Baby Bundt Cake Confusion (Murder in the Mix Book 31) by Unknown (reading eggs books .txt) 📗

them are blowing party horns and whooping it up as if they were a parade unto themselves. I can’t help but notice they’re all dressed to the nines, and the two mamas of the bunch are suspiciously baby free.

“All right, Lot Lot!” Carlotta blows her party horn once again and a handful of customers run for the exit in fear the revelry is about to get out of hand. I can’t blame them. It’s clear things have gotten out of hand already.

Keelie jets past me. “I’ll get her stuff!” she shouts as she zips her way to the office.

Meg nods. “And I’ll get a box of crullers and fried pickles together for the road.”

“What road?” I ask just as Noah yanks Everett out of his seat and leads him toward the door and I see them going at it. Everett looks as if he’s about to accost him before he gives a long blink and says something to Noah.

“Come on, Lot Lot.” Carlotta takes my coat from Keelie, and soon it’s warming my body.

Lainey pulls something shiny out of her purse and it glints as it hits the light.

“What is that?” I spit the words out quickly, because as I suspected, it’s heading in my direction.

“It’s your crown, Lottie,” Lainey says as she presses it onto my head. “And tonight, you’re the queen.”

“Queen?” A wailing sound emits from me. My eyes flit toward the door and I see Noah look as if he’s about to rip into Everett before turning my way. He looks right at me and the expression on his face remains hard and cold before he closes his eyes and turns back to Everett.

Everett told him.

Whatever it is that wound Everett up, he’s let Noah in on it, and now I’m the only one out of the loop.

Both Carlotta and Meg link arms with mine, and soon we’re headed for the door.

“Wait, stop!” I shout, digging my heels in. “What exactly is happening?”

Carlotta bumps her hip to mine. “Welcome to your hatchelorette party. Seeing you’re about to hatch, we figure it’s time to party.”

Keelie steps up and growls at Everett and Noah. “And I have it on good authority that neither of these men bothered to take you on a babymoon, Lottie Lemon.”

Both Everett and Noah open their mouths and close them.

She’s right, but still.

“Keelie”—I tick my head their way—“in their defense, it’s been back-to-back homicides around here. And two of their old classmates were just gunned down. It’s hardly the time for a vacation.”

A contraction starts up and I force myself not to move a muscle. If my sisters and bestie knew how much pain my body has been doling out all day, they’d drive me straight to the hospital and demand Dr. Barnette fish this baby out. Carlotta would probably grab a bag of popcorn and do her best to ignore my cries of misery. And shockingly, I prefer that brand of treatment. The more I choose to ignore the outrageous demands of my body, the longer I can remain in denial that my life is about to be upended.

Carlotta scoffs. “Who said anything about a vacation? We’re here to give you a night to remember. Evie’s busy for the night with some study group, so you’ve really got the night off. Foxy and Sexy can join in on the fun if they want to. That is, if they don’t mind watching their baby mama doing shots off men with washboard abs.”

“That’s what she’s got me for.” Everett doesn’t miss a beat.

Carlotta leans in. “Well, I hope you don’t mind watching her horsing around with men who wield their weapons for all to see.”

Noah’s chest bumps. “That’s what she’s got me for.”

“I’m not talking about that weapon.” Carlotta motions to the gun peering out from under his jacket.

“Neither was I,” Noah is quick to inform her, and on cue all four women howl with approval.

“Okay, okay.” I hold my hands up before a cluster of werewolves burst in looking to mate. “I’d love to go out with you tonight, but I’ve got a case growing cold and one more suspect to grill.”

“Ooh.” Lainey rubs her hands together. “Who are we after tonight, Lottie?”

“A man by the name of Slater Sutton.”

Keelie gasps. “Jazzy Albright’s husband from Money on the Med? Oh, he’s hot.” She fans herself with her fingers.

Meg grunts while looking at her phone, “He’s in Scooter Springs—at a place called the Hideaway.”

“Wow,” I muse. “Did you get that from his social media?”

“Nope. Someone tagged him. When you achieve that level of fame, people want to be seen with you, and if it’s not documented on social media, it didn’t happen.”

I look back at Noah and Everett. “It looks like we’re headed to Scooter Springs. And we’re bringing the party with us.”

Soon, we’ll know everything Slater Sutton is willing to tell us.

But before we ever set foot out of the car, I’m going to figure out exactly what happened to Everett today.

Everett wouldn’t say a word. He simply kissed me, hopped into his shiny new ride, and said he’d meet us in Scooter Springs.

Noah wasn’t talking either. He said it was nothing. That he and Everett were simply having a run-of-the-mill argument. I didn’t browbeat him about it because we happened to be traveling in my minivan with Carlotta, Keelie, Lainey, and Meg who acted like drunken sailors every inch of the way to that dicey town. It didn’t help that my stomach kept hardening into a tight ball of misery on the way either. The louder their rabble-rousing grew, the longer my contractions lasted.

Scooter Springs sits north of Honey Hollow, about an hour depending on traffic, and it’s the northern counterpart to the dicey town that sits just south of us—Leeds. They both have a penchant for all things lewd and the mobsters who propagate them. It just so happens that Jimmy Canelli’s youngest son, Domenico, and Luke Lazzari’s youngest son, Enzo, both run greasy operations in that questionable town, Scooter Springs.