Paradise Island Read Online Free PDF Page A

know what you did but
I
do, and now you’re going to pay for the life you took.”
    The pieces of the puzzle snapped into place. “You think I killed him,” he said.
    â€œI don’t think. I
know
.”
    â€œYou’re wrong!”
    Estelle took a small step towards him and the fragrance of musky roses embraced him. Her arms were straight poles at her sides. Her breasts pushed heavily against the billowing white shirt as she spoke, accentuating her shapely form. He watched her as carefully as he would a tiger stalking prey.
    â€œYou might be able to fool the entire Royal Navy, but I knew my father. He wouldn’t have put himself that the position everyone said he did. He said that he had made arrangements for his last special assignment. An assignment I knew he took you on. Everyone else had a perfect alibi, except you. I don’t know what you did to keep yourself out of jail, but it won’t work with me. He trusted you and he never came back from that mission.”
    â€œI was coming back to find you!” Gregory cried, “At your father’s request! But you were gone before I could get to you.”
    â€œMy father was not only murdered, he was defamed. He was a man who gave his life for the good of the people, the good of the government! Not just accused, but somehow proven guilty of treason. He was innocent of all charges! Being a single, penniless Major’s daughter does not pay the rent, and when my father died and his list of so-called crimes was made public, my security died also. I could not own property as I am a female. The house went to the state. I was left without money, a home, or any prospects. I had no friends. I was not there when you came because the buzzards had already come for me and picked me apart.”
    â€œThere must have been someone ready to help you. You were no more than a child.”
    â€œThe only person that treated me with any kindness was the General,” Estelle said.
    â€œGeneral Marcus Worthington?”
    â€œEven he could not stop the claws of society. Men didn’t want to know me and women clung to their sides, fearful of being tarred with the same brush. To know me was to be like me. And one simply could not be like me or my father.”
    Gregory held up his manacled wrists. “So this is how you treat men now?”
    â€œThis is how I treat murderers and liars.” Her eyes were filled with sparks of molten rage.
    He let his hands drop back into his lap, recalling those days so long ago. The girl Estelle had disappeared before he had had a chance to find her and help her to safety. She couldn’t know what had really happened on that bleak night and it was too dangerous to tell her the truth, even now.
    The Navy would be on her heels and would surely catch up soon. She would be caught, found guilty of kidnapping him, and ‘questioned.’ The information he had gathered over the years was too dangerous for her or anyone else to know. He had to keep it to himself. He wasn’t going to waste years of building the evidence he had for it all to be wasted on her misguided idea of vengeance.
    He would offer her part of the truth, and he hoped it was enough for her to let him go free. For her own sake, and ultimately her fathers. He licked cracked lips. She needed to trust him; she needed to believe his next words. He locked gazes with hers and stared into the contemptuous depths.
    â€œEstelle, I didn’t kill your father.”
    â€œI cannot trust a word you say.” Her eyes flared with indignation and heated abhorrence. She was poised, ready to strike him, her hands bunching into tight fists, her body wired. He withstood the onslaught, keeping his eyes locked with hers was the only way he could show her he told the truth. He hoped she would at least try and trust his words, knowing that they sounded a desperate excuse to be unchained and set free, but also knowing they were true.
    â€œEstelle. He