Sweetheart Killer: Book 14 in The INNcredibly Sweet Series

by Summer Prescott

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  SWEETHEART KILLER

  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

  Sweetheart

  Killer

  Book Fourteen in

  The INNcredibly Sweet Series

  By

  Summer Prescott

  Copyright 2016 Summer Prescott Books

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication nor any of the information herein may be quoted from, nor reproduced, in any form, including but not limited to: printing, scanning, photocopying, or any other printed, digital, or audio formats, without prior express written consent of the copyright holder

  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

  Author’s note: I’d love to hear your thoughts on my books, the storylines, and anything else that you’d like to comment on—reader feedback is very important to me. My contact information, along with some other helpful links, is listed below. If you’d like to be on my list of “folks to contact” with updates, release and sales notifications, etc.… just shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks for reading!

  Also…

  … if you’re looking for more great reads, I am proud to announce that Summer Prescott Books publishes a popular series by new cozy author Patti Benning. Check out my book catalog http://summerprescottbooks.com/book-catalog/ for her delicious stories.

  Contact Info for Summer Prescott:

  Twitter: @summerprescott1

  Blog and Book Catalog: http://summerprescottbooks.com

  Email: summer.prescott.cozies@gmail.com

  Please note: If you receive any correspondence from addresses other than those listed here, it is not from me, even if it claims to be.

  And… look me up on Facebook—let’s be friends!

  SWEETHEART

  KILLER

  Book Fourteen in The INNcredibly Sweet Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  * * *

  Phillip “Kel” Kellerman gazed down at his tiny newborn daughter with tears running down his grizzled cheeks, his beloved wife lying motionless on a gurney.

  The world renowned artist, who made his home in the sleepy seaside town of Calgon, Florida, had married Echo Willis, a free-spirited former Californian, with whom he’d fallen wholeheartedly in love upon first meeting her. The fiery, feisty, red-headed vegan had been the light of his world, and had finally agreed to marry him, just a few short months before their daughter was born. He loved her spirit, her sunny disposition, and her fierce loyalty to those she loved. She had given him a precious daughter, who had a shock of coppery hair like her mama, and big blue eyes just like Kel’s.

  While Echo was in labor, the couple had a tough decision to make. The doctor had warned them that labor for a woman in her forties, even a woman who was physically fit and in good health, could be a tricky thing that was fraught with possibilities of danger. Early on in the process, Echo had been determined to tough it out naturally, planning to deliver their little princess with as little medical intervention as possible. Her pain was intense and unyielding, but she held on like a trooper. When her blood pressure started to drop, and the baby’s heartbeat became erratic, however, an emergency C-section was ordered for the health and safety of mother and baby.

  **

  Melissa Gladstone-Beckett and her husband, Detective Chas Beckett, held hands in the waiting room at the hospital, as time passed excruciatingly slowly. Missy, Echo’s best friend, owned a cupcake shop in Calgon, and was currently trying not to fidget as they anxiously awaited news of the laboring mother. Missy had been in the delivery room with Echo, right up until she had passed out and been whisked away to an operating room. Now, she was on pins and needles waiting for word on her friend’s condition.

  Her heart leapt to her throat when Kel came into the waiting room, pulling his protective cap from his head and wiping his eyes.

  “Oh no,” she whispered, bounding over to him. Tears sprung to her eyes as she reached him, grabbing his hands and imploring with her eyes.

  “Kel…Echo…is she…?” her question came out as a sob. Chas stood somberly behind her, his hand supportively on the small of her back.

  “The baby…she looks just like her…” he wept anew. “She’s beautiful.”

  “And Echo…?” Missy pressed, her heart sinking.

  Kel took a shuddering breath and enclosed the petite blonde in a warm embrace.

  “Echo, my sweet, beautiful wife…is in recovery. It was touch and go for a while, but she should be just fine as long as she follows the doctor’s orders and takes it easy,” he reported, hugging her tight while Chas clapped him on the back, his throat working as he fought for control.

  “Oh, thank goodness.” Missy dissolved into sobs of relief, and the three of them clung to each other, breaking the hug with relieved laughter.

  “Scotch and cigars tonight, Kel. Congratulations,” Chas exclaimed, after clearing his throat.

  “I’ll have to take a raincheck on that, my good man. I’ll be doing night time feedings for quite some time, until my lovely lady recovers,” the new dad grinned.

  “Does Scott know?” Missy asked, referring to Kel’s sixteen year old son, who had come to live with him recently, after his mother was kidnapped and murdered.

  “I’m going to call him now. I just knew that you’d be worried, so I came out here first.”

  “Thank you,” Missy whispered, tears springing to her eyes once again. “When can we see the baby?”

  “I don’t know yet. She had great APGARs, but they still have things that they’re doing to her. It’ll probably be too late tonight, after they get us settled into a room, but I’ll text you and let you know when Echo is awake and ready to have guests.”

  “Sounds good,” Chas nodded. “We’ll head home. You guys get some rest, and we’ll see you tomorrow, whenever you’re ready,” he shook his friend’s hand warmly.

  **

  Echo slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to the left. Her heart nearly burst when she saw her beloved Kel, sitting in the vinyl-covered hospital recliner, giving their daughter a bottle. Reaching her hand out toward them, unable to speak past the lump in her throat, she smiled tenderly as her husband rose slowly and moved over to lie in the bed next to his wife, their tiny newborn nestled in his arms, swaddled in a white blanket with green and pink stripes.

  Echo couldn’t take her eyes from the perfect creature, even when her husband bent to kiss her cheek, which was wetted with joyful tears.

  “She’s beautiful,” she whispered in awe.

  “Just like her mama,” Kel replied.

  At the rumble of her daddy’s voice, the child blinked several times, as if trying to make sense of her world. Echo reached over and stroked her cheek with a finger. The two made eye contact and a fleeting smile appeared on the tiny cherubic mouth.

  “Did you see that?” Echo whispered excitedly. “She smiled at me.”

  “She already loves her mama. As do I,” Kel beamed at his wife, who, with her frazzled hair and lack of makeup, was more beautiful to him than ever.

  “We did this,” E
cho looked up at her husband, while their princess suckled peacefully on her bottle.

  “Yes we did, my love. Yes, we did.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  After stopping in to bring Echo flowers, the new baby a teddy bear, and Kel a set of fine Cuban cigars, Detective Chas Beckett headed to his office at the police station, lost in thought. He and Missy had made the decision to sell the bed and breakfast that they’d purchased, which had been their motivation to move from Missy’s hometown of LaChance, Louisiana, to the slow-paced Florida beach town. Missy had a thriving cupcake business, located across the parking lot from the Inn, and she wanted to focus fully on it, without being distracted by the day to day operations of the Inn.

  The dark-haired, handsome detective came from an incredibly wealthy family in New York, and had, for his entire life, eschewed the lifestyle in which he’d been raised, in order to serve his fellow man as a law enforcement professional. He was most certainly the only small-town detective with an advanced Ivy League education. When his father passed, nearly two years ago, it had been his wish that Chas would take the helm of Beckett Holdings, and run the empire that had been honestly and carefully built over the course of decades.

  Chas had declined, knowing full well the business and social expectations that such a position would entail. Stewardship of the family business had been passed to his father’s manservant, Chalmers, who had been with the family as long as anyone could remember. Chas’s brother, Reggie, was an unfettered playboy, who spent his share of the family fortune on uninhibited travel, lavish parties, and some ill-chosen expensive habits. His sister married into another “old money” family, and was rarely seen or heard from.

  Chalmers had renewed his plea to the eldest Beckett heir to take a larger role in the family business. After the aging man had nearly been killed, Chas had been considering it carefully, but was still torn between duty to family and service to his fellow man.

  Drumming his fingers on his desktop, the detective surveyed the stack of folders in front of him. The homicide rate in Calgon and the surrounding communities was low enough that he’d begun working on cold cases to fill his time in between contemporary homicidal incidents, which made him feel a bit like his time could be better spent, but he wanted to bring closure to the families of the victims represented by the stack of tattered folders. He’d solved several cases which had been dormant for years, or in some situations, decades, and had found the puzzles presented by working on cases which occurred before the advent of DNA testing to be a challenge that was often easily solved, providing the original evidence was still intact.

  Glancing over the list that represented his current caseload, he pursed his lips and came to a decision. It was time to make a change. He picked up the phone, taking a deep breath.

  **

  Dashing young Marine veteran, Spencer Bengal lived in a basement apartment at the Inn owned by Missy and Chas. He’d been hired originally as a handyman, driver, bartender and all-around boy wonder, with Missy and Chas entirely unaware that he’d been sent by Chalmers as a personal bodyguard for the couple. The Marine had been tasked with personal protection of the Beckett heir for several years, after completing very specialized training in conjunction with a secret governmental program. He’d served his country bravely and admirably and had been working for the Beckett family for most of his adult life. After his recent release from his governmental obligations, Chas had discovered the young man’s real purpose, and now confided in him on a regular basis.

  Spencer’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and when he saw the caller ID, he found it odd that his employer would be calling him so early in the work day.

  “Hey Chas, what’s up?” he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder while he tinkered with the pump on the Inn’s hot tub.

  “We need to talk. Can you meet me at the diner for lunch?”

  “No problem. Anything I need to worry about?” the Marine’s voice was colored with concern.

  “No, just some things that I need to run by you, and let’s keep this just between us for now,” the detective’s reply was carefully vague.

  “What time?”

  “Twelve thirty work?”

  “Yep, see you then.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Pocketing his phone, Spencer shook his head, wondering what was coming, and went back to work on the pump. He’d crawled underneath the siding that surrounded the large spa, with just his feet visible on the pavers of the pool deck, when he heard a soft, feminine voice saying something that he couldn’t quite distinguish.

  “Hang on,” he called out, shimmying from beneath the side of the tub.

  “Oh, hey Izzy,” he greeted the nervous-looking young woman, who was a vision in her soft green sundress, her long mahogany-colored hair gleaming in the sun. “What’s up?”

  “Oh, well…I…umm…I was wondering if you had time to talk for a second,” she unconsciously bit her lip in the way that used to drive him crazy.

  A million thoughts went through his head. He didn’t really have time to chat, but his impulse was to treat Izzy gently. They’d dated for a while, before he’d been released by Command, and she’d rejected him twice, unable to deal with his dangerous and unpredictable profession. After saving her life, when she’d come back to him, ready to invest in a relationship, he’d gently and lovingly turned her away, consumed with uncertainty about his life and his future. The one friend he’d had who truly understood what he’d been through, was also released from governmental obligation at the same time, and had gone away to prepare himself for life as a civilian.

  While Spencer loved, Missy, Chas, Echo and Kel like family, there were times that he felt achingly alone, even in the midst of them. The things that he’d seen, and the life that he’d lived were not things that he could share for the most part, and certainly not something that civilized people could even begin to understand. Chas knew some of his story, but there were other things which affected him profoundly that he would never speak about to anyone. Izzy hadn’t been able to handle that, and he couldn’t blame her.

  “Umm…I have a lunch meeting,” he glanced at his watch. “But I can talk for a few minutes, sure,” he smiled, knowing that he could put up a shop light near the tub and work into the evening if he needed to.

  “Oh. You have a…uh…well, maybe I can just come back or something. It wasn’t important anyway, I guess I shouldn’t have just stopped by, but I was out this way, and…” the normally articulate author babbled, her words picking up speed as she flushed crimson.

  Realizing what she had mistakenly deduced, he let her off the hook. “It’s with Chas,” he explained. “We’re just discussing work stuff.”

  “Oh,” Izzy’s mouth opened and closed again, her relief evident, but causing another wave of pink-cheeked discomfort.

  “You okay?” Spencer asked, tilting his head in a way that she found endearing and adorable, and it was her undoing.

  Tears sprung to her eyes, much to her mortification, and she could barely whisper the words that she was embarrassed to say.

  “I…I miss you,” she admitted, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Oh Izzy,” was the gentle reply, as he took her into his arms for comfort. “I miss you, too.”

  “You do?” she asked, her eyes filled with hope as she pulled back a bit.

  The look that she saw in his eyes made her step back even further, and drop her gaze. His truth was all too apparent.

  “Of course I do,” Spencer’s hands fell to his sides and he desperately wished that she would look at him. “I can’t turn my feelings on and off like a spigot, and it wouldn’t be fair to you if I tried to be in your life without having figured out my own.”

  Her hazel eyes brimmed with tears as she raised her head to meet his gaze. “I’m willing to take that chance,” she whispered past the lump in her throat.

  “I need time, Izzy. I need to figure some things out,” he sighed, frustrated
with himself for hurting her.

  “Can we just…try?” she asked in a small voice.

  A muscle in the Marine’s jaw flexed. “I’ll just be really honest with you, Izzy. When I’m around you, I don’t think about the tough things that I need to deal with, I don’t focus on the personal growth that needs to happen in me. I’m scarred and broken, and just trying to keep my head above water while I figure things out. It’s so much easier to just see your smile, and kiss you and forget that all of that other stuff exists, but it does exist and I have to deal with it,” he admitted, his eyes pleading for her understanding. “This is about as vulnerable as I get. I’m opening up to you and telling you what I need, and I can only hope that you’ll understand,” Spencer swallowed hard.

  Izzy nodded. “Can I help?”

  “I wish you could, and thank you,” he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “But I have to walk through this stuff alone.”

  She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Okay,” she replied, her lower lip quavering a bit. “Let me know if you need to talk,” she covered his hand with her own.

  “Thanks, Izzy,” the Marine said softly as she walked away.

  She didn’t turn around.

  CHAPTER THREE

  * * *

  Missy’s heart melted when little Jasmine Melissa Kellerman burrowed her tiny face into Missy’s neck.

  “Oh my goodness, Echo, I’m addicted to this intoxicating baby smell,” she whispered, closing her eyes and inhaling. “She’s so precious. How do you manage to get anything done?”

  “Well, thankfully, Marsha, the housekeeper that Kel hired, keeps on top of all of the housework, grocery shopping, and miscellaneous errands, and this week, I’ve finally healed enough to be able to carry this little angel around even when she’s in her car seat, so I’ve been to the book and candle stores for a few minutes at a time.”