Deadly Fate Read Online Free PDF Page A

most confusing possibility known to man.
    â€œYou knew them well?” he asked quietly.
    â€œI had just met them. Still...”
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said.
    â€œBut, but my friends...are here. Somewhere. And if all the people at the house...if the scene wasn’t real... I don’t understand what’s going on at all, but I know that my friends are supposed to be on the island somewhere. Cast mates, from the show we’re doing on the ship. They headed out before me—they’re here on the island.”
    The next sentences lay unspoken between them.
    They are here. Dead or alive, no one knows.
    The way she looked at him now, he wondered if she really believed that he was who he was—and whether he still might intend to kill her.
    She seemed to shrink beneath his hold.
    She lowered her head and inched back half a foot—as if anxious to be free from his touch.
    Then she looked up at him and there was a hard strength that she’d forced into her features. “I came for Vacation USA . That’s what the head of entertainment for Celtic American asked me to do. The other cast members—except for our ingenue, who is finishing up a previous engagement—came here ahead of me this morning. But that was a hoax, you’re telling me? They were going to try to scare us half to death to film us for Gotcha . So those corpses at the Mansion weren’t real. But, Amelia is really...dead. And Natalie Fontaine is dead, too. That is the real situation?”
    â€œYes, I’m sorry.”
    She swallowed hard and nodded.
    â€œMiss Avery, have you seen anyone else here on the island—alive?”
    She looked at him with alarm. “Oh, God! Oh, God, Simon... Larry... Ralph!”
    She turned and started to run. He tore after her. He realized that she was headed for the Alaska Hut.
    He didn’t want to tackle her again. But he also didn’t want her rushing into the building if there was a sword/knife/machete-wielding killer awaiting her.
    â€œMiss Avery!”
    She kept running.
    No choice.
    He caught her by the shoulders and they went down together again. She started to fight him but he gripped her hard.
    â€œWait!” he said firmly. “Let me go first—”
    â€œMy friends—”
    â€œI have a gun. You don’t!” he snapped.
    She went still and nodded at that, probably realizing the folly of running into the unknown. Thor rose, not waiting for her to accept an offered hand, just pulling her back up with him. They were both covered in snow. He went first, moving with good speed through the soft snow. He heard her behind him. At the door of the rustic log cabin, he pulled his weapon, and then threw the wooden door open.
    A flash of light went off.
    â€œGotcha!” someone shouted.
    He assessed that six people were there, five men, one woman; the lone woman held a microphone, while one man held a large camera.
    The woman dropped the microphone and screamed as she noted that he was wielding a gun.
    â€œFBI,” he said quickly.
    From behind him, Clara Avery went tearing through, throwing herself into the arms of a tall blond man.
    â€œWhat the hell...?” the man asked.
    â€œNatalie Fontaine is dead,” Clara said. “And...and Amelia Carson. She’s dead—dead in the snow.”
    â€œNo, no!” the woman in the group said, trying to ascertain how badly she had damaged the microphone she’d dropped. “No, it’s all just for Gotcha . See the mic you made me drop? I’m Becca Marle, sound. It’s—it’s just a joke,” she finished weakly.
    A man at her side, slightly older, spoke up. “Tommy Marchant, cameraman, videographer... We’re filming them. That’s it. See, we got your cast mates before you, too—they also thought it was real. Maybe they decided to join in and scare us as well or...”
    He desperately wanted his words to be true.
    â€œNo,” Thor