T*Witches: Split Decision by H.B. Gilmour, Randi Reisfeld Read Free Book Online Page A

a big-deal corporation headquartered in London. The compromise for allowing Cade to return to Marble Bay started tomorrow: a nine-to-five summer gig working with his father’s friend, Moira’s husband, a vice president at a law firm in Boston. “My dad’s got my whole life mapped out,” Cade told her.
    “But it’s not what you want?” Alex ventured.
    “I don’t know what I want. Maybe I’ll end up on the path he’s clearing for me. But right now, I’ve got to figure some things out for myself.” He didn’t add aloud,
Like you, Alex … like why I needed to see you, wanted to so badly, and whether you… whether you feel… the same way.
    Hours later, tired but exhilarated, Alex accepted a lift home.
    She and Cade had eaten dinner with the McDonalds and spent the evening playing Trivial Pursuit and making and devouring ice-cream sundaes. Alex had a surprisingly comfortable evening.
    She and Cade pulled up to the Barneses’ house just before midnight.
    Cade helped get her bike off the rack on the back of the McDonalds’ SUV. “I’ll be off work tomorrow at five,” he reminded her, “so I’ll see you —”
    “— at five-oh-one.” Alex gave him a peck on the cheek and a big grin.
    She waltzed into the house on a cloud, only to plunge to Earth again when she grabbed the ringing phone. “Where have you been?” demanded the high-strung voice on the other end.
    “Uh, hi,” she stammered. “Emily? Is it… late?”
    “We’ve been calling for hours!” Cam’s adoptive mom’s panic morphed slowly into relief. “Didn’t you get the messages? We left them at home and on Cam’s cell phone. We were just about to call the …” She trailed off.
    “We were really worried.” Dave had taken the phone from his wife. “We thought something had happened.”
    “No, no, I’m … we’re both … fine,” Alex assured them. “Cam’s … um … she just stepped into the shower.”
    There was silence. Then Dave, who knew of the girls’ true heritage and their enthusiasm for helping and healing, gave her an out. “Were you … needed somewhere?” he asked softly.
    “Totally,” Alex concurred. “But everything’s fine now.”
    Well, that part was true, she told herself. Cade
had
needed her. And for all she knew Cam
was
stepping into a shower … on Coventry Island.
    “Good,” Dave said. “Tell Cam we called. Everything’s good here. It’ll probably be easier to reach us by e-mail than phone. Ask Cam to check in, okay?”
    “E-mail.” Alex was on it instantly. She promised them Cam would send a message as soon she got out of the shower.
    They would have received one, with Alex pretendingto be her long-gone twin, only Cade called. She never made it to the computer, but fell asleep talking to him instead.
    Michaelina flung open the door to her apartment before Alex knocked. “So, can I pass for a mainlander?” she demanded, twirling on toe shoes.
    “Dude, you can’t even pass Go,” Alex informed her. Somewhere in the style wilderness of pop divas, Michaelina had gotten very, very lost. Alex was no fashionista, but she did know a disasterpiece when it was in her face. Or in this case, dancing in the doorway of a shabby attic rental apartment.
    Multiply pierced and studded, Michaelina had spared no body part in her attempt — or rather, stab — at “mainlander.”
    A line of little hoops outlined her ear rims and perforated her left nostril; another, this one spiked like a miniature dog collar, was stuck through one eyebrow. Her thorny tattoo necklace protruded from a stretchy tank top that accented her twiglike frame. Her ankles dangled skinny and pale from pants three sizes too big. Why one leg was cuffed to the knee while the other draped her ankle was anyone’s guess. Whether meant to signify hip-hop, goth, or skater-girl, the effect was nearly as over-the-top as what she’d done with, or to, her face.Coventry Girl’s makeup — including heavy black eyeliner and thick retro white