Jillian still winced when she remembered how she’d reacted to his lavish praise. She had blushed like a schoolgirl and it hadn’t escaped her notice that Brad had completely ignored the twenty-something showgirl who was acting as their waitress in favor of talking to her.
That first night had turned into a whirlwind courtship. Brad had asked if he could see her when the restaurant closed and Jillian had agreed. After that, he wanted to see her every day and they began spending time together constantly. It wasn’t long before they said “I do” in a romantic little drive-thru wedding venue. Jillian had thought it was charming at the time—so utterly Vegas. Later, she understood that everything about Brad was like Vegas—all glitter and glamour on the surface with no substance underneath.
But by the time she figured that out, it was too late.
After wiggling his way into her life, Brad had wiggled his way into her finances as well. It turned out that he was an expert forger and it didn’t take him long to learn how to do her signature. By the time Jillian caught him in bed with a buxom blonde from the Circque du Soleil Zumanity show and kicked him out of her house and her life, he had managed to max out her credit cards, ruin her credit, drain her bank account dry, and get two new mortgages on her house that she could never hope to pay off.
About the only thing he hadn’t gotten into was the safety deposit box she kept at her bank—and that wasn’t for lack of trying. He’d attempted to clean it out as well, only the bank hadn’t allowed him to get in because he hadn’t found the key, which Jillian had hidden in a safe spot.
It was after she found out about the second mortgage and realized how completely financially ruined she was, that Jillian’s old sous chef, Suzanne, had looked her up and asked her to come out to lunch.
Suzanne had been Claimed by Twin Kindred warriors about a year before—the two of them had simply come into the kitchen and literally swept her off her feet right in the middle of dinner service.
Jillian had vacillated between irritation—it was hard to find a good sous chef who was also a good friend—and happiness for Suzanne, who seemed completely ecstatic. Her old sous chef had moved up to the Mother Ship to be with her new husbands and Jillian hadn’t seen her again until she’d dropped by to say hello and show off her pregnant belly.
“Well, you seem to be doing great!” Jillian had eyed her friend’s swollen midsection with a mixture of awe and envy. “Do you have twins in there?”
“Of course! With Twin Kindred, you always have twin babies,” Suzanne had informed her. “But shouldn’t you be preggers yourself? Last I heard, you were all married and settled down and ready to board the baby train.”
Jillian had sighed. She hated like Hell to spill the sad story of her grifter ex—it was still too soon and the pain was too fresh. Plus, she had just found out that morning she was going to lose her house and possibly her job and she had no idea where she was going to stay. But Suzanne was a good friend—the kind she could tell anything to. And she needed to get it off her chest.
“Not exactly,” she said bitterly. “I mean, I thought that was the plan—Brad made me think it was possible to settle down and have a family and all that. But that was before I caught him in bed with another woman and found out he’d ruined my finances.”
“What? Oh, no!” Suzanne had put a hand over Jillian’s and looked at her anxiously. “You’d better tell me everything, Jilly. What happened?”
So Jillian had spilled the whole, sad, predictable story in her friend’s lap and Suzanne had listened with sympathy.
“He sounds like a real asshole,” she said indignantly, when Jillian was finished. “And there’s nothing you can do to him legally?”
“Maybe if anyone could catch him, but he was in the wind an hour after I found him in my bed with a bimbo,” Jillian sighed. “And unfortunately, he took pretty much everything with him. I’m cleaned out, Suze. And my house is double mortgaged—I’m going to lose it. I’ll probably have to declare bankruptcy too, since he ruined my credit, and…and…”
But at that point, she had broken down in tears.
“I just don’t see how I can start all over again,” she had sobbed. “That bastard was stealing Wagyu steaks and lobster tails from the walk-in and selling them, too. So now my job’s on really shaky ground. They don’t believe I wasn’t somehow involved, even though I told them how he screwed me too. Management thinks it ‘reflects poorly on my judgment’ so I don’t think I’m going to be running the kitchen at The Palms much longer. And how I’m ever going to get another job with a black mark like that on my resume, I have no idea…”
The tears kept flowing but Suzanne had hugged her and held her while she cried. When Jillian finally got hold of herself, she said,
“Why don’t you just forget all of this and come up to the Mother Ship?”
“And do what?” Jillian had asked, swiping at her eyes with her apron. “Just hang out with you?”
“No, silly—get a job and live there,” Suzanne said, smiling. “And I know just the gig for you. The boys and I just bought a restaurant on the edge of the Common Area in the Kindred Mother Ship. I was going to run it myself, but then these two came along…” She rubbed her swollen belly fondly. “Of course, the Kindred are very supportive of working mothers, but honestly, I think I want to stay home with the babies. So we need a new head chef for Pa-tar—that’s the name of the restaurant. It’s kind of a fusion place with a mix of classic Earth dishes and Kindred food, too.”
“I don’t know…” Jillian had shaken her head. “It sounds like a really big change.”
“Well, maybe a big change is what you need,” Suzanne told her. “Look, I know it’s kind of a step down—going from running a palace like The Palms to a little place that only seats fifty on a good night. But right now it sounds to me like you could use a little less stress in your life. “Who knows—maybe you’ll even find a Kindred or two of your own and settle down like I did.” She grinned at Jillian hopefully.
“No—no more settling down for me,” Jillian said grimly. “I’ve had enough romance to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. The one time I try to open my heart, look what happens—I get scammed.” She shook her head. “No, I have absolutely no interest in ever getting married or even dating ever again!” She sighed. “But I could use a fresh start.”
“Then let me give you one,” Suzanne said gently. “You gave me one—remember? You took a chance on me when no one else would.”
Suzanne had come from a pretty rough background. When she was only nineteen, she’d been tricked by an abusive boyfriend into becoming a drug mule. When she’d been caught, her boyfriend had thrown her under the bus completely and she wound up serving several years in prison. After that, she’d had a really hard time finding a job but she had worked in the prison kitchen and had some rudimentary skills.
Revealing all this in her interview to Jillian, she had broken down sobbing. Her rent was past due and if she didn’t find a job soon, she was going to be in trouble with her parole officer. She had begged Jillian to give her a chance and Jillian had—and she had never regretted it. Suzanne had worked her way up the kitchen hierarchy from dishwasher to line cook to Jillian’s personal sous chef and she had never once let Jillian down.