Read The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) for Free Online Page B

character, he said, “Grace told me that you might be going through a rough patch. Anything I can help with?”
    I stared up into his earnest brown eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile. He was a true friend. “I’m fine,” I said, forcing a bright smile.
    The last thing I needed was Ellison getting mixed up in all of this. I certainly didn’t want him getting hurt.
    “Helloooooo, secrets!” he said with a mock resigned expression. But then added, “Seriously, if you need anything, let me know. What else are friends for if they can’t get your back?”
    “I’m fine, really,” I insisted, hoping I sounded strong and confident.
    I didn’t think he believed me, but I took the opportunity to escape into Samantha’s coffee shop.
    Hanging my hoodie up in the backroom, I put on my apron and headed up front.
    Samantha’s coffee shop, Bean There, Baked That , was a warm combination of modern art and good old-fashioned comfort. The warm, chocolate-colored walls were covered with abstract paintings, and each group of overstuffed chairs boasted its own hand-blown blue glass lamp suspended over a wooden coffee table.
    An elegantly flocked Christmas tree with gold ornaments stood in the window, and a string of matching gold ornaments graced the espresso bar and pastry case.
    I took a deep breath, savoring the aroma of freshly ground coffee and then slipped behind the espresso bar. After making my iced tea, I pressed the tall, cold glass against my forehead and closed my eyes.
    “Had breakfast yet?”
    I looked up into Ellison’s irresistible grin.
    He thrust a toasted bagel with cream cheese into my hands. “My treat,” he said.
    I watched him walk away. “Thanks!” I yelled belatedly after him.
    It was then that I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Or I thought I did. I could have sworn that I’d seen a very tall man dressed in black, wearing a huge top hat.
    But when I whirled, I saw nothing.
    I stood there, holding my breath.
    “What’s up?” Ellison asked as he swept by, balancing a bag of coffee beans on his shoulder.
    “Nothing,” I said quickly. Too quickly.
    Taking a bite of my bagel, I moved to the nearest table and sat down, but I was so tense that I wasn’t sure that I could swallow.
    It took me a few minutes to convince myself that it had just been my imagination. Mechanically taking another bite of the bagel, I dutifully chewed, but I began to feel a lump in my stomach and finally gave up.
    Carefully wrapping the rest for later, I watched Ellison with the customers.
    He was a natural. This morning, he’d decided to ask each of them what their favorite animal was, and then went to great lengths to draw it on the paper cup before handing it off to the barista. His drawings elicited laughs out of even the grumpiest people.
    Samantha loved him. Whenever she saw him, her eyes crinkled up around the corners in her version of a smile. She had come into the shop that morning, wearing a brown pantsuit and with her reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. And after a brief inspection, she’d disappeared into the back.
    I looked up to see Ellison watching me, drum rolling on the register with his fingers. “Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked with a quizzical smile
    “Yeah,” I said, sounding as unconvincing as I was.
    His face shifted into an unusually serious expression. “Do I need to do anything? Beat someone up?”
    That thought made me smile. He was such a congenial guy. “I could do that myself,” I said.
    He eyed me up and down with a chuckle as we both said at the same time, “Or we could call Grace.”
    I started feeling better after that.
    My shift started then, and I was happy to be distracted from my thoughts. The baristas around me chattered with Ellison. Listening to their cheerful banter, I began to bag the pastries as directed when Samantha joined us from the back, her arms full of pastry-order notebooks.
    Catching sight of her, the baristas scattered.
    Pausing beside