Page 39 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Hope nodded. “The problem is, we have this event coming up, so I can’t fire them yet.”

“The Technology Symposium.” Angelica had tried to rework the schedule to avoid this, but Josef had insisted that they come this week because it’d add more promotion to what they were doing.

And the Symposium had agreed, shockingly enough.

“Get it done, Hope. I’ll support you in whatever way you need, but if you walk back into that kitchen the way you walked out of it, they’ll all leave you high and dry. ”

“I know.” Hope sighed heavily, running her hands along her sides as she stared at the kitchen door. “I know.”

“Good.” Angelica nodded at her. “You okay to go back in there?”

Hope’s lips thinned, and she shook her head slightly before nodding. “No, but do I have a choice?”

Angelica wanted to tell her that she did. That she could walk away and come back in an hour, but she honestly wasn’t sure they had that kind of time. She wanted to pull Hope to the side and really figure out what was going on, solve it, ease whatever was bothering her.

And that was exactly what Angelica couldn’t do.

Hope nodded at her and then bit her lip, once again dropping her gaze down to Angelica’s mouth as if she was thinking about something else entirely.

Then she turned on her toes and walked away.

Angelica stayed put until Hope was fully inside the kitchen, her voice much calmer when she shouted out orders to everyone in there.

Nodding to herself, Angelica did the next thing that she could.

She left the restaurant and walked directly to where she knew she could find the owner.

Henry was huddled behind the front counter, in the back room there, where he seemed to spend most of his time.

Angelica stepped back there, hands by her sides as she eyed him over.

“We can either do this here where everyone can hear it, or we can do it in the office.” Angelica looked Henry directly in the eye. “I don’t care which it is because everyone’s going to hear it in the end anyway.”

Henry’s jaw dropped. “Do what?”

“Do you realize how bad this place is?” Angelica leaned over the table and stared him down. Here it was. “When was the last time you did an inspection on that kitchen or even walked in there?”

Henry shook his head slowly, trembling a little. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re going to kill someone with that kitchen.

” Angelica growled out the words. “And it’s either that you don’t care or that you’re so stuck in your chair that you can’t get off your ass and actually do the work that needs to get done around here.

So which is it? Are you lazy? Or are you a killer? ”

She could feel the camera crew tense behind her, and she knew that she was being harsh. But Henry needed the shit scared out of him. He needed to be smacked upside the head and get some sense knocked back into him.

“If you were inspected today, you’d fail. I don’t understand how you passed other inspections, honestly. I’m pretty sure that Chef Lawrence is just as confused by that one.”

Henry put his hands up. “It’s not that bad.”

“It is!” Angelica smacked her hand down onto the table.

“And until you take this seriously, nothing’s going to change, and I’m not going to waste our time and effort trying to save people.

I’ll call the state right now and have you inspected and shut that restaurant down.

” It’d kill Hope if she did that—maybe. Hope hadn’t seemed very happy about the situation either.

“So what’s it going to be, Henry? Are you going to take responsibility and ownership for the situation we’re finding right now?

Or are you going to continue to cower and hide? ”

Henry’s jaw remained open, his eyes wide, and he stared at her in complete shock.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Henry whispered.

“Well, I think that’s the first thing that you said that’s the truth since we arrived.” Angelica straightened up, keeping the hard look on her face. She wasn’t going to let him off easy. “So are you going to learn or are you going to bury your head in the sand?”

Henry paused again, and she hated that he was taking so long to answer her. She was just about to turn and leave when he finally said something.

“Help me. Because if you don’t… I’m going to lose everything.”

“Get up.”

“What?”

“Get. Up.”

Angelica crossed her arms and waited for him to finally stand. She said absolutely nothing as she walked out of the front reception area and straight back into the restaurant. She pushed open the door, her eyes locking with Hope’s.

“Clean the kitchen,” she said, staring at Henry. “You talk back once to Chef Lawrence, and I’ll be back down here. You do absolutely everything she tells you to do without complaint and without whining. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” Angelica looked at Hope again, longing to say a few words to her, but there were cameras everywhere, and they were both mic’d up. She couldn’t. Not now. Not while there were so many people watching. “Chef?”

“Yeah?” Hope asked.

“If he bothers you, send for me.”

“Understood.”

Angelica hesitated. She didn’t want to leave Hope on her own. She wanted to stay and help, but this wasn’t where her talents would be most useful. Hope looked at her again, listing forward as if she was about to take a step in Angelica’s direction.

Shaking her head so slightly, Angelica paused.

They couldn’t.

Angelica must remember that. Hope wasn’t hers to be with even if she wanted. The games they were playing had to stop.