Killer Cupcakes (MURDER IN THE MIX Book 14) Read online

  Killer Cupcakes

  MURDER IN THE MIX 14

  Addison Moore

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  A Note from the Author

  Books by Addison Moore

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2019 by Addison Moore

  Edited by Paige Maroney Smith

  Cover by Lou Harper, Cover Affairs

  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 © 2019 by Addison Moore

  Table of Contents

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  Books by Addison Moore

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  Mystery

  Little Girl Lost

  A Sublime Casualty

  The First Wife’s Secret

  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)

  Macaron Massacre (Murder in the Mix 10)

  Wedding Cake Carnage (Murder in the Mix 11)

  Donut Disaster (Murder in the Mix 12)

  Toxic Apple Turnovers (Murder in the Mix 13)

  Killer Cupcakes (Murder in the Mix 14)

  Pumpkin Pie Parting (Murder in the Mix 15)

  Yule Log Eulogy (Murder in the Mix 16)

  Pancake Panic (Murder in the Mix 17)

  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

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 13-15

  3:AM Kisses Boxed Set 16-18

  The Social Experiment (The Social Experiment 1)

  Bitter Exes (The Social Experiment 2)

  Chemical Attraction (The Social Experiment 3)

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

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

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

  Naughty By Nature

  Heartless (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 1)

  Wicked Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 2)

  Stone Cold Heart (Breakers Canyon Billionaires 3)

  Beautiful Oblivion (Lake Loveless 1)

  Beautiful Illusions (Lake Loveless 2)

  Beautiful Elixir (Lake Loveless 3)

  Beautiful Deception (Lake Loveless 4)

  The Solitude of Passion

  Someone to Love (Someone to Love 1)

  Someone Like You (Someone to Love 2)

  Someone For Me (Someone to Love 3)

  BOXED SETS

  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)

  Young Adult Romance

  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)

  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)

  All Hail the King (Celestra Forever After 6)

  Book Description

  My name is Lottie Lemon, and I see dead people. Okay, so I rarely see dead people, mostly I see furry creatures of the dearly departed variety, aka dead pets, who have come back from the other side to warn me of their previous owner’s impending doom.

  It’s October and the entire town has come out to celebrate the Haunted Honey Hollow Festival. In between doling out cupcakes and partaking in the festivities myself, I happen to stumble upon a body. Not just any body—one that h
as far too many skeletons in the closet for me to ever sift through. Add to it my already complicated love life, the ghost of a black cat named Thirteen, and a surprise that I never see coming and you’ll have the most frightening Halloween Honey Hollow has ever seen.

  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 dead pets, but on the rare occasion I do see a dearly departed of the human variety. But right now, all I can see, hear, or think about is accomplishing the task at hand.

  “Get it in, Lemon,” Everett grunts. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”

  “I’m trying,” I grunt right back. “It doesn’t seem to fit.” I can hardly get the words out as I struggle and squirm.

  “Lottie?” Noah’s voice floats from somewhere down below. “My God, you’re going to kill her,” he howls and I’m guessing that last part was meant for Everett.

  I’m currently standing on Everett’s shoulder, partially that is. In truth, I’m leaning hard against the awning just outside my shop, the Cutie Pie Bakery and Cakery, as I struggle to attach a sign to a metal hook that the city uses to hang garland on at Christmastime.

  A body pops up next to me and I look over to see Noah’s deep green eyes and his dimples digging in deep as he manages to hitch the sign right where it needs to be.

  “Thank you,” I say as Everett helps bounce me down into his waiting arms and dots my lips with a kiss.

  Judge Essex Everett Baxter is my current plus one—or he was.

  Initially, I dated Noah, and we were hot and heavy until that wife he was hiding from me breezed into Honey Hollow and decided she wanted him back. Of course, once I learned of the matrimonial blunder, I went straight into his old stepbrother’s—Everett’s—arms.

  Noah’s divorce finally came through and Everett suggested I try to gain some real closure with Noah before we moved in a matrimonial direction of our own. But then, a few days ago the unthinkable happened. And, as it stands, it looks as if I’m legally married to Noah. It’s a long story. In fact, once the festivities here come to a close today, Noah and I are off on our first official date as a married couple.

  Noah gets down from the ladder and quickly folds it back up. “Looks like I saved the day.” He offers a sly grin to Everett.

  Everett and Noah were related briefly in high school and got along great up until Noah saw fit to steal Everett’s girlfriend—Coconut Featherhead—but we’ll get to her in a minute. Suffice it to say, they haven’t gotten along ever since. And once I came into the picture, it only seemed to compound their hatred for one another.

  They’ve been getting along in a hobbling sort of way for the last month or so but, let’s call a spade a spade, they’re still tottering on the edge of oblivion.

  It’s the first Saturday in October, the day of the first official Haunted Honey Hollow month-long festival in which our little spooktacular corner of Vermont embraces the fact things are darn right horrifying in our neck of the twisted woods.

  It’s true. We’ve had thirteen murders in thirteen months and, as strange as it sounds, I’ve had the displeasure of finding each and every corpse thus far. To make things worse, each and every corpse happened to be either holding, attempting to swallow, or in very close proximity to one of my tasty treats. And because of that grizzly fact, Noah and Everett teamed up and bought me an adorable yet deadly Glock. I try to keep it in my purse wherever I go. And when I’m at the bakery, I usually put it in the ground safe in my office if I bring it at all. And that’s where Ethel, the aforementioned Glock, is at the moment—tucked away in my ground safe.

  I glance up at the sky.

  It’s a little past noon, but you wouldn’t know it, what with all the dark storm clouds looming overhead. It looks more like evening than it does the afternoon, but that sure didn’t stop the throngs of people who have clustered right here on Main Street as they converge to join the festivities. Every business in town is offering up their wares and scares to the tourists and townies alike.

  My bakery is giving away free cupcakes this afternoon in honor of the scary shenanigans that are bound to ensue. I’ve set out three tables laden with the frosted little confections, and I’ve just put a sign up top that reads Come and get your FREE cupcakes!

  The cupcakes are adorably scary, all frosted like the Halloween spectacles they are in orange, purple, green, and black. I’ve placed gummy worms and gummy fingers over the tops of them, tiny pumpkins and candy corn, too. And there are a few with candy skulls and colorful monster faces. It’s a feast for the eyes as much as it will be for the palate.

  The festival features just about everything you could think of. There are haunted carriage rides, games with questionable prizes, face painting, and enthusiastic artists who are willing to sketch out a spooky version of whoever is brave enough to pay for a sitting. There’s even a pumpkin carving station down the street. And, of course, Mayor Nash is dressed up like a werewolf, taking pictures with the masses as he makes his way down Main Street.

  A few months back, I learned that Mayor Nash was my biological father. I was adopted as an infant by Joseph and Miranda Lemon and happily raised with two wonderful sisters. But last January, my biological mother, Carlotta Sawyer, barreled back onto the scene, and then months later she rather indelicately revealed who her baby daddy was, and now I have more parents than I know what to do with.

  That’s not entirely true. My real daddy, the aforementioned Joseph Lemon, passed away over a decade ago. But between my mother, Carlotta my bio mom, and Mayor Nash, I’m usually ducking for parental cover. I might be twenty-seven, but that doesn’t stop the three of them from freely tossing their opinions my way.

  Everett wraps an arm around my shoulders, and I look up at him and sigh. Everett is a god among men with his jet-black hair and ocean blue eyes. He’s serious and pensive and getting a smile out of him is rather hard-won. He’s heart-stoppingly sexy, and every woman in all of Vermont seems to have him on her radar. His first name is actually Essex, but he much prefers for the masses to call him Everett. However, for some reason, the women he’s done some serious mattress moves with have garnered the honor to call him by his proper moniker—his mother and sister withstanding, of course, because that’s the only name they’ve ever called him by.

  Noah is a heartthrob himself, with his dark hair that turns red at the tips in the sun, evergreen eyes, and deep-welled dimples that have the power to melt me to a puddle at the sight of them. He’s a homicide detective down in Ashford County, and I’m pretty sure women at every stage and age of life wouldn’t mind him doing a very thorough pat-down of their person.

  Here’s the kicker. I’m in love with them both. It’s not fair that I’ve accidentally given my heart away to two handsome men, but, as it stands, I happen to be legally bound to one of them at the moment.

  Everett blows out a breath as he takes in the burgeoning crowd quickly taking over Main Street.

  “What else can we do to help out?” He lands a sweet kiss to the top of my head.

  “Nothing. You’ve done far too much today already,” I say. “The kitchen staff is helping give away the goodies, and Lily is manning the register. I’ll float in and out, making sure everything is running smoothly.”

  “Perfect.” Noah’s dimples invert. “Then maybe in a little bit you and I can catch one of those haunted carriage rides. I hear it’s the ride of a lifetime—the last ride of your lifetime.”

  Everett grunts, “I’d be careful if I were you, Lemon. He’s been prone to pull a fast one on you before. I’d ask for a clear-cut definition of what exactly he
’s asking you to ride.”

  I swat Everett on his rock-hard stomach for teasing me. As far back as I can remember, Everett almost exclusively calls me by my surname, and I don’t mind one bit.

  The fast one he’s referring to is the accidental marriage Noah and I found ourselves in. But that wasn’t at all Noah’s fault—at least not his alone. We both walked into that one. And the funny thing is, we meant every word we exchanged in that questionable ceremony. It was beautiful and, frighteningly enough, it was real, too.

  “Noah, that sounds lovely. A haunted carriage ride might be exactly what I need to tone down my anxiety over this entire event. A month-long celebration of the spookiest time of year sounded brilliant when my mother birthed the idea, but the thought of putting the entire town on display for thirty days straight is already panning out to be a bit more taxing than I bargained for.”

  A pair of hands covers Noah’s eyes, and judging by that all too familiar engagement ring glittering in my face, I know exactly who’s playing peek-a-boo with my new husband—and it’s not me.