Rialto (Unbreakable Bonds 8)

He squared his shoulders. “I’m sure. I love shopping—you know that.”

Andrei squeezed his arm. “I wouldn’t want anyone else with me doing this. And Rialto will be fine. It’s too good not to weather this little hitch. Think about that magazine spread you just got. That’s great publicity.”

It wasn’t such a little hitch, not coming right after the raid, but Ian decided not to talk about it anymore. They found a set of tables with rounded corners that went perfectly with the furniture. They didn’t find the right dining room set, but Andrei said they’d try another day. He put in his order with the happy salesman, and Ian played with Daci as he waited. It didn’t take long since Andrei was buying everything outright and having it delivered.

As they pushed the stroller into the bright sunlight outside, he thought about how he could counteract the bad reviews. He knew there were companies that specialized in restoring reputations, but he knew little about them. Still, his heart felt heavy as they reached Andrei’s SUV. Andrei had started driving this new car when he’d realized he needed the room for all Daci’s things.

“How’s the restaurant in OTR coming along?” Andrei asked as he got Daci out of the stroller and put her into her car seat.

“Good. Only a few months out now and I’m excited to be trying something with all new dishes. This place won’t be as fancy as Rialto but more trendy, and the spot in OTR is perfect for that kind of restaurant. I’m calling it In Good Time.”

Luckily, Rialto had been an easy five-star, and that had helped him get everything he needed to start the new place. Which reminded him of the bad reviews piling up.

“I should do something big,” he said as he got into the passenger seat of Andrei’s vehicle. “Some kind of splashy thing for the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas aren’t that far off, and maybe I can counteract some of the bad reviews if I can’t get them taken down.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Andrei agreed as he got behind the wheel after storing the stroller in the back of the SUV.

Daci babbled in her car seat in the back as they got onto the road.

“You want to stop for lunch somewhere?” Andrei asked. “I’m starving.”

“I feel the need to go by Rialto and see how things are going. Talk to James. Would you mind eating there?”

Andrei laughed. “I love it there. You know you don’t even have to ask.”

“Good. It’ll give my staff a chance to coo over your sweet little girl, too. They love when you bring her in.”

The whole time they drove to Rialto, the reviews played over and over in Ian’s mind like a sickening film reel. The knot they left in his gut made him feel faintly nauseous, too. He was excited about opening the new place, but Rialto was his baby and he felt like all this was entirely too out of his control. He hated that feeling.Chapter FourHollis tucked his hands in his armpits and slouched a little lower in the passenger seat of the Merleau Detective Agency surveillance van. It figured that early fall weather had sneaked in when he was stuck in a van down by the river. He would have preferred to spend a cozy Sunday night wrapped around Ian in bed, buried under a mound of blankets and listening to his steady breathing.

Not that Shane Stephens was bad company. His boss at Merleau was a funny guy with a sharp mind. He would have made a good cop. As it was, he was already a much better follower of the rules than Hollis had ever been while on the force in Cincinnati or Atlanta.

Shane and his business partner, Patrick, had taken a big chance on Hollis when they offered him a job. Hollis had been a good cop. An honest cop. He’d worked hard to keep people safe and put criminals away, but it had become harder and harder to not cross certain lines when it came to stopping crime boss Boris Jagger. And it was damn near impossible the second Ian’s past came to light.

But even with Shane’s interesting stories about him and his live-in boyfriend or the even crazier stories of his father dating a man for the first time—a Ward Security bodyguard who also happened to be much younger—Hollis couldn’t stop worrying about Ian. His husband was already stretched thin with the upcoming launch of his new restaurant and their plans to become foster parents, but the weird attacks on Rialto were ramping up Ian’s stress.

Rialto was always a demanding business. Ian wasn’t the type to just leave his restaurant in the capable hands of his employees; he needed to be there for nearly every decision.

For the most part, everything ran smoothly. The worst things that Hollis had been around for were some unexpected ingredient shortages and a really bad bout of the flu that had wiped out half the kitchen staff. That one had resulted in Hollis getting a crash course in working in a professional gourmet kitchen.