Page 83 of Kill Me Sweetly

Four sighed, almost as if he were exasperated with me. “You bake. You have shown me you can get into the consortium in a way I never thought possible.…You might not be able to get to Harper Reese in person, but your cupcakes can.”

Holy. Shit.“You’re a fucking genius.”

He didn’t say anything, but he smiled. Had JJ ever seen that smile? Because it was amazing.

“Maybe I stay here and watch over JJ, and you make sure that once he leaves here, there are no demons following him.” He then turned his head toward the TV that was playing Noel’s video once more.

“I’ll be back, and when I am, this will all be over.”

Four nodded and it was hard leaving JJ in there, but I knew in my heart that Four would guard him with his life.

CHAPTER FORTY

SHEP

“Two hasn’t givenme his name, but he asked not to be called Wes anymore.” Angel sighed loudly. I was at the shop, baking strawberry cupcakes.

I’d taken a Lyft there and called Mason and Gabe on my way, hoping the driver’s earbuds would keep him from overhearing. They’d listened to my plan, forged from Four, and loved it. They’d left to get things and were getting a hotel room for the night. We didn’t want to risk being followed to the house, and a hotel would be a lot harder to shoot up.

I’d locked up tight before going in the back to bake, and called Angel.

“No offense, Angel, but I don’t really give a shit what he wants to be called right now.”

“I get it. Anyway, I got Two to talk. He won’t be using his hands for a while, but in the end I think he wants freedom like Four does.”

“Awesome, but why are we talking feelings? I want answers!”

“Fine. Damn, usually I’m the grumpy one.”

“Yeah, well, the man you love isn’t hanging on by a thread in a hospital where you can’t see him while the man behind it all is sitting pretty somewhere.”

“Shep, we all care about JJ.”

“Angel, enough. Tell me something good.”

“Jasmine’s Goods is the only place Harper Reese gets his morning pastries and sweets from. Every morning there’s a delivery.”

That didn’t seem impossible. “So, we need to intercept Jasmine’s Goods and swap them with mine? And where the hell would they be delivering it? We don’t know where Harper Reese is.”

“Easier said than done. Jasmine is loyal. And we do know where he is, actually. Nick was able to confirm through street cameras that he’s in his building.”

So we knew where he was and that he had a possible plan. “Even with all this news coverage, this lady is still loyal?”

“That I don’t know. But after finding out, I called the bakery as Harper’s assistant and canceled the delivery for the day, and nobody questioned it.”

“Look, Angel, these cupcakes—everything needs to get to Harper, and he needs to eat it. Then we need to make sure he can’t seek medical attention.”

“Oh, I have a plan if it comes to that, don’t worry. Right now, we just gotta get him those cupcakes.”

We strategized and decided with Angel canceling the order, we could intercept as Jasmine’s Bakery. Nick began creating mock logos that matched the ones from her shop. Fortunately, their packaging was clear like ours, so we didn’t have an issue there. I’d gone onto the store’s website to see exactly how their cupcakes looked, and I’d replicated them perfectly. No one would be the wiser. Noel was going to drive the stickers to Saintly Sweets when they were done, and I’d be able to put them on my container of cupcakes.

Sure enough, as the sun peeked through the clouds and morning was upon me, Noel arrived.

“Were you safe while you put that shit in the cupcakes?” Noel slapped down the logo stickers.

“Of course I was! Ass.”

I handed Noel the tray of covered cupcakes. “You sure you can do this?”

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