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

all the reasons why it didn’t matter, why it would never work.

Because the man had a passion and a caring that wove together into an almost irresistible combination, and Summer couldn’t pretend any longer that wasn’t true.

But she would protect her heart. She had to. Because she knew what happened when she let her heart get involved—she lost sight of everything but the object of her affection, and last time she’d done that her family had suffered.

She felt the rhythm of her heart beating, enjoyed for just one more second the weight of Clay’s hand on her hand and then pulled hers away.

“Keeping me entirely safe is not a job anyone is asking you to do Clay. And it may not be a job you can do.”

They rejoined Noah and heard one more update. The crime lab in Anchorage had analyzed the fibers found on Summer’s clothes and on the tree branches where the struggle had taken place. They were fleece, and the composition matched the Anchorage Outdoor Gear’s store brand. As people from all walks of life shopped there, it still didn’t give them much to go on.

Clay would ask Noah what else he had when Summer went to bed tonight. She may not want the kind of sheltering he was trying to give her, but that wasn’t going to stop him for now, not when Noah agreed she didn’t need to know all the details.

The truth was that this guy was vicious. From a quick conversation when Summer had gone to the bathroom, Clay had learned that the killer was worse than anyone either he or Noah had ever dealt with. The only plus side to anything they’d learned about him today was that with as bold as he was, the risks he took were going to lead law enforcement to catch up to him eventually.

All that troubled him was whether or not that would occur before anything worse happened to Summer.

Time moved slowly. Summer spent some time updating Kate on what had happened. After they all ate a late dinner, Clay suggested a card game to Summer to help pass the time, but the look she gave him more than answered his question about whether or not she was interested in that. Finally he gave up on trying to entertain her and just sat quietly, his mind going over and over the details of the case they knew already and wondering how they’d fill in the ones they didn’t. There had to be something more proactive they could do than sit in the lodge, but Clay hadn’t figured out what that could be yet.

He glanced at Summer, something telling him he should ask her, but he couldn’t quite convince himself to willingly put her through the stress of thinking through the case in deeper detail.

She caught him staring and met his gaze. “What?”

He shook his head. Maybe tomorrow he’d talk to her about it. But he just wasn’t sure enough yet that it was a good idea.

“I’m going to bed.” She stood. Clay glanced at the clock. Not long past ten but it had been a long day.

“Sleep well.” He stood too and started to follow her.

“You don’t need to follow me.”

He let her walk upstairs alone, but when he heard the door to her room shut, he headed up too and sat down in a chair he’d positioned earlier in the hallway outside her door. He and Noah still hadn’t figured out quite what to do about nighttime. Someone needed to be watching Summer at all times, but if the two of them didn’t get sleep they wouldn’t be any good at providing daytime protection in the long run. Clay had mentioned Tyler as an option, but Noah didn’t want his brother adding anything to his plate since he was the one keeping the lodge going while the rest of them focused their energies on this. Clay suspected Noah probably hadn’t slept more than three or four hours since all this had started. The man wore a double weight—he was her brother and the police chief. Clay didn’t have that pressure...

Instead the pressure he felt came from inside. He cared about Summer not because of anything he was to her. He was her friend, and barely that. But he still cared. He chose not to examine the reasons why.

EIGHT

Summer lay in bed staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, turning one way, then another. A serial killer was after her. She was being protected by a man who threatened the security of the walls she’d been building around her heart for years. Her brother had morphed from his lighthearted self into 100 percent police chief mode. Stress had always made Noah more driven, but Summer never would have guessed the intensity a threat against one of his siblings would bring out.

For the first time, Summer felt like she understood a little more why her siblings had reacted about Christopher the way they had. She’d always seen herself as sort of the extra sibling. Noah was saving the world; Tyler had always wanted to save the lodge; Kate was strong enough to never need saving by anyone but God.

And then there was Summer. The dreamer. The one who made mistakes and needed to be rescued.

She was tired of playing that part. She was going to help with this case, was going to be the one to solve it even, maybe. She was determined, and had already thought of some ideas for how she could contribute to the investigation—she just needed to get Clay on her side. She’d seen in his eyes though his dislike of being on the sidelines, so she should be able to convince him.

She exhaled, exhaustion finally creeping toward her, sleep begging her to close her eyes. She gave in, nodded off slowly and surrendered to unconsciousness.

Her eyes stayed closed when a hand gently stroked her cheek the first time. The second time she blinked her eyes open, confusion muddling