Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 4-6

by Mara Webb

  My mouth fell open. Miller seemed to be suddenly mobile, as if up until that moment he had been rooted to the spot. He walked over to me and took my hand.

  “I don’t understand this,” he began, mostly speaking to himself and weaving his fingers between mine, squeezing tight.

  “It is what it is,” the woman shrugged. “It may be up for review at some point, but surely this means that you can monitor the islands more effectively.”

  “Ryder doesn’t have any authority to be travelling around Hallow Haven and trying to keep the peace. I’m a cop, he’s not,” Miller grumbled. The last thing any of us needed right now was for Miller to lose his temper and turn into a wolf. That reminded me, someone should probably tell Mabel that Miller was a werewolf before she found out by mistake. Although most of the people around here knew that already now, didn’t they?

  “I’m sure you’ll figure it all out,” the woman replied. “You get to the boats now, and once I’ve seen you off, I’m going to head back to The Bureau and fill out the paperwork attached to this mess.”

  “It’s okay,” I whispered, locking eyes with Miller.

  “I don’t want to leave you with him, this shouldn’t be happening,” he replied. I could sense that Ryder had taken offense to that.

  “She’s safe with me,” Ryder commented. “Safer in fact that she is with you.” Maybe that last part was supposed to have stayed as a thought in his head instead of words that we could all hear. Miller let go of my hand to step to Ryder and I huffed, rolling my eyes as the two of them started to prepare for some sort of embarrassing fist fight.

  “Drop it,” I insisted. “Miller, go with Mabel and I will speak to you later, okay? Mabel, just, you know, talk a little slower and listen to his instructions. Ryder, take a deep breath and don’t antagonize my boyfriend.”

  Dropping the ‘b’ word seemed to make Ryder tense his jaw, but he unclenched his fists.

  “Fine,” the two men said in unison.

  “I’m warning you,” Miller snarled in Ryder’s direction.

  “Boat, now,” I repeated. Miller let out a harsh breath from his nose like an angry bull, a move I’m sure looked more intimidating in his head, and then turned to walk to the boats with Mabel.

  “You know, I always knew that my life would be more exciting when I finally got to be a peacekeeper,” Mabel began again. She was almost giddy with excitement which was both strange and endearing. If she thought this was a job filled with rainbows and butterflies, then she was in for quite a shock. “It’s just so exciting to have someone to share this with.”

  “Are you referring to me?” I asked.

  “Yeah! We can have our own little Christmas parties, although with just two peacekeepers it’s gonna be hard to do a secret Santa,” she snorted, laughing at her own joke. “We can definitely have work drinks, I’m old enough to drink now you see!”

  “That’s great. Why don’t you head over to Tivercana and see what’s going on there, then you can tell me about it later,” I suggested. I just wanted this interaction to end.

  “Sure thing! I will come over to your place later and we can talk!” she beamed. “I thought I might be more nervous to do this considering what happened to Greta. I guess that’s one of the reasons my parents dragged me away from this place. They were hoping I’d never get the calling.”

  “Hold on…” I was starting to put the pieces together. Lack of sleep seemed to be making my brain a little slow. “You’re Greta’s kid sister?”

  “Sure am! Let’s hope I don’t get seasick again!” she laughed, skipping down to the dock.

  “Oh, I thought you knew that was Greta’s sister,” Fitz purred. “Even I could have told you that.”

  “Helpful as ever, Fitz. Thanks,” I grumbled.

  “What now?” Ryder asked. He was turning his attention between me and the woman from The Bureau.

  “I believe you have a trespassing issue over at the far farms,” she smiled. With a snap of her fingers she disappeared, leaving Ryder and I staring at each other as the engine of the police boat roared to life and started to pull away from the shore.

  4

  “I didn’t know she was going to put Miller and the new one together,” Ryder said. “I found out about everything at the same time that you did.”

  He was jogging behind me as I marched back in the direction of the café, Fitz leaped after crabs that scuttled away from him and had seemingly little interest in the events of the last ten minutes. I didn’t have a plan but standing on the marina watching my boyfriend sail off to Tivercana with Mabel wasn’t going to do me any favors.

  “I know,” I finally replied.

  “Listen, the farmer thing is probably not an emergency,” Ryder said. “Why don’t we go to the café, and I’ll get us a couple of drinks and something sweet to level out your blood sugar?”

  “Do you think that cake can fix this?” I scoffed.

  “No, but it would help, right?” he smiled.

  “Hmm, yeah probably,” I grinned back. I stopped in place, bringing my fast march to an end which caused Fitz to walk into the back of my legs. “I’m not angry that you’re here, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression.”

  I brought myself to look him in the eye and felt a sudden surge of adrenaline when I saw that he was already staring at me.

  “The last few days have been pretty rough,” he said. I didn’t reply, at least not straight away. The tension between us was palpable and I had a wave of memories rush over me, thoughts of when Ryder had last professed his feelings and those near-kiss moments. Having to spend so much time with him was risky, I knew I had feelings too, but I had been trying to ignore them.

  “Are you two about to make out?” Fitz called up from the ground. “I’m not against it, I can keep a secret as well as anyone, but you might not wanna cheat on your boyfriend in such a public place?” Would it be awful to throw a fistful of sand at a cat? Maybe I should dump a bottle of water on him instead.

  “Is he with you when you go on all your peacekeeper missions?” Ryder asked.

  “Thankfully, no,” I smirked. I looked at Fitz. “Just to clarify, no one is cheating on anybody.”

  “Hey, just because I have small ears doesn’t mean I can’t hear you,” Fitz huffed. “I am an invaluable member of the peacekeeper support group and without me you would never— oh a moth!”

  Fitz bounded off in pursuit of the fluttering creature and Ryder and I were left alone.

  “Doesn’t he drive you insane?” Ryder asked.

  “You have no idea,” I sighed. I began walking again, this time at a pace more suited to holding a conversation with someone. “Did you ever go anywhere with Greta on her trips to the other islands?”

  “I went once or twice, I think. Her dad was her guardian, so he was with her a lot. Well, obviously not the last time she went off somewhere because she got murdered…” he pondered. “Miller was with her most of the time, too.”

  “Have you travelled around Hallow Haven much then?”

  “I run an outdoor adventure store,” he laughed. “It’s part of the job. Especially when tourists come to the island and want you to give them the lay of the land. We have some pretty gnarly cliffs here, that’s where I do a lot of climbing. We get adventure groups flying out here with guides and they pay through the nose to get taken up to the top.”

  “That sounds like a nightmare vacation,” I said. “I don’t feel the need to pay a few thousand dollars to get my adrenaline kicks.”

  “Have you ever climbed?” he asked.

  “I’ve been on one of those indoor climbing walls and I nearly threw up. I think I managed to get fifteen feet off the ground before I screamed,” I replied. “There was a guy holding my rope shouting up words of encouragement, but I could barely hear him over the sound of the blood pounding in my ears.”

  “Maybe you just need the right guide.” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and felt my cheeks flush. He was flirting with me, and I
wasn’t stopping him.

  “I think you would think less of me if you saw how embarrassing I am,” I said. “I don’t think it’s a fear of heights so much as a fear of plummeting to the ground suddenly. Although isn’t that why people have a fear of heights?”

  “I’ve helped take beginners up the cliffs before, I’m sure you’re braver than you think you are.”

  “Wow, you’ve been my sole guardian for all of five seconds and you are already trying to put me into a dangerous situation. This is working out great,” I teased. We stepped through the door of the café and a wave or gossip-filled whispers floated through the air, the customers that were looking at me let out audible gasps and covered their mouths as they spoke. Real subtle guys.

  “Oh,” Effie said, accurately assessing the situation with a glance. “So, Miller’s with the other one then…”

  “Yep. Mabel, Greta’s little sister,” I nodded.

  “Mabel? Oh boy, where are they now?”

  “Headed to Tivercana,” Ryder replied. Effie laughed and reached out a hand to support herself on the cash register as her body buckled.

  “Well, we won’t see those two again,” she said. “She will annoy him past his breaking point before they are even past the coral, and he’ll end up throwing her overboard. The only way to avoid jail will be for him to keep rowing until he hits South America and changes his name.”

  “She’s pretty intense,” I agreed.

  “She came on the odd hike with me and Greta,” Ryder said. “I’ve never known anyone talk so much but say so little.”

  “Is she gonna be hanging around here more often now?” Effie asked, suddenly serious. I shrugged in response. “Great, now I’m going to have to ask you or Kate to use your magic to make me deaf before she gets back from the islands and starts ranting at me about all the men she saw over there.”

  “Can we get two coffees and a slice of cake each?” Ryder interrupted. “Maybe three coffees? You look like you could use one,” he smiled at Effie.

  “You’ve got looks and social intelligence? You really have the whole package, don’t you?” Effie grinned.

  “Who has a big package?” Rosie asked, returning from a customer’s table with a tray of empty mugs. Rosie was one of the waitresses here and had been keeping a relatively low profile after faking having a stalker to get her ex-boyfriend’s attention. She seemed to have moved on from that incident now and was back to involving herself in everybody’s conversations.

  “I didn’t say big package, I said whole package,” Effie corrected.

  “Can we stop saying package?” Ryder asked, his face turning a shade of pink I hadn’t seen before. As the four of us fell silent, I could guarantee that we were all thinking about the word ‘package’ and all its connotations. Effie’s eyes sparkled slightly, and I knew she had taken her mind to the gutter, so I reached over the counter to prod her in the shoulder.

  “Sorry,” she laughed. “Look, you guys go to the house, I’ll bring your stuff through in a few minutes. No one in here will give you a minute of peace now that the news of a second peacekeeper has broken, and I can already see Oliver running in this direction with his Dictaphone in hand. Get out while you still can!”

  Oliver would likely want a quote for the paper, and I was still trying to piece it all together for myself, never mind working out how to summarize it for public consumption.

  I didn’t need telling twice. I walked around the side of the counter and stepped around Effie to get into the kitchen. Ryder followed behind me, likely eager to get away from the ‘package’ topic as well as the approaching journalist. Tara and Fern waved knives in acknowledgement as we hurried past their workstations and through the door that lead into the hallway of my house.

  Ryder had been in here before, but now that the dynamic was different it felt like he’d never stepped foot in the building until that very second.

  “I like what you’ve done with the place,” he smirked.

  “You’re joking, right? I haven’t touched the décor in here. I was actually talking about this earlier, I should make this place feel more like mine, right? I got a flyer for the Cindy Saco exhibit, I figured I could pick up some art for the walls and maybe give it a lick of paint. Is there a D.I.Y store around here?”

  “Yeah, you aren’t gonna find some mega-mart place with a thousand shades of white or anything like that, but I can show you where to get some supplies,” Ryder answered. “I can help you decorate, if you want that is, I just know that it’s easier with a spare pair of hands.”

  “After coffee, why don’t you take me to the paint place? Cindy’s exhibit doesn’t start for hours and—”

  “Oh, I know Cindy. I can help you get into the exhibit before everyone else gets through the door. Let me make a quick call and you can get first choice from her collection,” he smiled.

  Jeez, that woman from The Bureau had really opened a can of worms with this. She’s taken Miller away from me and left me with a handsome man that seems to have gotten much better at flirting since I last hung out with him. I wish I’d tried harder to keep Fitz with us, a third wheel would be really useful right about now.

  Ryder stepped away down the hall as he scrolled through his cellphone for Cindy’s number, and I stepped into the dining room while he did so. I purposefully didn’t come into this room often as one entire wall had been decorated with a family tree that I found unsettling.

  When I had first come into this room there had been a photograph of me that had been taken from social media, printed and stuck onto the branch that showed my side of the family. I needed to pay more attention to the dozens of other faces, but there were so many people I didn’t recognize.

  I spotted Sage and Darcy, my two aunts, branching off from two unfamiliar names that I had to assume were my grandparents. In the spaces where my mother and father should be, there was a strange blur effect on the pictures making them indistinguishable. I walked around the dining table to get a better look, but the closer I got, the more obvious it was that someone had blotted paint over their pictures. It was like someone had tried to remove them completely but had been interrupted. It looked like the paint was moving.

  I spotted Greta and her father, my Uncle Walter, and Mabel. I hadn’t met Walter’s wife yet, and her picture seemed to be vague, no real details on any of the features. Strange.

  “We’re on,” Ryder announced, stepping into the dining room. “I know where she keeps the spare key because she won’t actually be there. If you like a piece, we should just text her to say which ones we want and we can sort out payment later.”

  “What if I don’t like anything?” I said. “It’s going to be pretty awkward if she lets me have a private look at all her stuff and I don’t buy anything.”

  “By the end of the day Cindy will have sold everything. She always sells out, so don’t worry about it,” Ryder smiled. “You’re an overthinker, did you know that?”

  “I’ve been told that before, but I still don’t see how that’s a bad thing,” I smirked.

  “Three coffees, one has six shots of espresso in it, and it is all for me,” Effie huffed as she barreled through the door, lowering a tray onto the dining table. “I’m just going to say something, and I just want you to be the sound board, or whatever the phrase is, and not actually give me any feedback on it. Just hear it, then nod encouragingly, got it?”

  “Sure?” Ryder shrugged.

  “I’m signing up for a dating app,” Effie said, lifting her cup to her mouth and tipping it into her mouth. It was quite a sight as she guzzled the entire drink in only a few gulps.

  “That’s good, right?” I replied. I was nodding encouragingly as requested.

  “Yes, yes, it is.” Effie made steely eye contact with me before slumping down into the closest chair and pinching the bridge of her nose. “What I meant to say, was that I already have signed up… I have a date tonight.”

  “With who?” Ryder asked.

  “That’s the thin
g, and it’s not really a thing because why would it be, right? I mean I’m a free agent, he’s a free agent, we are all masters of our own destiny and it’s cool if it’s a problem, but like, why should it be?” she rambled.

  “With who?” Ryder insisted, more firmly this time. What was I missing here?

  “Jared,” she replied, gulping and quickly grabbing a fork to shovel a chunk of fudge cake into her mouth before she could say anything else.

  “Who is Jared?” I asked, looking warily at Ryder as the vein in his temple started to throb.

  “My older brother,” he huffed. “I guess he’s what you’d call the dark sheep of the family.”

  What did he mean by that?

  5

  Ryder had never mentioned having a brother. Or maybe he had, and I’d forgotten. Something about Effie’s announcement had caused a notable shift in the mood and we drank our coffee in uncomfortable silence. Effie, having already finished her coffee in record time, was pushing her fudge cake crumbs around the plate with a fork and trying to sneak glances at Ryder to assess his reaction.

  “Is anyone going to fill me in? I’ve had a lifetime of family drama crammed into a couple of months, I’ve just met a cousin I didn’t even know I had, and she had floated off into the sun with my boyfriend and now you two are doing whatever this is,” I said, waving my hands in their general direction.

  “Jared is my older brother,” Ryder repeated.

  “Yeah, I got that from when you said it a few minutes ago,” I huffed.

  “They don’t get on,” Effie added. “I’ve been messaging Jared through the app and I kind of mentioned Ryder’s name in passing and he got really defensive.”

  “Why would he be defensive? Because he knows what he did was wrong?” Ryder snapped.

  “What did he do?” I asked.