Would-Be Witch Read Online Free PDF Page B

nausea.
    “Thank you, door,” I mumbled, resting my forehead against the cool wood and feeling slightly better.
    Several beats of a police siren sounded and then stopped.
    “Now what?” I grumbled.
    “Tammy Jo, I should whip your ass,” Zach’s voice boomed from somewhere behind me. “Where the hell have you been?”
    “Poisoned.”
    “So I see. Where the hell were you drinkin’? I looked all over town after Doc Barnaby called. You’re lucky the man didn’t have a heart attack, or I’d be charging your sweet ass with man-slaughter.”
    “Wha—?”
    He pulled me aside, maneuvered my key in the lock, and then scooped me up.
    “He did it.”
    “Who did what?” Zach said, carrying me to the couch and setting me down.
    “He gave me poison tea.” I held up my hand and turned it this way and that about three inches from my eyes. There was a Band-Aid on my index finger. “He poked me.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    My arm was too darn heavy. It fell with a thud onto my chest. “I told you. He did it.”
    Zach squatted down next to me and sighed heavily. “Jo, we’ve been through a lot together, and I’ve got to tell you, darlin’, I’m worried about you. You don’t have to tell me where you been, but I wish you would. I know none of your girlfriends have seen you ’cause I talked to all of them. And I know they wouldn’t dump you on your front step in this condition. Only a man, and not much of one, would leave you like this. It wasn’t Doc Barnaby; you were already drunk and out of it when you called him.”
    My lip quivered. I could not believe this.
    “He’s a liar,” I slurred.
    Zach stroked my hair. “C’mon, Tammy Jo, you’re on somethin’. Whyn’t you just tell me what? You know I’m not going to arrest my ex-wife. Just tell me who gave it to you.”
    “Barnaby.”
    “Uh-huh. Remember that time June got you to try pot in high school and you thought Earl was Skeletor from the He-man cartoon? You almost drowned trying to get away from him, and yours truly had to fish you out of the lake. Next day, even you said that you can’t take any of that stuff. Some genetic thing that makes you hallucinate, you told me. Your momma was the same way.”
    I squinched my eyes shut and tried to keep the tears from escaping. Doc Barnaby had poisoned me and made me look like a fool and a drug addict. He wasn’t going to get me to cry, too.
    “It’s one of two reasons that you aren’t telling me who you were with. Either you can’t remember because you were too messed up, or you’re protecting whoever it was because you’re worried about what I’ll do. Well, I’m here to tell you, I’m gonna find out. And when I figure out who it was, I’m going to kick the ever-lovin’ shit out of him.”
    I felt him kiss me on the forehead.
    “Anybody leaves my baby like this is going to answer to me,” he said, picking me back up. He carried me to the bedroom and tucked me into bed.
    The tears dripped from my eyes. Not because I was mad at Barnaby, the finger-stabbing, poison-pushing bastard, but because Zach’s country boy, he-man routine does it for me every time.
     
     
     
    To find Zach when I woke up, I followed the sound of Toby Keith singing. Zach was on the phone but hung up when he saw me. A yellow legal pad of notes sat next to a half-eaten pizza and empty Bud bottle.
    “How you feelin’?”
    “Like a cement smoother rolled over my head.” My stomach grumbled. I took that as a sign that, despite the poison, I wouldn’t be staring up at a tombstone or living in a locket any time soon.
    “Wanna tell me who you were with?”
    “I did,” I said, pulling a slice of pizza free and taking a big bite.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Barnaby poisoned me.”
    “Why would he do that?”
    “I don’t know. I’m a pastry chef. Detecting is your job.”
    “You were a pastry chef. Miss Cookie told me you quit.”
    “Miss Cookie fired me for not letting Jenna Reitgarten serve me my pride on a cake