Thirty
THIRTY
Mia
IT WAS STRANGE THAT I hadn’t noticed how much I missed my kitchen. While the Elderflower Inn had been on unplanned hiatus, all I could think about was the never-ending march of problems in my life. My marriage. My accidental heat. My disappearing Michelin star. The sabotage. The gang.
Yet, now that I was back with my crew, making amazing food for appreciative diners, I couldn’t believe I’d survived without this feeling for as long as I had.
It helped that by all accounts from the front of the house, our grand reopening was a smashing success. Nat had looked positively dazed every time he poked his head in to update me and check on things in the kitchen.
Intellectually, I understood that my problems hadn’t gone away simply because we were having a good night. But, damn, did it feel fantastic to do my job and do it well, surrounded by a great team of like-minded individuals all focused on a single goal.
The Elderflower Inn was back , baby.
“Go on, chef,” Shani called, a few minutes after Nat informed me that Zalen and the others had arrived. “There’s a bit of a lull—go say hi to your guests! We’ve got this.”
I grinned at her, unable to help myself. “Don’t let Maleeka overcook that steak!” I called back. “Otherwise, I’ll have to dock her by twenty thousand Instagram followers!”
“Pfft,” Maleeka said. “Twenty thousand? I’ll get them back in a weekend.”
I laughed, struck by how seldom I’d done that over the past few weeks. After wiping my hands on a towel and stripping off my apron, I slipped out of the kitchen and headed into the dining room. A small cheer went up as the nearest diners recognized me; something that had never happened before, to my recollection.
I couldn’t help the blush that heated my cheeks as I waved sheepishly, thanking the raucous table of strangers for coming. It took me a longer time than I would have expected to locate Zalen’s party—mostly because I’d been expecting four people and there were only two.
Weaving my way to their corner, with a couple of stops to speak to other diners, I came to a halt in front of Zalen and Emiel. “Fancy meeting you here,” I quipped, fighting a flash of disappointment that Luca and Byron weren’t here. “Did the other two have to cancel?”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, my brain processed the presence of four water glasses and sets of flatware.
“Hello, Mia,” Zalen said. “No, they’re here, too. They just stepped away for a minute.”
“Hi, Mia,” Emiel offered. “Nat said people really like my cake. You holding a couple of pieces for me and Luca?”
“Always,” I told him with a grin, and was rewarded by his brilliant, unexpected smile in return.
“The crowd tonight looks really good,” Zalen said. “I take it the reopening is a success?”
I snorted and lowered my voice. “For god’s sake, don’t jinx it! But, yes, things are going amazingly well.”
“I don’t suppose your social media guru would be interested in freelancing for a youth center on the side?” Zalen asked, in the tone of someone who was joking, but not really.
I pointed a warning finger at his face. “Don’t you try to poach my talent, Zalen Price.”
Emiel chuckled, and that, right there, was worth the price of admission.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Zalen said, with wide-eyed innocence not quite covering an amused glint in his expression. He sobered. “I expect the others will be back shortly. I think they just went to the restroom.”
The realities of a busy service reasserted themselves, and I sighed. “Sorry, but I have to get back to the kitchen. Tell them I said hi and thanks for coming. I’ll try to get away again if things slow down, okay?”
“Of course,” Zalen replied easily. “Go make great food. We’ll pass on the message.”
I gave them a final smile of pure happiness and hurried back to the kitchen. ‘Lull’ did not seem to be the appropriate word anymore, and it took a few minutes of concentrated work to get things back on track.
The rest of the evening passed the same way, without so much as a moment’s break from the crush of diners. That was my excuse for why it took me longer than it should have to notice that Nat had stopped checking in.
Which was odd.
“Hey.” I flagged down Candy when she stopped at the pass-through window to drop off a new ticket. “Where’s Nat?”
She blinked at me. “Uh, I haven’t seen him for a while. Did he go back to the office to work, maybe?”
Something about that felt wrong, but I shrugged uncertainly. “Maybe so. Send him my way if you see him, all right?”
“Will do, boss,” she said, with a sloppy salute. “Oh, and table five asked for more bread.”
“More bread, got it,” I replied absently. “Thanks, Candy. It’s going great tonight.”
She smiled brightly. “Sure is! Bella Vita isn’t going to know what hit them.”
I forced myself to focus on the service and ignore the nebulous discomfort swirling in my stomach. For all I knew, someone at Zalen’s table—and by someone , I meant Byron —could have said something to upset Nat, and he’d retreated to his office to lick his wounds and have a sulk. But try as I might, I couldn’t make that picture fit.
Still, there was nothing for it, except to do my job and trust our employees to do theirs, as well. The rest of the evening service dragged by, much of the joy of the successful reopening falling by the wayside as Nat failed to reappear.
I could have sent someone to look for him. But for one thing, it was hard to spare anyone with the place packed to the rafters. And for another, I was starting to get pissed. I’d thought Nat and I had done pretty well at reestablishing our professional relationship, if not our personal one. But if he was going to blow off the restaurant’s most important night like this, he clearly wasn’t as invested in our success as I was.
By the time things finally started winding down, I was fuming. I made an attempt to keep it from showing, but Shani kept throwing me worried looks that said I wasn’t completely succeeding. When the last customer left, she darted out and returned a minute later.
“He’s not in his office, Mia,” she said quietly, out of hearing range of the other staff members busily cleaning up for close. “I think he must have left. Maybe he got sick?”
The anger that had been simmering in my chest came to a boil. Very deliberately, I pulled out my phone, powered it on, and checked messages.
Nothing.
Or, rather, nothing from Nat. There was a terse message from Zalen.
We’re still at the restaurant, meet us by the front door when you can get away, please .
The heat of my anger chilled abruptly, a sense of foreboding sliding over me despite the innocuous wording.
I dragged my attention back to Shani. “He didn’t text me.”
She frowned. “That does seem odd. I mean, I assume it’s odd?”
“It’s definitely odd,” I confirmed. My emotional reaction aside, this was out of character. Nat was a workaholic at the best of times. Nothing made sense about him leaving in the middle of our grand reopening, without bothering to tell anyone.
“Let’s get the restaurant closed for the night,” I said.
Before I joined the rest of the employees in getting everything cleaned up and stowed for the night, I fired off a quick text to Nat’s phone.
What the fuck, Nat?
And then, a second later, another one.
Are you all right?
By the time everything was locked up, I was exhausted... my earlier glee over the night’s success gone as though it had never been. I made a point of thanking everyone for their hard work and played up how well we’d done. It was clear that Shani, at least, wasn’t buying it. She hung back after the others left for the night.
“Give me a call if you need anything, okay?” she said.
I nodded and tried to smile. “I’m sure he had a reason for taking off like this.” I couldn’t quite bring myself to say ‘a valid reason.’
“I’m sure he did,” she agreed kindly.
Normally, I would have left by the employee entrance with the others—but there was also Zalen’s mysterious message. I wasn’t actually sure they would still be there. Closing up took time, and they might have gotten tired of waiting. I left by the front door, locking up behind me. Sure enough, Zalen and Emiel were outside, worry spiking their scents. There was no sign of Byron or Luca.
“Mia,” Zalen said. “Thank goodness. We’ve got a problem.”
“Where are the others?” I demanded with growing alarm.
“We don’t know.” Zalen’s tone was clipped. “They didn’t come back to the table. Luca rode here with Emiel, but we found Byron’s car a block over, still parked and locked up tight.”
The chill in my blood froze to solid ice in an instant. “Nat disappeared in the middle of the service.” I couldn’t keep a quaver from entering my voice. “No one saw where he went, and he didn’t leave a message.”
“You tried his phone?” Zalen asked.
“I texted. I didn’t try calling.” Pulling out my phone, I found Nat’s contact and hit the call button. “You tried theirs, I’m guessing?”
“No answer from either one,” Zalen replied.
A faint ringing came from around the corner of the restaurant, growing louder. Candy appeared from the alley housing the employee door, holding a phone in a familiar navy-blue case as though she were afraid of it being a bomb.
“Um... I found this in the alley,” she said nervously. “The screen’s cracked. I think someone dropped it. And now it’s ringing.”
I hit the end call button on my phone. The ringing stopped.
Candy held out the battered cell phone, and I took it as Zalen and Emiel looked on.
“Thanks,” I told Candy, the word emerging hoarse. “I’ll take care of it.”
She gave the three of us an uncertain smile. “Okay, then. See you tomorrow, boss.”
“Good night.” My voice sounded far away.
Once she’d left, I lifted my gaze to meet Emiel’s, and then Zalen’s. “What happened ? What do we do now?”
“I think we’d better talk to the police,” Zalen said.
His dark eyes were haunted.