Page 45 of Wanted Beta

It’s really hard to see, but now that I’ve noticed it, I can tell it’s the image from the pizza box.

“Wow,” I murmur. “They must really want this place to be the city’s best kept secret.”

“Kind of seems like it, doesn’t it?” Catherine asks.

It’s disappointing. There’s no way this place is going to last when it’s practically hidden in plain sight. I really hate it when the places with great food shut down.

“Well, at least now I know where it is,” I tell her, turning away.

It’s not far from the apartment, and it’s on a main street.

It’ll take me less than five minutes to walk out here.

I’m definitely coming for dinner.

I might as well enjoy the food while this hidden restaurant lasts.

Chapter Twenty

Enzo

Three tables of less than four people on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of a busy city, spaced out over a few hours. It’s unbelievable.

Something isn’t working, and I don’t think it’s the food. Empty plates tell me what I need to know about that, even when the customers don’t mention it explicitly to Jack.

He steps back into the kitchen with the rest of the cleared plates and glasses from our last couple of customers and sets them down by the sink.

“I can do the dishes, if you want,” he offers, already rolling up his sleeves.

“What are we doing wrong here?” I ask.

I’ve been avoiding talking about it too much, but we’re getting to the point where something needs to happen, and I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what that something is on my own. It’s beyond time to start brainstorming.

He shrugs. “People are coming back once they try the food. Maybe this stuff just takes time?”

“No. Something is preventing them from coming here in the first place.”

“Maybe they think the building is haunted.”

I’d laugh, but at this point, I’m willing to consider any explanation.

“I haven’t noticed any ghostly behavior,” I tell him. “Have you?”

He laughs. “No, I guess not.”

His hand goes into his pocket, and he takes out his phone.

“I’ll check if there are any news stories about this place,” he says. “Maybe that’ll tell us something.”

I’m sure Gio would have checked on that himself, but who knows if he would have told us?

He got this building for a good price. Not so low that I would have thought about questioning it, but decent enough that it makes me wonder now.

Was there a reason it was going for such a good price?

“Hm,” Jack murmurs. “Not much coming up. It seems like the place was built a couple decades back and the owner never got around to renting it out like he’d planned.”

“I guess that could explain why no one’s noticing something’s here now.”

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