Responding to fan mail came after that. Not all of it. That would be an hour. Maybe two. Instead, she answered the oldest ones, buying herself a little time. But reader notes had to be answered. Readers were everything. If they’d taken the time to write to her, then she could certainly take the time to write back.

Almost done, she looked through what was left, picking out the easiest to answer. Some got forwarded to her assistant to deal with. Em was good at that. Maybe her responses weren’t as elaborate as Marissa had been, but Em’s concise style did the trick.

Roxy kept going. Some emails took a simple yes or no to be handled. Some were invoices to be paid, promotions to approve, and interview requests that got politely turned down, an unfortunate necessity when she was this far behind on a book.

Only a few more emails remained, all from senders she didn’t recognize. Then one subject line caught her eye and made her suck in a breath.

Signing this Saturday

Those words made the identity of the sender, [email protected], as clear as crystal. Agnes. And the signing at the Bell, Book & Candle. Roxy had completely forgotten. With a groan, she clicked on it.

She read the short note twice to make sure she understood what she was reading. Agnes had pre-sold two hundred and fifty books and had another two hundred on hand for the signing. Which she expected to sell out of.

Holy bookseller of the year.

Roxy started typing an enthusiastic reply to make sure Agnes knew how much she appreciated the hard work, as well as an apology for not responding sooner. Roxy also promised to bring lots of swag. She finished with more thanks and a happy emoji.

As she hit send, she realized she wanted to bring Agnes a little gift on Saturday. Something special to really show her how blown away Roxy was by her efforts.

Roxy smiled and her thoughts turned to the book locket. That would be perfect. Except she couldn’t give Agnes that one. Not only would that be weird, but that locket had an R engraved on it. And it was going back to Thomas.

She rolled her eyes, realizing that meant a trip to the post office. More wasted time thanks to that man.

Shaking that off, she went online, did some searching and found the same locket. Overnight delivery was pricey, but worth it.

Finally, she opened her Word doc and got to work. She read through the last chapter she’d written, pleased to see it wasn’t entirely dreck. She did a quick edit on it to bring it up to par, then finally began new words. Her fingers flew over the keyboard with speed and intent, and she was happy to be making progress at last.

Wolfgang and Marabella were on the verge of seeing each other for the first time in eight months when her phone rang.

“Ugh, not now.” But she picked up the phone anyway to see who was calling. Delaney. Roxy answered. “Hey.”

“Hey. I was going to ring the bell, but—”

“Are you here already? What time is it?”

“It’s twelve fifteen. Too soon?”

“No, I was just in the writing zone.” She checked her progress. Almost twelve pages. Perfect. “I lost track of time is all. Why didn’t you ring the bell?”

“Yeah, I think maybe you should come to your front door.”

Roxy hit save, then got up. “Okay, on my way. You sound weird. Is something wrong?”

“Sweet crispy crackers, yes, something is wrong. Something is very wrong.”

Roxy raced down the hall as she hung up the phone. She opened the door, her focus on Delaney first.

Then Roxy saw what Delaney was talking about.

One of Roxy’s books was spread open and stuck to her door with a knife. The blade went straight through the book’s spine and on the exposed pages of type, the word traitor was written in red marker.

Delaney’s brows were knit together in clear concern. “Does stuff like this happen to you a lot?”

Roxy shivered. “No. That is really creepy.”

“Majorly creepy. I thought Thomas had been dealt with.”

“He was. In fact, I finally got the divorce papers. He’s officially out of my life.”

“You sure he knows that?”

“I need to call Alex.”

“Agreed. This is too much.” Delaney slipped into the house, keeping a wide distance from the knife. “But I’m so glad to see you. You look like you’re doing pretty good. I wasn’t sure if you’d ever talk to me again.”

Roxy smiled. “You can thank Alex’s mother.”

Delaney squinted. “Not sure I follow.”

“I’ll explain later.” She lifted her phone. “Let me call him first.”

“Yes, absolutely.” Delaney lifted the takeout bag in her hand. “I’ll go put lunch in the fridge.”

While Delaney did that, Roxy dialed Alex’s number.

He answered on the first ring. “Hello, beautiful.”

She smiled. That was an especially nice way to be greeted, given the circumstances. “Hi. I need you.”

“Straight into the dirty talk, I like that.”

She laughed. “That’s not what I meant.” Her smile faded. “I have an issue. Like a knife stuck in my door issue.”

“What? Are you home?”

“Yes. Are you?”

“No, I’m at the station. Don’t touch anything. I’ll be right there. I’m bringing Sheriff Merrow with me. Enough is enough.”

She thought about the strange handwriting and the unusual gift of jewelry. “Alex, I don’t think this was Thomas. In fact, I’m not sure it was ever him.”