Page 36 of No Holds Barred

“Where is he?” Hope asked, her eyes wide. “Because we really need to get this meeting started.” The last thing she wanted was to keep Leanne in a room on her own where she could do more damage. Hope wanted to eliminate as much of that as possible.

“He’s in the bathroom.”

Of course he was. Hope nodded. “He’ll come find us then.”

She led the way back into the room and found Leanne and Ashlee talking. Ashlee seemed far calmer now than she had before, far more at ease. Well, at least Leanne had managed that. Angelica never would have. Hope tensed as she sat down, wildly eyeing both of them as she tried to figure out where to step into the conversation.

“So, uh… filming.” She smiled at Ashlee and nodded at Leanne to silently tell her to shut the hell up. “Angelica and I have researched some of what the problems are here—or at least what we think they are. A lot of times when we come into a hotel, we find different issues than what we originally thought they’d be.”

“Yeah, we have some problems.” Ashlee’s lips pulled tight, and she went pale.

Hope was usually so much better at this, but she was struggling to pull herself together and focus on anything other than the fact that Leanne was sitting across from her. Leanne who had broken Angelica’s heart. Leanne who had been so cold toward Angelica. Leanne who was the start of the problems between Josef and Angelica.

Jesus, was there something good that this woman had done or was it all bad?

“What we’ve identified as areas to focus on are some conflicts with understanding the goals and purpose of the hotel, room service issues, and some priority issues. Most of that just comes down to communication, I think.” Hope flicked her gaze to Leanne. How much had Josef briefed her on what was happening?

Leanne nodded along like she was understanding everything.

But she couldn’t have been locked in to do this more than a day or two ago. Angelica’s accident had only been four days prior. Hope focused on Ashlee. “What we’ll do first is mostly just observe and poke around so we can find the weakest spots and then go from there. Ms. Shields typically handles the room service issues if they’re not food related because it would fall under her purview but since she’s been delayed?—”

“Oh yes, I heard about that.” Ashlee’s soft voice reached Hope’s ears, and the genuine concern in her tone was comforting. “I hope she’s okay.”

“She will be.” Hope’s lips pulled up to one side. “I’ll let her know you were asking after her.”

Hope slid her gaze to Cadence who had been surprisingly quiet. When Hope sent her a sharp look, begging her to join in the conversation, Cadence cleared her throat.

“We’ll, uhh, start with filming you and Hope tomorrow as you take her on a bit of a tour and some explanations. She’ll primarily observe for at least half a day, check out the kitchens.”

“I’m sorry, but I thought Leanne would be doing that.” Ashlee pointed at Leanne with a frown. “That’s what she said she was here to do, anyway.”

Cadence’s lips parted.

Hope jumped in. “Leanne will be there to help out, but I’ll be there with you every step of the way. I promise. I don’t want youto feel as though we’re leaving you in the dust since Ms. Shields isn’t here.”

That niggling fear jumped right up into her chest again. Leanne was pushy, and she wasn’t going to back down. Angelica sure knew how to pick them, didn’t she? Hope looked directly at Cadence. They were going to need to have a serious conversation about how to deal with this because Hope needed to protect Angelica’s position on the show as best as she could.

Because there was one thing she knew.

She wouldn’t do this show again without Angelica.

They’d been through too much for her to work with someone else. Even if they were renewed, if Angelica turned them down, then Hope would too. They were a package deal, even if Angelica didn’t see them that way.

“Let’s start with room service tomorrow, all right?” Hope looked directly at Cadence. “You and Rex can figure out the shots from there.”

“Yes, we can.” Cadence nodded as if she was finally understanding what was happening. Hopefully, she was. “I was thinking that we could follow the tray of food to show how dysfunctional it is, like a plate of food point of view.”

“That sounds fantastic!” Hope responded with a smile.

She turned toward Cadence and pulled Ashlee into the conversation and cut out Leanne as best as she could.

“I could pretend to be a guest in a room and time how long it takes,” Leanne said.

Hope pursed her lips in a very Angelica-like style and shook her head. “No.” Then she focused back on Cadence. “I wonder if we could get Sy to run the cart for us to make that shot.”

“Oh, he’d love that. He loves doing all those creative things.” Cadence’s eyes lit up.

“Perfect.” Hope clapped her hands. “I guess we’ll just leave it to the morning.” Hope stood up, rolling her shoulders. Shestared down at Ashlee. “Will you give me a tour of the back areas? I’d like to know what I’m dealing with before we start filming in the morning.”