Elizabeth Goddard - Wilderness Peril

Shay was beginning to think she’d made a big mistake in agreeing to this. She’d only given in after Connor’s assurances that she’d be in no danger. Though the Deep Horizon crew occasionally retrieved property in high-risk situations, that didn’t happen too often. Nor had Aiden mentioned any concerns or potential problems.

This was a small plane he’d gone to get. Usually, they only saw trouble when they had to retrieve Learjets and jumbo jets from rich people and bad guys in third-world countries. Buster Kemp wasn’t either of those, at least on paper. So what had happened to make Aiden disappear? And why did she feel so uneasy?

The Jeep crept along the gravel road of the simple village, barely a town and mostly populated by native Alaskans from a tribe Shay couldn’t pronounce. Rick kept going once they’d passed the last of the buildings that made up the town—the only representation of civilization for a good hundred-mile radius.

Shay didn’t like the idea of heading for the Alaskan wilderness until she knew more.

A lot more.

But it wasn’t as if she and Rick could just go home and come back later. Getting there had already been a two-day journey, starting with a flight from Nebraska to Seattle, then another flight to Fairbanks and finally a ride out on a seaplane mail flight to this remote village.

Until now, Shay’s job description hadn’t included being put in the field. She liked working behind the scenes. Yet here she was.

“Why are we going to trek through the wilderness to look for him when we don’t even know where the plane is? That’s why he wanted us to wait for him—so he could show us where to go.”

“Well, he’s not here. Just what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Ask around?” When Aiden had been late in meeting them, Shay had left Rick to wait for his brother while she hung out at the general store, looking at all the handcrafted beadwork and turquoise jewelry created by the local natives for the tourists.

“What do you think I’ve been doing? I asked around. Nobody knows anything. Nobody has seen him, of course. We make it our job to slip in and out, remember? To be invisible.”

She frowned, hating that she’d not given Rick the benefit of the doubt. Of course he would have already covered the basics.

Peering through the back window, Shay watched the town of Tanaken growing distant. She resisted the urge to say that they should get back on that seaplane when it returned and head back to Fairbanks. She knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not without Rick’s brother, Aiden.

Not without that plane that he’d come to retrieve that Shay could only hope hadn’t been lost through a flare-up of Aiden’s old problem.

“I can honestly say I was hoping to find him drunk somewhere.” Rick rubbed his temple, worked his jaw. “That’d be better than the other scenarios running through my mind.”

Shay wanted to reach over and squeeze his shoulder. Her heart went out to the guy, and for more than his missing brother. But he scared her, too. He kept too much bottled up inside him, and she’d seen it explode at the wrong time.

“He’s had troubles in the past, but there are good reasons for that.” He sighed like an Alaskan facing more snow after a record-setting storm. “He wouldn’t just disappear like this, not with us coming to meet him.”

“So talk to the sheriff, then.”

His half laugh sounded forced. “They don’t have sheriffs in Alaska. Out in the bush, they have village public safety officers. When I asked around, I was told she was helping deliver a baby, so I left it at that.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I wish I were. Besides, Aiden hasn’t been gone long enough to cause concern for the authorities. But I’m still worried. Something about this job hasn’t felt right to me from the start.”

Shay gazed over her shoulder and stared out the back window again.

“That’s why I brought the gun. I had a feeling.” He tossed a glance her way. “You ever have one of those?”

Shay angled her head to look at Rick while she considered his question. When the light hit his eyes just right, the gray almost looked blue. With his thick brown sun-kissed hair, the tanned skin of a man who spent a lot of time in the sun, his toned physique and the way he handled himself— Oh, yeah, she had a few feelings herself.

But attraction wasn’t where the feelings ended, and that was the problem. She’d also had a feeling that Rick Savage would never notice her, and so far he hadn’t disappointed. That was okay, because seeing the pain her father went through after losing her mother, Shay didn’t want to fall in love. Shay was all about staying safe, and love wasn’t a safe choice. Especially not with a man like Rick. That had been especially true after the day he pointed a gun at her.

“I’ve had a few feelings, sure, like the one I have right now that I’m not going to like where we’re going. It’s not like we can get too far on wheels in the direction you’re heading.” Oh, yeah, she’d looked at the maps of Alaska, all right.

“There has to be an airstrip somewhere around here or else there couldn’t be an airplane. I didn’t mention anything to the seaplane’s bush pilot because I didn’t want him to know what we were up to, but I did ask an old-timer, a native Alaskan woman, who looked like she’d been around long enough to know something.”

“And?” Shay’s question was accompanied by a jolt.

The shocks on this Jeep were in serious need of repair. She’d never liked Jeeps as it was. Squeezing the handgrip, she pressed her other palm against the top of the cab, but her head bumped the ceiling anyway.

Rick tugged a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over. She recognized his handwriting and read the lengthy, convoluted directions.

“Directions to a gold-mining claim? Are you serious?”

“Dead serious.”

Shay sat up, not liking where any of this was taking them. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Rick exhaled. “Someone’s been watching us. Following me around. They were getting a little too close for comfort.”

* * *

Shay didn’t speak for a few seconds. Rick cut her a glance, catching her frown. Did she think he was overreacting? He couldn’t tell. He’d never spent this much time with her, especially in such close quarters, so he had no experience reading her expressions. Looking for clues into her thoughts, his eyes skimmed over the few freckles splashed across her nose and the short-cropped auburn hair framing her face that was a little mussed from their travels.

“You think it’s related to Aiden and the plane? Why don’t you just ask them instead of running away?”

Rick shot her a glance. “I did.”

Shay’s sunset-blue eyes grew wide with her gasp. “And what did they say?”

“Let’s just say they weren’t forthcoming with answers. They made a wrong move and I had to make a fast exit. That’s when I came for you.”

He glanced her way and she watched him. He didn’t like the look of concern on her face. “Not to worry. We lost them.”

For now, at least—but depending on what they wanted, he could expect to see them again. Were they bent on stopping them from taking the plane? Did they know something about Aiden? Or were they just a couple of guys preying on tourists in backcountry Alaska? If something happened to him, then what about Shay? What would she do? He’d tried to find out what he could in town but when they’d grabbed him, thinking he was an easy target, he’d opted to leave them behind and come for Shay.

The trick would be to stay safe until they could find Aiden or make it out of here on the next bush flight tomorrow—whichever came first.

The Jeep bounced to the right, and Rick turned his focus to the uneven dirt road—a thirty-five-mile loop to a secluded lake. He wasn’t sure he wanted to endure the bumpy road for another thirty-plus miles, and he doubted Shay would be too happy with the journey either, but there was strength behind her beauty. He knew she could handle it.