My leg swings out, and I sweep her feet from under her, but she catches herself on the counter before she goes down.
“You witch!” she screams. “You are not getting out of here alive!”
“If I’m lucky, neither will you!” I roar as I leap on top of her and slam her hard on her back. She lets out a horrific oof as the air expires from her lungs.
“Lottie?” a male voice shouts from somewhere ahead, but it’s not Noah or Everett.
I recognize that New York coated version of my name. It’s Curtis.
“Hey!” he shouts.
Footsteps clop quickly in this direction, but I’m too busy squirming and wrestling it out with Willow.
I groan as she does her best to push me off her. “Has anyone ever told you how strong you are?”
“My trainer, twice a week. I thought I might need stamina for what I was about to do,” she grunts out each word as if it were its own sentence. “But you’re as tenacious as an anaconda!”
Curt staggers over to us as if he were about to dogpile right on top of me, and Willow lifts her hand, discharging the weapon one more time and the sound is deafening. Curt’s eyes enlarge the size of baseballs before he falls onto the floor beside me, sanguine fluid pooling around his side.
“Oh God,” I say, momentarily distracted from the task at hand. “Curt? No!” I may not want to date him, but I sure as heck don’t want him dead.
Willow kicks me hard in the gut, and I buck right off her.
“And you’re next, Lottie.”
My foot rides into the air as I try to kick the gun out of her hand once again, but it’s a futile action. Why in the heck are none of my tried-and-true tactics working with this woman?
“You’re good,” I pant as I leap over her once again. “But I am better.” Just as I’m about to belly flop over Willow, I spot Macon flying in at a horrific speed—and in through the side entry rushes the very man I did not want to see—Everett.
“She has a gun!” I scream as she rolls away, and I land hard on the vinyl flooring. Everett isn’t armed. Curt might be dead. I can’t allow her to harm Everett, too. “Run!” I shout over at him as I do my best to crawl away from her. And Everett does run—toward me.
Willow fires again, and this time blows a hole right through the wall behind Everett, missing his head by inches. A pained yelp escapes my throat at the thought of watching his head explode like a piñata.
Willow latches onto my ankle and jerks me back, but Everett dives over her and it’s a tangle of arms and legs. The gun goes off again, and I squeeze my eyes shut, only to open them slowly to find that Everett’s head escaped the melee.
“Lottie!” Noah roars from behind, and I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s over.
Willow fires the gun again, a thunderously loud bang that shatters my sanity.
My body goes numb with shock.
Was I hit?
I try to look down as the world grows strangely gray and softly I fall asleep, so very gently, just the way Willow promised.
Chapter 18
Springtime in Honey Hollow means one thing: the entire town is perfumed with the scent of sweet lavender, and that’s the first thing I think of as I take a deep lungful of fresh air.
“Lemon!” Everett riots over me.
“Lottie, wake up,” Noah demands, and I try to smile at the thought of the two of them trying to rouse me.
“Going in!” another far less familiar voice shouts suddenly as I’m being rolled or lifted or both—and it’s then I force my lids open, only to find Everett hopping in next to me, my body strapped to a gurney.
“There she is.” Everett brushes the hair off my forehead before landing a simple kiss to my lips.
The Enchanted Flower Shop—Willow—that gun she kept firing as if it were her favorite toy, all come back to me.
“Am I going to live?” I give an apprehensive glance down my body, but my clothes haven’t been cut away and I don’t see one drop of blood. I try to move my right arm, but it feels as if an elephant is sitting on it.
Everett chuckles as Noah hops in.
“Lottie, thank God.” He presses a hard kiss to my lips without notice, and it feels nice. Sadly, equally as nice as the one Everett just gifted me. I’ve never had two men kiss me in the span of ten seconds, and it makes me wonder if I’m dreaming.
Noah squints out a sorrowful smile. “I have to stay back and take care of things here, but Everett will be with you. He’ll call your family. You’re going to be fine.”
Everett nods. “The bullet grazed your right shoulder.”
“Grazed?” My voice hikes a notch as I do my best to sit up a bit, and suddenly I feel a hundred times more alert than I did a second ago. “You mean I’m totally fine?”
“Completely,” Noah assures as he squeezes my left hand.
“What about Curt?” I crane my neck, struggling to see past the two of them, out in the bright sunny day.
Everett groans, “Curt is fine. He passed out.”
“Did a bullet graze him, too?”
Noah shakes his head. “Not a one.”
“But I saw blood and a lot of it!”
Everett’s cheek flickers. “You saw the Honey Pot Diner’s famous Sunday brunch punch. Apparently, he had two glasses, and he was looking to bring you one—and help you carry back some flowers.”
“Oh right, the flowers.” I make a face as I look to Noah. “Willow confessed everything to me. I’m more than willing to give my statement.”
Noah inches in close. “And we’ll do that. I’ll see you as soon as I can. I love you, Lottie.” He frowns as he says that last part as if he didn’t feel invited to utter the phrase anymore.
Noah takes off, and I’m hauled off to the hospital in the screaming ambulance. Everett makes sure that I’m treated like a queen and seen immediately. The doctors and nurses are all very kind, and they are able to bandage me up in the ER and send us on our way. Noah sent a patrol that was in the neighborhood to give us a ride home.
That night, after Noah and Ivy came by to take my statement, after I snuggled with Pancake and Waffles while sipping hot chamomile tea, I ride out to my mother’s B&B with Everett for Miranda Lemon’s traditional Easter dinner.
Keelie is here with her mother, Becca, and her twin, Naomi, who also invited Lily Swanson, her BFF. Of course, Lainey is here with Forest, and Meg and Hook along with my mother’s friend, Chrissy Nash. Carlotta is here—and even though I’m not too surprised to see her, I am a bit surprised to see Felicity, Simon, Rigby, and Curt.
And as if I couldn’t be surprised enough, I’m shocked to see Britney and Cormack joining us as well. Of course, I invited Noah, and he said he would show up as soon as work permitted, which was understandable. Even though it’s a holiday, the wheels of justice keep turning.
The party is surprisingly lighthearted, even though everyone is well aware of Willow’s arrest. And additionally, even though everyone would love to baby me for my minuscule injury, I won’t hear of it. A couple of pain pills and a bandage were more than I needed.
While Everett is busy chatting it up with Hook about stock options, and just as I’m about to make a beeline toward my sisters, I spot Carlotta having a merry old chat with Greer Giles.
Gah!
There are plenty of things wrong with this scenario, but at the top of the list is the fact Greer Giles is deader than every doornail on this planet and therefore is no longer visible to the rest of the human population. You’d have to be either out of your mind or have supersensual powers to see her, and, in Carlotta’s case, perhaps a bit of both.
“Are you crazy?” I hiss as I come up on my dear old bio mom. “People are going to think you’re talking to yourself.”
Greer waves off the idea. Her long dark hair is just as glossy and luminescent as it ever was. Her large eyes and full lips give her an otherworldly form of beauty. Greer was a knockout while she was still wearing her coat of flesh, but now her beauty is far more magnified and I�
��m not sure why. Nevertheless, death becomes her.
“Is that any way to greet an old friend?” She quickly embraces me, and I feel it, feel her as if she were very much alive and in person. But she’s not. She’s dead and very much missing a corporal form. The fact I can see the flower arrangement on the mantel while looking through her head should be enough to settle it.
“Hi, Greer. Where’s your boyfriend? Don’t tell me you’re having problems with your other haunted half so soon in the game.”
“Nope. Winslow had some supernatural disruptions to tend to. Not everyone in the B&B is at the party. It might be the Lord’s Day, but some of us still have wicked work to do.”
“I hear you.” I shake my head as I commiserate. “Lily and I closed the bakery early.”
“So I hear—and I also hear you got another one.” She starts in on a soft giggle that morphs into an all-out demonic laugh as if her voice box had suddenly morphed into a megaphone. “Sorry.” She pats her lips with her fingertips. “I’ve been beefing up my vocals in hopes I’ll be heard by mere humans one day.”
“I’m a mere human.” I make a face at the mere human I sprouted from. “We both are. And yes, Greer, I got another one. Thank goodness Willow was stopped. She was far more dangerous than the others, seeing that she didn’t have a problem killing more than just her initial victim.”
“A serial killer!” Carlotta lets out a honk of a laugh. “You think you know someone. Go figure.”
The air around us begins to swirl and blur the scenery, but before I can point out the supernatural disaster, a gorgeous glowing macaw the size of a toddler appears in all of his feathered glory.
“Macon!” I reach up and quickly give his belly a scratch. “Thank you for helping me. How did you get Noah and Everett’s attention anyhow?”
He lets out a string of giggles that sound decidedly like Rhonda. “Let’s just say if you knock the drink out of someone’s hand long enough, they’ll figure out it’s more than the wind trying to get their attention. It was the judge who was able to put it together. I figured since he knew of me, the odds would be greater he would connect the feathered dots.”
“Good thinking.” And now that I realize it was because Everett knew of my supersensual status that truly saved me, maybe it is time I let Noah in on my secret. If for nothing else, my own personal safety.
Macon rises higher toward the ceiling, his wingspan ever increasing, and he looks simply majestic. “I’m afraid this is where we part ways, my friends. It’s time for me to reunite with my beloved Rhonda. We have new adventures to forge as we explore paradise together.” He bows my way. “We shall see one another again, and I look forward to the joyous reunion. Do try to keep out of harm’s way.”
Tears come to my eyes as I try to memorize this glorious being. “Thank you, Macon. I will do my best. It was wonderful meeting you. And I cannot wait to be reunited with you again one day as well.”
“Godspeed!” He bolts to the ceiling, and in a blaze of blue and red glory he evaporates in a plume of smoke.
“There goes another one,” I say with a somber heart as I sniff back tears. “I can’t help it. I’m always sad to see them leave.”
Greer makes a face and points behind us. “Usually this is where I would point out that I’m not going anywhere, but seeing that the living are about to invade our small circle, I’ll haunt you ladies later. I’ve got a man upstairs.” She up and disappears, and it’s an unnerving sight.
We turn to find Felicity standing there with Rigby and Curt holding up the rear.
“I’m sorry for all you went through this morning, Lottie.” Felicity offers me a firm embrace.
“I’m fine.” I look past her to Curt. “Are you fine?”
“I’m okay.” He glances to the side as if he were embarrassed. “I never heard a gun go off in such close proximity. I thought for sure I was dead.”
“I did, too. It didn’t help that you had my grandmother Nell’s special Sunday brunch punch covering you. I really thought you were a goner.”
Rigby smirks up at him. “He sort of is a goner.” She elbows him playfully in the ribs. “Curt and I have decided to call it quits.”
“What?” I’m completely shocked by this, but a little happy for Rigby. She deserves someone who only has eyes for her, and I’m afraid that isn’t Curt. But she shouldn’t feel bad. He wasn’t for me either.
“It’s true.” Curt holds out his hand. “I’ve got two exes in Honey Hollow now. But I am a free agent. If you want in on the action, I’m all yours, Lottie.”
“No thanks.” I can’t help but laugh. “I think one round with you was all I could handle, but thanks for the offer. I do think I like you as a friend, though. In a strange way, I think we needed this. Having you here in town has given me closure. I really did hold a grudge against you for what you did to me, and now I feel lighter than air.”
“That’s right,” Carlotta chimes in. “Now she can hold a grudge against more important people, like her ex-boyfriend the Fox.”
I shoot her a look.
“Did I hear someone call my name?” Noah steps up, looking clean-shaven, his hair still damp from the shower, and he’s even put on a fresh suit for the occasion.
“I’m so glad you came.” I offer up an impromptu hug just as Everett comes over.
Everett leans in. “So it’s done? She’s locked up and the nightmare is over?”
“That’s right.” Noah turns to Felicity. “Willow isn’t going to hurt anyone else ever again. She confessed to killing your mother in order to keep her quiet. She had more debts than she could handle—there was no way she could repay your mother all that money.”
Felicity closes her eyes. “After you told me what happened this afternoon, I got to thinking about the thirty thousand she gave me. Just a few days ago, I canceled escrow for the condo I was trying to purchase. I just had a nagging feeling that I shouldn’t go through with it. Anyway, earlier I had offered to split the money with Rigby instead, but now that I know it was Willow trying to potentially frame me, I’m not sure I want anything to do with a single red cent.”
Noah nods. “She said she gave you the money to take the heat off herself.” He looks my way. Noah’s eyes seem to hold a special sadness in them these days, and it’s all for me. “She knew you were a great detective, Lottie, and she wanted to cover all her bases.”
“That you are, Lemon.” Everett takes up my hand, and it feels as natural as breathing. Speaking of breathing, my breath hitches a notch as I look up at him. Everett is a god hewn from marble, that dark hair, those crystal blue eyes, and demanding demeanor make my every hormone sit up and pay attention. It’s really not fair that I met Everett and Noah not only at the same juncture of my life, but on the very same day.
Felicity and Rigby start in on a conversation of their own. Hook comes over to Curt, and it looks as if he might finally shake him down for the money he owes him. Curt quickly starts in on a long diatribe on how he lost everything in the futures market. So that’s how he lost his fortune.
Carlotta hustles Noah, Everett, and me over a few feet.
She looks up at the two handsome men before us. “So, which one of you do I owe a big, fat, wet kiss for saving my little Lottie Bug?” She glances my way. “That’s what I’ve called you ever since you were born. Nell would send me pictures. Just because I didn’t raise you didn’t mean I didn’t care about you.” She reverts her attention back to the men at hand. “So, who is it?”
“It was me,” they answer in unison.
Noah shrugs. “He tackled the loon. I arrested her.”
“Good enough.” Carlotta hikes up on her tiptoes and plants that promised wet one on Noah’s cheek, then Everett’s.” She looks my way. “You’ve got two great men, Lottie. There are a lot of people who would kill to just have one.”
I grimace as she says the word kill. “You’re right. I have two great friends.”
Noah’s dimples go off as he gives a satisfied smile, but
Everett’s stern expression only seems to grow darker, and I can’t help but feel as if I offended him on some level.
“And”—I look to Noah—“I think it’s time I let you in on that secret I’ve been keeping close to the vest.”
Everett tips his head my way. “You sure about this, Lemon?”
“I think so.” I’m quick to nod into the idea. “Macon let me know he tipped you off, and that’s how the two of you came to the flower shop this morning.”
Everett closes his eyes a moment. “Your safety is paramount to us. And if you believe telling him will add to that, then so be it.”
Noah grunts at his old stepbrother, “So glad you approve.” His eyes widen as he looks to me in anticipation.
I’m about to do my best to rectify it, but my other mother calls to me and I turn to find her headed this way with Britney and Cormack ensconcing her like narcissistic bookends.
I lean to Noah. “How about the three of us meet for dinner sometime this week? I’d like Everett there if you don’t mind.”
Noah quickly agrees just as the three of them descend upon us.
“Here you are!” My mother pulls me in and quickly whispers into my ear, “Sorry, Lottie. But they insisted.” She pulls back and wrinkles her nose at me before taking Carlotta by the hand. “Have you seen the new conservatory? One of Lottie’s exes built it for me. We’re just now putting on the finishing touches. I just showed it to the girls, and I must share it with you.” And they are off.
Great. I’ve always wanted to be alone with Everett, Noah—his wife and his ex.
Cormack glides her arms around Noah and plants a smack of a kiss on his lips. Lovely. Now there is the cherry on top of this disastrous day—although I did cheat death and help nab a killer, so it wasn’t all that bad. Until now.
My lips knot up with rage. It’s bad enough Noah has a wife. Does he have to have a girlfriend, too?
Cormack cups his cheeks until she forces his dimples to press in without their volition. “Hey, Big Boss, guess who’s coming to town?”
New York Cheesecake Chaos (MURDER IN THE MIX Book 8) Page 16