He glared at her from the other side of the kitchen island. “I can’t leave until I have some answers.” The sexy warmth in his voice was gone. Damn, she really missed it. Almost as much as she missed the contact with his lean body and his masculine scent in her nose. She could pretend that she didn’t need a man, but Danny was a constant reminder of what she was missing. It went beyond physical contact. Being with a man made her feel like a woman, not a sister or a daughter or an innkeeper. A woman. Desirable. An individual who didn’t exist solely to take care of others.

It was a feeling no one in her hometown evoked. Just Danny.

Unfortunately, her first loyalty was to her family’s needs, not her own. Speaking of which…

Mandy ducked into the family apartment. The buzzing and whooshing of a lightsaber battle sounded from behind her brother’s closed door. Her mother and two friends were sitting on the living-room sofa, drinking coffee and munching on fresh blueberry muffins. “Mom, do you all need anything before I go?”

Her mother waved her off. “We’re fine. You go right ahead, dear.”

Mandy returned to the kitchen. Leaning a hip on the counter, arms crossed over his chest, Danny hadn’t budged. He would not be so easy to dissuade. Once again, she considered trusting him with everything. What would he do if she simply told him the truth? Would he go away if she asked him? She looked at him. His expression was tight and angry, with an undercurrent of aggression in his posture. He was a soldier. A fighter. Unlike her, he wasn’t a person who would roll over for a blackmailer. But what choice did she have? How did one fight an unknown enemy?

No, she couldn’t take the chance. Danny had to leave. “What if there aren’t any answers?”

“Then I don’t know.” Danny paced two steps, pivoted, and strode back. “But I can’t go until I’ve taken care of Reed’s house. Plus, I have this…this feeling that something very bad is coming. I can’t explain it.”

The dishwasher emitted a hiss of steam. He was right. There was a real Something Wicked This Way Comes vibe to the air, minus the carnival fun.

“Then don’t you want to get out of its path?”

“And leave you to face it alone?” Danny stopped pacing. The glance he fired at her was full of possession that Mandy wished didn’t make her feminine heart thump. Damn her sentimental heart. “No.”