Chasing His Kickass Luna Back novel Chapter 261

The footage begins, and the scene comes to life in front of my eyes.

It’s the morning of the cook-off, the prep time that I missed in the morning. The contestants are busy chatting, chopping, and rearranging while various staff wander around the stage, finishing up last-minute tasks. My station is empty, of course, because I wasn’t there yet.

But then, there’s Daniel. During a lull in the conversation, he meanders his way over to my station. He stands there for a moment, stretching and looking around nonchalantly, but I can see it: the way he’s glancing over his shoulders, the tiny glass bottle he sneakily slips out of his pocket and places on my spice rack.

Then, just as quickly as he placed the first bottle down, he grabs another—one from my rack this time—and slips that one into his pocket. Checking over his shoulders one last time, he walks away.

“What is he doing?” I whisper, leaning closer to watch the footage again.

Mr. Thompson’s voice is hardly more than a whisper too. “He’s swapping your spices, Abby. Just like you said.”

For a moment, it feels as though the room has suddenly flipped upside down. I’m at a loss for words. All I can do is stare at Mr. Thompson, unblinking, my eyes wide.

“Keep watching,” he says, nodding his head toward the screen again. “There’s more.”

My body feels stiff, but I do as he says. The screen jumps forward, and it’s the moment when Karl ran to the pantry to get the black truffles.

Time feels like it’s standing still. Karl freezes in the pantry in a showdown of wills against Daniel’s sous chef.

I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I can see everything; the other sous chef with his hand in the container of black truffles. He’s dropping something inside, something that looks a whole hell of a lot different from the actual black truffles, which are in his other hand.