Read The Extortion Cat-astrophe: A Beatrice Young Cozy Cat Mystery (Beatrice Young Cozy Cat Mysteries Book 2) for Free Online Page A

hadn’t met with him the previous day: another man in her life, a desire to torture him, a hatred for spending even a minute of her time with him.
    Beatrice leaned back and put her glasses back down around her neck. “This makes me miss neither dating nor being young,” she said. She reached out and grasped both Zoe’s hands. “Zoe, I try not to interfere. Alright, I try and repeatedly fail. My point is that I worry about you. You’re such a smart, loving, and beautiful person yet you date these, pardon my frankness, utter and compete losers.”
    Zoe’s eyebrows drew together. “If you think I date losers, what does that make me?”
    “No, I…”
    The doorbell rang, interrupting them. In strolled Abigail, owner of the Purple Lilac Café, carrying a yoga mat and dressed head-to-toe in skintight spandex. Beatrice had to admit that she looked good.
    “I had to come in, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Abigail said breezily as she moved to awkwardly hug Beatrice. “Open on a Monday? What’s come over you two?”
    Beatrice gave her a tight smile and stepped back, arms crossed. “We’re not officially open. We’re just testing the recipe for the baking competition. A little creative exercise on my day off.”
    Abigail’s perfectly plucked eyebrows shot up. “The competition is this weekend. You mean to say that you don’t have the recipe yet?”
    “We do! We’re refining the recipe, you see.”
    Abigail strolled over to the display case and casually surveyed the contents. “Well, you do have a lot to choose from already. You know how the judges love simple, comfort food.”
    “How do you know who the judges are?” Beatrice asked.
    Abigail threw her a sly smile. “Well, George and I were having dinner the other night and he couldn’t help but drop that he’s one of the judges. And that I’ll have the first spot in the line of contestants,” she said, whispering behind her hand. “Of course he had nothing to do with that.”
    George was Abigail’s ex-husband and a prominent restaurant owner in town. For heaven’s sake, why couldn’t Matthew have been a chef instead of a ranger? She had no ex-husband advantage in this scenario.
    “That’s nice,” Beatrice said dryly. “I hope he doesn’t mind presenting you with a silver metal this year.”
    “Zing!” Zoe chimed in.
    Abigail rolled her eyes. “Beatrice, come now. Let’s not mince words. We all know your cute little café is good at reviving the old classics. But the competition is about innovation . Sizzle. You know you can’t compete there.”
    Beatrice had a retort, and a not very nice one at that, on the tip of her tongue. Thankfully, Hamish stopped her cold by running up to her rival, dry heaving a couple of times, and then spewing the most massive hairball she had ever seen on Abigail’s expensive runners.
    The woman promptly shrieked and looked first at the cat and then Beatrice before fleeing out the door, the doorbell jangling angrily behind her.
    “Hamish, did I bring you up to act like that?” Beatrice asked, trying for a severe tone.
    The big Maine Coon merely meowed and trotted off, head and tail held aloft in triumph. Beatrice shook her head and went to clean up the residue of hairball from the floor. Zoe returned to the kitchen and took the cinnamon buns out of the oven. The room was thick with the smell of cinnamon and brown sugar.
    “Zoe, I’m sorry for ragging you about Hunter,” Beatrice started.
    Zoe waved her off. “It’s okay Bee, I’m just a little defensive today after all those texts from him. I know you just want to protect me.”
    “I do, though sometimes I feel like I’m not up to the job. Let’s just forget all that now. We need recipe inspiration, stat.”
    “A pie-cake hybrid, remember?” Zoe said as she mixed up a huge batch of cream cheese icing.
    “I know! But how does that work?”
    Zoe paused her stirring for a moment. “Bee, you ever heard of something called a turducken? Duck inside de-boned