Bobbing For Bodies: MURDER IN THE MIX 2 Page 13
Stella takes a few brazen steps my way. “He didn’t have a problem with Hunter. I did.” The baby in her arms whimpers, and she takes a moment to soothe him. “Hunter was supposed to give me enough money to live off, and instead, I was stuck at that dive bar dancing for dollars. You think I wanted to twirl around that pole all night? But Hunter didn’t care. All he wanted was to take my son away from me. He wanted him. He was trying to steal him away.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “I’m his good friend, and I didn’t even know he had a kid. That can’t be true,” I howl over the whirl of the chainsaw.
Jonas snatches her by the elbow a moment. “I told you he wasn’t out to get you. You’re paranoid, and you have been ever since you had the baby.”
“Enough!” Stella raises her foot and shoves it into his stomach before whipping past me and out of sight.
I’m about to dash after her when my feet are knocked out from underneath me. The zombie doll goes flying, and my hands slap down over the ground before I inadvertently kiss damp Honey Hollow soil. I scamper to my knees as Jonas tries to leap over me, and I reach up and grab ahold of the bottom of his jeans.
Jonas falls to the side, knocking down the man in the hockey mask with him. The chainsaw bounces wildly behind them as I scramble to my feet.
And just as I’m about to hightail it out of there, Jonas snatches up the roaring weapon and jabs it my way.
“Don’t move!” he shouts at the top of his lungs, and every cell in my body is suddenly immobilized. “This isn’t about you. Leave us alone. Stella needs help. She’s been a different person ever since she had the kid.”
“You’ve been with her as long as she’s been with Hunter? I don’t get it. How did that not strain your relationship? You must really love your girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” His head ticks back as if I threw him for a loop. “Stella’s not my girlfriend. She’s my sister. I’m trying to get her the help she needs.”
It’s as if time stands still, and this entire night turns on its ear once again.
“You’re trying to help her. She’s not well.” I shake my head. “You didn’t kill Hunter, did you?”
The man in the hockey mask takes a swipe at Jonas, and he swings the weapon the man’s direction. A part of me says run—and another far more logical part says he can outrun me even with a chainsaw in his hands.
I snatch the zombie doll off the ground and toss it in the air at him, and he slices its head off without hesitation. The man with the hockey mask knocks the chainsaw out of his hand and wrestles him to the ground. As much as my feet are twitching to bolt, those handcuffs Keelie gifted me catch the light, and an idea springs to life. Perhaps not a good one—in fact, one that can backfire spectacularly, but I pluck the handcuffs free and fall to my knees.
“What the hell are you doing, lady?” A muffled cry comes from our masked friend.
“This is a citizen’s arrest!” I bark over the roar of the motor. Jonas continues to struggle, but he’s effectively pinned to the ground. It takes two tries to leash his left wrist with the cuff. “Get his hands together!” I scream at the masked man, but Jonas is working hard to overpower him, and I don’t have another moment to think about it. Instead, I cuff his wrist to the man in the mask and run like hell.
The maze goes on forever, spookier, darker, and with no sign of that useless squirrel. Instead, I wise up and follow a couple of screaming teenagers right out the exit. My feet stumble to a halt as I pant into the night while surveying the landscape.
To my right sits the open pumpkin field, to my left a midway with games and an entire legion of large round barrels filled with water. Apples bob lightly along the surface as they wait patiently for the nighttime festivities to fully commence. The apple bobbing competition is the one that crowns the night. It’s a long-standing tradition that the McMurrys enjoy right along with their patrons.
A glowing beam of light twitches near the base of those apple barrels, and I can’t help but give a weak smile as I spot my furry friend. It seems to tick its head for me to follow it as it scampers over to a mob of people in the thick of the midway and, low and behold, leaning on a post, I spot a head of long, dark hair, that curvy body. The sequin of her bodysuit gives her away like a disco ball spraying out a spasm of light in our dimly lit world.
Every muscle in my body propels me in that direction, and before Stella can bolt I’m on her. The child isn’t anywhere in sight, and my heart thumps wildly, almost afraid to see what she’s done.
Stella makes a run toward the barrels, and I’m right on her tail.
“You killed Hunter!” I scream up over the music, incensed that she had gotten away with it for so long.
Stella stops cold next to a barrel, her wild pants pumping from her in long, white plumes.
“He wanted to take Travis away from me. I was just some disgusting breeding factory to him.”
“Not true. Hunter would never look at another human being that way. Especially not the mother of his child.”
“He looked at me that way.” A dark laugh strums from her as her eyes glisten like shards. Stella looks every bit like a woman unmoored. “He thought I was trash because of what I did for a living. Sure, it was great when he first met me, but once I had the baby, he didn’t think I was fit enough to raise it.”
“Is that why he needed so much money? He was giving it all to you?” I ask as I continue to cautiously inch my way toward her.
“Ha!” she belts it out into the night. “He wasn’t giving it all to me. He was giving it to a fancy lawyer in Ashford. He was trying to get full custody. He wanted me permanently out of the picture. I had to take things into my own hands and make sure it was him who never got to raise our son.”
My gut wrenches just hearing it. “You didn’t want to shoot him, did you?”
A high-pitched laugh escapes her. “No, I didn’t. I wanted to smash his skull in!” she riots into my face. “I went to that site he was working on early that morning. Sun wasn’t even up. I hauled those bags of concrete mix up that scaffolding myself. My damn brother wouldn’t help me.” Her gaze disappears past me. “I had to do everything myself.”
“They must have weighed seventy pounds apiece.” And there were three.
She glowers over at me. “You’d be surprised what a mother would do for her son. It gives you supernatural strength just when you need it most.”
“I can imagine.” I come in so close I can reach out and touch her. “They’ll go easy on you,” I whisper. “Jonas said you’ve been having trouble since you’ve had the baby. I’m sure they’ll give you a top-notch psychologist who can help you out.”
Her eyes widen to the size of twin moons. “I’m not going to prison. I’ve killed once, and I’m not afraid to do it again.” She glances to my neck a moment. “If I had a gun, I’d kill you. I’m sorry this won’t be as quick.”
In the blink of an eye my entire head is submerged beneath the water as she struggles to hold me under. I buck and seize as I wriggle my way back to the surface, catching an enormous breath as soon as I hit air.
Stella digs her knee into the back of mine, and I collapse toward the barrel once again. “You little bitch,” she roars as she dunks me under so fast so hard it feels as if she has a bionic grip over me. Stella is right. She’s got supernatural strength right when she needs it most. But so do I.
My elbow flies back into her gut, and she doubles over, loosening her hold over me long enough for me to rise back out, gasping and sputtering.
Stella yanks me back by the hair and tries to throw a punch at me, but I duck right out of her line of fire.
“Freeze! Hands up!” a voice thunders from behind, but Stella doesn’t bother with protocol. Instead, she growls like a lioness, and I’m right back in that water, her body pressed over mine, heavy as if a building were lying over me.
The pressure releases, and I cork to the surface, only to find Stella being plucked off of me by none other than Noah Fox.
“Lottie.” He runs his lips over mine, holding me tight as my arms collapse over him. “Are you all right? I need to get you to the hospital—make sure she didn’t hurt you.”
“I’m all right,” I pant as if I just ran the circumference of the planet. “She didn’t hurt me. I promise I’m fine.” I cling to Noah as if he were a life raft, and he is. “Stella killed Hunter. She confessed to the whole thing. Where’s the baby? Where’s Hunter’s son?” I struggle to crane my neck past him. I’m so exhausted I can hardly hold myself up.
“He’s fine.” Noah brushes his thumbs over my cheeks. “She handed him off to Micheline just a little while ago. Bear told me.” Noah searches my features with his eyes as if it were the first time he was seeing me. “All that matters to me is you, Lottie. You’re all I care about. You came into my life and upturned everything I thought I knew. All of those things I swore I’d never feel again, those things that I forbid myself from feeling—you didn’t give me any damn choice. I’m yours, Lottie Kenzie Lemon, and every day without you is miserable. I need you in my life. I need you by my side. I’ve falling hard for you, Lottie. Please tell me that you feel the same or I’ll go insane.”
A laugh bubbles from my throat as I bear hard into his pine green eyes. “Yes. I do feel the same.” The world around us feels as if it slows down, as if all of time stands still just for the two of us. “I’m falling for you, Noah—and, I’m afraid.” My affect falls flat as I spill that singular truth that I wish never crested my lips.
A pained smile expands across his gorgeous face. “Don’t be. We’re in this together. Through thick and thin.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ve seen our fair share of thick.” I bite down over my bottom lip. “Or is it thin that we’ve seen? Sorry, my head’s a bit fuzzy.” I tuck a wet lock of hair behind my ear.
Noah tips his head back, those glowing green eyes never leaving mine. “I don’t know if it’s thick or thin, but I do know one thing for sure. I’m never letting anything petty get between us ever again. Everett called the other night and let me know that the two of you were just friends. He says he’s happy for me, for us. He doesn’t want me to screw it up.”
I cock my head playfully. “Neither do I.”
“That makes three of us.” His dimples ignite as he bows in for a kiss. Noah crashes his lips to mine, and we declare exactly how we feel for one another in front of every ghost and goblin, every vampire and werewolf Honey Hollow has to offer.
Noah blesses me with soft pecking kisses before pulling back to get a better look at me. His eyes ride down over my costume, and he growls with approval.
“I fully authorize you to conduct a pat-down any and every time you feel like it, Officer Lemon.”
A naughty grin twitches over my lips. “Don’t you worry, Detective Fox. I plan on conducting a thorough investigation of your person. I promise to leave no stone unturned.” My hand glides over his chest like a threat. “I suggest you obey my authority and get those lips back to mine right this minute.”
A dark laugh rumbles in his chest. “Yes, ma’am.”
And he does as he’s told.
Chapter 17
Halloween in Honey Hollow has always been filled with its fair share of terrors, but on that night, there was also a genuine relief that Hunter Fisher’s killer had finally been brought to justice. Stella was arrested and is currently awaiting trial. Jonas was booked as an accomplice, and Everett said that although he was a party to aiding and abetting a murderer, that because of the circumstances the legal system wouldn’t go tough on him. Stella is getting the help she needs for her paranoia, and it was brought to light that a part of that paranoia was actually triggered from the birth itself. Baby Travis is with Bear’s mother, and no one is more delighted to have an infant in her care than she is. In fact, in light of the new circumstances, we’ve decided to host a celebration of life party for Hunter, and I insisted on hosting it at the bakery. Keelie had the chefs prepare sandwiches while I baked an entire litany of every dessert I know that Hunter loved—and he loved them all.
The crowd is small, but the atmosphere is cheery.
The surprise Nell and Keelie had been hinting at ever since the grand opening arrived last night just in time for the celebration, and Bear and his crew worked well into the early hours of the morning to install it. When I arrived, they were just leaving, and I about had a heart attack seeing them here. Bear was the one who got to show it to me—and as soon as he flipped the switch, my heart burst like a piñata filled with love. It’s an extension of that glorious oak tree staking claim in the middle of the honey pot with its branches elongating like tendrils all throughout the café portion of the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery. I called both Keelie and Nell and cried over the phone as I thanked them. Each branch is carefully entwined with twinkle lights, and it adds a flair of magic to this already enchanted piece of Honey Hollow.
Noah holds me by the waist as Bear heads our way.
“You’ve got a keeper,” he scowls at Noah. “And you’d better keep her, because if you ever let her go, I’m taking her back.” He winks my way.
“You’re hilarious.” I can’t help but tease him. I’ve made it more than clear to Bear that the door to any intimate relationship between us is forever closed. “So tell us, Bear”—I pause to glance to Noah who offers a confirming nod—“was it Hunter that was behind all of those garage robberies?”
Bear takes a breath and sweeps his eyes over the vicinity. “All right. I found a bunch of crap in his truck one day, and he may have implicated himself.” He closes his eyes, his entire body sagging with remorse. “He was pawning stuff and giving the money to Stella. She kept threatening to leave with the kid, and she had Hunter where she wanted him. The poor guy didn’t see a way out.”
Noah groans, “So, he was never trying to sue for full custody?”
“Nope.” Bear gives a wistful shake of the head. “In fact, I was the one who threatened her with it. And that’s exactly why I was so angry with myself when I saw him lying there in the alley. I had my suspicions it might have been her or someone connected to her.”
I gasp at the revelation. “Bear! You should have turned her in. We could have avoided this entire mess.”
“I know, I know. But Hunter made me swear on his mother’s grave that I wouldn’t do a thing to cause trouble in her life no matter what happened. I think he knew he was staring down the barrel of a gun. And, in the end, he did just that.” Bear drops his gaze to the floor before slapping the back of his neck, something he usually does when he’s trying to hide his emotions. “Excuse me. I think I need to step outside for a minute.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” I say, catching him by the wrist. “Hunter would never want that. And neither do I.”
A soft moment bounces between us like a truce, and Bear gives a sheepish smile before heading out the door.
Nell steps over, her silver hair catching the twinkle lights from above and it gives her the ethereal glow of an angel.
“Well done, my dear.” She cups my cheeks with her sweet wrinkled fingers and presses a kiss to my cheek. “Now when my time comes, don’t you dare let them host one of those depressing tearjerkers down in the church’s rec room. I fully expect the entire lot of you to celebrate my life.”
I shudder against Noah at the thought. “Nell! Don’t talk like that. You’re miles away from going anywhere.” She may not be, but it certainly felt like the right thing to say. “Besides, I need you.” I look right into her crystal blue eyes when I say it, and they swell with tears in an instant. “Thank you again for this beautiful work of art.” I glance up to the glowing branches above us. “It makes me feel like a princess every time I see it. It also makes me feel like family.”
“Oh, Lottie, you are a princess.” She offers my cheek a hearty pinch. “And I certain
ly love you as my own family.” Her mouth remains open as if she were about to add something to it, but she lets out a sigh instead. “I’m afraid I’m through for the night. Each time you look at those branches, I want you to know that you are a part of my family tree.” There’s a pained look in her eyes, and I can’t quite pinpoint why. Most likely because she feels sorry for me, for the way my journey in this life began on that cold cement floor of the firehouse. “Thank you for having me.” She brushes another precious kiss to my cheek before threading her way back toward the Honey Pot.
I turn to Noah. “That was a little strange. Didn’t you think so?”
But before he can say anything, Keelie bounds over with Lainey, and the two of them pull me in for a quick embrace, temporarily breaking the hold Noah has on me.
Lainey wags a finger in my face. “You are not allowed to scare us like that again. No more running toward danger.”
Keelie leans in. “And no more dead bodies,” she whispers. “It’s not a good look on you. I’m just saying.”
The four us share a morbid laugh as Everett heads in this direction. I can’t help but note Collette Jenner scuttling alongside him like a parasite he can’t quite get rid of. Okay, so parasite is a bit harsh, but I’ve scanned my entire lexicon, and that’s the best fit I could come up with on such short notice.
Collette rolls her eyes. “I will admit, those cupcakes at the Fall-O-Ween Fest were to die for. I must have eaten ten if I didn’t eat thirty.”
“Thank you.” I’m taken aback by her kind words, and suddenly she’s looking less parasite and a bit more human.
Lainey leans in. “Molly said every last one of them disappeared before eight o’clock.”
Keelie bounces the curls off her shoulder. “In fact, they were so well sought-after that the calls have been pouring into the Cutie Pie for more large orders.”
“They have,” I affirm as I look back to Collette. “Say, don’t you work for Endeavor PR?”
Her head ticks back a notch. “Everyone knows I work for the best PR company in the country.” She smirks up at Everett. “I only go after the best in life.”