Wedding Waffle Murder (A Wicked Waffle Paranormal Cozy Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  WEDDING WAFFLE MURDER

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Wedding

  Waffle

  Murder

  A Wicked Waffle Paranormal Cozy

  Book 6

  By

  Carolyn Q. Hunter

  Copyright 2018 Summer Prescott Books

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  **This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.

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  WEDDING

  WAFFLE

  MURDER

  A Wicked Waffle Paranormal Cozy

  Book 6

  Prologue

  * * *

  “Sheesh. I thought we’d be there by now, Chance,” Amanda complained from her position in the passenger’s seat of the red convertible.

  “Just hold your horses, babe. We’ll get there when we get there,” he told her, trying to keep her calm.

  The dark trees surrounding the windy mountain backroad whizzed by in a blur of grays and blacks. Despite it being early spring, the night remained chilly, giving the young woman goosebumps all along her bare arms and legs.

  “I hope the trunk doesn’t pop open again. I don’t want my bag falling out the back.”

  “I closed it good and hard this time. You know how finicky the latch on the trunk is.”

  “And I know it’s popped open randomly many times.” Grabbing her smartphone from the cup holder, she glanced at the time. It was nearly midnight. “How much longer then?” she shot back without looking up at her boyfriend.

  “I’m not sure, but like I said, we’ll get there when we get there,” he reiterated, suppressing a sigh. He couldn’t hide the nervousness hidden just behind the surface.

  Digging his hand into the pocket of his cargo pants, he double checked that the little jewelry box was still there—an action he’d taken at least once every ten minutes since they’d driven out of their hometown of Haunted Falls at ten p.m.

  “Are we lost?” she asked, knowing her boyfriend all too well.

  “No, we’re not lost. I know exactly where we are.”

  “That’s what you said an hour ago,” she mumbled, narrowing her eyes at him and trying to see if he was lying again.

  “And I still know where we are now,” he informed her, trying to save face. He turned and smiled at her reassuringly.

  His attempt at calming her worries didn’t work.

  “Then why the heck does it feel like we’ve been driving in circles?”

  “Don’t worry, Amanda. I know where we are. We are not driving in circles, it’s just a longer trip than I estimated.”

  “I thought you said you’d been there before.”

  “I have, but my dad drove, and I slept most of the way.” It was true, he had gone out to the cabin with his dad on multiple occasions.

  “Does your dad even know we’re going out to spend the weekend in his hunting cabin?” she asked for the fourth time.

  “Yes, a thousand times yes. Now please stop asking me,” he begged, wanting her to trust him.

  Amanda could see the lie in his eyes, in the way they twitched at the corners. However, she knew how precious his pride was to him, and decided that calling him on it would only cause another fight.

  They’d been fighting a lot lately. Too much. She pushed his buttons and he either retreated from the conversation or defended himself—even when he was wrong.

  Amanda knew she shouldn’t push him, but sometimes she couldn’t help it. She almost did it absent mindedly sometimes and felt guilty for it.

  Of course, that didn’t stop the little tiffs between them from happening. Chance just couldn’t stand being criticized or told what to do.

  Despite having been a couple since freshman year of high school, Amanda was beginning to see that this relationship had its flaws. Ever since graduation almost a year earlier, they’d disagreed on more than one topic.

  The main argument was over marriage.

  Chance wanted to get married right away and move in together. Amanda, on the other hand, wanted to have a stable life set up before jumping into marriage. Coming from a strong religious background, she had been taught the importance of hard work and stability in a marriage. She was holding out on saying “I do” until they both had jobs and could afford a proper home together.

  They’d both forgone applying to college, deciding that they were going to make it work in their tiny hometown in the Rocky Mountains. They didn’t want to be separated from one another. Amanda planned on continuing her waitressing job at the local diner, and Chance had plans to join his father’s construction business.

  Neither one of those ideas had panned out—not in the way they’d expected.

  Sonja and Alison, the ladies who owned the diner, were more than happy to hire Amanda on during her senior year. Unfortunately, the wages and hours weren’t enough for Amanda to gain any real sort of savings, and her goal to become a shift manager hadn’t come to fruition. Alison had told the young woman that she still needed some more experience in both the front and back ends of the diner before they could even consider offering her a promotion.

  As far as Amanda could tell, the owners took turns as a shift manager and had never promoted any other employee to that position, even though it seemed one or two of the other wait staff fulfilled the duties of that role on occasion.

  Amanda, of course, had argued with Alison, and even complained to Sonja, that nearly a year as a waitress was experience enough. When they both still disagreed, Amanda had tossed in the apron and quit.

  It hadn’t been her wisest decision, made in
a fit of frustration, but she was stuck with it. She’d been unemployed the last couple months, searching for another job in the small tourist community.

  It hadn’t helped that her boyfriend wasn’t pursuing any kind of career besides sitting on his butt playing video games, either.

  Chance’s father had told his son that he simply wasn’t construction material. Amanda already knew that her boyfriend had a history of being somewhat entitled, temperamental, and uncooperative in any employment setting, and she’d tried to tell him this fact on numerous occasions. Hearing it from his own dad, however, had been a big blow to the young man’s ego. Chance’s biggest flaw was his pride, his need to always be in charge, to be right. That simply meant he could never accept direction from anyone.

  As a result, the young couple had spent the last year living with their respective parents, unable to afford to live on their own. Amanda’s own mom and dad, both very sweet natured, had been more than willing to help Amanda out at each stage of her life, offering support where she needed it and sound advice when she was wrong.

  While they had a soft spot in their hearts for Chance, in recent months they urged her to leave Chance and try to go to college after all.

  She couldn’t seem to let Chance go but at the same time refused to commit to him when he brought up marriage. While he had his faults, being with him was comfortable and familiar. She knew it was a horrible reason to go on dating him, but there was a tiny shred of hope that things would eventually work out.

  This weekend trip, a few days alone together at a secluded cabin with no electricity, was meant to help them talk things out and make better plans for their potential future together.

  Amanda wanted to stay with Chance, but if this weekend didn’t pan out as she hoped, she was planning on ending it once and for all.

  Putting on a brave face, and smiling at her boyfriend, she wiggled her phone at him. “Why don’t we check the GPS on our phones?” She wanted to figure out where they were once and for all, even if it meant telling him he was wrong.

  “I’m not doing that because I know exactly where we are,” he snapped, deflating her attempt to suggest the GPS peacefully.

  Her smile disappeared. “Well, I’m going to check the GPS, anyway. You’re lost, and you know it.” Fiddling with her phone for a minute, she groaned and threw it back into her purse. “There is no service out here. I hope you’re happy.”

  Chance rolled his eyes and continued driving. “Hold on. What’s that?” he asked, diverting the conversation away from being lost and slowing the vehicle slightly.

  “What?” Amanda asked, following her boyfriend’s gaze and looking out her window.

  Bringing the car to a stop, he put the gearshift into park. “I thought I saw an animal out there.”

  “So? This is the mountains. There are tons of animals,” she replied, squinting to try and see through the clustered trees.

  “I’m going to check it out,” he noted.

  “Hey, don’t leave me here alone,” she begged, feeling suddenly afraid of being left in the car in the dark.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, opening the driver side door and getting out.

  “Don’t!” she shouted.

  “I just want to see what kind of animal it was,” he said, before rushing around the car and off into the trees.

  Amanda huffed wearily, reaching into the back seat to grab her hoodie from her bag and sliding it over her head.

  Pulling up the hood and hugging herself tightly, she snuggled down into the passenger seat to wait for Chance to come back. She only hoped they’d reach the hunting cabin soon. A warm fire and a cup of cocoa from their supplies sounded heavenly right about now.

  As the seconds ticked away into minutes, and the minutes began to feel like hours, Amanda felt the worry growing in her chest. What had started out as a flutter of anxiety now had her heart beating at an accelerated pace.

  Turning on her phone and checking the time, she realized that at least ten minutes had gone by. Where the heck could he have disappeared too?

  Taking deep breaths, the way her mom had shown her, she attempted to calm herself as she waited. However, after another five minutes had passed, she knew she needed to do something. Looking around out of all the windows, she tried to see if Chance was in sight.

  He was nowhere to be seen.

  Leaning back in her seat, she tried to formulate a plan. Should she go out and try to look for him? Should she try to find cell service and call emergency services? Should she drive back to town?

  That was out of the question since she had no idea where she was.

  “Okay. I can do this. I can go out there and look for him,” she told herself.

  Glancing in the side view mirror, she realized something was moving outside.

  “Thank goodness,” she sighed, turning in her seat, expecting to see Chance. What she saw instead made her gasp with fright. Walking toward the car from the woods was a figure all dressed in black, right down to gloved hands and a dark ski mask.

  Bursting into a run, the assailant bolted for the car.

  “Oh, my gosh,” she squeaked, fumbling with the door handle in an attempt to lock it.

  She wasn’t fast enough.

  He ripped the side door open.

  “No, no. Leave me alone,” she begged as one gloved hand grabbed at her.

  The masked madman tried to grab her but missed as she threw herself to the other side of the car and jumped out. Rushing into the soft brush at the side of the road she tried to get away. He paused to stare after her with menacing gray eyes overshadowed by bushy dark eyebrows before following.

  With the adrenaline now coursing through her veins at top speed, Amanda managed to pull herself through the thick bushes and undergrowth before her assailant could grab her. “Chance,” she shouted, running into the woods she’d seen her boyfriend disappear in. “Chance, please. Where are you? Please answer me,” she screamed into the night.

  The shuffle of her pursuer in the dry grass grew closer by the second, forcing her to pick up her pace. At the same time, she tried her hardest to watch her feet and not make any missteps or trip over any fallen branches.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. The toe of her shoe caught on something and she threw her arms out in front of her as she fell hard onto the rocky ground. “Ow,” she groaned, looking back to see what it was she’d tangled herself in.

  Instantly, her eyes widened, and a shout escaped her throat.

  Sticking out from beneath a bush was a pair of legs with the familiar white tennis shoes and tan cargo pants of her boyfriend. Frozen in shock, she didn’t have enough time to respond before the masked man came leaping from the darkness at her.

  Chapter 1

  * * *

  “She’s been missing since last night, Sherriff.” Those were the first words Sonja heard as she entered the Haunted Falls police station on the morning of April the twentieth. With her new light pink purse slung over her shoulder, she carried a cardboard cup caddy with two coffees in one hand and a to-go box stacked full of chocolate chip waffles in the other.

  The tiny wood-paneled lobby seemed busy, with both Sheriff Frank Thompson and the station dispatcher, Marie, behind the counter and local woman Trina Williams standing on the other side.

  Marie—whose permed hair was a wild shade of red this month—was sitting in the corner, sipping coffee from a mug. Upon smelling the familiar scent of freshly made waffles, she looked up toward Sonja with an expectant smile.

  Sonja shook her head in a scolding, but humorous fashion, at the older woman.

  Frank, who hadn’t acknowledged the presence of his fiancé, was talking to Trina. The middle-aged woman had dark circles of distress under her eyes and her dingy blonde hair looked slightly disheveled as if she’d been up for hours.

  “Are you sure she didn’t just spend the night somewhere else, perhaps at a friend’s house?” Frank asked.

  “I’ve called everyone
I can think of, but no one has seen her. I’m telling you, Sheriff, something is wrong.”

  “What about Chance Manx?” he asked.

  It would have been the most logical question in Sonja’s mind as well. Everyone knew that Amanda Williams and Chance Manx were a couple, and it wasn’t unlike young lovers to run off together.

  “I’ve called the Manx farm, but Jay says she hasn’t seen Chance this morning. Says that he often will drive off in that convertible of his and not come back until morning.”

  Frank held out his hand's palms up with a smile. “There you go. They’re probably together.”

  Shaking her head adamantly, she placed one palm on the counter. “No, no, no. My Amanda wouldn’t have run off for an overnight trip with that boy. She is a good kid.”

  Frank’s tilted his head sympathetically. “Even good kid’s make mistakes, Trina.”

  “Not Amanda,” she insisted.

  “Besides, Amanda is an adult now,” he tried to reassure her. “I’m sure she can take care of herself.”

  Balling her hand into a fist, Trina tightened her lips, trying to keep her polite nature while also being assertive. “I can feel it in my gut, Frank,” she insisted, using his first name to try and get his attention. “Something is wrong.”

  Sighing, Frank clasped his hands on the wooden countertop. “I’m sorry, but until we have more solid evidence to show that something is amiss, I can’t do any formal paperwork.”

  “That isn’t good enough. She may be hurt.”

  “Believe me, Trina. I’m concerned, but I don’t want to jump to any conclusions yet.”

  “What good is having a police force in this town if they won’t even take care of crimes when they come up?”

  Sonja could see Frank straining not to argue but keeping a polite smile on his face.

  “My husband is already out looking for her, and there has been no sign. When are you going to do something?” she pressed, going as far as to poke him in the chest with a stiff finger.