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

loved my mother in his own way, but like I told you he cheated on her.” She glanced at Will. “Don’t say anything, okay? Believe me, my mother tortured herself with the guilt over what she’d done in Mountain Cove and felt like it had all come back on her. She’d committed adultery with a married man, now it was her turn.”

“I’m not judging anyone, Sylvie.”

“On the surface he was good to the both of us. A wonderful father to me. There wasn’t anything I wanted that he didn’t give except for more time with him. But there was another side to him, which made him seem cruel and manipulative. He hid that from me as much as he could, but I still caught flashes of it—and I think my mother saw more. He knows how to be very persuasive and has kept my mother by his side even with his ongoing affairs. On the one hand I love him, and on the other I hate him for how he treated her. The betrayal. I heard the arguments down the hall, or my mother’s tears after phone calls. I cried myself to sleep at night. And between my two fathers, and how they treated my mother, I never wanted to be in a relationship myself.” She’d rushed the last words, as if she hadn’t meant to say them. “But that’s beside the point.”

Will heard her loud and clear. She’d dropped that little hint to make sure he understood there could be nothing between them. Fine with him—he had his own reasons for avoiding relationships. “I don’t think it’s safe to go to his home even if he won’t be there. He sounds like a dangerous man.”

“You don’t understand. He doted on me. Made me feel like a little princess. That’s why I’m so torn. I can’t imagine that he would ever harm me. In fact, he taught me to be strong and independent, and to find my own way, which is exactly what I did. I pursued a career in the thing I loved most—scuba diving. So I can’t—I won’t—point the finger at him if I don’t have to. I need to find proof that he isn’t involved. In finding that truth, I’ll find out what happened to my mother. Who killed her and who is trying to kill me.”

“And you can’t think of anyone else who would want to harm your mother?” Or his. Will didn’t put much stock in someone trying to kill his mother when all the focus seemed to be on Sylvie and her almost discovering the plane.

“I wish... I wish I could. Can you imagine if I accused him to the police, what that would do to him if it wasn’t true? And that’s if I could even get the police to take the idea seriously. No, I need to find out for myself.” Sylvie dropped her face into her hands. “I’ve never been in so much pain.”

He didn’t like seeing her hurting. Nor did he like her plan. Sylvie could be right that the evidence they’d find would exonerate her stepfather. Or she could be so completely blinded by her need for a loving father figure—considering she had two fails on that point—that she wasn’t willing to face the truth.

He couldn’t stop himself this time and reached for her, tugged her close and wrapped his arms around her. He was surprised she came into them so quickly and molded against him willingly. It felt right. He wanted to hold her for the sake of holding her, in spite of their mutual determination to avoid relationships.

“You need to realize that your safety is more important than finding out the truth.”

Sylvie was becoming more important to him personally than anything else.

And that thought scared him to death. That truth was more dangerous than anything he’d faced so far. But he had the feeling that she’d started something that would never stop, even if she quit searching. It wouldn’t end well for Sylvie, for either of them, unless they uncovered the truth and exposed the killers.

God, please don’t let it be her stepfather. That would crush her. But what other possibilities were there? He’d see this through with her until it was over. Then, in order to protect his heart, in order to survive, Will Pierson would say goodbye to Sylvie.

It was all about survival of the fittest.

TWELVE

The ferry to Washington had been the longest three days of her life, and though Will had tried to convince her to get off in Ketchikan where he could get them a seaplane ride into Washington and shorten their trip, she had refused. So they slept under the solarium in the deck chairs with the rest of the ferry crowd who hadn’t brought tents or rented cabins.

She’d never met anyone like him. Somehow through all this she had to keep her distance emotionally. And given that she’d just spent almost three days with him putting aside thoughts of the danger chasing them, and instead enjoying the sites of southeast Alaska—even getting a chance to watch the whales—like it was some sort of vacation, keeping her distance emotionally was becoming harder every day. Still, she wouldn’t have had it any other way. He’d kept her company and he’d kept her alive.

So far.

But it would all come to an end soon.

She and Will expected her pursuers to be watching and awaiting their arrival in Washington.

Once the ferry docked at the terminal in Bellingham, Will rented a car for them at the Avis counter while she hung back against the wall, watching the crowd for any familiar faces. Her car was still parked at the marina from which she’d taken her boat up through the Inside Passage on her own. Had it really been more than a week ago? Will insisted she leave her car sitting and let him do the renting so they wouldn’t leave any unnecessary trails, credit card or otherwise.

When he finished at the counter he had a big