Chocolate Chip Cookie Conundrum (Murder in the Mix Book 32) by Unknown (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📕

worried I’ll tell Lottie, I won’t. I’m in the business of protecting her, not making her worry within an inch of her life. I can help.”

“You can’t help,” he seethes. “You’re the reason I’m in this position to begin with. And I’m not looking for an apology, so you can save it. Just know that Lemon trusted you. She walked into a fire because you led the way. I had no choice but to step in. And you should thank your lucky stars I did. If I remember correctly, you sleep like the dead. That little quirk I had as a kid? Here’s hoping it’ll work in my favor.”

I shake my head at him, trying my hardest to read between the lines, read his cold expression.

“No. You’re holding back. Something happened, Everett. Do I need to head to Red Satin and talk to Jimmy Canelli myself?”

“Only if you want to get yourself killed.” He gives a long blink. “Look, Noah, I’m not looking to land you underground. You might have generated my problems, but now they are mine alone. Stay out of it. Don’t even breathe Jimmy Canelli’s name. I’ve got this handled. No one is going to be shooting bullets at me anytime soon.”

Everett’s got this handled?

I blink back. What the heck does he know about handling the mob?

Ivy and Carlotta head this way, and it looks like I’ll have to hold off on the inquisition until later.

“How about this?” Ivy pulls her lips back as she looks to the two of us. “If it isn’t a family reunion.”

“That’s right.” Carlotta quickly wraps an arm around both my shoulder and Everett’s. “Now get me back to the ranch, boys. Ivy untangled the knot, and I’m good to go.”

Ivy gives a curt nod in her direction. “We’ve fingerprinted and questioned Ms. Sawyer.” She tips her head toward Carlotta’s. “No leaving the state, no funny business. I know where to find you.” She looks to Everett. “I hear your trial is at hand.” Ivy studies him a moment. “I don’t know what happened that night. I don’t want to. But what I do know is the defense you’re batting around just might work. I’m looking forward to having you exonerated of the charges soon.” Her eyes flit my way. “Just a heads-up, the Morettis are in Vermont again. Something is happening.”

“You think they want to finish what they started?” My adrenaline spikes without warning. They almost finished me off a few months back. The Morettis are a New Jersey-based crime family and, for whatever reason, they’re picking a fight with the crime families we have right here in Vermont, the Canellis and the Lazzaris.

Ivy shakes her head. “I don’t know. Just be on alert. Moretti’s men have been spotted from Leeds to Starry Falls, and there’s been an odd uptick of their presence in Honey Hollow these past three weeks as well. I’ll keep you posted.” She nods to the three of us before taking off.

“Don’t worry, Foxy.” Carlotta bumps her hip to mine. “The Canellis and the Lazzaris aren’t about to let some kids from Jersey steal their lunch. They’ll pick ’em off one by one and they won’t come around here no more.”

Everett shoots a look to the side, deep in thought, as if her words bothered him.

Crap.

“Carlotta”—I dig my keys out of my pocket and dangle them in front of her—“get in my truck before they change their mind and lock you up in the back. Don’t leave without me. I need to take care of something. I’ll be less than a minute.”

“Sounds good to me.” She looks over at Everett. “Don’t worry, Sexy. The Morettis aren’t the only ones who won’t be coming around here no more.” She snatches up my keys and bolts for the exit. “We’re getting a bucket of chicken on the way home to celebrate!” she shouts and I nod.

“Chicken sounds good,” I say to Everett. “That is something you’ve never been.” I examine him a moment, that dark head of hair, angry eyes, but he’s not really angry, it’s a front he needs to hold up for God knows what reason. “You’re not a chicken, Everett. You don’t run away from things, you fix them. I think it’s a mighty big coincidence the Morettis have been in Vermont these last three weeks. I’ve been monitoring them myself. Three weeks ago Lottie gave birth to Lyla Nell. And you do love Lottie and Lyla Nell, don’t you?” I nod over at him and his lips tug to one side, but his anger only seems to sharpen. He doesn’t like that I’m onto him. “Thought so.” I glance toward the exit. “You have no idea what you’re doing. You’re not playing with matchsticks, you’re playing with dynamite.”

“Sometimes dynamite is the only way to go. Stay out of it.”

My mouth opens then closes. “Wait a minute… What did Carlotta mean when she said the Morettis weren’t the only ones who won’t be coming around here anymore?”

His eyes widen a notch and he takes a breath. I’ve thrown him, twice in less than five minutes. What in the hell is he up to?

“What does Carlotta ever mean? Stay out of that, too.”

“I’m not staying out of anything. If you haven’t figured that out, you don’t know me at all.”

We head out to the parking lot, and I pick up on the fact that Everett is very much morose.

“So you hired the Morettis.” I shrug his way. “Next time just come to me, would you?”

“So you could tack a target on my back? Noah, you mean well, but you wouldn’t have had a clue as to what to do.”

“You’re right. But I wouldn’t have gone nuclear, that’s for damn sure.” I shake my head at him. “Don’t keep me in the dark next time.”

We part ways, and on the drive home I try to get Carlotta to tell me who it is that’s not going to be coming around Vermont anymore, but she clams up ten times