Free Midnight Sacrifice by Melinda Leigh Page B

turning away from Jed and the memory of Nathan’s attack. “Detective Rossi already told us he thinks Nathan is dead.”
    “That’s just the official line he’s toeing.” Danny told them about the waterlogged SUV and the missing girlfriend, then summed up the rest of his meeting with Rossi.
    Jed whistled softly. “Nathan ditched his wheels awfully close to home.”
    “That’s because every police agency in the state was looking for his truck.” Mandy shook her head. “He’s not stupid. He knew his best chance was going out on foot. There’s still no reason to think he stayed around here,” Mandy reasoned. “Why wouldn’t he have gone as far as possible from Huntsville?”
    “Because he’s nuts,” Jed answered.
    “And hung up on you.” Danny remembered Nathan pointing at Mandy. The crazy man’s words echoed in his head.
    You’re mine.
    Jed chugged his drink. “So, who the hell was sleeping with him?”

    Ignoring Jed’s question, Mandy moved back to the pantry and pretended to count things, but she doubted Danny was fooled. Anything to avoid hypnotic contact with those sea-colored eyes. They made her want to confess everything. Her secret was a breath-robbing pressure in her chest, ready to burst free.
    “There’s more.” Danny set his empty bottle on the counter. “Some fisherman and his kid disappeared this morning just a few miles upriver from where Nathan’s SUV was found.”
    “Oh, no.” Sadness curled in her belly. She swallowed the clog in her throat. “Do the police think foul play was involved?”
    Danny’s jaw tightened until it looked like it was going to pop. “No. They think the kid fell in the water and the dad went in after him.”
    Mandy fought to keep her voice steady. The pantry contents blurred in front of her. “It’s horrible, but it happens every year.” But it didn’t make the loss of a child less terrible.
    Danny looked to Jed.
    The hunter shrugged. “Hard to say. Water’s high right now from all the rain. The current is a lot stronger than usual, and the water’s damned cold. But I don’t like it. Not one bit. The last time two campers went missing and were considered lost, it turned out Nathan and his uncle killed one and imprisoned the other.”
    Mandy pointed her pen at Jed. “You can’t blame everything bad that happens around here on Nathan.”
    “You better get your head on straight,” Jed shot back. “As far as I’m concerned, until I see a dead body, Nathan is out there.”
    “What if they never find him?” Mandy asked.
    “Then you’d better be prepared to take precautions for the next year. Now that the spring thaw is here, there’s not much to keep Nathan from coming and going as he pleases.”
    Mandy’s belly tightened. Jed’s statement was uncomfortably accurate.
    Jed rinsed his bottle and dropped it into a recycling container. “I have to go. Let me know if you come to your senses and want me to stay here. See ya, Danny.” He shut the door harder than necessary. Mandy jumped. Plates rattled on the sideboard.
    She turned around. Bumping into Danny’s chest, she startled again. The muscles of his torso were as unforgiving as his persistence. She leaned back so their bodies weren’t touching.
    “Mandy, I’m not asking for much. Just tell me what you know about Nathan. Like who were his friends? Who should I talk to? Was he having an affair?”
    “There’s nothing to tell.” She took a step back but bumped into the doorframe. The kitchen closed in around her. She was trapped by so many different things. Nathan. Her family. Jed.Danny. The first three she was powerless to change. But Danny’s mission conflicted with the well-being of those she loved.
    But when he inched closer, eating up the space she’d so painstakingly put between them, the desire to lean on him overwhelmed her senses.
    “Surely he must have some friends or family.”
    “No friends that I know of.” She tried to swallow, but her mouth had gone dry. “And his