Bird of Paradise Read Free Page A

won’t be there. Go home, Adam.”
    “I can’t,” Adam said quietly, trying to keep
the pathetic pleading note out of his voice. “I have to go. I’ve
already put a down payment on Jesus’s surgery—there’s no way I can
afford the rest of it if I don’t do this job. Besides, Gar promised
to tell all his football buddies obsessed with their ex-girlfriends
about me if he’s happy with my work. So have a little pity on me,
Sally. I’ll take a few pictures, make a couple of notes—you won’t
even see me.”
    She turned to face him. The
look in her eyes made him want to flinch, but he stood firm
instead. He was a man, dammit, and he had a job to do, and it
wasn’t like it was illegal or anything. He did flinch at that.
Not very illegal,
he amended. “Stay away from me, Fuller. If I even so much as see
you, I’ll tell the show’s producer who you are and have him kick
your ass all the way back to California.”
    Her threats were very effective; Adam had to
give her that. She was mean as a jackal and twice as vicious. Adam
tried to look tough in response. He scowled. He added the tiniest
sneer to the scowl, then threw in an Elvis lip twitch for good
measure. “You do your job, and I’ll do mine, babe.”
    The woman at the counter motioned for Sally
to come forward. Sally ignored her for a moment, leveling her
finger at Adam, then poking it in his chest. “Stay away from me, or
else I’ll have your balls. Understand?”
    Adam straightened his shoulders and looked
down his nose at the tiny blond jackal threatening him. “I
appreciate the offer, Sally, but I’m really not interested in you
that way.”
    She snarled something anatomically
impossible before turning her back on him. Unseen by her, Adam let
out a low sigh of relief as she moved to hand in her boarding pass.
It was too bad that she’d found him out before he’d even set foot
on the blasted island, but perhaps it was better this way. Now he
knew where he stood (on the edge of a very shaky bridge), and could
go from there. Handling Sally would require kid gloves, but that
was no problem. He’d just explain it all to her once she had calmed
down. No, it wouldn’t be a hard job at all, he reflected a short
time later as he tucked Jesus’s carrier under the airplane seat
with an admonition for the cat to keep his claws to himself. All he
needed to do was keep a low profile and all would be well.
    Five hours later, as the chartered plane
took off from Miami headed for Mystique Island, Adam opened up the
dossier on the man whose place he was taking an realized he was in
deep trouble. Incredibly deep trouble.
    “Hi, I’m Teri,” a pert redhead sitting next
to him had introduced herself a few minutes before. “You’re going
to be on the show too, huh? What’s your name?”
    “Uh . . “ Adam regretted the three
screwdrivers he’d had on the flight from California that had led to
his sleeping through most of the flight. He blinked at the
bright-eyed redhead. “Uh . . . I have to . . . um . . . I’ll be
right back.”
    He grabbed the dossier as he ran for the
nearest bathroom, locking himself in to read up quickly on who he
was supposed to be. He stared in horror at the words until they
swam before his eyes.
    If the passengers nearest
the bathroom were surprised by the sudden, profound burst of
cursing emanating from the bathroom, they did not express it. The
did, however, look with some worry upon Adam as he emerged. He
bared his teeth in what he hoped was a smile and muttered something
about needing to get more roughage in his diet as he stalked back
to his seat. He was going to kill Gar; that’s all there was to it.
He’d have to kill
him, there was just no other choice.
    “Are you all right?” the redheaded woman
asked with concern as he slumped into his seat muttering under his
breath the variety of unpleasant things he wanted to do to his
employer.
    “Fine,” he choked, then took a deep breath
and held out his hand. “Monday. My name