Page 32 of Wedding Cake Carnage

Noah glances my way. “And all she did was talk about you, man. See? You cramp my style whether you’re here or not.” He leans in, his expression quickly sobering. “I’m glad to have you back. I mean that. What happened?”

His chest expands for a moment. “I was running late.” His mournful eyes sweep to mine. “I was hoping to meet you at the lake. But court was running behind. As soon as I got my stuff together, I made my way out the building. I unlocked the car, opened the door, and just before I got in, I spotted something on my windshield. That’s when she came around from the other side. She had a gun pointed right at me. Her hands were shaking. She asked me to toss my phone and briefcase into the bushes. I did as I was told, but I couldn’t stop looking at her.” Everett’s deep blue eyes glide between Noah and me.

I nod. “Did she look like Harlow—Harlow James, the woman who was pregnant with your child?”

His lips curl slightly as he gives a slow blink my way. “I should have known you would already have this entire thing pieced together.” He inches back. “How did you know that?”

Noah knocks his elbow in Everett’s direction. “You go first. What happened when you recognized her?”

Everett winces. “I called out her name. She told me to get in the car and she would explain everything. And just like that, I found myself handcuffed to the interior of her car. She said her name is Hailey—Harlow’s sister. She wanted retribution for ruining her sister’s life.” His forehead wrinkles as if reliving a bad memory, and I’m sure he is. “She also said that I should have been hers to begin with. That her sister stole everything from her, including me.”

Noah and I exchange a look.

Noah is trying his best to process this. “We did a brief background check on Hailey yesterday. It’s like she’s a ghost. No carbon footprint whatsoever. It looks as if her father owns the cabin. The property taxes are up-to-date.”

Everett shakes his head, baffled as he looks to the two of us. “So, how did you do it? How did you find me?”

“That was all Lottie—and you.”

“That’s right,” I say, nestling beside him as I take a seat next to his warm body, and, my God, how I’ve missed his warm body. “It sounds like you had Mangias and Wicked Wok delivered every day.”

Everett’s chest rumbles with a laugh. “Well, she was accommodating. It was all I could think of that might be a form of communication. But, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know if it would get me anywhere. However, I did know you’d be looking for me.” He glances to Noah. “Both of you. Thank you.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders. “She didn’t hurt me in any way. She was making plans for the two of us to drive out of state. She wouldn’t tell me where. She made it clear that we were together now and our old lives were dead.” His features darken. “She asked about you.” His finger caresses my cheek. “I spoke about you exactly twice, simply answering questions, and she grew aggressively irate, screaming, knocking things over. It was insanity on display. She had a bolt on the door that required a key, bars on all the windows, and the barrel of her gun trained on me whenever she let me out of that room. And when she had to leave, she chained me to the bed and shot me with a tranquilizer.”

Noah sighs deeply. “It looks like you finally met your match.”

“No,” Everett is quick to answer. “This is my match.” He warms my arm with his hand. “She was, and is, a psychotic mess. She’s dangerous, Noah. And she needs to be stopped.”

“She will be.” Noah ticks his head to the side as if he were trying to speak to Everett in some secret language. “I’ll make sure of it myself.”

“I see,” I say. “And you want me to stay out of this.”

“Yes,” they both say in unison.

Before I can protest, and they know I will, a couple of hysterically happy women sail through the door—his mother, Eliza, and sister, Meghan. They tackle hug him as I get bumped off the bed, and I watch with tears in my eyes as the happy reunion takes place.

Eliza is a socialite who lives in a ridiculously large department store she’s trying to pass off as a mansion, nestled in the ritziest area of Fallbrook. Meghan lives in Fallbrook, too, and works insurance out there somewhere. They both share his dark hair and bright blue eyes.

“Essex, you’ve given us quite the scare.” Eliza wipes the tears from her eyes.

Even though Everett’s formal moniker is more or less reserved for those who have landed horizontally with him, his mother and sister are the exception to that rule.

“And I apologize.” Everett takes them both in as if he never thought he’d see them again, and I’m betting he didn’t. “I don’t plan on letting it happen again.”

“Good,” Meghan huffs it out aggressively as if she were fighting mad. “Now where is the lunatic so I can say hello with my fist?”

“On the loose,” Noah offers and they both moan in unison.

Eliza shudders. “Well, with you on the job, I just know she’ll be apprehended quickly. Thank you, Noah, for bringing my boy back to me safely.”

“It was Lottie.” Noah nods my way.

My mouth opens as I look to him. “And it was Noah, too. He’s just being humble. I couldn’t have carried Everett on my back, down a hill, and to his truck. That was all you, Noah.”

Everett inches back as he examines his former stepbrother. “You did that?”

“Darn right, I did that. I wasn’t about to leave you.”

A swell of bodies burst into the room as a nurse does her best to hold them back. Mom and Mayor Nash, Lainey and Forest, Meg and Hook.