The four of them looked around the narrow hallway, as if expecting the missing guests to pop out any second.
“Right. So, let’s go see if we can find the dead person.”
“Wh—why?” Lynn asked.
“Duh, Mom,” Jana sniffed.
“Because they might not be dead,” Caro explained patiently. “There’s an old saying: ‘A bloody candlestick does not a dead guy make,’ or however it goes.”
Jana was startled out of her sullen-teen routine. “Where the hell did you grow up?”
“Language, Jana. But—but the police?”
“Get it through your head,” Todd said, not unkindly. “Nobody’s riding to the rescue. You saw the Weather Channel…before the power went out, anyway. This is an island, a private island—”
“Enjoy the idyllic splendor of nature from your own solitary island off the Maine coast,” Lynn quoted obediently from the brochure.
“Don’t do that, it creeps me out when you do that.”
“I have a photographic memory,” she explained proudly.
“Congratufuckinglations. Anyway,” Todd finished, lighting up yet another fresh cigarette, “the earliest the cops can get here is after the storm clears, probably sometime tomorrow morning.”
“But they have helicopters—”
As if making Todd’s point, a crack of lightning lit up the windows, followed by the hollow boom of thunder so loud it seemed to shake the mansion walls. The group pressed closer to each other for a brief moment and then, as if embarrassed at their unwilling intimacy, pulled back.
“They won’t fly in this weather. We’re stuck. Killer in the bedroom, no cops, power’s out. The perfect Maine getaway,” Todd added mockingly.
“It’s like one of those bad horror movies,” Caro commented.
“Caro’s right.”
“About the horror movies?”
He shook his head. “Let’s go see who’s dead. I mean, what’s the alternative? It beats huddling in our rooms waiting for the lights to come back on, doncha think?”
“What he said,” Caro said, and they started off.
BRAVA BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2005 by Kensington Publishing Corp.
“Fuzzy Logic” © copyright 2005 by Erin McCarthy
“The Cupid Curse” © copyright 2005 by Jennifer Wardrip
“Mesmerized” © copyright 2005 by Jordan Summers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-5319-4
Table of Contents
Cover
Copyright
Contents
FUZZY LOGIC by Erin McCarthy
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
THE CUPID CURSE by Jen Nicholas
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Epilogue
MESMERIZED by Jordan Summers
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Bad Boys Over Easy Page 21