Free Midnight Sacrifice by Melinda Leigh

to Mandy, and the guests actually showing up had been even better. It was hard enough to make ends meet with a ten-room inn. Winter was slow because Huntsville wasn’t convenient to any of the major ski resorts. Three seasons of decent bookings barely generated enough income to keep the inn afloat. Luckily, tourists didn’t have many options in this area. Last winter’s killings had been written off as a bizarre, random event. But if Nathan turned up again, tourists might decide to try their hunting or fishing luck elsewhere.
    And the Black Bear Inn would be in deep trouble.
    “I’d hate to lose the supplementary income. Social Security just doesn’t cut it these days.” Mrs. Stone grabbed her bucket of cleaning supplies and headed upstairs.
    Mandy wiped down the counters. Masculine voices drew her gaze to the window. Danny’s convertible was parked next to Jed’s truck. Jed was still on the ladder trimming branches. Danny stood at the base of the trunk, looking up at Jed.
    What were they talking about? Would Danny’s questions bring back awful memories for Jed? He didn’t appear to be upset,but Jed excelled at concealing his reactions with a blank face. His lack of expression was one of the reasons most people discounted him as less than intelligent. But Mandy knew that behind Jed’s poker face was a sharp mind, and that he’d had plenty of practice hiding his emotions. When Jed was growing up, his home life had been the main reason he’d spent so much time in the wilderness.
    Opening a notebook on the counter, Mandy scanned her meal plan for the week. She went to the pantry and started taking inventory. Fifteen pounds of flour went on the grocery list. Everything that came out of the inn’s kitchen was made from scratch. As she counted ingredient staples, she tried to summon up some anger for Danny but couldn’t. Whatever irritation his persistence caused was canceled out by the excited flurry in her belly. Why was she glad to see him? He was a threat to her family. Danny and his questions were dangerous.
    Hadn’t she had enough risk?

    Danny approached the ladder and stared up at the thin man pruning Mandy’s tree. Next to the ladder, pieces of brush littered the lawn. “Hey, Jed.”
    Jed glanced down. Surprise, but not shock, flashed in his eyes. Mandy must have had told him about the previous day’s visit. “I’ll be done in a second.” He trimmed the remaining two branches that extended over the inn’s gutter. Thin tree limbs fell to the ground. Jed climbed down, wiped his hand on his jeans, and held it out.
    Danny accepted the shake. “It’s good to see you.”
    “Yeah. You, too. Thanks again for what you did. I wasn’t exactly awake when you came by the ICU.”
    “Hey, I know what that’s like.” Danny stared at his arm for a few seconds. Images of his own hospital stay, full of pain and fear, intruded on the beautiful day, and a needlelike sensation worked its way down his forearm. “I’m just glad I was there.”
    “I hate to think of what would’ve happened if you weren’t,” Jed said.
    For a minute, the only noise in the yard was the squawk of an angry jay. Danny glanced at the back of the house. Would Mandy be alive if he hadn’t been in that alley, totally by chance, looking for his sister? He doubted Jed would’ve made it. From the look on Jed’s face, he knew that, too.
    “Mandy says something’s up with the case?” Irritation edged Jed’s tone. He nodded at the inn. “The detective didn’t call either of us.”
    “I imagine he only called us as a cop-to-former-cop courtesy thing,” Danny said. His sister’s fiancé, Reed, had once been a homicide detective. “Reed’s been really edgy lately. I think the pressure of having Nathan still on the loose is getting to him. He doesn’t let my sister out of his sight.”
    “I can appreciate that.” Jed glanced at Mandy. “I worry about Nathan coming after Mandy. I’ve offered to stay at the inn, but she’s too