Starfish Island Read Online Free PDF

. She stiffened, sitting back against the couch. “What exactly happened to my cousin, Kirkland?” she deflected.
    “Why do you ask?”
    “Just curious about someone I never knew. If he were still alive, all of this would be his.”
    “He wouldn’t have inherited,” Michael told her. “Caroline would’ve never made him her heir. After much thought, she willed this house and the rest of her estate, real and personal, to you.”
    “What about Uncle Robert? Were he and Grandmother close?”
    He answered slowly. “In a way.”
    “I just wondered. I never knew them.” She wasn’t about to tell him the story of her life or the fact that her family was not all that friendly, which would be an understatement. The mere mention of extended family members had earned her a cold stare, and she’d learned early on not to ask.
    “Caroline was a practical person,” Michael explained. “She had a strong sense of the responsibility that she thought should go with ownership. Your Uncle Robert was a dreamer who’d already squandered the estate left to him by his father. Had he lived to inherit, he probably would have lost everything in time. He and Kirkland shared many of the same extravagant tendencies—none of which endeared them to your grandmother. She was an incredible woman: interesting, intelligent, and with a great sense of humor. I admired her tremendously.” He frowned at the fire, as though the answer to his thoughts lay beneath the smoldering embers.
    After a pause that held no awkwardness, but was rather an easy and companionable silence during which they each pursued their own thoughts, Michael went on. “Kirkland lived in his own world. He was a published author, though I doubt Caroline ever opened the books he gave her. Her mind was always wrapped up in business; she loved to keep up on the latest in the financial world, and she had the business channel on all day. Nothing else ever really held her interest.”
    “Did you read Kirkland’s books?”
    “He completed a trilogy right before his death, and I enjoyed every one: adventures based on his travels through Asia, Europe, and a variety of countries he’d visited. The main character was sharp and cunning, and always got the beautiful women.”
    “So did you come by to see if, perchance, I’m an imposter?” She wondered if her sarcasm would push him out the front door so she could stop thinking about his lips.
    “I knew who you were when you came racing around the curve, ignoring the speed limit sign.” He shook his finger. “I had a horrible vision that there would be a crash and we’d both end up dead.” He cleared the huskiness out of his voice. Grasping her chin and tilting her head up to force her to look at him, he said, “Don’t let me catch you driving over the speed limit again.”
    Her breathing quickened, and she inhaled a shivered breath. She wanted his kiss. The flash of fear in his darkened eyes melted her heart. She whispered, “I promise to slow down.”
    “Back to one of the reasons I came back tonight. Do you remember, when you got out of the car, you said, ‘I thought I was being…’ and you never finished the sentence? Didn’t you mean to say you thought you were being followed?”
    She hesitated. “Yes.”
    “You had me frightened,” he answered irritably. “Why was it so hard to admit that was why you were driving too fast? You were right, you know.”
    “Right?” she blurted, shocked.
    “Someone in a dark-colored SUV with heavily tinted windows drove onto the island right after you and parked at the curve. The Russells spotted them from their window. The SUV sat there a while before it turned around and left.”
    Nicole didn’t immediately answer, but she felt her body go cold. Although the room was warm, she shivered.
    “I don’t like the way things look.” His hand shot out, clamping around her wrist like a steel vice. She caught the angry glint of his eyes. His mouth straightened into a firm, hard