Paradise Island Read Online Free PDF

… is not dead.”

Chapter Three
    â€œYou lie!” A thick lump clogged her throat. There was no way her father could be alive. For years she’d tried to find him, circled the world, using every possible source, but to no avail.
    She eventually came to the heart wrenching conclusion that if he had not perished on that fateful mission then he had since. Then she had set her course on revenge on the one man who knew what had happened, but never had the stomach to own up to his own failures.
    â€œIt’s the truth. Think about it. A body was never found,” Gregory said.
    â€œThat is not unusual in the Navy and attacks at sea.”
    â€œWe were not at sea,” Gregory said.
    She grasped onto the cool steel bars, steadying herself. She’d thought her father was at sea on that mission. Gregory watched her with an alert wariness. The sheer bulk of his body filled the little brig. His dark eyes were calculating, shining with an intense intelligence that was worthy of a captain of the Royal Navy.
    Estelle shook her head, regaining some of her lost equilibrium. He was playing mind tricks in order to gain his freedom. She needed to keep a cool head and not get caught up in the lies she should knew he would tell.
    â€œPrisoners don’t get the luxury of pleading their case until a just trial,” Estelle said.
    His dark eyes glittered. “Then what do you intend to do with me?”
    â€œI’m taking you to a safe haven where you will face the trial you never received on English soil. There will be a judge and jurors and you can plead your case for innocence.”
    â€œWhat if I’m found guilty?”
    â€œThat is for the judge to decide,” Estelle said.
    â€œAnd who will be my judge?”
    â€œOne has been appointed.”
    Fury etched harsh lines around his eyes. The vein at the base of his neck pulsed with every driving heartbeat. “How can I trust that this will be a fair trial? I don’t know the judge, I don’t know you. You have me trussed up like a Christmas Turkey and I have no idea where you are taking me.”
    A corner of her mouth flicked up and she looked directly into his eyes. “I’m taking you to Paradise.”
    He reeled from the bed so suddenly she wondered at how fast he moved. One moment he sat on the plain little bench and the next he was staring down at her through gleaming black eyes, the breath rushing in and out of his nostrils. He was only slightly taller than she, her eyes came level with the top of his nose, but he had the physical power of a lean, hard male body. He was close enough to strike her, touch her, but he held his hands in tight fists at his sides. She saw the muscle working at his temple as his jaws clenched tight. He was a black panther, set to strike, held in tight control.
    She was speechless, awed. Her immediate reaction was to step back, but she would not back down in the face of her father’s murderer. She straightened herself to her full height, pulling her head and shoulders back in the same physical tactic he tried on her. She let her gaze travel with languid slowness up along the rugged inner line of his neck then along his straight, stubble-roughened jaw, over his mouth and into the brilliant, black, bottomless pools of his eyes. She wanted to provoke him, to see how much he could withstand before he snapped and unleashed the beast within.
    His gaze flickered to her mouth. He seemed to guess her game and with a final long breath, he steadied himself, hooked his gaze back to hers and spoke in a calm voice. “Give this up now and you may see old age in a crowded jail cell instead of the wrong end of a rope in your youth. The Navy will catch you and send you to trial for what you’ve done. I give you one chance to redeem yourself before this happens.”
    â€œYou want me to show you mercy when my father saw none.”
    â€œYou will be caught.”
    â€œYou will be treated as the