Flag Cake Felonies (MURDER IN THE MIX Book 23) Read online

  Georgie smacks Carlotta. “Day trip to the library tomorrow. And if they don’t have a copy there, we’ll hit every bookstore on the Eastern Seaboard. Nobody writes a tell-all about that man’s most rough and dirty moments without me laying eyes on it.”

  Alex takes a breath. “Best-kept secrets? I might check out a copy myself. I’m always up for improving my game. Noah, I’ll gift you one for Christmas so you can keep your tabs on the competition.”

  Noah growls, “Do it and die.”

  Jackie’s fingers walk up Everett’s tie. “Remember that little trick you did when we got up on the—”

  “Jackie”—Everett steps forward and pulls me in—“I’d love for you to meet my wife.”

  Jackie lets out the world’s loudest honk, squawk of some sort, or the wild cry of a Yeti.

  “Wife?” Her big green eyes bug out in horror before she offers a warm laugh my way. “Well, let’s have a celebration. Hell has frozen over! Come one and all, I’ll seat your whole party.”

  Before we know it, the entire lot of us is walking through what looks like a glammed up ballroom in an old Italian mansion. There’s a live band in the corner, crooning away as couples migrate to the middle of the expansive room and sway to the music. The stone floors gleam, there are rows of gilded chandeliers dripping with shimmering crystals—albeit the chandeliers themselves are dimly lit—and each table is dressed in a bright red tablecloth with a tray of candles in the center, giving the entire place a peachy glow.

  We take our seats and begin to peruse the menu.

  “So Alex”—Jasper flashes a short-lived smile his way—“Macy mentioned you run an investment firm.”

  Alex bobs his head. “That I do. You looking to invest?”

  “Nope.” Jasper dips his chin as he gives the guy a sober look. “Just doing a little research on you—making sure you’re not a serial killer.”

  Bizzy bites down over her lip. “I may have asked Jasper to look into you.” She mouths the word sorry to him. “But I can’t help it. I’m a bit protective over my big sis.”

  Alex flexes his dimples and manages to look just like his big brother.

  “Not a problem. I appreciate you looking out for her.” Alex wraps an arm around Macy while she swoons openly at him.

  It’s clear Macy is in seventh heaven. I wouldn’t be surprised if Honey Hollow gained a brand new resident by the end of their visit, or if Cider Cove added a Fox to their community. They really seem into one another. But then, I’ve seen Alex into his fair share of women. And from what Bizzy says, Macy is Alex in female skin. They might just burn quick and bright and neither one will have a problem with it.

  Not me. I seem to grow attached—to two men. Now there’s a problem.

  Alex glances to Noah. “You’ve met my brother, the big hotshot detective. And my dad, the wanted felon.” His brows hike a notch as he dispenses that truth. “In fact, our father was married to Everett’s mother for a short time. That was a heck of a ride.” He gives a wistful shake of the head. “We moved to Fallbrook into Everett’s mother’s mansion. Talk about taking a walk on the wild side. I had no idea people with that much money existed.”

  Jasper nods. “I bet it was intimidating.”

  “Not for me.” Alex shrugs. “I kept my head down and played baseball. Unlike this guy.” He hitches his thumb toward Noah. “The first thing he does is steal the big man’s girlfriend,” he says as he points his finger at the big man in question, Everett.

  Georgie slaps her hand down on the table. “No!”

  “Yes,” Alex counters. “And believe me when I say that set the tone between these two.” He points to Everett once again. “That guy vowed vengeance against Noah. And judging by the fact he’s got the gold”—Alex winks my way—“I’d say he’s on top.”

  Carlotta waves him off. “Rumor has it, the big guy likes to switch things up. I’ve had a chat or two with Lily Swanson. He likes it on top or bottom, leaning against the living room wall—” She takes a quick survey of all the stunned faces. “That’s not what we’re talking about, is it?”

  I shake my head.

  Noah takes a breath. “That’s right. You did threaten me.” His dimples flex as he glowers over at Everett. “How did that go again? No matter what you do, no matter where you go, I’ll find you and I’ll make sure you’re just as miserable as you made me? I believe that would be verbatim. Of course, there was more, but I think that’s enough for now.”

  Georgie leans in. “Who was the girl? She must have really been something.”

  Carlotta shakes her head. “A featherhead named Cormack Featherby. She’s still after Foxy here. The good judge is glad he’s rid of her. Lot Lot is a bit of an improvement.”

  “A bit?” I ask, amused by her word choice.

  Carlotta shrugs. “I tell ya, if that featherhead wasn’t stark raving mad, she’d be a good candidate for a revenge relationship, Foxy.” She nods Noah’s way. “I say if you want to make the old girl jealous in an effort to win her back, you go the sexy smart lawyer way. Why don’t you head down to the courthouse and pick up a pretty young thing?”

  “Carlotta.” I lean back in my seat to appropriately glare at her. “I’m not old.” What I really wanted to reprimand her on was the fact she’s practically pushing Noah into the arms of some pretty young thing. I’ll have to read her the riot act for even mentioning the words revenge relationship.

  Carlotta grunts, “I was there when you were born. I should know how old you are.”

  Alex shakes his head. “I’d stay away from the courthouse, Noah. Those are all Everett’s leftovers.”

  Georgie sputters a dark laugh. “From what I hear, the entire state of Vermont is filled with his leftovers. Boy, am I sad I ever settled in Maine. I could have been Mrs. Essex Baxter by now.”

  Everett’s lips curl in her direction, and she sighs out a groan.

  Everett looks to Noah. “Go ahead and have anyone you want.” He picks up my hand for all to see. “I’m happy right where I am.”

  Noah glances down a moment. “I guess you made good on your threat. The part where you said you’d hunt down whatever made me happy and snatch it away like stealing candy from a baby. You said you’d play dirty—that you learned from the best. Me.”

  Bizzy looks over at Everett and her eyes grow wide. Everett glances her way, and for a second, it looks as if they’re having a standoff.

  Alex winces. “I remember that argument. But I also distinctly remember him saying to keep an eye on your CD collection. I think the threat was actually music-based. Don’t worry, Lottie. Everett’s intentions with you are pure.” He chuckles at his own words.

  Macy waggles her brows. “Oh, honey, I don’t think that man has a pure bone in his body.”

  “He doesn’t,” I say it so fast I’m shocked the words ever left my lips. I gasp as I look to Noah. “I apologize,” I say directly to him.

  Noah’s chest bumps with a non-existent laugh as he glowers over at Everett.

  “That’s all right, Lottie,” he says. “I know you’re sleeping with him.”

  Everett slaps his hand over the table. “Not once did I throw that in her face while the two of you did whatever it was you were boring her with.”

  “Please,” I say. “No fighting.”

  Macy scoffs. “Why can’t things like this ever happen to me? I want men to fight over me.”

  Alex tips his head. “This isn’t a fight. It’s a war.”

  As much as I hate to admit it, Alex is right. Noah and Everett are acting as if they’re in the war of their life. A part of me wonders if any of it is really about me. I mean, I know they both truly love me, but they’re both competitive by nature, too.

  The waitress comes by to take our orders, and I’m mildly disappointed it’s not Jackie. But, in fact, it’s probably better this way. I’d much rather corner her than have to extrapolate about her escapades with Everett as she tries to relive old times with him.

  Macy and Alex order up w
hat sounds like every bottle of red wine this place has to offer, and if the rest of this meal goes in the direction we’ve already sailed in, we’re going to need every last one.

  After some thankfully lackluster pre-dinner conversation, our meals are served and the food looks just as scrumptious as the delicious scent in this place promised.

  We’re about halfway done with our meals when Bizzy catches my eye and hitches her head toward the front of the room. I glance over to see Jackie zipping back and forth before nodding to Bizzy.

  We excuse ourselves and do a disappearing act before either Carlotta or Georgie offers to join us.

  Bizzy leans in. “Jasper just said I know where you’re really off to.”

  A quick laugh belts from me. “I don’t know what I would do if I could read Noah’s and Everett’s mind. I probably wouldn’t want to know what they’re thinking.”

  “Oh, you don’t,” she says it quickly.

  I pull back. “What does that mean?”

  She waves it off. “Just regular man stuff.”

  “In that case, you’re right.”

  Jackie ducks into the hall just past the dining room and we follow her over to the service corridor and it looks as if the restroom is just a few feet away.

  She bumps into us on the way back with a stack of napkins in her hand.

  “Oh, hey, ladies.” Her eyes grow large as she looks my way. “Geez, do you even know that you’re the luckiest girl in the world? The things that man can do to a woman’s body should be illegal. I can only imagine he was saving the big guns for his wife. And to think you’re guaranteed to have that good time every single night and day for the rest of your life. If you ever need backup, I’m your girl.”

  I cringe. “Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll decline.”

  Bizzy steps in. “Hey, I think we met you at the Fourth of July author signing. I can’t wait to dig into your books.”

  Jackie’s pink lips round out. “Sorry, my mind is drawing a total blank. I’ll be honest, that was one of the worst days of my life. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but Ambrosia was murdered that night.”

  “We heard,” I whisper. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  She gives a quick glance around. “Thank you.” She shrugs. “It’s a huge loss to the writing community and an even bigger loss to her readers.” Her jaw clenches and her cheeks bite with a red hue.

  “Oooh dear.” Bingo pops up from behind me and I jump. I latch my pinky to Bizzy’s in the event the pink little piggy says something we should both be apprised of. “It looks as if she’s the guilty party. I’ve never seen anyone look so angry.”

  Bizzy gives a slight nod as if agreeing.

  “Jackie”—Bizzy leans in—“you look upset, angry even. Did you leave things off in a negative light with Ambrosia? I know how hard that is when a loved one dies before you can make things right with them.”

  Jackie rolls her eyes. “It’s that apparent, huh?” A dull laugh bounces from her. “It’s not exactly a secret that we didn’t get along.”

  “Really?” I ask, trying to sound surprised as if Jessie hadn’t already clued me in on that fact. “Ambrosia seemed so easygoing.”

  Jackie barks out a full-blown cackle. “I’m sorry, but that’s exactly what she wanted her readers to think. The ones that really knew her knew better. If she got into a scuffle with another author, she sent her rabid reader base after them. Believe me when I say it wasn’t pretty. Anyway, I had a bone to pick with her. But the truth is, so did just about everyone else.”

  Bizzy shudders. “Sorry to hear it. Can I ask what the disagreement was about? I mean, I’m assuming it was book-related.”

  “Oh, it was.” Jackie glowers at the wall behind me as if it were Ambrosia herself. “Valerie—Ambrosia—and I were good friends for a while there. The best of friends some might say. Anyway, we shared industry secrets and tried to help one another out whenever we could. One night I came up with what I thought would be a life-changing plotline, and believe me it was. It just so happens that it wasn’t my life it changed.”

  I suck in a quick breath. “She stole your idea?”

  Jackie nods. “You’re a smart cookie. I can see why Essex snatched you up.” She moves in a little more. “Val and I were having coffee one morning and I told her the details about a new series I was coming up with about a princess who escapes her country, only to find her true love in the corn fields of Nebraska. I had to line up a cover designer and fit the project into my schedule, of course. My book wouldn’t have come out until summer. Anyway, two weeks later, she puts out a new book on the fly, and you can probably guess what it was about—a princess who fled her country, only to find love in the cornfields of Nebraska. She didn’t even try to mask the plot. Even worse than that? She used the name I had picked out for my heroine. Kelena.”

  “Wow,” I say. “I mean, I guess there was no denying it.”

  Bingo belts out a choir of snorts. “I would have kicked her. Sorry to my Valerie, but there’s nothing a good hoof to the face can’t fix.”

  Bizzy clears her throat. “What did Ambrosia have to say when you confronted her?”

  “She denied that I ever told her about it, and when I pressed, she tossed her hands up and said so kill me. I have a lousy memory. She mentioned that she must have confused it as her own idea. She was full of it if you ask me. That’s when I started to ask around and it turns out Ambrosia Whispers”—she says her name in air quotes—“had quite the reputation for milking other people for ideas. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of her work was ripped off.”

  “That’s terrible,” I say. “I’m sorry she stole your idea. I can’t imagine how frustrating that would be.”

  Jackie twists her lips. “She turned it into a bestseller, too. I’d like to think I would have done the same.”

  “I’m sure you would have,” Bizzy adds. “You’re an amazing author. Hey? You made it sound like you’re familiar with the people Ambrosia crossed. Who do you think would have been angry enough to stick a knife in her back?”

  Jackie touches her fingers to her lips as she looks to the floor contemplating this.

  “Henry.” She nods with sincere confirmation.

  “Who?” Bizzy and I ask in unison.

  “Her ex. He was there, lurking around the author signing that day. Anyway, Ambrosia and he had a wild breakup. It was epic, one for the ages. One she chronicled in her book, The Cheater’s Diary. That, too, was a bestseller.”

  “Henry Henderson?” Bizzy’s eyes widen as if she wasn’t trying to bait the girl.

  Good one, Bizzy, I say to her telepathically, and her lips curl up at the corners.

  Jackie shakes her head. “Henry Watson. He’s some lowlife that works down at an aptly named dive bar, Lowlifes. Anyway, he’s a bartender. That’s how they met. We had an author meet-up there one year just before Christmas. The party was so-so, but Ambrosia came away with the biggest prize of all, a shiny new boyfriend. Anyway, he turned out to be a boobie prize.”

  Someone calls her name and she looks past us.

  “I’d better get back to work. Good thing my uncle owns this joint or I would have been fired a long time ago.” She takes off and Bizzy pulls me in close.

  “She sure didn’t have one nice thought about Ambrosia. But she didn’t exactly confess to the killing her either.”

  “We need to read Ambrosia’s book,” I say.

  Bizzy nods. “And right after that trip to the library, I think we need to head to a dive bar called Lowlifes.”

  “I bet Georgie and Carlotta will love it there, and I mean that in the best way.”

  Bizzy laughs. “Here’s hoping they don’t pick up a couple of lowlifes of their own.”

  We head back, and as soon as we finish up with dinner, we all hit the dance floor with the exception of Noah. Even Carlotta and Georgie are dancing with a couple of dashing older men. Even though Carlotta is dating Mayor Nash, Harry, my biological father, it’s never stopp
ed her from having a good time with other men.

  Everett leans in and brushes a kiss over my cheek and the entire left side of my body electrifies.

  “Lemon, you have no idea what you’re doing to me with that dress. I love it, and more importantly the woman in it.”

  A laugh bubbles from me. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me in that suit. I think these irritating clothes best come off first chance we get.”

  “Why wait? There’s a perfectly good darkened hall to our right.”

  I bite down over my lip, partially tempted. Everett has been known to pull me away to a darkened corridor a time or two.

  Noah pops up and taps Everett on the shoulder.

  “Not now, Fox. We’re having a private conversation.”

  “Funny.” Noah tips his head back. “I never denied you the chance to dance with Lottie.”

  Everett turns his way with a marked look of irritation on his face.

  “Why is it you always have to be in the driver’s seat, Noah? If I want to finish a dance with my wife—finish a conversation with her, I should be able to do so without you crawling all over my back.”

  “She might be your wife, but she’s my girlfriend and don’t you forget it. Just because you conveniently landed her in a marital commitment doesn’t mean anything. It was nothing more than a desperate attempt to hold onto Lottie, and you know it.”

  Everett’s chest bucks with a silent laugh. “I don’t need to resort to desperate attempts. What Lemon and I share isn’t child’s play.”

  “Oh?” Noah steps in with a threat in his eyes. “And you’re saying what Lottie and I had was? Lottie and I have a real relationship. I never had to chase her through the neighborhood while she was in her bikini. At the end of the day, you’re nothing more than an animal. You’re an insult to animals because animals have the ability to cultivate relationships with people. Something you’ve never been able to do. The truth is, I didn’t have to steal Cormack. She craved the emotional connection I was able to give her.”