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

But who was she kidding? She had nothing to worry about. Once this was over and the killers were imprisoned, they would each go their separate ways.

Will would go back to his bush-piloting business.

Sylvie back to her scuba diving.

Even if she trusted him with her heart, could trust him to be true to a committed relationship, they were just too different to make it work. She closed her eyes, willing herself to drift to sleep amid tumultuous emotions the letter had stirred, confirming the very thing she’d wanted to disprove—that her stepfather had killed her mother. That he was not only guilty of orchestrating her murder, but also of trying to kill Sylvie to prevent her from discovering the truth.

She thought she was going to be sick. How could she sleep with so much riding on her finding the thumb drive? With so much twisting around her throat and choking off her air.

And at that moment she struggled to breathe. She was strapped in the seat belt and couldn’t free herself as Will’s plane sank deeper and deeper. Bubbles escaped her nose and she looked to her left. Will was in his seat, his eyes closed.

“Will!” She shook him but he wouldn’t wake up.

She couldn’t save him if she couldn’t free herself first. Finally, she unlatched the seat belt—only her stepfather was on the other side of Will pulling him out of the plane. Then her mother was in the water. Alive and in the water, fighting Damon.

Sylvie’s lungs screamed. She had to get air or she would drown. She fought her way to the surface, but Diverman was always there pulling her back down. She fought him but she’d already been beneath the water’s surface far too long.

She would die. They would all die.

Releasing her last breath, she yelled into the water.

Sylvie fought the arms that gripped her. Shook her until her eyes opened. Will’s face filled her vision as she sucked in a breath. But she was back in her seat, strapped in. Sylvie fought to disentangle herself from the straps.

“Sylvie, calm down.” Will tightened his grip. “It’s all right. You were dreaming.”

Her brain finally caught up with her panic and she slowed her breathing. “I thought I was drowning. We crashed again, in the water like before. Only this time we sank.”

“Well, then, you’ll be glad to know that we have safely landed in Mountain Cove.”

She relaxed back in the seat. “I don’t want to fly again, Will. Don’t make me.”

“Your dream was about drowning not flying.” He tucked in his chin. “Maybe we shouldn’t dive tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Oh, that’s right. It was the middle of the night. “I forgot we have to wait until morning to get the equipment we need.”

Sylvie feared she wouldn’t make it to the downed plane first. She had the keen sense she was on a race to the thumb drive, if she already wasn’t too late. She was on a mad rush to save her own life by destroying her stepfather’s.

“Relax, Sylvie. There’s virtually no way Diverman can beat us there. I’ve made a lot of friends in this business. I do favors for them. They do favors for me. A few phone calls should get us into the local dive shop to get the gear we need.”

“But I don’t want to involve anyone else in this. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. No one can know what we’re doing. That is, until it’s over.”

“Don’t worry. If people want me to keep their secrets, as in some of the outrageous packages I’ve picked up or delivered, then they’ll have to keep mine. I think we should let your half siblings know what we’re doing, though. Let Chief Winters know, too.”

“Only if you think he won’t try to stop me, or tell me not to go.” By the look on Will’s face, he couldn’t promise her that. “Will, you understand everything is at stake here. Our lives are at stake if we don’t find the one thing that can put these men away. We can’t let them get to the evidence first. They won’t wait for Chief Winters or the AST to act.”

Will frowned and exited the plane.

Exhaustion and guilt weighed heavily on Sylvie and she almost succumbed to the paralyzing effects, remaining in the seat until Will opened the door on her side and assisted her out. The dream—more of a nightmare—had zapped her reserves.

Will steadied her on her feet. Would she be stronger if Will wasn’t here to help her? Was she leaning on him too much, something she never wanted to do? She wasn’t sure, but she decided to simply be grateful. What kind of person went to the lengths he’d gone to help her? But it was about his mother, too. She couldn’t forget that. And he wasn’t helping just her. He was helping himself, as well.

Would they even survive?

SEVENTEEN

The sunrise eclipsed the fears that had driven him mad during the night and finally awakened him. He steered the cruiser over the water to the remote part of southeast Alaska where he’d first come across Sylvie, running for her life.

He almost turned the boat around a thousand times. Finding the information that would answer their questions and set them both free could also end their lives if their attackers found them here again. But Sylvie would never stop.

And neither would he.

It wasn’t enough that they had the letter her mother had written. It wasn’t enough that someone had tried to kill her and they could identify the assailants if they were ever caught. Convincing the authorities to take action would take too long. They needed the thumb drive in their hands, though that hadn’t done her mother much good.

Awestruck at the golden sunrise shimmering off the clouds and splaying across the water, Will allowed himself to soak up the peace he always felt at seeing it—and as wonderful as it was here on the boat and open water, it was even