Deborah Brown - Madison Westin 06 - Revenge in Paradise Read Online Free Page B

shades of green, with bright splashes of tangerine and cream. Office rule: A full snack bowl topped off with crackers, cookies, and mini candy bars.
    Mac banged her feet against the desk, sending the running lights racing around the bottom of her shoes. The problem was that only the left one worked. “I knew Creole would be hot.” She frowned, staring at her shoe. “You’re a little skimpy on the details.”
    Fab snickered from the couch.
    I changed the subject. “Who’s the scurve at the curb?”
    “Did you get a close-up look?” Mac crossed herself. “He’s creepy looking—his face scarred up from one too many fights. The most impressive one runs from his ear to the side of his mouth. Looks like he sewed it up himself. And he has mean, narrow, beady eyes. Heard him laugh once and it sent shivers up my spine.”
    “Please, tell me you didn’t rent to him.” If she said yes, I’d need aspirin.
    “Hell no!” Mac’s eyebrows came together in a scowl as she said it. “He doesn’t even live in the neighborhood, I checked. That’s Jami’s boyfriend, claims to work construction but I don’t believe him. He drives her to every job and stands guard.”
    Jami had been the gardener since right after I took over management of the property. She rode up one day on her bicycle and insisted I didn’t know anything about planting; turns out there’s more to it than throwing a plant in a hole and covering it with dirt. She conducted her business from the back of her bicycle, carrying small tools around in its dual baskets. My green thumb was not a match for my father’s, I should have paid more attention all those times I followed him around his garden. Now I excelled at lugging plants home from the nursery with instructions for where to plant them. Jami was always outgoing and friendly but had two distinct personalities: the responsible one that showed up to her accounts every day and the other one, a hard partier by night.
    “What happened to her husband?” I had met the man a few times. He was older than she was––I suspected he provided stability. He had a good sense of humor, which sold me.
    Mac stuck her pen in the large bubble she’d blown and the sticky mess covered part of her mouth, a piece sticking to her brown hair. “She traded down, apparently he wasn’t exciting enough. She needs to be careful with this more sparkly model.”
    I glared at Mac when she brought her shoe down hard on the desk again.
    “Damn. I may never find another pair like these.” Mac patted her shoes.
    Interrupted by a knock, Fab reached out and turned the knob, giving the door a shove.
    Jami stood in the doorway in her signature, barely covering anything short-overalls, her hot pink hair pulled into a ponytail sticking out of the top of her head, wearing a T-shirt advertising her skills, and bathed in sweat. The last time I’d seen her, her hair screamed fluorescent red.
    “I hate to ask,” she said, shuffling from one foot to the other, “but can I get a pay advance, we’re getting kicked out of our trailer?”
    I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you and your husband lived in an apartment.”
    “I got tired of being a boring vanilla wife.” She twisted a pink lock of hair around her finger. “I packed my clothes one day while he was at work and left a note.”
    Ouch! “I’ll help any way I can,” I said. I liked her, but she made terrible decisions.
    Jami looked around the room and back at me. “If you’d let me stay at the Trailer Court, I wouldn’t need much of an advance.”
    Fab burst out laughing.
    The estate of Gus Ivers had just settled. We’d been business partners for a short time, and his bequest left me the owner of an entire block of commercial real estate, except the portion I already owned, Jake’s. Most of it run down and in need of repair.
    “The place is a dump and I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it yet,” I told her. “There’s only one person living there and he has a