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

route would have meant backtracking down a wide-open trail that would have made it easy for him to follow. I figured the smaller, less used trail was my best bet because I grew up hiking these mountains, dodging trees, running over roots.”

“You took a risk and it paid off.”

“A calculated one, but yes.”

He nodded. “Impressive,” he told her truthfully. He wasn’t sure Summer understood how remarkable her whole handling of that situation had been.

She shrugged. “I did what I had to do. I still keep replaying it in my mind. First, in case there are any details I missed that might help and, second, because I wonder what I could have done differently. Could I have avoided it? Should I have reacted in a different way than I did? Things like that.” Summer exhaled, her shoulders dropping as she did so.

“You did a good job. Trust me. Now show me where we’re going today.”

She set the map on her lap, paused and shook her head. “Actually, come with me.”

She stood and walked to the stairs, and Clay followed her to the second floor and into her room. “What’s up?”

“I just had a bad feeling. I’m probably just jumpy from talking about the attack, but I didn’t want to risk being overheard by anyone. If we are supposed to keep the location a secret until we’re heading on the hike, to minimize the chances my attacker can find me, that includes keeping it from everybody who isn’t family. Or you. Or Erynn.”

“You don’t think there’s a connection between your attacker and one of the guests, do you?” The idea had crossed Clay’s mind but he’d written it off fairly quickly. If one of the guests wanted Summer dead there would have been plenty of opportunity to attack her closer to the lodge. Following her up the steep mountain trail would have been unnecessary.

“I don’t know. I just don’t want to take chances.”

“Just calculated risks, right?” Clay smiled a little. Whether she acknowledged it or not, Summer was a risk taker. She just had her own unique ideas about what constituted a risk and what didn’t.

“So have a seat.” She motioned to the two chairs on one wall of the room. Clay sat, Summer taking the seat next to him. She unfolded the map again. “We’re here.” She set her finger down. Clay nodded, doing his best to memorize the general topography around the lodge, looking for landmarks. “And we’re going here.”

“Is it a pretty steep hike?”

“Not as steep as the trail I was on yesterday.”

“Yeah, but you were on your way up a mountain.”

“That’s where I prefer to be.”

Summer stopped, almost cutting herself off in the middle of the last word. She gazed up at him, her face giving nothing away, but looking like she was studying him, waiting to see if he’d caught something.

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“I’d already figured out the mountains are home for you, Summer. It’s not a secret.”

She flinched a little at the word secret unless Clay was mistaken.

“So what will you tell people about the hike, as far as difficulty level? I’m guessing you’re planning to advertise it in some way so people will know what they’re getting into, right?”

Summer exhaled, the tension lines in her face easing. One of these days Clay’s curiosity was going to get the best of him—she’d react to something he said, and he wouldn’t be able to let it go—but for now it seemed like the right thing to do. Even if Summer was becoming more and more intriguing to him.

“I’ll probably call it moderate. A young kid who’s a good hiker could do it. I have a friend in Anchorage whose son climbed one of the peaks up here—they call it Little O’Malley—when he was four.”

“I’d probably try that one if a four-year-old could do it.” Clay laughed.

“I didn’t say it was easy. I said a good hiker could handle it. Hiking is less about age or agility and more about your mental state, and how badly you want to be on top of that mountain.”

“You think so, huh?”

She nodded, and Clay could tell that once again they were dangerously close to an area of Summer’s life that meant enough to her that she guarded it from other people. So there was something about the mountains that was crucially important to her. Interesting.

“What time should we leave on the hike?” she interjected as Clay reminded himself not to push her for answers about things like this, that intrigued him but didn’t have anything to do with the case.

“When do you usually schedule them?”

“Sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon. It’s just after eight now. We could easily post a 10:30 departure time and take lunch with us, or we could eat here and hike afterward.”

“Let’s do that, then.”

“Thanks for doing this, Clay.”

He nodded, smiled back at her and tried not to second-guess everything as she stood up to get ready for the day. He only hoped he was doing the right thing, and not taking risks that would put her in greater danger.

SIX

Hours later, Summer walked along the path to the start of the trail, trying to project the confidence she usually felt. She wasn’t sure she was fooling anyone with her attempts not to be scared out of her mind by the fact that someone was after her, but she sure was trying.

Not that she wanted to deceive anyone, but she didn’t want to be babied. And most of all, she didn’t want anyone blaming her, in any way more than they already legitimately could, for the failure of Moose Haven Lodge.

Summer had no idea why Clay didn’t understand how much the lodge meant to her. He had no idea of the circumstances of her past few years, true. So he didn’t know that if it weren’t for her, the lodge would be sitting pretty, bringing in more than enough money to support all of them. But she’d left right when they needed her most and now