Kait searched her memory, but Jessica Browning wasn’t in it. “Who is that?”
“A former customer,” Gray said grimly. “She was at the two-person booth with her boyfriend yesterday morning, and this morning she went to urgent care, puking her guts out.”
“No,” Kaitlyn covered her mouth, horrified.
“She’s the only case I’ve heard of so far,” Gray said. “But it’s not a good look, Kait. If the press gets ahold of this…”
“They won’t,” Landon said firmly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“I appreciate it,” Gray nodded at him. “Now what are you talking about, Kait? Did they find who?”
It was so starkly terrible that for a minute, Kait had forgotten about her terror. It came rushing back now, and she shivered as she told the story.
“What were you two doing in LeClarks alone at night?” Gray asked, then shook his head. “Never mind, don’t tell me.” He grasped Kait’s hand. “There has to be a simple explanation. Maybe someone who is opening this morning prepped the coffee machine yesterday to save time.”
“And then it turned itself on?” Kait shook her head. “I’m not being paranoid Gray. I know you think this is—” She clamped her mouth shut abruptly, remembering Landon was beside her. “Someone was in there,” she reiterated.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Gray insisted gently. “Why would they just turn on the coffee maker?”
No, it didn’t make sense. Just like it didn’t make sense five years ago when she’d come home from work to find just a single thing out of place. Nothing immediately noticeable, but a definitive statement. Someone was here.
But she couldn’t remind Gray of that in from of Landon. Kait looked miserably into her brother’s eyes, willing him to understand.
And whether he believed her or not, he did.
“We’ll talk to everyone who worked yesterday,” he said, squeezing her hand. “If none of them set up the coffee maker, we’ll install cameras. Step up the security system.”
“I’ll have them come out today,” Landon said, because he understood, too, even if she didn’t know it. “We should have cameras anyway.”
Whether she ever confided in him about Basil Hampton or not, he was going to make sure she never had to be afraid of him again.
Landon was as good as his word. The moment their second morning shift ended, the security company was at the door. They were an auspicious presence, hanging cameras as Gray praised the staff at the end-of-shift meeting. Then, before dismissing them, he asked about the coffee maker.
“It’s not a big deal if you did,” he said. “We obviously need to wait until the morning of to keep the grounds fresh, but if you prepped it last night, we just want to know.”
The staff shook their head, shrugging. Kait looked at them carefully, hoping to see a sign of guilt on one of their faces.
Antonio, their only hire from New York other than Ana, raised his hand. “If it’s not a big deal, boss, why do you want to know who did it?”
Gray hesitated. “No reason. I guess what I should say is, good initiative, but hold off from now on.”
Nodding, the staff dispersed.
As she and Landon walked out to the parking lot, Kait said tiredly, “I guess I should go home.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” he asked, guiding her toward his BMW.
“Because I’ve stayed with you the past two nights.”
“And that’s a problem?”
Kait jerked her shoulder. “You tell me.”
Landon stopped in front of the car and turned to face her. “It’s not a problem for me, Kait. If it’s a problem for you, say something.”
“No.” She gave him a small smile. “It’s not for me.”
“Good.” He opened her car door. “Because it would have been a problem for me if I had to sleep at that shit hole you call an apartment. But I’d have done it.”
The next day, Landon had his assistant pack up Kait’s clothes and kitchenware and deliver it to the condo. When she got home from LeClarks late that afternoon, she looked at her knives on the counter and then at him questioningly.
“You’re staying with me until you feel safe again,” he said, his voice making it clear that any protest would lead to an argument.
Kaitlyn considered protesting anyway on principle, but she was too grateful. She gave him a long, deep kiss. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” He pulled her in for another, but Kait pushed away.
“I have to take a shower. I smell like the fryer.”
That night, after they’d exhausted each other and she was lying with her head on his chest, she asked the question she’d been wondering for weeks. “Why did you buy the LeClarks building?”
“Because if I hadn’t, they would have torn it down.”
“But why did you care?”
Landon looked down at her, his face unreadable in the twilight. “Do you really not know?”
“Because you loved my parents?”
Landon nodded. “Partly. But it’s more selfish than that.”
Kaitlyn twisted around to face him, sensing he was about to show her some deep private part of himself.
“LeClarks was the first place I ever felt a part of something.” Landon gazed over her head, unable to look down at her. “I was born into the James Investments empire, but it never felt like mine. It was Randolph’s, and he held it over my head my entire life. Any time I stepped out of line or didn’t live up to his expectations, he threatened to take it from me. And that scared the shit out of me, because if I didn’t take over James Investments, what the hell would I do? And then I met your family and found out.”
“You did want your own kitchen,” Kait whispered, gazing up into his shadowed face.
He shrugged. “Maybe. The point is, I saw something in my future other than James Investments, and that meant my father lost his control over me.”
“You could still have it,” Kaitlyn said. “A real one, not just that food factory, Rathskeller.”
Landon shook his head. “I like what I do.
