Red Velvet Vengeance Read online

  Red Velvet Vengeance

  MURDER IN THE MIX 6

  Addison Moore

  Contents

  Untitled

  Books by Addison Moore

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  A Note from the Author

  Books by Addison Moore

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Untitled

  Red Velvet Vengeance

  Murder in the Mix Mystery #6

  Addison Moore

  Copyright © 2018 by Addison Moore

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to peoples either living or deceased is purely coincidental. Names, places, and characters are figments of the author’s imagination. The author holds all rights to this work. It is illegal to reproduce this novel without written expressed consent from the author herself.

  All Rights Reserved.

  This eBook is for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase any additional copies for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2018 by Addison Moore

  Table of Contents

  Created with Vellum

  Books by Addison Moore

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  Mystery

  Little Girl Lost

  A Sublime Casualty

  Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies (Murder in the Mix 1)

  Bobbing for Bodies (Murder in the Mix 2)

  Pumpkin Spice Sacrifice (Murder in the Mix 3)

  Gingerbread & Deadly Dread (Murder in the Mix 4)

  Seven-Layer Slayer (Murder in the Mix 5)

  Red Velvet Vengeance (Murder in the Mix 6)

  Bloodbaths and Banana Cake (Murder in the Mix 7)

  New York Cheesecake Chaos (Murder in the Mix 8)

  Lethal Lemon Bars (Murder in the Mix 9)

  Romance

  Just Add Mistletoe

  3:AM Kisses (3:AM Kisses 1)

  Winter Kisses (3:AM Kisses 2)

  Sugar Kisses (3:AM Kisses 3)

  Whiskey Kisses (3:AM Kisses 4)

  Rock Candy Kisses (3:AM Kisses 5)

  Velvet Kisses (3:AM Kisses 6)

  Wild Kisses (3:AM Kisses 7)

  Country Kisses (3:AM Kisses 8)

  Forbidden Kisses (3:AM Kisses 9)

  Dirty Kisses (3:AM Kisses 10)

  Stolen Kisses (3:AM Kisses 11)

  Lucky Kisses (3:AM Kisses 12)

  Tender Kisses (3:AM Kisses 13)

  Revenge Kisses (3:AM Kisses 14)

  Red Hot Kisses (3:AM Kisses 15)

  Reckless Kisses (3:AM Kisses 16)

  Hot Honey Kisses (3:AM Kisses 17)

  Shameless Kisses (3:AM Kisses 18)

  Value 3:AM Kisses Boxed Sets

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 1-3

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 4-6

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 7-9

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 10-12

  The Social Experiment (The Social Experiment 1)

  Bitter Exes (The Social Experiment 2)

  Chemical Attraction (The Social Experiment 3)

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Low Down & Dirty (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook1)

  Dirty Disaster (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook 2)

  Dirty Deeds (3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook 3)

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Naughty By Nature

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Heartless (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 1)

  Wicked Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 2)

  Stone Cold Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 3)

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Beautiful Oblivion (Lake Loveless 1)

  Beautiful Illusions (Lake Loveless 2)

  Beautiful Elixir (Lake Loveless 3)

  Beautiful Deception (Lake Loveless 4)

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  The Solitude of Passion

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Someone to Love (Someone to Love 1)

  Someone Like You (Someone to Love 2)

  Someone For Me (Someone to Love 3)

  BOXED SETS

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Spitfire Kisses Boxed Set

  Breakers Canyon Boxed Set (Books 1-3)

  Lake Loveless Boxed Set (Books 1-3)

  A Totally ‘80s Romance (Books 1-3)

  3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook (Books 1-3)

  3:AM KISSES (Books 1-3)

  Just Add Mistletoe (Christmas in Gingerbread, Colorado)

  Young Adult Romance

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Melt With You (A Totally ’80s Romance 1)

  Tainted Love (A Totally ’80s Romance 2)

  Hold Me Now (A Totally ’80s Romance 3)

  Paranormal Romance

  (Celestra Book World in Order)

  Ethereal (Celestra Series Book 1)

  Tremble (Celestra Series Book 2)

  Burn (Celestra Series Book 3)

  Wicked (Celestra Series Book 4)

  Vex (Celestra Series Book 5)

  Expel (Celestra Series Book 6)

  Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7)

  Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 8)

  Elysian (Celestra Series Book 9)

  Perfect Love (A Celestra Novella)

  FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

  Ephemeral (The Countenance Trilogy 1)

  Evanescent (The Countenance Trilogy 2)

  Entropy (The Countenance Trilogy 3)

  Ethereal Knights (Celestra Knights)

  Season of the Witch (A Celestra Companion)

  Celestra Forever After (Celestra Forever After 1)

  The Dragon and the Rose (Celestra Forever After 2)

  The Serpentine Butterfly (Celestra Forever After 3)

  Crown of Ashes (Celestra Forever After 4)

  Throne of Fire (Celestra Forever After 5)

  Book Description

  My name is Lottie Lemon, and I see dead pets. On occasion I see a once upon a human, too, but mostly it’s just cute little furry beasts who have come back from the other side to warn me of their previous owner’s impending doom.

  No sooner did my biological mother reveal herself than my entire life flew into chaos. Not only is my favorite specter bringing me a serious string of bad luck, but a coffee shop opened down the street from my bakery and they suspiciously sell all the same baked goods that I do—and they’re using my recipes to do it. So when I stumble upon one of the owners as dead as a doornail, I can see why I might be at the top of the suspect list. But believe me when I say offing one of my competitors is the last thing I want to do any day of the year, and especially not
on Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air in Honey Hollow and unfortunately, so is murder.

  Lottie Lemon has a brand new bakery to tend to, a budding romance with perhaps one too many suitors, and she has the supernatural ability to see dead pets—which are always harbingers for ominous things to come. Throw in the occasional ghost of the human variety, a string of murders, and her insatiable thirst for justice, and you’ll have more chaos than you know what to do with.

  Living in the small town of Honey Hollow can be murder.

  Chapter 1

  I see dead people.

  Mostly I see those of the furry dearly departed variety, but on occasion I see a bona fide once upon a human. But unfortunately for me, I’m not looking into the eyes of some adorable little long-dead creature. I’m looking into the eyes of a very much alive human—Carlotta Sawyer, my biological mother.

  “My mother?” My feet propel me forward, but only a few steps in this mystery woman’s direction. The closer I get, the more my adrenaline seems to spike to unsafe levels.

  The attorney just finished reading Nell’s last will and testament where, apparently, she’s left almost half of Honey Hollow to little ol’ me, including Nell’s primary residence, her summer home in Nantucket, and her beloved Himalayan, Waffles, who happens to be the brother to my own Himalayan, Pancake. But it’s this bonus prize, if you can call her that, which has stolen all of my attention and that of everyone in the room.

  Just as the reading of Nell’s last wishes concluded, a woman burst through the door and confessed to being Nell’s long-lost daughter and my very own mother.

  Standing before me is my exact representation, a woman who bears an eerie resemblance to my every nuance, an aged version, with a slightly bitter disposition.

  “Yes”—her lips pull tight as she meets her gaze with mine and holds it—“it’s me. The woman who bore you.”

  Becca and William collapse over her with hard embraces, tears streaming down both of their faces. Becca is the mother of my best friend, Keelie, and William is her brother.

  Keelie staggers up and wraps an arm around me. “I have an aunt.” She turns my way. “And that makes you my cousin. I always knew we were family.” Tears sparkle in her usually perky blue eyes. Keelie is a blonde bombshell, who is just as peppy as her name suggests, but at this moment, after the passing of the woman we both so dearly loved, we’re all a bit morose.

  “We are family, Keelie,” I say, my chest pulsating like mad because I suddenly can’t seem to catch my breath. “But it’s not because of her.” I lift a finger toward the woman who suddenly wants to claim me.

  Becca and William take a step back, loosening their hold on their long-lost sister. Becca looks just like Keelie, but she dyes her locks a dark shade of auburn. William looks like a male version of Becca and nothing like his long-lost sister.

  My newly pronounced mother glares at me a moment as if she understood we were readying to have a showdown.

  “Now, let’s not get testy.” Her bottom lip quivers the way mine has a propensity to do when I’m agitated. “That’s not what Nell would have wanted.”

  “I don’t care what Nell would have wanted,” I say. “She’s not here.” Gasps go off behind me, and I can only guess it’s Keelie’s cousin and her twin sister Naomi. “You didn’t come back to Honey Hollow for me. You came for the money you’d get from Nell.”

  “I showed up well before she was dead!” this older version of myself riots my way. “I came because it was time to make things right with the both of you.” Her voice softens a notch, but the muscles in her jaw are still quivering with anger. “I want to get to know you, Carlotta. I want you to get to know me—to know the reasons why I did the thing I did.”

  “I know why you did it. You just said you were sixteen, a runaway having a baby. I get that. But plenty of time has passed. Keelie didn’t even know you existed. You left for twenty-six years.”

  She takes a ragged breath and looks to both Becca and William for a brief second. “Nell adopted me when I was six months old. I was her younger sister’s daughter. My own mother left me for greener pastures. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” She blinks a short-lived smile. “But now that I’m back, I’m ready to do this right. I want to get to know you, Carlotta. I want to get to know all of you.” She looks past my shoulder and manufactures a smile for the attorney.

  I shake my head without meaning to. “I don’t think I want to know you.” I burst past the three of them and make a dash for the stairwell.

  Keelie chases me down and drives my car back to Honey Hollow for me.

  I cry all the way there, wishing Nell Sawyer had never died to begin with.

  Two weeks later…

  It’s a snowy Saturday in February, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day, and you would think the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery would be bustling just trying to meet an astronomical number of orders as customers clamor inside in hopes to score a box of delectable treats to bring home to their sweethearts, but it’s far from it. We’re an hour from closing and have yet to sell half of what we normally do.

  Keelie comes up beside me as we look across the street together.

  “Maybe we need a neon sign, too? Especially the part that reads coffee, confections, and more?”

  I take in a deep breath of the vanilla rich air. I’ve been baking and icing my red velvet cupcakes nonstop for tonight’s Hearts of Hope Charity Ball that the fire department is putting on down at the community center.

  “I don’t see us as a neon sign kind of a place,” I say, ogling the hot pink neon sign across the street that reads The Coffee Cake Break, coffee, confections, and more! “Besides, people might think I actually stole their name.” It just so happens the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery has a small sign beneath it that reads coffee, confections, and more. But the trio of thieves that opened up that knockoff bakery across the street didn’t mind one bit stealing my slogan, along with my regular customers.

  “Please, Lottie, you’re one of the richest women in all of Honey Hollow. You’ll never even need to think of stealing.” Keelie bucks with laughter at the thought as the front door opens and my sister Lainey strides in wearing a cherry red wool coat.

  “Happy Valentine’s Day!” She pumps her fists as she dances her way over, only to have that smile on her face quickly dissipate. “What’s going on? It’s like a ghost town in here.”

  “The copycats have opened up shop across the street,” I grunt. “And word has it, they’re giving everything away for free today.” It’s true. As soon as Lily Swanson, the traitor who works for me, filled me in on this tidbit, I was not only fuming mad at their below-the-belt strategy—okay, maybe not below the belt but decidedly foolish, but I was hurt to see almost all of my customers heading that way in a steady stream. FYI, Lily Swanson is the best friend of Naomi Turner, Keelie’s twin. Naomi has held a grudge against me since high school over a silly boy of all things. But when Lily was in desperate need of a job, and I was far more desperate for help at the bakery, I didn’t hesitate to hire her. It was Lily who trained the three girls who opened the bakery across the street, and she trained them using my equipment and recipes. Clearly, I have to rethink all of my life choices.

  “A rival bakery across the street? That’s terrible!” Lainey stomps a black patent stiletto over the floor, and the sound reverberates throughout the empty café.

  The Honey Pot Diner next door is bustling, seeing that it’s the busiest night of the year, and thanks to the giant hole in the wall connecting the two establishments, I can hear the cheery din of couples engaging in conversation, their laughter making me feel lonelier than ever.

  Not that I’m alone as far as having a man in my life goes. No, actually, I’ve got a surplus of men at the moment. Both my boyfriend, Noah—Detective Noah Fox—and Judge Essex Everett Baxter will be at the Hearts of Hope fundraiser tonight, and even though Everett and I are just friends, I’ve promised to save a dance for him.

  “It
is terrible,” I echo, glancing knowingly to my sister. It seems an entire string of terrible things have occurred over the last month. Just before Nell died, she let me in on the fact that the gift we both share—if you can call it a gift—is something she referred to as transmundane and supersensual. She insisted that I must never claim one of those long-deceased pets as my own, and yet it was too late for that.

  I’ve already taken a liking to Tanner Donovan’s Golden Retriever, Dutch, who has remained staunchly by my supernatural side ever since Tanner himself bit the big one back in December. He was dating Lainey and dating twelve other women at the very same time, so I have mixed feelings about his untimely demise.

  But so far Dutch is the only spectral creature that hasn’t bothered to evaporate into thin air after the murder of his owner was solved. Usually that’s the last I see of those fantastic phantasms and long-departed people alike, but, for whatever reason, Dutch has taken a liking to me and I to him.