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report.
    â€œWhat is your affiliation with the Vietcong?” He didn’t look up, fearing the answer.
    Dany made an exasperated sound. “Affiliation? Major, I’m neutral! I don’t deal with them at all! I have the local leader’s word that he will not cross or use my plantation in any warlike activity or purpose.”
    â€œWould that be Binh Duc?”
    Inwardly, Dany winced. “Yes.”
    Gib looked up measuring the expression in her eyes and the tone of her voice. “You know him?”
    â€œOf course I do!” Frustrated, Dany cried, “I’ve lived here all my life, Major! Just because I know Binh Duc doesn’t mean I consort with him! Is that what you’re implying? That I’m a VC sympathizer?”
    Grimly, Gib held her angry, hurt gaze. “You tell me. Are you?”
    â€œNo!”
    â€œThen who do you think planted that mine?”
    Rubbing her forehead, tears jamming into her eyes, Dany whispered, “I don’t know!”
    Gib had no defense against her. His heart jagged with the pain he was causing her by asking such brutal questions. The tears in her eyes made him feel like hell. “On the other hand,” he began hoarsely, “if the VC felt you weren’t being neutral in some way, they could have planted it.”
    Dany stood very still, fighting an overwhelming—and ridiculous—need to be held by Gib Ramsey. She couldn’t forget the feel of his arms around her after the explosion, or the husky tone of his voice as he’d tried to soothe her panic and grief. Stiffening her spine, she rattled, “That’s entirely possible, I suppose, but we’ve done nothing to make the VC think we’re anything but neutral.” She agonized over the possibility. Binh Duc was fully capable of doing such a thing.
    Grimly, he said, “It’s known that your mother and a certain marine general were pretty serious about each other.”
    Dany’s heart thudded once, hard, in her breast. She felt the iciness of fear stab through her gut. “What?” she whispered.
    Gib saw the disbelief and shock in her eyes. Was Dany putting on an act, or was this real? His heart told him she was genuinely stunned by his statement. “I’m privy to certain information that confirms your mother was very serious about this general. What do you know about it?”
    â€œN-nothing.” Dany stood there, feeling suddenly dizzy with dread. Had Duc found this out? Was that the reason for the mine? She touched her brow and stared down at the teak floor. “My mother’s life was private. She always shared silly gossip with me when she came back from luncheons and charity benefits, but I never knew...really knew about her...” She grasped for the right words. Amy Lou had always been a tease to men and, like a butterfly, had never stayed with one man very long since Dany’s father’s death. Why hadn’t her mother told her how serious she was about this general? Tears drove into Dany’s eyes, and she forced herself to look at Gib.
    â€œHow much do you know about her relationship with the general?” she demanded in a choked voice.
    â€œThat he was going to ask her to marry him the day she died in that mine explosion.”
    â€œOh, God....” Dany wavered, then caught herself.
    â€œDidn’t you know?”
    Covering her eyes with her hand, Dany dragged in a deep breath. It all made sense now. Amy Lou had known the general for six months, gone out with him with a regularity that hadn’t marked her other relationships. Why hadn’t Dany realized it? Lamely, she admitted, “I didn’t know. She never told me.”
    â€œBut if Binh Duc had known, wouldn’t he have had reason to plant a mine, feeling you were no longer neutral?”
    â€œI—I don’t know.” And she didn’t. Trying to stop the tears that threatened to fall, Dany squeezed her eyes shut and