Killer Cuisine Read online

  Killer Cuisine

  By Velvet Vaughn

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2016 VELVET VAUGHN LLC

  ISBN: 978-0-9861652-5-2

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Visit Velvet's website at: www.velvetvaughn.com and her Facebook Fanpage HERE.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all the fans who have written and emailed me, asking for Dan’s story. I hope you enjoy!

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to sincerely thank the members of my Velvet Vaughn Street Team who help spread the word: Cindi R., Debbie M., Gary A., Karen D., Karen J., Lisa B., and Tammy T. You guys are awesome!

  I would also like to thank all of the American Ninja Warriors, past and present, who’ve provided inspiration for Dan’s character. Much like Dan, I became hooked from the first time I tuned in. The athletes are incredible role models that prove with hard work, determination and perseverance, you can move mountains…or at least climb them!

  And as always, a huge thank you to my mom. I couldn’t do this without you!

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Notes

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Twenty-Two Years Ago

  As Kaitlyn Colton dangled upside down from the monkey bars, she decided she was going to marry Danny Bradley when she grew up. Her long black hair swayed back and forth, almost touching the ground as she watched her future husband running circles around the playground, swinging from bars and branches and climbing anything he could, never pausing for a breath. He was obviously a little hyped-up on sugar, as her older brother Luke would say. He said it about her all the time, and she wasn’t nearly as spazzy as Danny, as her brother Grant would say. He called her spazzy all the time. At least her other brother Ben stuck up for her, even if he nicknamed her Katydid. Sometimes brothers were a pain, but she loved them anyway.

  Although they lived in the same neighborhood, she’d never met Danny before today. Her oldest brother was best friends with his brother so she’d met Logan. He was dreamy, too, you know, for an old guy.

  She’d been so upset when Mommy drove her to school this morning. Her mommy had enrolled her early so she was the youngest in class by almost a whole year! Mommy told her that she was smart and would have no problem keeping up. She hoped so. Mommy also wanted her to be in school at the same time with her brother Ben as long as possible. As mad as she’d been, she completely forgave her as soon as she spotted Danny in class. Yep, she was so gonna marry him one day.

  She pulled herself to sit on top of the apparatus so she could watch him. He was currently climbing the side of the building. One of the teachers assigned to playground duty stomped towards him, mumbling something that sounded like Ritalin. Kaitlyn covered her mouth and giggled.

  The teacher pointed to the ground and Danny reluctantly dropped down, his smile wide. A lock of black hair curled over his forehead. She sighed. She hoped he didn’t get in trouble. Maybe he thought he was Spiderman or something. She giggled again.

  She was so busy watching Danny, she didn’t hear the three boys climbing up the monkey bars behind her. “No girls allowed up here,” one of the boys announced.

  She spun her head around and glared. He looked older, maybe third grade. She crossed her arms. “I don’t see a sign.”

  “Don’t need a sign. Everyone knows. No girls allowed,” he reiterated with a scowl.

  If he thought he could scare her, he was wrong. She had three older brothers to do that, thank you very much. Even though she was younger than most of the other kids, she wasn’t afraid of them. “I’m not moving.”

  “Yes, you are,” the boy ordered. His dirt-covered hands reached out and he pushed. She gasped, her arms windmilling as she tried to hook a foot to stop her fall, but she couldn’t. She tumbled backward off the bars. Two hands stopped her descent and then helped her to stand on the ground. She looked into the eyes of her rescuer. Danny! The first day of school rocked!

  “You saved my life,” she whispered.

  “Nah,” he said with a shrug. “The ground is covered in squooshy stuff. It wouldn’t hurt much.” He started to climb the bars but she tugged his shirt.

  “Where are you going?” She finally got to talk to him…she didn’t want him to leave.

  “I’m going to teach Mike a lesson.”

  “I don’t want you getting into trouble because of me.”

  Mike made kissing noises from his perch on top. “What’s the matter, Bradley, you need a girl to fight your fights?” Danny broke free and flew up the bars. Mike’s eyes widened in fear. Bullies were notorious cowards, her brother Luke told her before she started school. She didn’t know what notorious meant, but Luke was smart so she figured it meant ugly. Mike was ugly. Danny hit him and they both tumbled off the bars onto the squooshy rubber mat.

  Kaitlyn screamed as they rolled around on the ground. Her brothers fought like this all the time and she hated it. One of the playground monitors hurried over to break up the fight. The man grabbed Danny with his right hand and Mike with his left. Danny was smiling. Mike was crying. Maybe notorious meant a big baby.

  “He started it,” Mike said, pointing to Danny. “Right, guys—” He looked around but his friends were nowhere in sight. Kaitlyn decided they were notorious, too.

  She marched over to the group and slammed her fists on her hips. “Danny did not start the fight. You did, Mike.” She looked at the teacher and then pointed to the monkey bars. “I was sitting up there by myself when he came up and told me no girls allowed and then he pushed me off. I would have fallen if Danny hadn’t caught me. Danny saved my life.”

  “Is that true, Mike?”

  Mike wiped his running nose with his sleeve. “No.”

  “Mike?”

  “What? No girls are allowed up there,” he grumbled.

  “Come-on, both of you, to the principal’s office.”

  “But…you can’t take Danny. It wasn’t his fault,” she protested.

  Apparently teachers didn’t listen to first-graders because he did take Danny with him. And he got in trouble! They made him sit inside and do homework during recess for three whole days, which had to be torture to an active boy. Mike got three days of actual suspension for pushing her off the bars. Plus, he got a pretty serious warning from her fourth-grade brother Ben. He told Mike (with a two-handed shove) that if he touched Kaitlyn again (anot
her shove), he’d break both of his arms and legs. He would, too. Grant said he would help and Luke offered to bury the body. Yes, her brothers were pains sometimes but she loved them dearly.

  Danny didn’t seem to think he’d done anything special coming to her defense. In fact, he pretty much ignored her for a week, much to her frustration. Then one day as they were lining up to go inside after recess, he came running up to her.

  “Kaitlyn, I have something for you.” He thrust his hands out.

  “Oh, how cute!” Kaitlyn scooped up the tiny frog.

  “Huh?” Danny looked confused. “But…you’re a girl. Frogs are slimy. You’re supposed to run screaming.”

  Kaitlyn blinked at him. “But I like frogs.”

  “Girls,” Dan grumbled. “National League or American?”

  “National.”

  Danny gaped. “You know what that means?”

  Kaitlyn shrugged a shoulder. “Sure. I love baseball, especially the Cincinnati Reds.”

  “Baseball and frogs.” He shook his head. “Wanna be my girlfriend?”

  “Okay.”

  Two weeks later, he broke up with her when she beat him at a game of Chutes and Ladders.

  Chapter One

  Kaitlyn Colton was being stalked by the ghost of Julia Child.

  But that was ridiculous, right? Julia always seemed so nice on television. She’d never heard a bad word spoken about the beloved chef. So Julia liked her alcohol…who didn’t? Maybe she didn’t approve of Kaitlyn’s cooking methods. She did crazy things like substitute applesauce or Greek yogurt for butter, after all. No doubt Julia loved to cook with maize. Kaitlyn read somewhere that over five hundred seventy-three pounds of butter was used on her show “Cooking with Julia.” She’d even read a quote where Julia attributed her longevity to “red meat and gin.” Kaitlyn tried to avoid red meat and kept her gin-drinking to a minimum.

  Seriously, there was no other way to explain all of the problems that kept popping up to disrupt filming. She had two days left to finish her audition tape for Killer Cuisine, the new reality cooking competition set to broadcast on CuisineTV network. Instead of showcasing her cedar-plank baked salmon with red onion ribbons, she was standing in the middle of Fresh! dripping wet, her hair hanging in long black ropes across her shoulders, her mascara running like a polluted river down her cheeks. She looked like a demented circus clown.

  Dion McArthur, the owner of Fresh! and her boss, allowed her the use of the kitchen to film her segment and how does she repay him? By drenching his kitchen with water. To be fair, it wasn’t her fault the sprinkler system chose today to malfunction. She certainly hadn’t burned anything to set them off. In fact, she’d never even managed to slide her dish into the oven. Now it was ruined beyond repair and salmon wasn’t cheap.

  She sighed and shoved a hank of hair out of her eyes. The high school kids she hired to film her audition were huddled over their equipment, their voices both animated and distressed. She mentally added the cost of two new cameras to her growing list of expenses.

  Lauren Dianetti hurried over to give Kaitlyn a hug. Lauren was also soaking wet but the teenager managed to look fresh and dewy. Kaitlyn looked like a drowned rat.

  “I’m so sorry, Kait.”

  Lauren was bar none, the sweetest girl Kaitlyn had ever met. She’d had the pleasure of watching Lauren grow from a happy toddler to a caring young woman. She’d even served as her babysitter most of Lauren’s childhood. Lauren’s dad Matt and Kait’s oldest brother Luke were good friends, even though Matt was a couple of years older and they were both the star quarterbacks of rival high schools. When Lauren’s dad retired from the National Football League and moved back with a small daughter in tow, they’d renewed their friendship. When Matt and his now-wife Jacqueline were targeted by a serial killer, they’d hired Luke’s company, COBRA Securities, to protect them. A few months later, in a true show of heroism, Lauren saved Isabella Bradley, Luke’s business partner’s daughter, from a kidnapper, getting shot in the back in the process. Thankfully she’d recovered fully with no lingering side effects.

  Lauren admitted to once having a crush on Dan Bradley, Logan’s younger brother. Dan had been tasked with protecting Lauren from the killer and she’d been all starry-eyed. But the infatuation quickly passed and now they teased each other like an older brother-younger sister. It was a good thing Lauren had gotten over him. Dan was a serial dater, completely incapable of monogamy or commitment. Kait should know. She’d been in love with him most of her life.

  “I’m sorry about the equipment, Lauren. Is it destroyed?”

  Lauren glanced over her shoulder at the two young men who were alternately fussing over the cameras and ogling the beautiful teenager. She didn’t even seem to notice. She waved a dismissive hand. “They’re fine.” She lowered her voice and cupped her hand over her mouth. “Benji and Bryce can be such drama queens.” She rolled her eyes and despite everything that had happened, Kait laughed out loud.

  When Kait first heard about the reality cooking competition Kendall Buckley was pitching to CuisineTV, she’d been determined to earn a spot in the cast. She’d dreamed of hosting her own show for years. She used to tape every cooking program she could find on television and then she studied the chefs to learn their techniques. She’d use a ladle as her microphone and pretended to speak to the cameras. She even practiced hosting her own show and made Ben and Dan be her guinea pigs, tasting dishes she’d prepared. It usually ended up in a food fight between the boys, but that didn’t deter her dreams.

  Kendall was another family friend. Her fiancé worked for COBRA Securities. In her previous life, Kendall had been a television reporter in New York City before falling in love with Dorian Demarchis and moving to Bloomington to be with him. She didn’t miss being on-screen, but she missed the business of television. She told Kait it was after eating one of her meals that she came up with the idea for the show. Kaitlyn had been completely honored.

  Even though she and Kendall were friends, Kendall had no say as to the participants so Kait was allowed to enter. There’d been hundreds of entries from all around the state and the surrounding states. The honchos at CuisineTV narrowed the list down to twenty-five based on applications and recommendations. Next had been a round of interviews in Chicago, where CuisineTV was headquartered. The interviews had been arduous and intense and just when she thought she’d finished, she’d had to whip up a quick entrée without any advance preparation. After that, the list had been narrowed to a dozen. The twelve remaining contestants had been given five days to film a segment as if they were hosting their own television show. The network honchos weren’t looking for anything professional and even said they could use cell phone video apps. Kait decided she wanted to go all out. Go big or go home, right? She asked her boss if she could use the kitchen and he agreed, clearing three mornings for her use. Dion McArthur was the king of restaurants in Bloomington and all of Indiana. He owned three local eateries that were widely popular, including Fresh!, and three more around the area. The head chef from one of his other local establishments and one from another branch had made the cut as well. He was proud of his employees.

  It was important to Kait to use the kitchen she regularly cooked in because she knew where everything was blindfolded. The set-up was ideal and the appliances top-grade. She would be able to move around and chat to the camera with no thought of, “Where did I put the tarragon?”

  Kait had been the first chef Dion approached when he opened Fresh! six months ago. She loved his concept of using locally grown products and serving meals that were both healthy and delicious. It was exactly her style. But due to her demanding schedule, she could only commit to part-time as Executive Chef. She also taught a class on healthy cooking, gave lectures and hired out as a private chef to wealthy clients. That’s how she met Dion.

  Amy Warren, the woman she shared chef duties with at Fresh!, also made the top twenty-five, but hadn’t made the cut to twelve. Amy made it clear that she though
t she deserved the spot. Kait hadn’t ruled out her involvement with all that had transpired with her aborted attempts to film her segment.

  It had taken one day to get everything in order, including recruiting Lauren’s help to hire high-school students to shoot the footage. She figured if there was anyone who would be able to create a dazzling video, it was teenage computer geeks. Lauren, head cheerleader, student body president and homecoming queen, knew everyone in school. She asked two boys who produced and hosted their own podcast via YouTube. They’d been overjoyed at the prospect. Kait presumed it was the chance to hang out with Lauren that captured their interest, more so than the actual video production. Still, she’d been prepared to pay for their time, but they volunteered to do it for free with the stipulation that Kait put in a good word for them to be interns on the show. She promised she’d personally hand-deliver their resumes to Kendall.

  On day two of five, they started filming, only to discover that all of Kait’s spices were missing. Every. Single. One. And not just Kait’s, but all of the seasonings in the entire restaurant. It took so long to round up replacements, they lost the use of the kitchen for lunch prep. Still, she knew what she wanted to make and the kids only needed one day to put the video together, so they made plans to try again the next morning.

  On day three of five, she’d been cruising along, chatting into the camera, chopping veggies, when the lights went out. She almost sliced off a finger. By the time the power was restored, they lost the kitchen again. She regrouped, made plans for the next morning, gathered her supplies and headed home. Losing so much time during the day made her nervous, but surely her luck wasn’t so bad that they couldn’t get the segment filmed the next day.

  She woke up early on day four of five, her nerves jumping so much, she wasn’t able to manage more than a few hours of sleep. This was it. She had to film today or there wouldn’t be enough time to produce the video. Benji and Bryce assured her they could piece together segments from the first two days if need be. Nothing like wearing the same outfit three days in a row. Thankfully, she chose to wear one of her signature chef coats, so it wasn’t a big deal.