Ganache with Panache: Book 2 in The Chocolate Cafe Series by Valley Sams Page A

in her hand.
    “Who is this?” she asked.
    “Forget designing for her. Stay away and you won’t get hurt.” Vanessa’s heartbeat began to thud, adrenaline making her scalp tingle. She put down the pencil and sharpener and quickly checked the caller ID again. Unavailable.
    “Who is this?” she asked again, her voice growing louder with her alarm. “Won’t get hurt? What do you mean by that?”
    “Stay out of the way and nothing will happen. Keep it up and things are going to get serious. Quick.” The woman sounded gravelly, half as if she was trying to disguise her voice, half as if she had been drinking.
    Vanessa sat down on her stool, unconsciously clutching her robe to her throat.
    “This is your first warning. There won’t be a second.” There was a click and the line went dead.
    Vanessa’s ears felt as if they were filled with blood, pulsing with her rapid heartbeat. She had just been threatened. Who threatens a fashion designer? She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She stood up on shaky legs, jabbing at her phone in a futile attempt to what? Trace the call? She went to her recent call log and pressed on the ‘unavailable’ at the top.
    She had been threatened and she’d be damned if she was going to take it. Thankfully anger had replaced her nerves and she paced as the phone rang, and rang, and rang.
    A sudden knocking at the door downstairs made her jump.
    “Oh my gosh. What now?” Vanessa mumbled. She scrambled over her bed to peer out the window at the street below. She half expected to see a lynch mob with torches below. Instead of a horde of fashion-enraged peasants, she was relieved to see Catharine Mackenzie, drenched in sweat and looking just as nervous as she did.
    Vanessa leaped off the unmade bed and ran to the stairs. Her robe now undone, she jumped down the steps two at time and into the shop.
    “I just had the strangest phone call,” Vanessa said breathlessly, as soon as she opened the door. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
    Mac, who looked worried before, looked suddenly even more so.
    “Funnily enough, I’ve just been kidnapped and told to make you stop designing Amelia’s gown.”
    Vanessa reached out and yanked Mac by the sweaty shirt into the shop. She locked the door, fighting the urge to look to see if she was being watched.
    “What is going on?” she said, turning to face Mac. “It’s just a dress. What is wrong with people in this town? Murder? Threats? The city was safer.”
    “What did they say on the phone?” Mac was still out of breath and was doing her best to slow down her gulps of air.
    “Are you okay?” Vanessa asked, concerned. She slipped out of her robe and passed it to Mac. “Here, wipe yourself off.”
    Mac took it thankfully. “Olivia Hood and her beast of a daughter Harper. They picked me up on my run and told me they were going to make you design her gown now that Lau was dead. They dropped me,” she drew a few more deep breaths, “half an hour out of town. I ran back to tell you not to bother.”
    Vanessa held up her phone, her round eyes narrowing with anger.
    “Well, someone else beat you to it.”
    “What did they say?” Mac asked. Having only met her a few days ago, Vanessa was momentarily taken aback by the sudden darkness that came over her otherwise sunny new friend. Everything delicate about her disappeared and she took on a brilliant sharpness that she had only ever seen in her most gifted friends and favorite professors.
    “Um…well, it was some woman who sounded, honestly like she’d been drinking or just woken up after a night of it.” Mac nodded. “She told me to stay away from Amelia or things would start to happen. You don’t think?” Vanessa put her hand to her mouth. “You don’t think it was those two women, the Hoods, do you? Would they do that?”
    “Apparently they are capable of a lot more than bridge games and liposuction,” Mac said.
    “Well, we need to do something. We need to call the police.”