Chapter 3

THREE

WHY HAD SHE COMMENTED on her tarnished career? She never spoke about that day or what had happened after. But today, amidst this new chaos, she felt like she was back there again. It wasn’t an exact replica of what had happened, but the overtones were eerily similar.

The arrival of Cal and Mo pulled Cassie solidly back to the present.

Many people who didn’t fully grasp the complexity of the Quinn family tree assumed her cousins were brothers. Both Cal and Mo were tall, currently clean shaven, with dark hair cut military short, matching sets of the Quinn blue eyes that came from Granny Quinn, and strong chins that mirrored Papa Quinn’s.

At the moment, those eyes were hard, the chins were set, and their mouths bore similar expressions of disdain. And she knew why.

She and Donovan had dated. They weren’t dating now. End of story. No need for drama. Especially not the big-brother-ready-to-beat-you-up vibes these two were sending toward Donovan.

“Thanks for coming.” Cassie gave Mo a hug. Mo’s eyes flicked over her shoulder and then back to her. “Y’all okay?”

“Yeah.”

Cal pulled her away from Mo, threw an arm around her shoulder, and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Do you have any idea who did it?”

Donovan cleared his throat. “A little too soon for speculation, Cal.”

Cassie stepped away from Cal and was relieved to see that he didn’t glare at Donovan, which was good because Mo was giving him a death stare.

All three men stood ramrod straight, but that was where the similarity ended. Mo and Cal could pass for brothers, especially with the blue eyes that Cassie had also inherited from the Quinn side of the family.

And then there was Donovan. He was close to the same height as her cousins, but with his uniform, vest, and the muscle she knew was underneath, he was just ... more. Bigger body, darker skin, deep brown eyes that could be warm and inviting but at the moment were focused and intent.

He looked from Cal to Mo and clearly wasn’t cowed by either man. “I appreciate you coming by to help out.”

That earned him two barely there nods. “Of course.” Mo pointed to the restaurant. “How do you want us to do this? How many entrances are there?”

Cassie answered his last question. “This is the employee entrance. There are several customer entrances, and there’s a loading entrance.”

“I trust you both to handle it however you see fit. We need to prevent anyone from entering until we give the all clear.” Donovan’s voice was so stiff and professional that Cassie almost didn’t recognize it. Then he turned to her. “Cassie, ba—” His eyes held hers, and she thought there was an apology in them as he swallowed what he’d been about to say. She didn’t know if Mo or Cal caught it, but she knew. She knew because she’d heard the words “Cassie, baby” come from him so often while they’d dated that she’d thought he would always call her that.

He pinched his lips together for a second before he continued. “How much trouble will this cause you? Even if you brought in your entire staff, I’m not sure you’d be able to get the kitchen back up in time for the dinner service.”

Cassie hadn’t expected Donovan to be concerned about that. She’d just reached the point where she could think of him without tearing up. This reminder of how thoughtful and gentle he’d been with her was not what she needed now. “I need to talk to Bronwyn. But I think there’s a way to make it work. We’re fully booked this weekend, but fortunately we only have a handful of guests.”

All three men gave her quizzical looks, but it was Mo who spoke up. “How can you be full but not have a lot of guests?”

“It happens. As exclusive as things are here, sometimes we have guests who require, or think they require, total privacy. They’ll book the whole place and then bring a handful of friends or family.”

“How many do you have to feed tonight?”

“Twelve. They’re coming in this afternoon and they requested to dine in their rooms tonight. Everything is being served around eight. Tomorrow they have reservations for dinner at eight, and while I’m sure they were planning to be inside, if the weather cooperates we might be able to convince them to dine outside so we can use the breakfast kitchen.” If the guests were nice, it might be okay. But if they weren’t? Ugh. She didn’t want to think about it. “We could set up a tent. We’ve done it before. If we pitch it to them as a special thing we’re doing exclusively for them, it might fly.”

She tried not to let the chaos and ugliness in the kitchen mess with her mind. “If the food I need for tonight and tomorrow night’s meals hasn’t been ruined, I can prepare the meals from the breakfast kitchen. But after that, things get dicey.”

“More guests?” Donovan didn’t look up from the notepad he’d pulled from his pocket while she spoke.

“We’re booked solid Monday night through next week. I haven’t looked beyond that. But I need this kitchen operational by Monday.” The low-key panic she’d been fighting since she walked into the kitchen threatened to overwhelm her. “And I need to see my pantry and cooler as soon as possible. If the food has been tampered with...”

Should she even try to cook with the fresh food she had on hand? The sealed items would be fine, but what about the produce? The meat? Did she have time to buy more for tonight?

“Cassie?”

She looked up at Donovan’s question and realized he must have been talking to her and she’d zoned out. “Sorry. What was that?”

“I said we’ll do our best to get your kitchen back to you by tomorrow. I’m not sure about tonight though. And I’m not sure about the food either. That’s going to be your department.”

Bronwyn rejoined them as he finished speaking. “My apologies, everyone.”

Cal pulled her into a hug. “You okay?”

“Honestly? No. I’m not okay. Thanks for stepping in.” Her thank-you somehow managed to include Mo even though she didn’t look at him.

Donovan took photos of the word “oops” and then set the camera down. He pulled some kind of collection tube from the bag he’d brought in and scraped up several samples of the red sauce. Once they were labeled and secured, he took one more sample and raised it to his nose.

“I don’t know if huffing the evidence is the best plan.” Mo’s voice was low and lazy, and the laughter in it was heavily veiled. But it was there.

Donovan shot Mo a glare. “I’m not going to huff it. Or taste it.” He held out the small sample. “I’m not an expert. But it smells like sriracha.” He looked at Cassie. “Do you use it?”

“Yes. I make it from scratch, and we have multiple squeeze bottles in the cooler and the prep areas.”

Donovan finished up with the sriracha and then grabbed the camera again. He took a photo of the hole in the refrigerator and asked, “Bronwyn, what kind of video surveillance do you have for this space?”

Bronwyn groaned. “Not as much as you’d think.”

Donovan shifted and took a photo of a mixing bowl that last night held a salad and today looked like someone had taken batting practice on it. “I know Gray’s talked to you about this. I assume nothing has changed?”

Bronwyn leaned against a counter and dropped her head back. “The situation with Landry highlighted the need for more surveillance but to be honest, I haven’t made it the priority I should have.”

Cal frowned at her. “You have to stop taking on all the responsibility—”

“Stop trying to give me an out, Cal! I’m the CEO. Who else is responsible?” Her frustration was evident.

“You have a board,” Cal responded with the same tone. “You have people who work for you. I assume this means that most of them continue not to do their jobs.”

Cassie looked between the two of them, then to Mo and Donovan, who looked on with identical expressions of concern.

Bronwyn gave Cal a tight smile. “None of that is important right now. What matters is that we don’t have cameras inside. And the cameras we have outside don’t record constantly. If the security guards didn’t see anything from their live feeds in the control room, there’s not going to be anything else to show who was here last night.”

She pulled the card on the lanyard around her neck and showed them her security badge. “We do track who enters and exits all of the controlled entries. But I can’t imagine that anyone would be foolish enough to scan themselves in and then destroy the kitchen.”

“I’ll need those logs, regardless.” Donovan snapped more photos. “We might catch a break.”

“I’ll get them for you this morning.”

“And any video you do have.”

“Of course.”

There was a long pause where the only sound was that of Donovan’s camera shutter. Then Mo stepped forward. “Cal, how about you and I go make a pass through the dining area. Check all the doors. That okay with you, Donovan?”

“Go for it.”

Mo stalked out of the kitchen. Cal followed him.

Donovan set the camera down and pitched his voice low. “Bronwyn, is there something I need to know? I can ask them to leave.”

So, Donovan had picked up on the tension too. Cassie shouldn’t be surprised. It was so thick she’d been tempted to smack Mo on general principle. He radiated frustration and what Cassie was almost certain was a barely contained fury.

Bronwyn looked toward the dining area. “They can stay. It’s a private war. And it won’t bleed into this. We need the help.”

Cassie considered her options as Donovan finished documenting the scene. He dusted for prints in a few places, but as far as she could tell, he didn’t find anything useful. When he finally put everything away, she was prepared to be told her kitchen would be off-limits indefinitely.

“Bronwyn, do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“The bad news.”

“Fair enough.” Donovan stood and surveyed the room. “Because they entered the premises and destroyed property, this is a burglary. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single usable footprint or fingerprint. I’ve taken a sample of the sauce, and we’ll have it analyzed, but it will take weeks before we have results back from the lab.” He pulled first one glove off, then the other. “If you want to bring in a private lab, or a private investigator, I wouldn’t fault you for that. But no one can find what isn’t here.”

Bronwyn shook her head. “No. I don’t want to do that.”

“I need to interview both of you on the record, as well as the security guards and the restaurant staff. I’ll write up a report. But unless we unveil a smoking gun in the interviews, there’s nothing more I can do.”

“Please move on to the good news.” Cassie tried to keep her voice light.

“Of course.” Was it her imagination, or did his voice drop into an even lower register when he spoke to her? Imagination or not, she liked it.

“The good news is that unless you plan to bring in someone else to investigate, I’m prepared to release the scene. That means you can get some staff in here to sort through the mess and get this place cleaned up.”

Bronwyn let out a weak “Yeah.”

Donovan frowned. “I thought that would be good news.”

“It is. But everyone who could work any extra time was already tasked with other things today.”

“Have no fear.” Cal spoke from where he leaned into the swinging door. “Landry’s been on the phone. The Quinns are ready to roll. Just say the word. And, you know, tell the guys at the gate to let them in. We’ll have a crew here in an hour.”

Cassie squealed and ran to Cal. “You’re the best!”

“Hey now,” Mo’s rumble came from the other side of the door. “I’ll have you know it was my idea.”

She stepped through the door and hugged Mo. “You’re the best too.”

“Don’t you forget it, sweet girl.”

“Thank you.”

Mo winked at her. “Don’t worry, Cassie Lassie. We’ve got you.”

She stepped back into the kitchen, Mo on her heels. “Bronwyn? Is that okay?”

“Let them come.”

Donovan looked around the space once more, then nodded. “Excellent. If you’ll hold down the fort here, I’ll get these two lovely ladies interviewed so Cassie can get back and figure out how to feed tonight’s guests.”