Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evie by Marianne Stillings Read Free Book Online Page A

distant in their own way, they’d done their best. She’d never gone hungry, always had decent clothing, excellent health care, and a good education.
    If she didn’t get as many hugs and kisses as most little girls needed, well, that was okay. She couldn’t complain. She loved Thomas with the love a daughter feels for a beloved father, even though, as she grew older, she came to realize he was not a very kind man to most other people, and in fact could be an obnoxious son of a bitch.
    But not to her. Not ever to her.
    She walked over to the window, brushed the curtain aside and placed her open hand on the glass. It felt cold, brittle, just like her insides. Past her fingertips, she could see the west end of the island, and beyond the treetops, the sea, sparkling like a meadow of hand-hewn jade.
    Typical of the Northwest, the morning’s sun had disappeared behind a thick layer of clouds, and now rain splattered against the pane. Droplets formed, slid down and away, out of sight. Her world became a blur, the hard edges softened, gentled by the cleansing rain.
    She let her forehead rest against the back of her hand on the glass. Somebody had killed Thomas, on his own island, at his own house, in his own library. She had been the one to find his lifeless body. Thomas, I miss you …
    Trying to shake off her melancholy, she checked the time on the clock on her bedside table. The guests would all be gathered tonight, and Thomas’s ridiculous treasure hunt would begin. Worse, to win the game and keep her island, her world, intact, she would have to work closely with Max Galloway—a man who both fascinated and terrified her.
    How would it go for them? Could they possibly win? What kinds of surprises did Thomas have in store?
    As she went to the armoire to slip into her dress, she thought of what a tricky guy Thomas could be. If he’d devised this little treasure hunt, there was probably more to it than met the eye—probably a lot more.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
    D ear D iary:
    sometimes i wonder what if would be like to be somebody else, somebody who has both a mommy and a daddy. If i h ad a dad, he ’ d probbaly be tall an d handsome and v ery, v ery bra v e. And he would make mommy stay at home. B u t even if she did g o ou t , he would be here with me. i know there are lots of people who don’t have both a mom and a dad, and i love mommy and everything, it’s just i think having two parents instead of one would be nice. You can never g et too much love, you know!
    Evangeline—ag e 9
    A t a few minutes before six Evie took one last glance in the mirror . She had wiggled into her knit ted rose silk dress, then slipped on a pair of dangly earrings and her mother’s necklace. A little blu sher and touch of lipstick… yep, good to go and not half bad.
    She’d almost convinced herself she simply wanted to look nice for dinner, that her primping had nothing to do with impressing a man she didn’t like and with whom she would become involved when they sold raspberry iced tea in hell. Sure, the look in Max’s eyes had the power to send her blood pressure skyrocketing, but she’d always held sway over her hormones before, and didn’t see any reason to worry about them tonight. Too much.
    As she walked toward her door she reminded herself that her respon se to him was just one more rea son to stay away from the man. He disturbed her equilibrium, the status quo, her carefully planned life. Being near him made her feel things, intense things, desirable things. She became like a little kid fascinated by a candle’s flame. Her fingertips had been burned, yet the potent allure of the fire was so powerful, she wanted to touch it anyway.
    When she entered the dining room a few minutes later, Max was seated at the table looking like a million bucks and change. But, thank God, he was not alone, for seated to his right was an older woman, and to his left, a handsome, bespectacled blond man.
    The treasure hunters had