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

Two tigers in an Indian national park had started circling each other before launching into a fight to the death. They were fighting over a female that ultimately rejected both of them and went off with a third tiger. I didn’t have a third guy here to leave with though, I was stuck with these two.

“Easy tiger,” I smirked. That was the ice breaker that brought their attention back to the issue at hand. “Where have you been?”

“I got called out to a robbery. I figured it might be the same person that shot Jake, so I ran out to deal with it. The whole squad was there in full riot gear,” Miller explained. “It was a false alarm though; all we did was frighten the bank tellers when we stormed in.”

“False alarm?” I said. “Who called you there then?”

“I don’t know. Tom was there though, he treated us all to a rendition of Hit me with your best shot,” Miller shrugged.

“The Pat Benatar song?” Ryder asked.

“The very same,” Miller nodded. Tom was the only pilot on the island, he had been the one flying the plane that had brought me here. He had a passion for singing and didn’t necessarily care if you wanted to hear it or not. “Oh, did you call the funeral home?” he said, looking over at the space where Jake had been laying.

“Me?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was about to do it but then my walkie talkie started going off and I had to run to the bank.”

“Hang on, I didn’t call the funeral home, and you didn’t call them either. You were called away for a false alarm…” I was trying to put pieces together. Something hadn’t felt right when I returned with Ryder, now I knew why. “No one called the funeral home, but Jake’s body is gone. Who took him?”

7

I was sitting at my dining table with Kate and Effie. I don’t even remember who brought the take-out cartons, but we were all eating as if we’d been starved. Miller had set about trying to locate the dead body of Jake, understandably, and Ryder had walked me back to the café.

“So which one are you going for?” Effie asked in between mouthfuls of rice. “Hot guy number one or hot guy number two?”

“She’s not gonna choose,” Kate laughed. “She’s gonna string them both along until a third, hotter option shows up, like that tiger thing. Did you read about that? She’s gonna have her cake and make out with it too!”

“You guys are the worst,” I snorted. “I’m not stringing either of them along, I don’t know what I’m doing…”

“Well, if I was in your situation, I’d be thrilled,” Effie sighed. “Do you know how hard it is to date around here? Even if you manage to find someone, you end up having your parents show up in the middle of your starlit beach walk and telling your beau embarrassing stories from when you were a toddler!”

“Oddly specific,” I laughed.

“Our parents are intense, man,” Kate agreed. “They used to show up at sleepovers with notecards covered in conversation starters for us all. It was so humiliating. It’s a good job we are both just so naturally awesome, because otherwise we would have had literally zero friends.”

“Are you trying to tell me that neither of you guys are dating anyone?” I asked. They both looked at each other and then sheepishly stared down into their dinner. “Hey, if you both get to butt into my life, then I am doing it right back!”

Kate shot me a look, widening her eyes to send a message. Oh yeah. I had forgotten that she was dating some guy she met through her GPS roulette game. I needed to change the subject quick, or risk landing her in hot water with her sister.

“Blood!” I yelled.

“Did you get heatstroke today?” Effie sniggered.

“No. Or at least I don’t think so,” I floundered. I put down my takeout carton and sat forward in my chair. “Ryder took me up into the woods today.”

“I bet he did,” Effie winked.

“Stop! Look, he thinks he found some sort of ritual site. There was a clearing in the trees up on one of the hills. It was all burned up, like someone had scorched a bunch of the plant life on purpose. It was in a perfect circle,” I began.

Kate and Effie both lost the smiles they were wearing and began to look as though they were listening more intently. I had their attention.

“Ryder took me there and there was a huge flat rock in the center. There was very clearly blood all over the rock,” I said. They both put their food down and sat forward.

“That sounds like a ritual site, all right,” Kate agreed. “Did you find any bones? Or candles? A book that’s bound in black leather with a tiny little gold crescent moon on the front?”

“No,” I answered.

“Oh, well that last thing is just something I lost that ideally wouldn’t get into the wrong hands…” Kate trailed off.

“You need to take us there,” Effie said.

“Now? It’s gonna get dark soon,” I grumbled. I was all for busting a group of people doing creepy stuff, but I’d rather do it when it was less spooky outside.

“Obviously not now,” Kate chuckled. “Because you have to come with me to The Trident and listen to some of these entries for Battle of the Bands!”

“Kate, what if we have a cult on the island that is making human sacrifices to a blood demon?” Effie shrieked.

“Big if!” Kate laughed. “Look, I get that it could be bad, but you are jumping to conclusions. We should make a pact to not travel anywhere alone tonight. That means you have to come to the station too!”

Effie didn’t look thrilled by the idea.

“I don’t think we could see much if we went into the woods in the dark,” I said, trying to reassure Effie that it was okay to wait until morning.

“Fine, but if