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

us, Will. Not just me. Now that you’re part of this, your life is in danger, too. I’m sorry this happened to you. That I involved you.” Since he was involved, she needed to tell him everything. But how? She wasn’t sure she could trust him with everything. “Thanks again for coming back for me on the island.”

“I’m not sorry I’m involved,” he said. “I’m just glad I was there when you needed someone. Even knowing the danger, I would do it over again, Sylvie.”

Sylvie didn’t have time to ponder his meaning. Two Alaska State Troopers stepped into her room and sent Will on his way.

NINE

While in Snake’s cabin, Will had contacted those he trusted, and the North Face Search and Rescue team—including Cade Warren—had responded along with someone from the Mountain Cove PD. But they weren’t the ones investigating the crimes now. The Alaska State Troopers were the law-enforcement entity to ask the questions. The crimes had happened outside Mountain Cove and even the large area encompassing Juneau’s jurisdiction, but there were no county sheriffs in Alaska.

Even though the Alaska State Troopers were officially in charge, Will would also share everything that had happened with Mountain Cove Police Chief Winters. What happened to Sylvie and Will, this investigation, somehow involved Will’s mother. If he followed through with this line of thinking, she had been murdered right alongside Sylvie’s mother. But what Will couldn’t be sure about was which one of the mothers was the target and which one was the accidental victim. Or had they both been caught up in something together that had gotten them killed? His mother, Margaret Pierson, had been a citizen of Mountain Cove since she and his father had moved there from Montana three decades ago. Chief Winters should be kept informed on everything about her murder so he could do his own investigation if warranted.

After Will sipped the last of the vending-machine coffee, he crushed the paper cup and tossed it, growing impatient with the troopers to finish taking down Sylvie’s statement. He had a burning question of his own. Would Sylvie share anything more with the police than she’d shared with Will?

If Will went with his gut on this, then he thought Sylvie had suspected her mother had been murdered long before men had come onto the scene and tried to kill her. The attack just confirmed her suspicions. It was those initial suspicions that had sent her looking for the plane.

What did she know? What or whom did she suspect was responsible?

Or maybe Will was wrong and Sylvie knew more but didn’t realize it. But that didn’t seem likely, either. Sylvie was smart. No. She knew something about that plane and was holding it close. Was she protecting someone?

He didn’t like being played or manipulated, but to be fair, Sylvie hardly knew him. Why should she trust him? Except they had this one strange connection, this one thing in common.

Their mothers had both died together in that crash.

That gave Will a reason to see her again. He’d already told her that he’d help her find out what had happened to their mothers. Still, his reasons for wanting to see her again went beyond the precarious situation they found themselves in together. The thought took him by surprise.

But Will couldn’t follow through. He’d already suffered with the deep pain that came from experiencing a shattered heart. If remembering the pain from his past wasn’t enough to keep his heart safe, he’d simply remind himself that Sylvie hated to fly. He got up every morning eager to meet the sky. Nothing inspired him more than drifting or soaring in the air through wide-open spaces, over the lofty snow-covered peaks of Alaska, or dipping deep into the valleys and seeing the fjords and waterfalls.

Nothing better than soaring with the eagles where the sky had no limits.

Nothing inspired him more. He would never give that up. No sense in falling for another woman who disdained his greatest joy. Will didn’t have time to ponder more when the two Alaska State Troopers exited Sylvie’s room.

Will kept his distance. He didn’t want to be dragged into more questions for which he had no answers. Plus, he figured she would need a few minutes to compose herself. He had needed that himself. They had to have drained her with their interrogation, as they had him, and he hadn’t been recovering from a gunshot wound or decompression sickness. He hadn’t lost so much blood that he’d almost died.

The thought sent his mind back to their narrow escape through the woods behind Snake’s cabin, and then to the tree behind which they’d taken cover. To the gunshots fired and to Sylvie nearly bleeding to death. Shaking the morbid thoughts away, Will thanked the Lord for Sylvie’s life. In the waiting area, he stayed in the shadowed corner a little longer and sent up another prayer for the Lord’s protection. They were going to need it. Until these men were caught, they were both in danger.

Will opened his eyes in time to see a male nurse enter her room. The man’s scrubs pulled tight across his chest and over large biceps as he glanced both ways down the hall before he closed the door. Will frowned. Something didn’t feel right. He might be too paranoid after everything they’d been through, but he always listened to his instincts.

He shoved from the wall and headed to her room, wondering why the Alaska State Troopers hadn’t thought to post an officer by her door. Asking them would be Will’s next order of business after he checked on her. Will opened the door and stepped inside the room.

Sylvie slept, looking exhausted and fragile. The nurse prepared a syringe presumably to stick in Sylvie’s IV, adding medication to the drip. His gaze flicked to Will—and something in the man’s eyes sent warnings through Will’s head. Yeah, it was always in the eyes.

Will edged close to the man, getting in his space, preparing for a negative