She laughed, clearly past the point of reason. “Scroll down and look who’s listed as the general manager. Take a look at how loyal your employee is.” She threw her hands into the air and stomped around the entryway. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to drown him in the paella dish he STOLE from us!”
My hand clenched around her phone as I processed the information she’d just dumped on me. Hunter was working with another team, developing another restaurant across town with the menu and the vision we’d worked so hard to create.
It had been too easy for him to betray me. He had detailed summaries of everything from menu choices to color schemes. He had contact information for every single one of my contractors, vendors, and recruiters.
My blood started to boil. He thought he could get away with this? He thought he could sit in my office and feed me bullshit about a tough real estate market and expect me not to find out what he was really up to?
Lily’s hand came into my line of sight and I realized she was trying to pry her phone from my grip before I crushed it.
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked, her voice much calmer now that I was the one losing my temper.
“I’ll handle it,” I said with a shake of my head.
She frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
I was already moving toward the kitchen, headed for the house phone hanging on the wall by the door. “I’m going to call my lawyer.”
Her jaw dropped. “That’s it?”
I was already dialing his number. “Intellectual property is tricky when it comes to restaurants that haven't even opened yet. He hasn't really broken any laws. Pursuing a civil case is the only way we can handle this. Just give me five minutes.”
She took a seat at the kitchen table and crossed her arms, clearly annoyed with my lack of retribution. “He’s such a slime ball. Y’know he hit on me again in Vegas too. He tried to get me to sneak off to a hotel room with him. God, I wish I’d punched him in the face then.”
“Lily, calm down. We’ll figure it out.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, too worked up to keep still.
“Dean,” Mitch said, answering just before the call clicked over to voicemail. “This better be damn important. I was about to enjoy a meal at one of your damn restaurants.”
“We have a situation.”
He sighed. “Ah, hell. Hold on, let me go outside.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Lily
I paced back and forth in the living room of my apartment. It was a small space, but I made do, huffing and puffing with annoyance as Jo sat watching me. I could feel her eyes volleying back and forth across the room, trying to keep up with my pace.
“If Dean says he’s going to handle it, you should trust him,” Jo said.
I shook my head. “No. His lawyer said that there wasn’t much we could do. Dean didn’t have that menu copyrighted. Trying to sue Hunter would cost Dean a fortune in legal fees and probably wouldn’t result in any sort of solution.”
“Maybe Dean could confront Hunter himself?”
I shot her a glare. “What? Like an old-fashioned duel?”
I was way past that point. I wanted Hunter to pay. I could handle his flirting and general incompetence, but this? It showed that there was more to the sweaty doofus exterior. He’d been playing us all along.
Jo crossed her arms. “Whatever. If his lawyer says there’s nothing he can do, then you have to move on. You guys can just come up with a better menu or something.”
I paused and turned to her. “Sweet, naive Jo. This isn’t like fashion, where tastes change overnight.”
She held up her hands for me to stop. “Oh god.”
“You’re insane if you think I’m going to let Hunter get away with this.”
“Lily…” she warned.
If we couldn’t sue him, I had to figure out how to convince Hunter to pull the plug on Ivy & Wine another way. Dean had already spoken with him, during Hunter’s inevitable termination from employment. He didn’t care that Dean had helped build his career. He didn’t care that Dean had taught him everything he knew.
During the confrontation, Hunter showed no remorse and he admitted to nothing. He kept calling it a “disagreement”, which was either to show that he was completely oblivious to the ridiculousness of such a statement, or to flaunt the fact that we couldn’t touch him legally.
Fortunately for Dean, I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.