"Sorry, love. Didn't mean to scare the shit out of you." He stroked his fingers over my neck.
"It's okay," I said quickly. "This is a lot."
"It is a lot. I'm impressed. I was just in the kitchen checking out the food. It looks tasty." He smacked his lips and leaned in to whisper, "Not as tasty as you."
"You didn't eat any of it, did you?" I eyed him as if the accusation was serious. The hint of a smile on my lips might have proven otherwise.
"A little nibble here or there, that's all." He gave me a wink. "You know me. I wouldn't ruin this for you."
"Of course you wouldn’t," I said. "I should get back in there and make sure everything is ready. Shelly and Yvette can greet the rest."
They both looked at me like I needed a reminder they'd stood back while I did their job for them. Both were perfectly capable of doing it.
Yeah, I knew all of that, but I'd wanted to greet Getzoff personally, so he felt comfortable and relaxed tonight. He might need it.
"I’ll come with you," Boner said. "Check that. There's someone over there I need to catch up with."
"Okay," I said as he kissed my cheek and hurried away.
I shrugged and worked my way through the customers who stood chatting to each other, and slipped back into the kitchen.
"How is everything?" I asked.
Cass was keeping an eye on the marinara sauce, his phone in his hand.
"Everything is in place," he said. "I've put out word that Detective Getzoff is looking into the deaths of Granger Fairfield and Solomon Danforth. Apparently he found a promising lead, connecting them to other people of influence."
I straightened my chef jacket and tried not to wince. It was one thing to use ourselves as bait, but to use someone else…
"We’re all right here if anything happens," Archer said. He stood near the storeroom, soda in one hand, phone in the other, hiding from the crowds.
"I know," I said. "I wonder if we should warn him, that's all."
"If he's working with them, he might warn them," Archer said reasonably. "We don't need him to do that."
"This was your plan," Cass pointed out, as if I needed a reminder.
I straightened my ponytail and moved over to stir the sauce.
"I know. I also know it could go horribly wrong for everyone."
"It's going to go horriblyright," he assured me. He stepped over behind me and bracketed my hips with his hands, leaningin to press a kiss to my neck. Drawing a shiver from me. "We've got this.”
"Unless you're having second thoughts?" Archer asked.
"What are the statistics on people having second thoughts in situations like this?" I asked with a sigh.
"I don’t know, but I'm going to guess it's high." He glanced at his screen like he might look for the answer there, but shook his head to himself.
"What's the percentage of people who get into situations like this?" I asked.
He took a moment to think about that. "I'm going to suggest it's low."
"Let me guess. Five people out of the millions that live in the city," I said.
"I might narrow it down to five out of the billions of people who live on the planet," he said. "Although, there might be more of us than we know."
"Oh, I don't know. Five sounds about right," I said laughing bitterly. "Everyone else is too sane for this bullshit."
