Fateful Read Online Free PDF Page A

side at a
table on the far corner of the garden. After the near attack the
other night, a stone of fear had sunk to the pit of her stomach and
lingered there. Heavily.
    Karate had always been her secret comfort,
her rock. She’d been trained to sweep men bigger than her, stronger
than her. Gaining a sense of self confidence in defending herself
was the whole point of so many years of study. And now when she’d
faced a real situation, she’d failed.
    Her cousin whispered the name of each guest
into her ear as they arrived. Brianna would then add other little
tidbits of information she knew about each person. It was a nice
distraction for Danielle. She felt safe here. She felt safe during
the day. And listening to how Mr. Clare wrote books about zombies
in the Victorian era made her momentarily forget that close
call....
    Danielle had just taken a bite of a
tender scone slathered with melting clotted cream when Uncle Nick’s
overly animated movements caught her eye. Her attention was pulled
away from Brianna and the food. He was normally more reserved, but
was talking to a man whose back was to her. As Uncle Nick glanced
in her direction, she realized that he was talking about her. When the man he was
chatting with then turned to face her, she nearly fell out of her
seat. It was him!
    He returned his attention to her uncle.
    Danielle’s hand flashed out to Brianna’s arm,
causing her to nearly drop the pastry she was holding. “Bri! That’s
him! That’s the guy who saved me!”
    “Where?”
    “There, by Uncle Nick, the guy with blond
hair.” He glanced their way again, as if he knew it was his cue to
do so.
    “Really?”
    “Yes, that’s him, I’m certain of it!”
    Brianna gasped. “That’s Ethan Deveroux!”
    Danielle sighed. He was even better looking
than she’d remembered. That night she really hadn’t had a chance to
look at his body, but just like Brianna’s boyfriend, he had the
body of an athlete, broad muscular shoulders, a trim waist. No
wonder that first creep left without a fight. She felt butterflies
flutter around inside her stomach.
    He then turned back to his conversation with
Danielle’s uncle, but with a handsome smile spread across his face.
He’d twisted slightly so they could still see his profile. They
both ogled over him like a couple of schoolgirls, well, at least
she did. From the look on her cousin’s face, Danielle figured that
Will was probably better-looking in Brianna’s eyes than Ethan.
    “Bri, tell me about him,” Danielle
whispered.
    “I’ve never really talked to him in person. I
just know who he is because my dad works with him at the
university. He’s the man seated next to my dad with the dark hair.
I’m not sure if I’m saying his name right, it’s spelled B-E-O-N,
but it sounds like Beeyone when people say it. I’ve always thought
it was odd, which is the only reason I remember it.” She took a
breath, then added, “I don’t really know what his relationship is
with Ethan either, I just know I’ve seen them together on more than
one occasion. They could be related or just colleagues of some
sort.”
    There was something about Beon that made him
appear older than he looked physically. Like there was a mature
wisdom in just the way he held himself, the way he nodded to the
words spoken to him. Danielle couldn’t quite place it.
    “The woman next to him is his wife.”
    Shifting her gaze, Danielle studied her. She
had auburn wavy hair, which had been twisted into a loose bun at
the back of her head. Tendrils had tumbled down to grace the sides
of her Audrey Hepburn face. The woman gazed into a steaming teacup
with something that looked like sadness touching every aspect of
her features. Again, there was something strange about her that
seemed old. Weird.
    “So is Ethan just visiting to go to school
like me? Could this Beon guy be his professor?”
    “I’m pretty sure Ethan is from here. I think,
but he could be a student.”
    They both turned to