FIVE WILL GET YOU TWENTY (Food Truck Mysteries Book 9) by Chloe Kendrick Page A

weeks’ notice?” I asked, still thinking of my situation with Sabine. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but breaking up with Danvers certainly had put her on the wrong path.
    Thomas pressed his lips together tightly. I wondered if he would be in danger of being outed, if that was his secret, if he left without the proper waiting period. “No, I should be good. I don’t think Pohler told his family about all of his extraordinary means of making a profit. So I’d guess that my secret is safe for the meantime. She couldn’t blackmail me into staying.”
    I breathed a sigh of relief. “Great. When can you start?”
    He shrugged as he stared at me. “Um, tomorrow? Are you being serious here?” he asked. “This all seems like a hoax to me.”
    “Dead serious. I need the help, and you need to get out of there.” We discussed salary and benefits, and just as Paula had predicted, he’d found them to be far more than he made now. I wondered what types of rules Pohler had used to get around the law about minimum wage and such. I was curious, even though I’d never do that. We offered good benefits and a decent salary.
    He nodded, and I moved away from the door. “Be here tomorrow morning at five sharp,” I told him. “We fired the last person who didn’t show up, and she was my fiancé’s sister.”
    His eyes widened, but he didn’t speak as he left the food truck.
    I slumped up against the wall for a moment. I really wasn’t sure if this was my best decision ever. I normally kept the business aspects of my life away from the investigations, but now I’d moved a prime suspect in the case into my food truck. I cringed to think what Detective Danvers would say if he learned that the new cook was the same guy who had tried to pass the phony bills.
    Land would be okay with the new hire. Thomas was obviously experienced in grill cooking, so he would be able to start with little training. He wouldn’t be alone with the money or the truck, so there was little chance of him sabotaging anything at the truck. If nothing else, he would be a great stopgap employee.
    The bigger issue was telling Sabine about the replacement. While Land had fired her, I wasn’t sure that she would believe her brother. I wasn’t sure how I would handle it if she came back to the truck tomorrow. While I cared for her, we just didn’t have the money to support two more people working the truck with me.
    ***
    Fortunately, I’d already made plans with Land for that evening. After he’d been so distant in the truck that afternoon, I was apprehensive about the discussion and the outcomes.
    When he stopped by, he grabbed me in his arms and gave me a kiss that left me breathless and trying to remember what I’d wanted to talk about. Apparently, the bad mood from the afternoon had vanished. I was glad to see him in a better place.
    When I could talk again, I smiled at him. “That’s certainly more like the man I’m marrying,” I said.
    He grinned at me. “Yeah, I was out of sorts this afternoon. That’s my bad. My family brings out the worst in me sometimes.”
    I shrugged. “On the bright side, you’ll never have to worry about my siblings bothering you.”
    He pulled me into his arms again, and in a few minutes, I was certain that I didn’t want to talk business this evening even though I knew it was necessary. Thomas would be at the food truck tomorrow morning when Land arrived. It had to be this evening that I told him what I’d done.
    When we broke again, he pointed to the bags on the table. “I stopped and got us some dinner. An apology of sorts.”
    I walked to the table where the smells of Thai food enveloped me. My stomach growled. I’d been hungry. We loaded our plates and sat down at the table. I felt like a normal human, since most of my lunches were eaten over the sink in the food truck. Sit-down meals were a luxury.
    “So what is it?” Land asked after finishing his portion of the spring rolls. “You have something to