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

me about thirty minutes. We’ll talk more then. There are things I’d rather not say over the phone.”

“Alright, see you then.” Clay hung up the phone, turned his attention back to the message, looked over at Tyler who was still staring at the wall too, then focused back up at the chilling words.

“We figure out why he did this, we might figure out more about him,” Clay thought aloud, considering the message, the placement of it, the logistics of leaving it. “He had to climb up there,” he observed. “You keep a ladder near here?”

Tyler nodded. “Around the side of the lodge.”

Clay headed in the direction the other man had indicated. Tyler started to follow but Clay stopped him. “You stay there. Don’t let your sister’s window out of your sight.”

“Why shouldn’t he let my window out of his sight?”

Clay jumped at Summer’s voice in front of him. She’d come from around the side of the lodge, down a stone path that Clay guessed led to the back door.

“How much did you hear?”

Summer raised her eyebrows. “So I was right. You wouldn’t have let me out here for some reason.”

Tyler had mentioned checking on her. At that time, had he told her to stay in her room? It seemed likely. But even Clay knew that telling this woman to stay put would just make her curious about what she wasn’t supposed to see. Tyler should have known it would make her come right outside.

“I didn’t say that. But you’re supposed to stay where you’re put so we can try to keep you safe.”

“Stay where I’m put?” Clay wouldn’t have said her eyebrows could get any higher, but apparently that would have been wrong. Her shoulders squared, her chin lifted.

Frustration at the morning built inside Clay, but he took a breath to keep his temper in check. Most of the frustration he was feeling was aimed at Summer’s attacker and Summer didn’t deserve the brunt of that, even if she did seem determined to make his life harder by making her life more dangerous. Somehow though, he was beginning to understand her family’s tendency toward being overprotective. Summer was so strong, brave. So independent. And maybe...maybe Clay just didn’t want her to have to be all those things all the time if she didn’t want to be. Because while it was clear she didn’t want to be coddled, somewhere in her blue eyes he’d caught the smallest hint of vulnerability that made him think part of her did want protection, wanted to lean on someone, but didn’t feel she should. It made him curious about her, made him want to know her more.

Something he needed to ignore, would ignore if he had any sense. For both of their sakes.

Her eyes went to the window and grew wide. “Why? Why would anyone do that?”

Clay admired how quickly she’d asked the question that had come to his mind. Motive was one of the key elements in solving any crime, and in a crime that could be related to a serial killer—he wasn’t ruling that out yet, even if Noah sounded uncertain—it would be one of the hardest things to figure out. But once they had, understanding motive could be key to unmasking who was behind all of this.

“I don’t know. It’s something we’re going to try to figure out today.”

Was it his imagination, or did she edge closer to him? Not that he blamed her. She’d withstood more than the average person could take, pressure-wise, in the last several hours. Everybody had a breaking point. While it didn’t look like they’d found Summer’s yet, Clay knew they had to be careful.

She leaned closer to him and he searched for words to reassure her. “Stop looking at me like that,” she whispered, her eyes meeting his. She held his gaze for a long span of seconds, then backed away.

And he’d thought she needed encouragement.

This woman wasn’t going to stop surprising him with her strength, was she?

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Clay stated. “I’m going to sit here until Noah comes. It’s unlikely he’ll return to the scene, at least right now, but I’m not going to risk the evidence being compromised.”

“You think the guy who did this could have left something behind that could help us ID him?”

Clay didn’t want to give her too much hope, but then again, wasn’t hope one of the things that made Christians different from people who didn’t believe? He had to remember that. “It’s possible. I can’t promise anything.”

Summer looked at him...funny. “No one can, Clay. No guarantees in life, I get that.”

Once again, she’d surprised him.

“Anyone hungry?”

Tyler’s abrupt question was out of place, but Clay recognized it as an attempt to break up the private conversation between himself and Summer. He stepped back, almost without realizing what he was doing.

“I’ll go get some breakfast,” Summer volunteered. Did she understand what Tyler was doing too and was going along with it, or was she just eager to eat? “I’ll bring it out and we can picnic outside. Make the best of things, right?” She gave a small smile that seemed like a peace offering. She was still feisty this morning, stronger than almost any woman Clay had ever met, but she seemed softer around the edges somehow, at least with him. Like she’d determined maybe they should tolerate each other as long as they were going to be in such close proximity for the time being.

Toleration was fine, as long as it stayed professional. The more he learned about her, the more he needed reminders not to get too close.

He was leaving Alaska at the end of the summer. Tyler knew that, had been fine with it. Whether that had factored into his warnings to leave his sisters alone, Clay wasn’t sure. But he’d made no secret of the fact that this wasn’t a permanent trip. Of course, he had no idea where he was headed from there. Georgia still didn’t seem right. It had changed in