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

She couldn’t think like that. She had to hang on to hope like Heidi said. Sylvie couldn’t lose Will. He’d sacrificed everything for her.

At least it hadn’t been for nothing. The Alaska State Troopers had apprehended Ashley at the Juneau airport, confiscating the thumb drive containing incriminating evidence, thanks to Chief Winters. Once he’d heard the story he was quick to act, calling in the “state boys,” as he’d termed them.

The state police hadn’t wanted to share the status of their investigation with Sylvie, although they’d taken her statement, but Chief Winters had kept her informed. She’d been wrong about so much. Misled. Her stomach soured.

The information on the thumb drive turned out to be trade secrets that Ashley had stolen from Damon Masters’s company in order to sell to the highest bidder. Apparently, she already had a buyer, a company competitor, for millions. With that money, she could live her dreams.

Masters Marine Corporation’s R&D had been developing a new eco-ship in order to solve fuel-efficiency problems in the shipping industry. That kind of technology would mean everything to a shipping company. A secret worth millions—money Ashley had been able to leverage to get the hired muscle she needed to take out Sylvie’s mother, and try to kill Sylvie, as well.

She peered into Will’s room to see if the nurse had finished. Sylvie wouldn’t leave his side until he woke up from his induced coma, except for when the nurses sent her away.

Pressing her back against the cold wall, the smell of antiseptic accosting her nose, Sylvie squeezed her eyes shut. Damon hadn’t been involved in her mother’s death, after all. Shame filled her that she’d believed he would have been. When her mother had taken the information from Ashley and realized what she’d found, she was afraid for her life. She’d already been followed and nearly killed. She had to leave and find a safe haven.

When Ashley learned Regina was planning to leave and that she had the thumb drive, she hired a mercenary to take Regina out. He engineered the plane crash, timing it over waters in no-man’s land in southeast Alaska. Unfortunately, Ashley was concerned that Regina had shared her secret with Sylvie. Ashley learned through a contact at the diving school that Sylvie was still searching for the plane. That was when her mercenary accomplice rigged trackers on her scuba gear and boat. As soon as she got near where they suspected the plane had gone down, he was sent to kill her and make it look like an accident.

Like her mother, she would be lost forever.

Since Ashley was Damon’s assistant and right-hand woman, she could easily retrieve the information again. Once she sold it, she could leave the country.

Except that Damon had grown increasingly agitated, believing someone was stealing R&D secrets from his company. As a precaution, he locked her out of the system and called the FBI. When Ashley could no longer gain access to the information, she needed to retrieve the thumb drive, after all, and Sylvie was the person to do it, since she believed she’d found the site of the crash. All Sylvie needed was incentive and to know what precisely she was looking for, i.e. a thumb drive. Then she could die in a diving accident, after all.

Problem solved.

So Ashley copied the letter her mother had intended to send, only tweaking it to serve her purposes, and planted the seed. Diverman had wanted to kill Sylvie and Will at her stepfather’s house, and he nearly ruined Ashley’s new plans.

Sylvie gulped back the rest of the coffee, ignoring the bitter taste.

She should have seen this coming a mile away. Should have seen through Ashley. But Ashley had seemed so genuine. So warm and caring.

The squeak of footfalls, somehow familiar, drew her attention up. One of her newfound siblings? Her heart skipped at the thought.

But then tumbled.

Her stepfather made his way toward her from the elevators. Sylvie fought the need to turn her back on him. How could she face him? She peered at the white sterile floor, waiting for his approach. Hospital staff exited Will’s room, so she could finally go back in. But now she had to speak with Damon.

“Sylvie.”

She glanced at him. Saw the regret.

“I’m so very sorry about what happened.” He cradled her elbow.

In years gone by, she might have gone into his arms to receive a fatherly hug, but so much stood between them now. Even though he was innocent regarding her mother’s death and the attacks on Sylvie, he’d still cheated on her mother. Betrayed his family.

She looked away. “Me, too. I’m sorry I thought you were involved. I know that hurt you.” More than she would ever know. “Because it hurts me.”

“I can’t say that I blame you. Things were so volatile and explosive between your mother and me. And then...there was the matter of the affairs. I’m sorry for those, too, and for the hurt I’ve caused both you and your mother. I’m sorry that I was idiot enough to think I could trust Ashley.” Bitterness spiked his last words.

Unsure what to say, Sylvie stared at her feet. She wanted her life back. She wanted those years back spent with a loving stepfather and mother. When she actually was his princess. His betrayal had been far-reaching. She’d carried it into adulthood where it had colored the way she looked at others. Damaged her ability to trust men. But she was done with letting their actions affect her life. Their mistakes rob her.

“So what’s next?” he asked. “Where do we go from here?”

She gathered the nerve to look him in the eyes. “We take it one day at a time. None of it really matters to me anymore. All that matters is that Will wakes up.”

Because somewhere along the way, she’d fallen in love with Will Pierson.

Will’s eyes fluttered, squinting open to the dim lighting of a room. His limbs were too heavy, or he was too tired, disconnected, but he couldn’t move.

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