Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (hardest books to read TXT) 📗

opportunity to speak since the incident in the tunnel, but Effie had been checking in at the station to see what was happening with Link, so had given me a few updates. It looked like I was about to get the full story.

“Hey Effie, could I speak to Sadie alone?” he asked.

“I’m not her manager,” Effie scoffed. “You should be asking her if she wants to speak to you alone.” He audibly sighed, turned his face towards me and raised an eyebrow. I stepped towards him as Effie yelled some words of warning in the direction of the sheriff.

“How are you?” he asked.

“I’m holding up, how about you?” I replied. He shrugged.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. Dr. Barrow, or Fitz, whatever you’re calling that cat dentist, he told me to come back when you woke up. I figured you would want filling in on the case with Link.”

“Yeah, all I know is that I woke up on the beach as you and Ryder were about to kill each other,” I said. My tone was serious, no one could tell me what had happened in that tunnel except Miller or Ryder, and I hadn’t spoken to either of them since.

“Well, when you left, it seems that you forced us all apart. You landed on the beach here, I woke up on one of the smaller islands in my human form, Ryder was nowhere around so I figure he was on another island all together,” he explained.

“Wait, have you seen Ryder since?” I asked, panicked that I might have sent him out to sea or space or something.

“I’ve seen him out and about, but we haven’t spoken. I think he has it in his head that I will be the death of you,” he sighed. “Since this new werewolf situation is here to stay, I decided to work my way back through my family tree with more intensity so that I could learn what might happen next. It isn’t just werewolf ancestors that I have to deal with, but guardians too.”

“Huh?”

“The DNA in Ryder that is forcing him to protect you, it’s in me too. Turns out Ryder and I are distant relatives, everyone around here is related to everyone else one way or another. I moved to the island a few years back because I was called back here for a funeral, I think you were there too,” he said.

I thought back to my only other visit to Hallow Haven prior to moving here. A friend of my adoptive mother had died, and she insisted that I join her for the service. As I thought about it now, it would appear that the woman that had raised me was trying to guide me in this direction all along.

“I came and I never left, I met Effie and Kate, they were some distant cousins, and I took it all at face value, learning more about the island and it’s residents over time made me think that I was going mad, but obviously now I know it was true. Every peacekeeper is assigned a guardian, it seems that you might have been given two somehow,” he sighed.

“What does that mean? What is a guardian?” I asked.

“There is a person that will protect you, it is their duty. I worked with Greta as her colleague, but when I met you, I knew that something was different. I tried to keep my distance, but when I pulled you out of the water, I felt a change, as if something had begun. I feel awkward saying this now, but I thought that you were so... you are so—”

“Are the ends of your sentences good?” I teased.

“There is a lot that I don’t know, so I think we will be learning together,” he smiled. “I just know that Ryder will be on my case now, trying to get closer to you and keep us apart. I think Greta was always hoping that Ryder was her guardian, she hung out with him all day long, it would have made her life easier.”

“Why? Are you allowed to date your guardian?” I asked. I almost instantly started blushing. Miller was protective of me, gorgeous and dedicated to his work. It was a winning combination, if you just push the ‘turns into a wolf sometimes’ issue to one side, but hey, we’ve all got baggage, right?

Ryder on the other hand, well he was handsome, outdoorsy and also protective. If my life here was going to involve two jaw-droppingly attractive men trying to spend time with me then I was all for it. A muffled voice on Miller’s radio caught his attention and it seemed he was needed elsewhere.

“Sadie, I have to go, Link is ready for transfer,” he said. I stared at him blankly. “He finally signed a confession to say that he killed Chris Davick in order to fuel the fire with the family feuding, Greta caught on to him and he killed her too. Dragged her through the tunnels underground and buried her in a shallow grave in the cemetery.”

“So the car crash…?”

“Was a set up,” he nodded. “He was the one that drove her car up the mountain path, rolled it towards a tree and beat it with a golf club to make it look like she’d been in an accident. He pushed the seat back too so you would suspect someone taller than him if you realized she hadn’t crashed. He is the one that can move the rocks by the cave, Simon was following him around because he was worried that Link was the one stalking Rosie.”

“Where are you transferring him to?” I asked.

“There is a prison on a small island beyond Port Wayvern, it will be able to hold him regardless of his powers,” Miller sighed. “He is sorry about Greta, if that makes things any easier. He has no regret of killing Chris, but he wished that Greta hadn’t got caught in the middle of it all.” Miller reached out as if