“You didn’t just carry out drinks though, did you?” Kaitlyn asked, crossing her arms. “You made a point of carrying out the entrees for that section, too.”
“Sure, trying to irritate her. It was immature.”
“And I guess it’s a coincidence that two people from that section got food poisoning.”
Kait watched Landon’s face carefully for a glimmer of malice, of self-satisfaction. Instead, he just looked surprised. “I had no idea.” Then he frowned. “Wait a minute. Do you think I have something to do with it?”
“I’m starting to think you’ve had something to do with a lot of things,” she said bitterly. “1358, for starters.”
Shock leapt into his eyes. She’d caught him off guard. He didn’t think she knew about it. And she never would have if someone hadn’t gone to the trouble of making sure she saw the Page Six article.
“Was that the first time you destroyed a restaurant, Landon? You knew just how to do it. LeClarks was your roadmap. Or were you part of that, too?” An ugly suspicion formed in her mind. “Were you your father’s man on the inside? Did you cause what happened?”
Landon had had enough. He grabbed her by both arms and shook her. “Listen to yourself, Kaitlyn. You’re accusing me of poisoning people, of deliberately attacking your family. I’ll admit I didn’t do enough to stop my parents, but I didn’t help them. The food poisonings then were bad luck, just like they are now. But this time, I can protect you.”
Kaitlyn struggled against his tight grip. “I don’t believe you, Landon. And I sure as hell don’t trust you.”
He dragged her against him, trying to quell her desperate motions. If he could just get her to listen. He’d fucked up fifteen years ago, but everything he’d done since had been to protect her. “Kait, stop.”
Suddenly, a strong hand closed around his shoulder and ripped him backward. Landon let go of Kait reflexively to catch his balance and whirl on his attacker, but to his shock, it was Gray.
“Get the hell away from my sister,” Gray said, his face ashen as he moved between them.
“Gray, I—”
“It’s mushrooms again,” Gray said evenly to Kait. “Same as fifteen years ago.”
Kait felt sick to her stomach. She hadn’t really thought—but she and Gray had checked the mushrooms themselves. They’d been so careful. There was no way they could have accidentally slipped through.
She raised her gaze to Landon’s over Gray’s shoulder. “Get out.”
“Kait—”
“You heard her,” Gray said evenly.
Landon stared at them and slowly backed out.
“I’ll leave for now,” he said, his voice low and determined. “But I’ll be back.”
Chapter Fourteen
Landon left town, driving like a bat out of hell. He didn’t have anywhere to go—he’d be damned if he would run back to New York this time. But he thought that putting New Canton in his rearview mirror and flying down the winding highway might blow some of the fiery rage out of his system. Instead, it only fanned the flames in all directions.
The flames engulfed Martha, who he never should have wasted his time on last night. She was going to do whatever the hell she wanted no matter what he did or said. Hadn’t his parents proved that fifteen years ago?
The flames licked at Kait and Gray, who had turned on him so quickly he practically had whiplash. Hadn’t he proven himself to them time and time again? Hadn’t he changed his whole fucking life around for Kait? For Christsakes, when was the last time he’d been in the office? Instead, she had him cooking three-course meals and delivering drinks.
But his hottest anger was directed at Basil Hampton. If he hadn’t destroyed Kait’s career in the kitchen, not to mention her trust in men, Landon wouldn’t have had to destroy him. And if Landon hadn’t destroyed him, Kait would have no reason to think he had anything to do with the food poisoning incidents at LeClarks.
His eyes narrowed as Basil Hampton’s face came into his mental crosshairs. She came home to find a coffee mug in her sink, Marjorie had told him. Basil had done it to mess with her. Maybe someone had turned on the coffee maker at LeClarks to mess with her, too. His fingers clenched around the steering wheel, thinking of it. Basil Hampton lurking in the shadows of the kitchen, watching them. Watching Kait. It was far fetched—surely Kait would have noticed if he had been in the restaurant at all, much less the kitchen—but Landon didn’t care how far fetched it was. He needed to know exactly where Basil Hampton was.
He called Carter.
“No one has seen him in weeks,” Carter told him, his voice distracted. Landon could hear the rapid click of keys and knew he only had half of his friend’s attention. “Doesn’t mean he’s not around, though.”
“I need to know for sure,” Landon said. “If he’s licking his wounds in New York, fine. But if he’s crawled out from under his rock and into the light of day, I want to know exactly where he’s standing.”
Carter gave a low whistle. “You really have it out for him. Good job on 1358, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Landon said shortly. He didn’t want to talk about 1358, it reminded him of the angry suspicion in Kait’s eyes. “Can you ask around and figure out where Basil is?”
Carter sighed and the click of keys stopped abruptly. “Listen, Landon. I’m kind of busy running your business while you play Chef Boyardee and live in your mom’s basement.”
“Actually, I moved into your condo,” Landon said. “But point taken. I’ll get the private investigator on it.”
“Wait, you’re in 801 now?”
“Yeah. I was feeling a little stifled in my mom’s basement. That okay with you?”
“That’s fine,” Carter chuckled. “I just hope you changed the sheets. This have anything to do with the redhead from Dom’s party?”
“No,” Landon said shortly. “I’ll let you get back to running my business.”
“I bet it does. You also might want to get the couch
