Imperfect Rebel by Patricia Rice Read Free Book Online

never possessed. Freddy had sworn he'd be a millionaire by thirty, and he'd done it. He'd also sworn he'd be married to a supermodel, but he'd died single and childless, and his wealth had gone to charity.
    Maybe Freddy's death was the reason he couldn't concentrate these days, something about staring into the face of eternity caused one to reevaluate priorities.
    He didn't want to reevaluate anything but his reason for signing that damned contract.
    Call it denial, but to his way of thinking, living in the moment made more sense than regretting what was past or worrying over what lay ahead. If he had a heart attack chasing a wild animal in a red shirt, so be it. He spotted the flash of red again, darting between the pines.
    Wild animals didn't wear red shirts. From the small bare footprints in the loose soil, he calculated it had to be a child.
    He let the kid run ahead and feel safe. Did his landlady have children? She hadn't looked the motherly sort. He could imagine her as a sculptor, wielding torch and metal, but not a mother.
    Brushing past another of those damned prickly bushes, he stumbled on something in his path. Righting himself by grabbing a pine trunk, Jared jumped, startled, as a heavy rope fell in front of his face.
    Before he could react, a net dropped from the tree and engulfed him in folds of rotting cords.

 
     
     
    Chapter 5

     
    "I don't think you're supposed to say those words," a girl's whispery voice commented thoughtfully from the depths of shrubbery.
    Jared shut up and glanced around. He had a bad habit of not filling his pockets before leaving the house, so he didn't have his penknife on him. He could sever the rotten cords of the net he was caught in if he used some muscle, but he preferred using brain instead of brawn. So far, he hadn't succeeded in untangling the trap, and resentment simmered at being discovered in such a foolish situation.
    "Help me out of here, and I won't say them," he promised in a voice gruffer than usual. He'd embarrassed himself plenty of times before, but not in recent memory. He preferred his suave, urbane image to that of class clown these days.
    "Gene keeps hoping he'll catch a panther." An awkwardly tall, skinny girl drifted through the shrubbery, eyeing the tangle of cords and ropes hanging from the tree limb. "I can't imagine what he'd do with one if he caught it."
    Jared would guess her to be about fourteen or fifteen, although garbed as she was in a loose dress several sizes too large, it was hard to tell. She looked at the tree and rope and anything but him. Her wiry brownish-blond curls fell in her face and stuck out all over her head without any indication that brush or comb had ever touched them. Her dusky complexion and frail features possessed an ethereal quality that—had he been a fanciful man—would have given him pause to wonder if fairies inhabited the island.
    He did happen to possess an unfortunate penchant for fantasy, but he preferred superheroes to fairies.
    "If you'll just grab that rope over there, I think the whole thing will lift up." Fairies and red-shirted wild animals and witches and skeletons—this island was turning into a real menagerie of cartoon characters. If he couldn't get something out of this, no one could.
    She looked doubtfully at the heavy rope but gravitated toward it, giving it a slight pull that produced little effect.
    "Tug harder," he urged, searching around his feet for the opening. He saw movement with her next tug and pounced on it. Whoever had rigged this trap hadn't intended it for people, at least. "A little harder, and I think I've got it."
    The cords rippled, and he gathered as many as he could, locating the edge of the net and lifting until he had a space large enough to duck under. "Who is this Gene and where do I find him?" he called over his shoulder as he disentangled himself.
    No reply.
    Free at last, he let the net fall to the ground, and swung around to see what the girl was doing.
    She was gone. He