pressed her a little closer, but despite his dedication to making Ethan bristle, he kept his hands benevolently parked on her hips. When Heaton and Nevia finally left the dance floor, she expected him to rush after them, but instead he brought his focus back to her. “Did it hurt?” Her nonplussed expression prompted him to explain. “When I healed you, how bad was it?”

“Oh,” Cori had been given such of lead up to the dangers of the procedure that the actual event deflated her fears entirely. Daniel actually seemed more effected by the experience. He left the room immediately after to dose himself with a cold shower. “It felt cold, like searing cold. Then it pinched, but that turned to a tickle…sort of. It really wasn’t bad.”

Daniel’s feet stopped. The song had ended, but he didn’t let go of her. “I didn’t hurt you at all?”

Cori shrugged. “No.” She was about to ask what that meant, but he quickly dipped her, which made her yelp. He kept her upside down for a moment glancing back at Ethan to make sure he was watching, which he was.

He brought her back up and released her just as the new song started. “I better stop there, he’s likely to start climbing the walls if I don’t bring you back.”

“May I?” Cori hadn’t noticed Danato approach behind them.

Daniel gave a quick look to Ethan as if asking permission to give her away to someone other than him. “Far be it from me to interfere.” Daniel left her with Danato and joined Ethan and Heaton on the sidelines. Nevia was no longer with them.

Cori slipped into Danato’s arms for the dance. Despite his size and maladies, he danced rather well. Ethan had been taught to dance by his mother at an early age, but Danato moved like he had danced many times in his adult life. “I thought you could use a break from the riff raff.”

“What’s your story with him? Why do you dislike him so much?” She asked.

“I didn’t think you were a fan either,” he said surveying the crowd.

“We didn’t meet well, but he saved my life, so what are you going to do? Besides he’s Ethan’s friend. I have to make an effort to at least find him humorous. What about you?”

“I suppose you could say we didn’t meet well either. Bad timing I guess. He’s changed quite a bit since I first met him. He used to have a lot of anger issues, a lot.”

“Anger issues, huh. Not sure I’ve met anyone like that.” Cori had meant it as a joke, but the reference to a commonality between him and Daniel hardened his gaze on her. “How long ago was this?” she asked quickly trying to cover over her conversational faux pa.

“Six years, give or take. He’s just traded his anger for women and booze if you ask me.”

Cori nodded. She didn’t know much about Daniel beyond what Ethan had filled her in on, but the booze and the one night stands were a fixed description. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure she was entirely off base about him and Nevia. It sounded like he might be the one chasing her, which didn’t mesh with what Ethan told her. Either everyone was wrong about Daniel, or Nevia was “the who” making his heart grow three sizes.

“Where’s Belus?” Cori had wanted to change the subject to something less irritating for Danato, but she chose the wrong path.

Danato scoffed. “Like he would come to this.”

“Who are you looking for, then? You keep looking over the room.”

“Just checking, I don’t want anything to go wrong tonight.”

“We’re in a room full of guards, most of them still armed and technically on duty. I’ve got Ethan and Dr. Destruct-o on the sidelines watching my every move.” Cori gestured to the Ethan, but she noticed that Daniel was no longer with him and Heaton. “Don’t you think you could let your guard down a little?”

“I’m not going to let anything ruin your night.”

Cori pushed his hands away and stepped away. She cupped her hands, so that she didn’t gesture and draw attention to herself and inadvertently disrespect Danato in front of his men. “The only thing that is ruining my night is a grumpy old man who’s too busy casing the room to even look at his dance partner. I need a break from your protection Danato. I like it better when I take care of you.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said looking over the room again, but for a different reason this time.

“I always get hurt, Danato. I do stupid things and I hurt myself. Granted I’ve added Belus to my list of dumb luck victims, but the point is, I haven’t changed. You can’t keep tightening your grip on me. You have to know I’ll fight against it.”

He paused taking in her words. “I know. I just don’t want to lose you.”

Cori slipped back into his arms and they started dancing again. “You’ll never lose me, Danato. You’re my family now. Nothing will ever change that, but you can certainly make me resent your attentions.”

He nodded. “Is that why you didn’t object to me putting Belus in charge of you?”

“I didn’t object to you putting Belus in charge of me, because I respect your decision and the reasons behind it. Also, I was hoping to get back to that image you had of me once upon of time.”

“What’s that?”

“That time when you still thought I had the ability to be warden of this prison. That time when you were the only one who did believe it.” The song ended and Danato looked her over as if he were meeting her for the first time.

“I did lose sight of that, didn’t I?” She nodded. “It took a good deal of strength on my part to resist protecting you during that time. I guess I’ll have to start resisting the urge to kiss your boo-boos.”

“Well,” she shrugged. “I’ll still need someone to kiss my boo-boos.” She smiled. “Just let me get the boo-boos. I’ve earned the right to get my boo-boos.”

Danato smiled. “Yes, you have.”

“Ahem,” Ethan interrupted. Danato turned to him. “Am I interrupting?”

“Not at all,” Danato said. “I was just letting her go.” Danato winked and gave Ethan a nod before moving on to socialize again. She knew that wouldn’t be the end of Danato’s over protective side, but at least she had reminded him of who she was.

26

Daniel left Danato and Cori to dance and headed back to where Heaton and Ethan were. He resisted the urge to ask where Nevia was and leaned on Ethan as he looked back to the dance floor. “Well, lad, looks like we’ve got some competition.”

Ethan scoffed and shook his head. “He always wins. Luckily all he wants is a piece of her heart though. I get everything else.”

Daniel chuckled at that and feigned looking around as if he had just noticed Nevia was missing. “What happened to our bloodhound?”

“She went back to the house,” Heaton said sipping on red punch. Daniel avoided all rainbow colored beverages. It seemed childish to be seen with anything outside of the coffee, beer, and water spectrum. Milk could technically have been considered a childish beverage, but it reminded him of home and his mom, so he could hardly reject it entirely as a beverage.

“What was all that about before?” He tried to ask casually, but there was no way not to sound nosey.

“We were just clearing up a few things,” Heaton said sipping his drink. He probably wished it was a cigarette.

“Anything I should know about?” Daniel asked. Ethan looked between the two of them trying to discern where the underlying tension was coming from.

“Nope,” Heaton said flatly as if Daniel were some geeky kid asking to sit at the cool kids table. He could barely repress his anger. He wanted to punch Heaton.

Before when Heaton rejected him he felt hurt and displaced. After dealing with that heartache, all he felt was angry and insulted. Heaton had been his friend and partner for years. They knew everything about each other. He had no right to treat him like this. He had no right to keep secrets from him. He also had no right having private intrigues with Nevia. Granted he had slept with her twice and not told Heaton about it, but it wasn’t like he had intimate conversations with her.

“Good,” he finally said. “I wouldn’t want to upset the balance of our friendship by staying informed.” Daniel looked away. He wished he had a beer to swig on after that statement.

“Is there anything I should know about?” Ethan chimed in.

Daniel and Heaton didn’t need to exchange looks to get a simultaneous answer. “No.”

“Okay,” Ethan mumbled.

“I think I’m going to turn in,” Daniel said. “This isn’t exactly my scene, you know.” Ethan nodded. Daniel looked at Heaton. He looked at him back. For a moment, neither one balked. “We good?” Daniel finally asked.

“We’re always good,” Heaton said. It didn’t sound sarcastic. He sounded sincere. Daniel let his irritation subside and he gave him a nod before heading out. They probably weren’t good. They were probably on the cusp of losing their friendship, but what could he do? Men don’t have heart to hearts, least of all him. If Heaton would at least talk to him, or outright pick a fight, maybe they could fix this, but until then, the code of testosterone mandated that he get over it, or pretend it didn’t happen. He was getting good at that.