Chapter 1
Just like every morning, Megan Kincaid was up at three AM to start her baking for the morning crowd.
The bakery didn’t open until five-thirty, but she wanted her bread, donuts, and pastries to be the freshest possible.
It might be one of Marlowe Food’s best stores but as far as she was concerned the bread and pastries were her babies.
She was the one who watched the dough rise and baked them until they were the perfect golden brown.
The croissants were her specialty. She was the one who’d had to get permission to make one little change and it had worked perfectly.
She brushed the tops with melted butter and on some she added herbs.
That was what she’d had to gain permission for… the herbs.
Her assistant baker, Chloe Richards, who was also her best friend, came in at four-thirty to help with the actual baking, but Megan was the one who made the dough for the bread.
She was very protective of her recipes because they were what had made her bakery practically an overnight success even if it had been open for seven years.
She chuckled as she had the thought. That’s what the food section of the magazines and newspapers called The Velvet Oven…an overnight success.
Publicly she was known as the “Queen of Pastry” but privately she knew she was a workaholic who was much more comfortable with her ovens than talking to people. That is another reason she had Chloe.
The two of them could not be more opposite.
Megan was perfectly happy alone with flour on her cheek and her hands buried in dough, wearing a holey pair of jeans, tennis shoes and a t-shirt handed down from one of her brothers.
Chloe on the other hand, would rather spend the night dressed to the nines, dancing at one of the clubs in Denver until two AM and crawling into work with just a couple of hours of sleep.
After work, she would go home, sleep for about six hours, run errands, do chores and then do the whole thing over again.
Megan was exhausted just thinking about it. The thought of living like Chloe did, sent shivers down her spine.
That was one reason for her distress, another was that she was getting a new assistant baker today. Chloe had been promoted to her own store. The company was opening a new one in Northglenn and Chloe was the manager.
Megan couldn’t have been happier for her friend. Chloe worked hard and deserved the promotion. She might even change her ways because of it but Megan wasn’t holding her breath. That didn’t really matter anymore because Megan had a new baker to train.
Ethan Marks. He was coming from the Phoenix flagship store, so he really didn’t need any training other than to make sure he knew how to adjust the recipe for the altitude in Denver.
A little extra water, about one and one-half tablespoons per 1,000 feet of altitude and a reduced amount of yeast was all that was needed to adjust the recipe, but it also needed to bake longer.
Simple changes but it made the difference between bread that was okay and bread that was great.
Megan had been with the company for the full seven years that the bakery had been open.
She’d worked her way up from just a cashier to assistant baker to assistant manager and now to manager and head baker.
She loved working for Marlowe. They were a good company and treated their employees well with good salaries and great benefits.
Recently, she’d found discrepancies in the cash deposits and unexplained inventory losses.
Someone was taking money and enough baking supplies that it was noticeable, but she couldn’t figure out who it was or what they wanted with her inventory.
The cash was easy to imagine someone stealing, but the bread mix inventory was another matter altogether.
It was time she looked into the background of all her employees.
Ethan Marlowe was the CEO of Marlowe Foods. He liked knowing that all his stores and warehouses were running smoothly. When one of them wasn’t he wanted to know why.
That was the report waiting on his desk when he settled behind his desk this morning.
The report showed major irregularities in one store’s financial reports. Because he was concerned enough at the change in the financials, he decided to check out the store himself.
He would go in as Ethan Marks, a transfer baker from the flagship store in Phoenix. It wasn’t the first time he’d gone undercover, but that had been ten years ago, long before Megan Kincaid had started with the company, so she wouldn’t have any knowledge of his subterfuge.
For some reason, this problem made him remember what brought him to his present position.
He’d been the quarterback for the Phoenix Mustangs, one of the premier football teams in the Galaxy Football League.
It was fourth quarter with just thirty seconds to go.
He had the football and stepped back into the pocket, looking for his tight end Marcus Adkins.
But Marcus was too well covered so Ethan searched for another receiver and ultimately decided to run it in himself.
He was almost over the goal line and into the end zone when he was tackled from behind.
Ethan fell forward, making the touchdown before his knee hit the field.
His tackler, a guard from the Denver Wolves, Derrick Smith, landed on Ethan’s leg, breaking his knee, tibia, and ankle, effectively ending Ethan’s football career and his dreams. He was twenty-seven years old.
Megan was already in the store and baking the first batch of croissants when she heard someone enter through the side door. Since they didn’t open for another two hours, she picked up her rolling pen and prepared to meet the intruder head on.
As the man entered, she raised her rolling pin.
“Hey. What are you doing?” He held up his hands in supplication.
“Protecting myself. Who are you and why are you in my store?” She still held her weapon poised to strike, if necessary.
“I’m Ethan Marks, from the Phoenix store. I’m here to see Megan Kincaid, who, if I had to guess, is you.”
Megan lowered her rolling pin, transferred it to her left hand, and held out her right hand. “Yes, that’s me. Sorry about the welcome, Ethan, but I don’t get many people coming through the side door. I only unlock it to get some fresh air in here sometimes.”
He took her hand and shook it.
Did he hold it just a beat too long? Or was it that she’d held his for too long?
“So, Ethan, let me show you around the store. I just put some croissants in the oven so we have a few minutes. It’s probably not much different than the Phoenix location.
” Starting with the locker area where the apron storage was, she assigned him a locker and then she showed him around everything he would need to know to do his job. “Do you have any questions?”
Before he could answer, the timer sounded and she walked to the oven, grabbing oven mitts as she went.
She pulled the two pans of golden brown, perfectly shaped rolls out of the oven and placed them on the cooling rack. Then she turned toward Ethan and was surprised he was just behind her.
“Those look delicious. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such perfect ones before.”
Megan smiled. She was always happy to receive kudos for her baking.
“It helps to be aware of the altitude. They need just a little more time in the oven because of it. And a little change to the recipes. A lot of bakeries in the city don’t realize that or don’t take the time for it, so their croissants don’t come out as good as these. ”
“How do you know so much about the altitude and things like that?”
She shrugged. “I grew up here. My folks have a large ranch northeast of Denver. My mother is an incredible baker and I learned everything I know from her.”
Ethan lifted his brows. “Maybe we should have her give lessons to the other bakers.”
Megan laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think she’d be up for that. She stays pretty busy keeping all the ranch hands well fed.”
“How many people are we talking?”
“There are sixteen people including my mom and dad. It’s a full time job cooking three meals plus desserts and snacks for that crew, believe me.
Ranch work is hard, even in this day and age.
Plus, my dad likes to keep some things old-fashioned.
He prefers horses to ATVs because they don’t scare the cattle.
Frightened cattle can stampede and the number of cows doesn’t matter.
It could be three cows and it’s still a stampede.
You have to get them under control before they stir up the rest of the herd. ”
“Wow, that’s a lot of people. It sounds like you know a lot about ranching.”
She huffed out a breath. “I should. I had to ride herd with my five brothers. Dad and Mom wanted all of us to know how to do everything having to do with the ranch. A couple of my brothers took it to heart and have ranches of their own. They have regular jobs, too, but they ride with the rest of the cow hands as often as possible. One of my brothers raises racehorses, but he also has cattle.”
Ethan put his hands in his pockets. “You have a very interesting life. I don’t know how you manage it given your position here.”
“I leave at two-thirty every day. That gives me enough time to make it to the ranch for a bit of riding. I love riding, even if it’s just chasing cows.”
“I’ve never been. Maybe someday you can take me.”
She lifted a brow. “Maybe.” Then she was all business. “It’s time to continue our baking for the morning. Our customers are loyal and very picky, so let’s get hoppin’.”
He donned an apron. “Just point me to what you want me to do.”
“You can start shaping that dough.” She pointed at a large circle of thick dough. “It needs to be formed into pastries with a depression in the middle for fruit and cheese fillings, but I’m sure you already know that. I’ll get the fillings ready.”
Ethan rolled up his sleeves and got to work. “I wasn’t sure of the dress code here but, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll wear a t-shirt tomorrow.”
Megan chuckled. “You’re learning.”
Later, Ethan put his back into kneading the dough before shaping it into pastries.
He’d forgotten how much he liked baking…
all parts of baking from mixing the dough, letting it rise, punching it down and letting it rise again.
Then the part he was doing now. Nothing could beat the feeling of his hands in the dough shaping it for the pleasure of his…
their…customers. He closed his eyes and let the feelings wash through him.
“You look like you’re having an orgasmic experience.” Megan chuckled.
Ethan’s eyes flew open and he grinned as his cheeks heated. “I just like this part of the baking process. I like being hands on and not using a machine to knead the dough.”
She nodded and, standing next to him, rested her hip against the kneading table.
Then she crossed her arms over her chest. “I know what you mean. Doing it by hand might mean we put out less bread than another bakery, but it also means our bread is better than those other bakeries. Our customers tell us they try going to other stores because they’re cheaper, but then they realize why they’re cheaper and the people always return.
We never have leftovers at the end of the day.
Which is a bummer and why I’ve instituted baking a couple of loaves after closing for the employees to enjoy. ”
Ethan really wished she wouldn’t stand like that. Her arms crossed over her chest only made that part of her anatomy stand out even more than normal and Megan wasn’t shorted in that department.
As a matter of fact she was curvy all over and he found her very appealing. “Um, Megan, would you like to go for coffee or a drink after work? I know it’s early for a drink but maybe we could go for a late lunch. Neither one of us has had lunch.”
“Uh, I can’t. I’m working late today. I have the monthly financials to do.”
He wondered if that was code for she had to cover for her embezzlement of funds. Ethan wouldn’t say anything yet, after all he’d only been here one day.
In some ways he had a hard time picturing Megan as a thief. She was so dedicated to the store, how could she possibly be perhaps enabling its downfall?
Megan retreated to her office. Not knowing if Ethan had left or not, she locked the door behind her, sat at her desk, and turned on the computer. She stared at the screen comparing sales and deposits.
There was no getting around it. Five hundred dollars was missing over the course of the month.
Then she checked the baking mix inventory.
She’d inventoried it just last night and they’d used their typical four bags for today’s goods.
Checking that with what the packing slips said they were about thirty bags short.
When the deliveries were made, she always emptied the cartons herself, checking the packing slips as she went. The packing slips were accurate.
Someone was taking enough of the product they could be opening their own store.
Megan closed her eyes and shook her head.
This was on her. There was no way to hide these discrepancies even if she’d wanted to, which she didn’t.
Her report to corporate was due tomorrow, but she might as well send it off now and ask for an investigation.
She would try to find out what was going on herself, that wouldn’t change, but she needed help. Professional help.
She wrote the email and addressed it to Ethan Marlowe, the CEO. Megan knew from the scuttlebutt that went around, that he kept a tight rein on his stores and would want to know about the missing money and mixes.
Mr. Ethan Marlowe
CEO, Marlowe Foods
Mr. Marlowe:
I’ve found several discrepancies in the cash deposits for the store and in the inventory of baking mixes. We are missing about $500 and thirty bags of baking mix.
I’ve checked the numbers again and again and can’t find the errors. Same with the inventory.
I’m making a formal request for help from corporate. Please contact me as soon as you’ve made a decision.
Sincerely,
Megan Kincaid