Midnight Sacrifice Read Online Free PDF

was tempted to let him stay. But Jed went overboard on everything that involved her. If she let him move in, he’d take over. And what if there were more notes? How would she keep them from him? She hugged the mail closer. “It’s been four months. If he were going to come after me, why wait that long?”
    And why send a second note four months later? She’d kept her mouth shut. Was it a coincidence that Danny and the threat arrived on the same day?
    Jed scratched his chin. “I don’t know. Crazy folks do crazy shit.”
    “The inn is in the middle of town. Not the ideal location for a kidnapping,” Mandy reasoned, covering the doubt in her mind. Someone put the note in her mailbox. If not Nathan, then who? And why?
    “Are you forgetting that a kidnapping took place right on your front lawn in December?”
    Mandy patted the gun on her hip. “No one was expecting it then. I won’t let my guard down. I’ll be fine here. You have your dogs to take care of, Jed.”
    “You don’t think I’d put you before my dogs?”
    “I didn’t mean that.” An ache pulsed in Mandy’s temples.
    “Never mind. I guess I’ll go take care of my dogs.” He brushed past her. “I’ll put the ladder in the garage on my way out.”
    Mandy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. The muscles under her fingers tensed. “I can get that later.”
    Jed yanked his arm away and glared at her. “Mandy, I’m fine. Stop trying to protect me. I’ll never get back to normal if I don’t act normal.” He stomped down the steps and yelled over his shoulder, “I’m not your brother.”
    Mandy didn’t miss the wince as he lifted the ladder under one arm. Which was all her fault. Everything was her fault. She couldn’t do anything right lately.
    Jed whistled. Nothing. He opened the door and called, “Honey, come.”
    With a jingle of dog tags, Honey trotted obediently to the front door. But her head was low and her tail wasn’t wagging as they disappeared around the side of the house. Twilight descended on the yard. Lengthening shadows chased Mandy inside. She needed to make dinner for her mother and finish the breakfast prep.
    She turned toward the family quarters and her room, acutely aware of the note hidden in the mail. Every rustle of paper amplified her guilt. The Tell-Tale Heart had nothing on her conscience.
    With the door safely closed behind her, she lifted her mattress and pulled out a matching envelope. Two pages slid out. On top was a picture of a picture of Bill on the front lawn of the inn. A hole had been punched in the center of his chest. Block letters were scrawled across the snowy foot of the page. If you love him. The second photo was her and Nathan locked in a passionate embrace in the alley behind the diner. It read: keep your secrets .
    She stashed both threats back in their envelopes and stuffed them under the mattress. Someone was watching her. It couldn’t be Nathan. He certainly hadn’t taken the picture of them, and the first note had come the morning after the attack. Huntsville had been crawling with police. There was no way Nathan had sneaked into the inn in broad daylight. But Mandy didn’t know of anyone close enough to him to take that kind of risk. Nathan’s only family were his uncle and son. Suffering from a progressive and debilitating genetic brain disease, his uncle and coconspirator had killed himself rather than be caught, and Nathan had taken his son with him.
    Had the new note been put in the mailbox before or after Danny’s visit? Before would mean an awfully big coincidence. If it had been after, then whoever was threatening her was close by. Turmoil gathered behind Mandy’s breastbone. The pressure shortened her breaths.
    She could call the police. But what would that accomplish? Despite police presence in December, her tormentor had waltzed right into the inn—right into Mandy’s bedroom. The police hadn’t been able to catch Nathan over the course of an entire winter. The only