Free Haunting Beauty by Erin Quinn Page A

There was no way to explain without talking about the visions, and though she wanted to talk about them, wanted to tell Yvonne everything, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. It wasn’t that Danni didn’t trust her . . . it was something deeper. Something as ingrained as the in stinct to survive.
    There was a reason why Danni had spent so many years being rejected by different foster families. Sean had asked her if she’d ever felt special. When she’d been younger, she’d known she was special, but she’d learned the hard way that special didn’t mean good. It meant weird. Unacceptable.
    She remembered how it felt the first time she’d casually told her foster brother not to cheat in science anymore because she’d seen him get caught. He’d looked at her like she was a freak, laughed at her, and cheated anyway. When he was caught, he’d blamed Danni. He accused her of telling lies to the teacher and her foster parents believed it.
    It took other lessons—all painful, all seared in her memory—before Danni finally came to understand that as long as she had visions, she’d be an outcast. And so she quit. She didn’t know how, but somehow she’d sealed off that part of her and kept it locked away in a place so dark, so deep that she’d forgotten it existed at all—until this morning’s wake-up call blew the hinges off the trapdoor and opened it all up again. Now she wanted nothing more than to figure out how to reinstate the lockdown.
    A logical part of Danni knew Yvonne wouldn’t hold the visions against her. But logic had nothing to do with the way she felt just thinking of the disbelief that would surely fill Yvonne’s eyes if Danni were to tell her the truth. Hey Yvonne, guess what? This guy I saw in a vision showed up today to tell me I had a family. Cool, huh, except I think his dad killed my brother—oh and I think the guy is really dead.
    Yvonne would think she’d lost her marbles, and she’d be right.
    “I’m not feeling that great today,” Danni said. “Would you mind if I went home?”
    “Of course not. I hope you’re not getting the flu.”
    “Me, too.”
    “You need me to drive you?”
    “No, I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Congratulations on the Biedermeier.”
    Even in her concern, Yvonne couldn’t keep the grin off her face. “Bet I have it sold before you get home.”
    Any other day Danni wouldn’t have gotten away with the ploy, but today she was grateful that the usually astute Yvonne didn’t look any deeper than Danni wanted her to. Grabbing her purse and her laptop, Danni said good-bye and headed home.

Chapter Six
    S EAN didn’t know where else to go after he left Danni’s little antique store, so he walked, hoping the activity would loosen the hard knot of tension deep in his gut. It had been burrowing and coiling since the first time he’d laid eyes on her. It ached, it comforted.
    How long had it been since he’d felt anything but the grief and shame his father had brought on them all that night so long ago? How long since he’d felt more than the shattered splinters of life festering beneath his skin? Longer than he could remember.
    But when she’d opened her front door this morning, when she’d looked at him with her huge gray eyes . . . He’d felt something stir deep inside him. Felt it in every pore, every nerve, every part of his being. And he wanted more.
    He’d been confused when his grandmother had insisted he come here to bring Dáirinn MacGrath home. He’d understood that Danni’s survival threw into doubt his father’s guilt and that bringing her back might clear the family name. But there’d been another reason Nana had sent him—one he couldn’t see or understand at all, one as mystifying as Nana was herself.
    Whatever her reasons, though, they didn’t seem to matter anymore. They’d been eclipsed by his own wants and needs. He was here for Danni. Nothing more, nothing less.
    He found himself standing in front of her house