Hope followed Angelica into the office, trying her damnedest not to stare at her ass as she walked on ahead of her. But that was impossible, and as she moved to shut the door behind her with Sy right next to her with a camera, she caught Rex’s eyes and knew he’d noticed. But at least he didn’t seem perturbed by it. In fact, he seemed almost amused.
Of course he would be.
Hope bit her lip and turned around. Angelica stayed right where she was, and Hope stepped in closer. They were nearly nose to nose, but neither one of them seemed to move. Were they both craving the same kind of closeness that they hadn’t had in weeks now? Because God, Hope would give anything for that.
“They lied,” Angelica said.
“Agreed.” Hope pursed her lips. “I thought they had a full staff, but it’s clear they don’t. Maria, the only waitress, was excited that even one customer came in for dining. Which means they aren’t having regular people in at all.”
Angelica hummed and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. “Joy and Ross are doing everything. I imagine they’re both putting in 100 hours a week, minimum.” She sighed again and shook her head. “They’re in way over their heads.”
“So it’s a management and a money issue. But what else?” Hope asked, needing more answers. “The kitchen is fairly clean and up-to-date. It’s clear Trey doesn’t have proper training, but he is keeping everything up to code in there from what I could tell. I didn’t do a deep dive into the fridge and freezer yet.”
Angelica rocked side to side and then stopped.
“You don’t think it’s a control issue, do you?” Hope asked, more tentatively than she typically would. But she had to voice that concern, the one she’d thought but hadn’t been able to truly investigate.
“What do you mean?” Angelica leaned in a little closer to the point that Hope could feel her breath against her cheeks.
“The menu is gigantic, like I’ve never seen a menu that big before. When I talked to Chef Trey about it, he implied it wasn’t his decision.” Hope wanted to reach forward and touch Angelica’s arm, just have the physical contact that she craved. But she held herself still. They’d built rules about what they would and wouldn’t do on camera.
“You think Joy and Ross?—”
“I think Joy,” Hope corrected to make her point clear. “But I need more information before I’m willing to throw around accusations.”
“All right.” Angelica nodded to herself. “We’ll work on that one. In the meantime, we are going to need to find some more staff for this place and start to dig a whole lot deeper into their finances.”
“That’s more your area than mine.”
“I could use the help.” Angelica paled slightly.
Hope frowned, about to ask what was going on, but she stopped herself. Cameras. Angelica wasn’t likely to actually answer that anyway. “I can do that. Tonight?”
Angelica nodded. “Tonight.”
One of them would talk to Rex or Cadence and get them to film some of it. It’d make for good downtime and moments between them to add to the tension. But Hope didn’t want to say that out loud, not right now anyway.
“Is there a theme or something I can start to work off when eliminating ninety percent of that menu?”
Angelica pursed her lips and shook her head. “Your guess on that one is as good as mine.”
Hope grunted and then sighed. “I’ll work with Trey and see what his expertise is in and go from there.”
“Probably a good idea.” Angelica nodded. “I have to get back out there before they make something else more of a disaster than it already is.”
“Fair.” Hope dropped her hands to her sides and started for the door. “Money talks tonight, then.”
“Yes,” Angelica confirmed. “Money talks tonight.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Angelica clenchedher phone tightly in her left hand, the vibration moving through her fingers into her knuckles and palm and straight up into her wrist. She turned the phone over, glanced at the screen, scowled, and turned it back over.
In the five minutes of quiet time she’d found, she couldn’t stop the phone from buzzing. Phone calls. Texts. Emails. Popping up second after second, and she didn’t have the heart to even begin to answer the ones she needed to answer and ignore the ones she needed to ignore.
But people were coming out of the woodwork.
