Page 75 of Tackle

“Ms. Kelly,” Franks greeted after she unlocked the door to let them in.

“Inspector Franks.” Emerson stepped back, giving them room to enter. “Inspector Lopez.” She nodded to his partner. “I don’t suppose you’re here to enjoy one of my tasty burgers?” she joked, not realizing just how badly her joke would fall flat.

Showing his first sign of human emotion, Franks grimaced and replied, “Sadly, no. We’re here to check out a call we received. Someone claims to have contracted food poisoning while eating in your establishment last night.”

Oh shit, that wasn’t good. She knew it was part and parcel of the food industry, but no restaurant owner wanted to hear that.

“They claim to have had the Guinness burger. Can you share the ingredients in that?”

Flustered, Emerson started rattling off every ingredient she could think of off the top of her head.

Lopez nodded. “We’ll need to confiscate your ground beef and take it in for testing.”

Shit. The pub was supposed to open in two hours and ground beef was one of her main staples. “Yes, of course. Follow me to the kitchen and I’ll show you where we keep it.”

Fifteen minutes later, the health inspectors were gone and she was left standing in front of a nearly empty cooler with Mack.

“What are we going to do? We won’t be able to get a delivery in time for lunch service.”

What she wanted to do was crawl into a corner and cry. That wasn’t an option though. Not if she wanted to open at some point that day. “I’ll hit as many supermarkets in the area as I can. Maybe that can tide us over until a delivery can be made.”

Mack nodded. “Good idea.”

Emerson snapped her fingers. “I’ll also put the banger burger on special. Hopefully, that will encourage people to order it. We’ve got plenty of ground pork.”

“Another excellent idea.” Mack clapped her on the shoulder. “I’ll go finish prep. With some luck, we may still be able to open in time for lunch.”

They didn’t open for lunch. By the time Emerson had placed the delivery order—paying an exorbitant surcharge for rush service—and gathered enough beef from four different supermarkets, she was sorely late. She arrived to an empty dining room, save for her two waitresses sitting in a booth twiddling their thumbs, and a very perturbed Mack, stewing in the kitchen. She was also hundreds of dollars down for the day and it would take a miracle to break even by closing.

A miracle occurred, but barely. Hours later, Emerson batched out the daily receipts, issuing a sigh of relief at the total tally.

“Come on, let’s get you home.” Oz put an arm around her shoulders and steered her dragging feet to the front door.

She was too tired to even panic about setting the alarm. She’d really gotten spoiled with her shorter hours.

“Are you okay to drive?” he asked, concern pulling frown lines down his brow. “We can leave your car here, and I can drop you off in the morning before practice.”

She would never admit it aloud, especially when he was being so sweet, but with as tired as she was, she’d rather sleep in then arrive early for work. “I’m okay. It’s a short drive.”

He took that at face value, walking her to her car and putting her in it. “I’ll follow you,” he informed her before shutting her door.

She turned over the engine, then waited until Oz got his Escalade started before pulling out of the lot.

Oz practically carried her to the apartment.

“Come with me,” he said, dragging her through the door to their bedroom. He peeled her out of her jacket and sat her on the bed, kneeling to take her shoes and socks off. “Wait there. I’m going to run you a bath.”

She reached for him. “As wonderful as that sounds—and boy does it—you need to get in bed. You have early practice in the morning.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He lightly kissed her on the lips before disappearing into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, he returned, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. A warm mist surrounded her when she entered the small space. He’d turned off the lights but a flickering glow came from a bunch of lit candles.

She looked around in amazement at the pretty scene. “Where did you get all these?”

“After you texted me earlier, I picked them up and brought them here before heading to the pub.”

“You planned this the whole time?” she asked in wonder. Her man, damn, he was sweet.

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