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A calabash tree towered above with huge, round fruit attached to the trunk--the shell of the fruit so hard that it could be hollowed out into bowls or cups Thin corded branches drooped toward the ground, weighed down by heavy clusters of purplish and orange ripe reen leaves

She was so busy as she h she was alone in a tropical jungle on an uninhabited island, seeing a world for the first tiht have A stand of silver thatch palht her eye The tree derived its name from the silver color underneath the fronds and was the only one in the islands with that feature A blue iguana raced along a fallen tree trunk; a grass snake coiled on a slab of slate No poisonous snakes lived on the island, thankfully

Shelley looked up at the thirty-foot-tall pal how much fun it would be to see the silver reflected in the ht She had read that the pal to be replaced every five or six years If the fronds were cut during the full moon, supposedly they would last for nine years The full e to run as a wolf tugged at her senses Made her want to strip out of her clothes and shift into the wolf to explore this world on four paws, nose to the ground and sniffing the air, running through the thick underbrush, not staying to the path

She was pondering that bit of folklore about the viability of the fronds cut during the fullplans to coht, when she heard the sound of shoes crunching on leaves and heading her way on the winding path

A woly syrupy voice, "Ah, coet away fro the beach or here in the forest I et out and see the island while I’ers’ sex lives Why couldn’t they have gone swi but come to the forest?

The woman said, "No, before you say it, I wanted to be with you, not by "

"Not everyone loves me like you do," Sal said candidly

The ht Shelley’s attention first, but then the wooonsthat the couple sequestered themselves at his estate and that not everyone liked hi to him, suddenly made her think of Duncan’s Sal--Salisbury Silverirlfriend had mentioned his last name

The couple wastoward her at a leisurely pace Shelley stood still, not knohether tothe path in the saet out of their ithout the she had overheard thele so they wouldn’t see her The proble in the underbrush

Maiden plum had sap that could cause serious skin rashes The Manchineel tree’s leaves and fruit were poisonous to the touch, and even standing underneath the tree during a downpour could be hazardous to one’s health The lady hair plant was also to be avoided because of the reaction of skin to the fiberglass-like stinging hairs, so she didn’t want to get into any of those Of course, the last option would be to face Sal and his girlfriend as if they were insignificant in the sches, unless…

Dread bunched in the pit of her sto for The one who had stolen the college funds Could there be another Sal with goons residing on the island? Maybe But probably not

Then she took a sniff of the breeze and cursed herself for not noticing The man was doind of her so she couldn’t tell if he was a wolf or not, which would help her to further identify him as the one Duncan wanted

But if this Sal was a wolf, he could smell her

Chapter 6

Daht she was soon going to be face to face with his quarry, but she kneell her voice would travel in the forest Just like Sal’s and the woman’s did as they sauntered closer to her

She should have planned this better, made sure she and Duncan had so like this happened

Who was she kidding? She never thought she would run into Duncan’s target out here Or anywhere else, for that uy would remain secluded at his island estate