Harlequin Desire October 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates

Author:Maisey Yates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Travis joined Hallie in the walk-in refrigerator where there was considerably less filet mignon than there had been the day before. A knot tightened in his gut.

“I’m going to get fired, aren’t I?” Hallie clutched her stomach, then answered her own question. “I’m definitely going to get fired.”

“Relax, Hal. You’re good. I know you didn’t do this,” Travis said calmly. “But someone certainly did. Ask Ross and every single person in this kitchen if they know anything about this. Meanwhile, I’m going to recheck every square inch of this fridge.”

He’d rip the place apart if he needed to. If those premium cuts of meat were still in that fridge, he’d find them. Travis started a systematic search. Once Hallie finished questioning all of the staff about the missing meat, she returned and helped him look.

The meat wasn’t there.

He enlisted Hallie and dishwashers Pauly and Ernesto to help them search the freezer.

Travis was on the verge of having his assistant call every reputable meat vendor in town—when he shifted a stack of frozen butter. The missing cuts of meat were there, frozen. This was no mistake. The filet mignon had been placed there intentionally.

“Who the hell would put them in here behind the butter?” Hallie asked.

“Someone who didn’t want us to find them,” Travis replied.

“Who’d do that?” Hallie rubbed her arms to warm them. “Everyone here understands how important this event is to Moonlight Ridge.”

“Maybe that was the point,” Travis mused. “To sabotage tonight’s event.”

“Could the film crew have done this? Maybe they were trying to manufacture some drama for the show,” Hallie whispered to Travis so the film crew couldn’t hear her.

“They wouldn’t have done this. But we’ll worry about who did later,” Travis said. “Right now, let’s get this meat defrosted.”

Thankfully, there was more than enough time to defrost the meat and get it prepped for dinner. But he needed to talk to Mack and Grey. Their elusive thief was likely behind this. If he hadn’t found the thief’s cache, he’d bet that filet mignon would’ve made its way onto the black market where disreputable restaurants and hotels sourced their goods.

A forensic accountant had combed over the books, and Mack and Grey had locked down Moonlight Ridge’s expenditures, making it more difficult for theft to go undetected. Selling meat and other high-value goods on the black market was likely the thief’s only option.

But for now, crisis averted.

He dialed Riley. “Hey, Rye. There was just a little mix-up. We’re good to go.”

“Thank you, Travis.” She sounded relieved. “But I just stepped out of the shower, so I need to get dressed.”

He was speaking to Riley naked? Travis shut his eyes against that visual. Something he found himself doing whenever he heard her shower running at the cottage because that vivid image had practically given him a hard-on.

“Should’ve placed a video call,” he muttered, and she giggled.

They were flirting. Not as a pretense, but because he was wildly attracted to her and they genuinely enjoyed spending time together. So against his better judgment, they’d been teasing and flirting.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.