Page 30 of Killer Confections
“Oh, my god,” I speak out loud as my heart plummets. This note wasn’t here before I went to bed…
Bile rises in my throat.
They were here while I slept.
And now they’re going to be at the bakery’s opening.
“This is bad!” I breathe, my chest tightening and my adrenaline kicking in. Everything rushes around me, the world tunneling as the note flutters from my hand.
“Hey, I’m ready—” Addison stops in the doorway of my room, her face falling as she takes in my aghast appearance. Her eyes trail to the note on the floor and she steps forward, bending down to grab it.
She turns it over, her mouth falling open as she reads. Her eyes dart up to me. “What the fuck…”
“Yeah,” I mumble before lowering myself to the bed. I rest my elbows on my knees, burying my face in my hands.
“How…” she trails in disbelief. “How did they get past me? I didn’t even hear the front door!”
My head whips up to my friend, “Not helping!”
She winces, “Sorry. You have to call the police after this.”
My eyes widen. “And risk the punishment? Whoever this is, they can get inside of my apartment, Addie. They did it after I changed the security code.”
She reads the note again, her brow lifting. “He sounds intense and freaky.”
I tilt my head to the side, my lips pressing into a thin line as I stare at my friend.
“What?” She throws her hands up. “This is clearly some guy who has the major hots for you. This is like a possessive book boyfriend threat. Besides, just look at the handwriting. No woman writes that poorly.”
I stand, ripping the note from her. “And I don’t know who he is. Or how he keeps getting into my house!”
She smiles, “So, you admit he’s a man?”
I groan, tossing the note onto my nightstand. “Drop it. We’ll revisit this later.”
“After you call the cops?” She asks, her tone hopeful. “I’ll even leave the apartment so you can have some privacy for your punishment—”
I slap a hand over her mouth. “Shut up.”
She smiles against my palm, nodding her head like an idiot.
***
Two hours into the opening, and I’m sweating from exertion. The turn out was far greater than we expected. It helps that I purposely chose the same day the farmer’s market would be open, the booths of fresh fruits and vegetables, paintings, and jewelry lining the sidewalks of downtown Columbus just outside Sweet Haven’s doors.
The roads are closed off to account for the mass of people out this morning. The lobby of my bakery is overwhelmed with men, women, and children alike trying to avoid the heat of the day and get a taste from the array of sweets my shopoffers.
“We need more sugar cookies and lemon cupcakes!” Miranda, the more outspoken student hire, shouts into the kitchen. Her green streaked braids come into view and, despite her sweaty brow, she’s smiling like she’s having the most fun she’s ever had in her whole seventeen years of life.
“I have a batch of cookies,” Janette returns, dusting the flour from her face as she grabs a massive tray lined with sugar cookies that are coated in thick royal icing. The bakery’s logo is airbrushed in pink in the center and dusted with golden edible sparkles.
“Working on the cupcakes now,” Riley shouts from the back of the kitchen, where she’s been piping icing on cakes and cupcakes since we opened.
Scarlet takes out two more trays of brownies from the convection oven as I finish coating two racks loaded with Petit Fours. Addison is somewhere around here, snapping pictures for Sweet Haven’s social media pages and making lives to entice more people into the shop.
A head of short, sheared on the sides, black hair pops into the kitchen next to Miranda’s. Blair’s eyebrows and nose have shimmering silver piercings in them, giving her a more edgy look.
“There’s some guy out here asking for you, boss.” Blair pops her gum, wiggling her brows.
