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

Sylvie flinched but didn’t answer. She liked to think before she responded. He’d give her a few moments. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, Will shoved to his feet and approached. From behind her, he watched out the window, as well. Everything looked so gray and hopeless. He fought the urge to wrap his arms around her, hold her, chase the darkness away. He wouldn’t get the answers he wanted, couldn’t hang around long enough to protect her, if he scared her away by trying to force her to comply. Force her to answer.

Will couldn’t help himself and lifted his hand. Indecision kept it hovering above her shoulder, then finally, he let it drop on the soft threads of her navy fleece hoodie. She tensed then relaxed. He thought she might even lean into him as she’d done on the deck when he’d first revealed himself.

She exhaled and slowly turned. Facing him, she was much too close. He let his gaze take in the face he had once thought not quite pretty, but he’d changed his mind so quickly. Once he got to know her and saw her inner strength—that light shining from within that poured from her eyes and her smile—she became the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

He’d let his hand drop from her shoulder, but now both hands rubbed her arms. More reassurance? He wasn’t sure, but his hands had a mind of their own, and he let them. He was rewarded when he coaxed the smallest of smiles into her drawn face.

“I’ll tell you everything I know, Will. I’m sorry. I should have trusted you completely. It seemed too private, too personal, and I wasn’t sure about any of it. Wasn’t sure I wanted to share my family secrets. But now I know what I want to do, and where I want to go.”

“I’m listening.”

“I want to go home. To my mother’s home where she lived with Damon, my stepfather. The house where I grew up. In my last conversation with her, she was running scared. She called to warn me to watch my back, and said she would tell me more when she got to Mountain Cove. Then she told me that she loved me. Something in her tone made it sound like she was telling me in case she never got the chance to say it again.”

“Do you have any idea who might have scared her that badly?” Will asked gently.

“My stepfather. Damon cheated on my mother,” she replied. “A lot. I don’t understand why she didn’t just leave, but he had power over her to keep her. I think she was scared of him, too. She brought up his name in her voice mail but didn’t finish what she was going to say. Regardless, it seems she finally freed herself or got the courage to leave. But that’s why she went to Mountain Cove. He would never think to follow her there in a million years. And she would never go there except to get away from him.”

Sylvie pressed her face into her hands.

Will gave her time to compose herself.

She dropped her hands and moved to sit in the chair. “As soon as I heard that she had died in a plane crash, I listened to her message again. Then I heard it for what it was. She was running scared. Tried to warn me. I knew I had to find that plane so that I could know if someone had murdered her.”

“Then men showed up to silence you.”

“And I knew then. I mean, you and I were running scared and it took me some time to come to grips with it, but deep down, I knew.”

“How did you find out about the plane crash, her death, if your mother was able to keep her whereabouts a secret from your stepfather? Who knew she’d gotten on that plane? Even I didn’t know. She was the surprise package. My mother made her living delivering unscheduled passengers and surprises to the bush.”

Sylvie stared at him, unblinking. “Damon, my stepfather. He called to tell me the news. He knew where she was, after all.” She contemplated the words. “Will...he’s a powerful man. He could afford to pay someone to sabotage the plane. He could afford to send people after me.”

“But you don’t want to believe it.”

“No, even after everything, I don’t want to believe it. And that’s why I have to go home. I need to find the truth. She had to have left something. Maybe I can prove that Damon wasn’t involved.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re saying you suspect your stepfather could have something to do with the plane crash. That he killed your mother and now you want to go see him. You want to go right into the lion’s den?” Will couldn’t help his incredulous tone. “Sylvie, why haven’t you told this to the police, if you suspect the man?”

“I have nothing concrete. I don’t want it to be true. I don’t want all the ugliness that happened between them to have resulted in her murder. I want to prove my suspicions wrong. But I think I could find some answers if I look through Mom’s things. After the memorial service I couldn’t face going through them as if she was gone, never to return. I think that’s another reason why I wanted to find the plane first—because that was the only thing that could make it real.”

He understood that all too well, and it was what had thrown their lives together. “I don’t think you should go see him.”

“I’m not going to see him. He won’t even be there.”

“I don’t understand why you didn’t share this information. If he’s guilty, the police could have resolved this by now.”

She shook her head. “No, he’s powerful. They wouldn’t investigate him without a reason.”

Who was this man? What did he do for a living? What was Will missing here? Questions stumbled around in the back of Will’s mind, but he wouldn’t interrupt.

“He