Read Online Volcano by Patricia Rice - Free Book Online

distance. We developed his construction company once I got back there. It’s doing fairly well now.” Charlie crushed his beer can. “Dad died last year.”
    â€œAhh, I am sorry to hear that. You come back now to tell your mama?”
    Charlie uttered a harsh laugh. “Not likely. She already knows. She just never cared. No, I’m not here to see her. I’m looking for Raul.”
    Jacques gave him a shrewd look but did not comment. He and Jacques had known each other almost as long as Charlie had known Raul. Jacques had been a father figure for them both.
    The older man nodded in understanding. “There is bad hoodoo in these parts now. Money is the root of all evil.”
    â€œGreed is the root of all evil. We’re our own worst enemies. Who needs devils and demons when we have humans?”
    Jacques glowered. “Don’t you be preaching to me, mon. What can I do to help?”
    Slowly, gathering his thoughts as he went, Charlie outlined the background of his enmity with Jacobsen, Raul’s disappearance with the company money, the liens, and the papers halting the company’s development project. As he reached this last, Jacques growled a guttural curse and threw his empty soft drink can at a yowling cat.
    â€œYou best go talk to your mama, boy. That man of hers has the hoodoo these days. He owns this half of the island.”
    â€œThat’s an exaggeration. Emile keeps expanding the plantation, but he’s never had any interest in development. I think he’d like his own private island, but a good chunk of one makes him happy. His name never came up when we were developing the site.”
    â€œThings change. You talk to your mama. There’s things out there you don’t know ‘bout. I start looking down here, but the spider spins its web from the top.”
    Charlie grimaced at the image. “I thank you for the help. Could I get you to put me up for the night? I have to send a lady back where she belongs.”
    Jacques gave a wicked grin. “Don’ worry. No problem.”
    The blazing red Caribbean sun had hit the blue bank of clouds on the horizon by the time Charlie hurried down the street toward town. He didn’t like taking the main streets, where he might encounter someone familiar, but he’d left Penelope alone entirely too long. He didn’t look forward to a ranting tirade; he didn’t want to be responsible for anything happening to her either. He had this nagging feeling that leaving a beautiful snob like Penelope alone for any period of time could be an invitation for trouble.
    Curse his wretched hormones. Why couldn’t he have picked out a mousy female who would nod her head and look at him with dewy-eyed awe, obeying every word he said?
    Pride goeth before a fall, he muttered to himself, just before someone slammed a telephone pole against the back of his head.
    ***
    Penelope screamed as she saw Charlie topple like a tree. The dark figures clambering over his fallen body scampered into the shadows before she could reach him. Even the mysterious man she’d followed had somehow melted into the dusk.
    She didn’t know how her informant could have known this would happen, and she didn’t care. Fury overrode any sense of self-protection. There had to have been half a dozen men and a big stick to bring Charlie down from behind. Not that he probably didn’t deserve it and that she hadn’t considered it herself, but she’d always had contempt for cowardice.
    By the time she kneeled beside him, Charlie was pushing up from the dusty street, shaking his head, and groaning.
    â€œI should have known they couldn’t hurt you by hitting you in the head,” she murmured more in distress than disgust as she touched the bloody lump. She dug through her purse for the packet of moist napkins she always carried when traveling.
    Not attempting to rise, he rested on one elbow and, nearly cross-eyed, glared