Read Before He Was Gone: Starstruck Book 2 for Free Online Page B

quick?’ As soon as the words come out, I realize how dumb that’s going to make me sound in the edit.
    ‘No can do, you know the rules,’ Ed says, shaking his head. I catch Megan mouthing the word sorry and I stick my tongue out at her. I don’t blame them for setting me up, though. This will make great TV. No wonder K-Lame had the cleaners in yesterday – I didn’t even think.
    I’m escorted out of the office, straight to the elevators as everyone yells good luck and ‘don’t get savaged by a monkey’ at me. But when we leave the building and I’m hurried into a waiting black car with the ominous skull and palm leaves on the sides, my excitement is tainted momentarily. I’ve already messed things up, haven’t I? I’m going to a desert island in a Calvin Klein pantsuit after all.

8
Joshua
    ‘The Raja Ampat islands are so remote that even some Indonesians have never heard of them,’ Ed Bernstein is saying into one of the cameras pointed at his face from our boat. All the girls are holding their hair back from their faces. His shirt is all caught up in the wind as we speed across the water and I hold a hand to the bandana tied around my shaved head.
    The sky above us is so blue. Islands are dotted all around us. Some of them are just rock formations, jagged like knuckles on clenched fists rising out of the ocean. Every time we come close to anything with sand my heart rate spikes in case it’s the one. All my instincts are primed, like they were on that damn zombie camp.
    ‘There are over one and a half thousand small islands in the archipelago,’ Ed carries on, ‘and it’s here in the middle of the Coral Triangle that these ten individuals, from all walks of life, are about to be deserted. They’ve just flown six hours from Jakarta, folks, the capital city of Indonesia, to Sorong. They’re tired and hungry already and let me tell you, it’s pretty damn hot out here.’
    The camera pans around us all. My senses heighten further as the saltwater splashes on my skin and the burning sun zaps at my head through the black fabric. My eyes fall on Alyssa across from me. She’s wearing a navy-colored suit and I almost want to laugh when I see it. She was probably shopping for that in some fancy store when they picked her up.
    She catches me smiling and the deep brown pools pull me in, in the sunlight. I see that expression again - the half-amused, questioning look she shot me back in L.A. Her short, black hair is blowing out in all directions as she grips the side. Her nose is slightly upturned and her full pink lips, minus all the gloss look smaller than they did when I saw her before, or in the photo on the cover of that magazine. She looks normal. I pull my eyes away. She’s so striking. Beautiful.
    I scan the crates between us. We all know there are supplies inside them ‘cause we can hear the chickens squawking over the roar of the engine. I’ve noticed two rafts are tied to the sides of the boat with ropes. There’s a spear, too, with a mask and snorkel attached to it by a cord.
    ‘The phenomenal coral wilderness beneath the surface of these still, turquoise waters make up the country’s largest national marine park,’ Ed enthuses, motioning around him. I notice a pretty blond girl’s eyes widen beneath thick bangs next to Alyssa. She looks a few years younger than me - around twenty-one, I’m guessing.
    ‘The underwater biodiversity here makes it a scuba diver’s paradise. But remember, guys, there will be no flippers and fins for your castaways. They’ll be surviving on the bare minimum, participating in a series of challenges to test their physical and mental strength and - perhaps the most testing thing of all - deciding on one person a week to leave the competition. Only one of these ten people will walk away with the million dollars.’
    The blond girl smiles at me nervously. I note the perfect manicure, the tiny daisy dukes she’s wearing. I can see half a silver guitar on a chain