Witch Risen: A Paranormal Adventure (Bad Tom Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

But I'm on edge, barely slept, and don't need any more bad news even if it's tempered with something positive.
    After I'm dressed, I sit quietly while Robert and Natalie bring the meal to the dining room table. He puts on a good feed. It's amazing he's stayed so lean at his age. I can't even begin to tell them what their dedication to helping Cassie means to me. I don't think my mouth would form the words. I'm so terrible with emotion after having been Cat for most of the past forty-five years that if I started to say it, I'm afraid I'd lose it completely. It will have to go unsaid.
    When Gilly bursts in the back door, she's breathing hard like she ran in from the car. "She left! Sue from the bakery told Dash, who told Janice, that she saw Eunice leaving the shop with a suitcase."
    "She's gone? Cassie's gone?" Eunice is going to tear me apart a piece at a time until there's nothing left of me. It's no coincidence Cat lost a snip of ear to that pigeon—that's just Eunice's way of letting me know that the pain will never end. I ball my fists and lower my head to the table top to keep from screaming out my rage.
    "Don't panic, Tom. Don't." She hurries to me and strokes my hair. I raise my eyes, and hers are there: kind, supportive, and determined. "I checked it out, and the sign on the door says the shop will be open again on Thursday. That's only a few days. There's no reason to think she won't be back right on time. And from talking to her, I'm absolutely sure she has no knowledge of anything that happened after she died. But, yes, this alarms me, too. Can you think of anything Eunice was planning before she died that would cause her to suddenly close the shop and leave?"
    In my head, I run through the last few months I spent in captivity with Eunice. "No, nothing. Business as usual. She was consumed with the same old power-mongering and vicious commentary about everyone in town." I pause as my voice catches. I take a deep breath before continuing. "Gilly, she could disappear, and we'd never find her."
    Natalie clears her throat. "I think that's unlikely, Tom. Never underestimate the witches of Giles. Gillian, do you have the jasmine oil?"
    "Bloody hell, I left it out in the car. I got distracted when Janice called. Couldn't think of anything else. And I realized while I was at the shop that Tom had been working there. I covered myself by saying I hadn't been in for several weeks, but you know how everyone talks. They're bound to ask about the handsome shop clerk and when he'll be back. Eunice is going to wonder how none of us recognized him."
    The corners of Nat's lips twitch up. I think she gets happier the more difficult things get. "You can dash out to the car for the oil after dinner, dear. We've got work to do. But dinner first, my busy bees. We all need to keep our strength up."
    I countermand her, saying "Gilly, get it now. We can plan during dinner. A quick dinner." Natalie starts to protest, but I cut her off. "You're high priestess. I get that. I appreciate that. But this is my battle, with my enslaver, for my girlfriend's life, and we don't have time to linger over our meal. We've got a lot of problems to solve, and I'm not waiting."
    She narrows her eyes, then shrugs and heads for the kitchen to start bringing in the food while Gilly heads out back to her car.
    By the end of dinner, we've got a three-pronged plan that gets us closer to getting Cassie back. First, we prove Cassie is still there. I know she is, so I'm not worried. This is just to keep Nat from going after Eunice half-cocked. Second, I need to be hidden so Eunice can't trace me and find out about everyone who is helping me in the process. It's probably lucky that she's gone out of town or she would have started looking for me already.
    We can't cover the fact that I worked in the store yet, but we've got some ideas about how to go about that when Eunice gets home.
    Three steps closer to Cassie. We'll be ready. I know we will.

***
    After I race to