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

Dizziness took hold. Oh, no! Please, God, help me!

Help Will!

She would never make it to the surface. That was Ashley’s plan. Keep her here, hold her down, until she died. In her peripheral vision, she could see that Will was no longer swimming. He floated lifeless in the water. But so did Diverman.

Had he killed for her, like he said he would?

Fury exploded inside Sylvie. Adrenaline surged and she shoved free from Ashley. Swiped at the woman’s regulator, her mask, anything to be free so she could save Will. But Diverman roused and swam toward her. She couldn’t take them both.

Her heart would split in two if she left Will behind, and yet she had no choices. None whatsoever.

She turned and thrust away from Ashley to make a swim for it. Ashley reached for Sylvie, grabbing her fin and then her leg. She sliced at Ashley with her own knife. Terror filled Sylvie. She couldn’t die like this. Then the truth would never come out for any of them.

Ashley ripped the thumb drive from Sylvie’s fingers then released her. She and Diverman swam away. Sylvie made for Will. She had to haul him to the surface, take her chances with DCS again. There was no time to worry about stopping. And that was when she saw what had sent Ashley and Diverman away without killing her first.

Divers. More divers were in the water. Obviously they weren’t there to help Ashley and her accomplice. The next thing Sylvie knew, one of the divers was with her, sharing his regulator.

Cade Warren, her half brother. Will must have told him about their plan. She’d warned him against that, but now she was grateful.

Other divers surrounded Will and took him away from her. Tears slid down her cheeks and pooled in her mask, but they weren’t tears of joy, even though she was grateful the divers had shown up here.

She wouldn’t have survived even to get to this point if it hadn’t been for Will. He’d saved her too many times, and now he might pay for that with his life. She wasn’t sure Will would make it. Please, God...

He might already be gone.

Moments later Sylvie found herself on another boat. David Warren and Heidi Callahan helped her remove her gear. She pressed into Heidi’s shoulder, cognizant of her half sister’s growing belly, and sobbed. She’d thought she was so strong that she could take on the world, all by herself. Take on her stepfather, Damon Masters, an international magnate.

She’d been so wrong.

Helicopter rotors drew her attention, and she watched it heading away.

She slumped and leaned away from Heidi. “Will...”

“He’s fortunate Isaiah met us here in the SAR helicopter. They’ll get him to the hospital.”

Sylvie shook her head, confused. What kind of help had Will requested? He couldn’t have known they would need it.

Heidi must have read the question in her eyes. “Isaiah was already in the air, returning from a call-out that didn’t require it. He didn’t want me to come today since I’m pregnant, but I wasn’t going to stay behind. So he did what any overprotective husband would do. He did a flyby.” Heidi flattened her lips. “My point is that could save Will’s life.”

He was already dead, wasn’t he? Heidi must have seen the doubt in her eyes and gripped her hands. “Believe, Sylvie. You have to believe. Have some faith. We all made it here in time. Before it was too late.”

When Heidi released Sylvie’s hands she opened her palms, free from the gloves. “The thumb drive. Ashley took the thumb drive. The whole reason for everything.”

“It’s all right. You can tell the police everything. We need to get you to the hospital, too. Looks like you have a nasty cut on your arm. You could need the hyperbaric chamber, too.”

Sylvie hadn’t noticed before, but Ashley had caught her with the knife.

“Let’s get you below deck.”

“Will and I borrowed a boat from one of his friends.” She glanced over.

“We got it, Sylvie.” Heidi smiled. “This is what we do.”

Sylvie decided to let someone else take control. She trusted her search-and-rescue half siblings. And she had trusted Will.

Still trusted him. God, please be with him.

Sylvie sat on the cushioned sofa below deck, praying for Will. Letting Heidi offer her hot chocolate and comfort her. But her heart and mind refused to be comforted.

Too late, she realized the letter she’d thought had been from her mother Ashley had generated on her own computer. Made it sound like the words her mother would have said. Ashley must have copied her mother’s real letter and twisted it to suit her purpose. Addressed it as though her mother had meant to mail it.

It had been a ruse to send Sylvie back to her search for the plane and to find the thumb drive.

All that so that Ashley could have the thumb drive, and dispose of Sylvie and Will at the same time.

Her stepfather and Ashley were working with Diverman and his accomplice, that much was clear. But why had they initially tried to kill Sylvie when she was searching for the plane, if they had wanted her to find it and the thumb drive?

Sylvie pushed back another tear. She didn’t care about any of it. The police could figure all of that out. All she cared about was Will. His warm brown eyes and his thick dark hair. His sense of humor. The sacrifices he’d made for her. He had to live.

Without Sylvie, of course. She had caused him far too much trouble and heartache. She would see that Will was alive and well, and then she would disappear from his life.

NINETEEN

Sylvie leaned against the hospital wall outside Will’s room, nursing a tepid cup of coffee. He hadn’t wanted to dive. But he’d done it for her. Would the guilt ever leave her? Could she ever let go and move on? They’d both been desperate to solve what happened to their mothers. The price had been too high.

If I lose Will...

No.