Alaskan Mountain Pursuit Elizabeth Goddard (best short novels .TXT) 📖

found your plane? Covered that much ground without knowing where you were going?”

Will’s eyes penetrated, stabbing at her core. “Easy enough. They could guess we were headed to Juneau and follow our general flight path. And if it’s the men after you, you have to consider they’re tracking you somehow. Maybe they put a tracker on your boat, or they’re tracking your phone.”

“I’m no longer on my boat and don’t have my phone with me.”

“Your diving gear, then. They found you in the channel and then could have followed you here. Your diving gear is on my plane. Maybe they figured I had landed, even if they didn’t realize I crashed. But they’ve had enough time to get a helicopter and track you. So I don’t want to risk it if it’s them. Not when I know help that I trust is coming.”

A tracking device on her diving gear? That was a frightening thought. And worse, it would mean that it was her fault if their attackers tracked her here, since she was the one who’d insisted on going back for her diving gear and loading it onto Will’s plane. She didn’t have time to think through the implications, not with Will’s suspicious gaze on her. She’d told him she didn’t know who was after her or why. And she didn’t. Not really. But if they were together much longer, she’d need to share everything with him—what had driven her to search for the plane to begin with.

Will waited and listened, staring out the door, the porch both covering and hiding him from the searchers.

“Where’s Snake?”

“He went out.”

“You need to warn him.”

“Don’t worry. He won’t be waving at the helicopter. If anything, he’s angry that someone is looking for us and will inadvertently discover him.”

A spray of bullets ricocheted through the woods. Will slammed the door and pressed his back against it. Determination carved his features. “We have to get out of here.”

Scrambling around the cabin, he grabbed coats and packs that must have been prepared while Sylvie had slept. He tossed Sylvie a pair of Snake’s boots. “Try those. They might be too big, but you need something to protect your feet besides the diving boots.”

Sylvie understood the urgency and worked to put the boots on. There wasn’t time to look for socks. It didn’t matter if the boots didn’t fit. But how could she run with her injured ankle?

The sound of the rotor blades drifted away.

“Do you think they’ll come back?”

“They’re not really gone. They’re just looking for a place to land. They’re onto us, Sylvie. They know we’ve taken refuge in this cabin.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t use a more stealth approach. They would have caught us off guard.”

“It also would have taken longer, and they wouldn’t want to give us a chance to get away.” He pulled on his coat. “They’re determined to find you. What haven’t you told me, Sylvie?”

In the distance more automatic gunfire resounded outside, saving her from a reply. A big chunk of fear lodged in Sylvie’s stomach. When would this end? She couldn’t imagine it would end well.

Will went to the door and opened it.

“Wait! What are you doing? You can’t go out there. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“I have to find Snake. Make sure he’s okay.” Will grabbed a weapon off the table and chambered a round. He handed it to Sylvie. “You know how to use this?”

“Well enough.” She didn’t want it, but these were dire circumstances.

Once it was in her grip, she stared at it, a vise of fear squeezing her chest. Finally, she looked up at Will. All this she’d brought on him. On Snake. “Be careful.”

Understanding passed between them. They were in this together. “Stay here and be ready to run when I get back.”

Sylvie set the weapon on the table and sat in a chair to slip on Snake’s boots. They rose above her midcalf and, if she tightened them enough, they just might be adequate support for her ankle so she could run.

She heard him outside on the porch. He hadn’t left yet. Good. The too-big boots secured as much as possible. Sylvie shoved from the chair, pulled on the coat and opened the door to say words she’d never thought she’d say to anyone.

“Don’t leave me!”

But Will had already disappeared through the woods to find Snake. She feared he would come face-to-face with the gunmen.

There was nothing he hated more than leaving Sylvie, but it couldn’t be helped. He’d keep one eye on the cabin as he searched the nearby woods for Snake, who’d gone to one of the outbuildings. He should have returned by now.

When Will had first heard the helicopter, he’d tucked his borrowed weapon in his shoulder holster and prepared for what the next few moments would hold. And now he was in the thick of this fight for survival.

Hiding behind trees as he searched, he moved with stealth through the woods, watching the cabin as he went. “Snake,” he whispered loudly. “Where are you?”

The man could have taken off and left Will and Sylvie there to fend for themselves for all Will knew. But Will didn’t want to believe it. The helicopter still hovered in the distance, confirming Will’s belief the pilot was searching for a place to land or release someone who would soon come for them on foot. He couldn’t be sure that someone wasn’t already on the ground.

A glance back at the cabin told him no one had approached, but that could change at any moment. He had to get Sylvie out of there. Using the trees for cover, he searched for the missing man.

“Snake.”

An ominous dark color surrounded a mound by the woodpile. Will’s gut tightened. After another glance at the cabin and through the woods, he ran forward, dropped to his knees and searched for a pulse. But the wound in Snake’s head and the blood-stained ground told him enough.

“No...” Will cried. Acid burned his throat. “No, God, why?”

Snake’s death was his fault.