Tailspin (10 page)

Familiar brown eyes stared back. “Sylvie.”

“Will?” Relief rippled through her.

“Yes, I'm here. What's wrong?” He slowly released his grip, his concerned gaze roaming her face then scrutinizing their surroundings.

“What...what are you doing here?” She hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but anger battled with her sheer joy at seeing him.

“You don't seem glad to see me.” His brow quirked.

Her jumbled emotions kept her from a coherent response, then finally, “Why are you just now letting me know you were here? I...” Yeah, she was glad to see him, but she wouldn't let him know how much. She was more than angry he'd been following her against her wishes.

“I wanted to make sure you were safe. But I wasn't sure about your reaction when you found out.” He glanced off in the distance. “I was working up my nerve to approach you, but then you disappeared.”

“Will...” She managed a shallow gasp of his name. Pressed her forehead against his chest like an idiot. He would see right through her if she didn't pull herself together. “I had a feeling I was being followed. If only I had known it was you.”

“I could have misjudged the situation. Are you saying I shouldn't have come?”

Oh, now he was teasing her. Of course he could tell that she was glad to see him. Her reaction said everything, more than she wanted to reveal. But she wouldn't say the words to him. Tell him that she liked that he'd come after her, that he'd followed. That he wanted to protect her.

“Will, I'll ask again, why are you here?” She wanted to hear all those things from him.

“I wanted to protect you. I was scared for you when you left, so I followed. I would think that was obvious, after everything we've been through. After I already told you that we're in this together. And after...” Will's attention snagged on something behind her. “Looks like someone besides me followed you, and he's coming this way.”

ELEVEN

W
ill shoved Sylvie behind him and faced the man who strode toward them. This part of the deck was empty of others who might interfere at the moment. Could be the man had nothing to do with Sylvie, and Will was acting the fool—but he wasn't going to take that chance.

The man, wearing a dark navy jacket, had the broad chest and thick neck of a marine. The stride of someone who never lost a battle. He watched the mountains beyond them as though interested in the scenery, except his eyes flicked to Sylvie. One time. That was all it took to telegraph his intentions. A tall, skinny woman strolled along the railing with a video camera, heading their way. If the man was going to strike, it would be now, before anyone else approached and got in the way.

Sylvie tugged at him, tried coming around from behind him. He knew she didn't want him to get hurt, but Will stood his ground, protecting her if the man was bent on harm. As he closed in on them, strolling along as if he was simply riding the ferry back to Washington, Will braced himself for what was to come. The truth was always there in the eyes, just like it was in this man's eyes now. This wasn't the guy from the hospital, but he read the man's intentions all the same—his sheer determination to kill Sylvie.

This scene had become all too familiar.

“Will.” Sylvie fought him now, making his task more difficult. “This is why I wanted to leave you!”

The man approached quickly, lifting his arm from beneath his jacket, leaving Will only a millisecond to respond. He lunged, forcing the man's weapon-wielding hand down. A bullet fired off, hitting the water to the left. Screams erupted from elsewhere on the ferry. The woman with the camera began shouting for others to come and assist, while she filmed the whole thing.

Who was Sylvie that someone would risk killing her on a ferry in the middle of the water, leaving the attacker no escape, nowhere to run? Her killers were becoming more desperate.

Will's muscles strained as he held the man off. He grunted with the effort. “Who.
Are.
You? What do you want?”

If Will could hold the man in this position long enough, the ferry security guard would arrive and detain him. They could get to the bottom of this, but the man broke free. Will landed a punch square to his jaw. The weapon dropped to the water.

To Will's astonishment, the attacker climbed over the rail and jumped into the cold waters of the channel, a good drop from the deck of the ferry.

Will wanted to follow him. Sylvie grabbed him. “Will, no! Are you crazy?”

Adrenaline coursed through him as he started over, determined to swim after the man and beat the truth from him. End this for Sylvie. Men flanked him and pulled him back. One of them was a security guard.

They all watched in silence as the guilty party swam away. In the distance, a boat appeared. Was that the same boat that had been waiting where Sylvie had been attacked beneath the water?

“Aren't you going to do something?” Will asked the guard. “Follow him?” Will leaned over his thighs to catch his breath, his ribs throbbing. He hadn't remembered being jabbed there.

“We'll call the Coast Guard.”

“I taped the whole thing,” the woman with the camera said. “You can see if you can identify him.”

The security guard thanked her.

Will pushed himself upright and looked into Sylvie's tormented eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Me? I'm fine. You're the one who's hurt. Why do you keep doing this? Showing up and standing between me and the bad guys?”

He would have expected gratitude, but all he saw in her eyes was anger. “And what if I hadn't been here? What if I hadn't come this time? Where would you be? Could you have fought that guy?”

“I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me, but you're right, Will. I can't do this alone.”

The security guard escorted Will and Sylvie to a room where a nurse saw to Will's injuries—a bruised rib, she determined—and the security officer, a retired police officer out of Sitka, questioned them. Sylvie explained that the Alaska State Troopers were investigating, and would need to be informed of the latest incident. At least the woman had documented what happened for them.

When they were left alone in the sparse and economical office, Will watched Sylvie stare out the window and hug herself. Her hazel eyes had lost their shimmer. That cut him to the bone.

“Did you recognize that guy?” he asked.

“No. Like I told the police, and you and Chief Winters, the guy in the hospital, he was the diver who came at me. I only saw his eyes behind his mask, but I could never forget them. But this guy, nope. If I had recognized him, I would have gone for help immediately once I saw him.”

“So Diverman was at the hospital, and maybe this guy was Rifleman, the man who was on the island and shot at you and my plane. We need to see if the police will put you in a safe house until they resolve this.”

She gave a scoffing laugh. “Which police, Will? The jurisdiction is all over the place. Besides, I think this originated outside Alaska, and I'm heading back to Seattle. I can talk to someone there.”

“I've always had the feeling you knew more than you were saying, Sylvie. Now would be a good time to tell me what you do know. Tell me everything.”

Sylvie flinched but didn't answer. She liked to think before she responded. He'd give her a few moments. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, Will shoved to his feet and approached. From behind her, he watched out the window, as well. Everything looked so gray and hopeless. He fought the urge to wrap his arms around her, hold her, chase the darkness away. He wouldn't get the answers he wanted, couldn't hang around long enough to protect her, if he scared her away by trying to force her to comply. Force her to answer.

Will couldn't help himself and lifted his hand. Indecision kept it hovering above her shoulder, then finally, he let it drop on the soft threads of her navy fleece hoodie. She tensed then relaxed. He thought she might even lean into him as she'd done on the deck when he'd first revealed himself.

She exhaled and slowly turned. Facing him, she was much too close. He let his gaze take in the face he had once thought not quite pretty, but he'd changed his mind so quickly. Once he got to know her and saw her inner strength—that light shining from within that poured from her eyes and her smile—she became the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

He'd let his hand drop from her shoulder, but now both hands rubbed her arms. More reassurance? He wasn't sure, but his hands had a mind of their own, and he let them. He was rewarded when he coaxed the smallest of smiles into her drawn face.

“I'll tell you everything I know, Will. I'm sorry. I should have trusted you completely. It seemed too private, too personal, and I wasn't sure about any of it. Wasn't sure I wanted to share my family secrets. But now I know what I want to do, and where I want to go.”

“I'm listening.”

“I want to go home. To my mother's home where she lived with Damon, my stepfather. The house where I grew up. In my last conversation with her, she was running scared. She called to warn me to
watch my back
, and said she would tell me more when she got to Mountain Cove. Then she told me that she loved me. Something in her tone made it sound like she was telling me in case she never got the chance to say it again.”

“Do you have any idea who might have scared her that badly?” Will asked gently.

“My stepfather. Damon cheated on my mother,” she replied. “A lot. I don't understand why she didn't just leave, but he had power over her to keep her. I think she was scared of him, too. She brought up his name in her voice mail but didn't finish what she was going to say. Regardless, it seems she finally freed herself or got the courage to leave. But that's why she went to Mountain Cove. He would never think to follow her there in a million years. And she would never go there except to get away from him.”

Sylvie pressed her face into her hands.

Will gave her time to compose herself.

She dropped her hands and moved to sit in the chair. “As soon as I heard that she had died in a plane crash, I listened to her message again. Then I heard it for what it was. She was running scared. Tried to warn me. I knew I had to find that plane so that I could know if someone had murdered her.”

“Then men showed up to silence you.”

“And I knew then. I mean, you and I were running scared and it took me some time to come to grips with it, but deep down, I knew.”

“How did you find out about the plane crash, her death, if your mother was able to keep her whereabouts a secret from your stepfather? Who knew she'd gotten on that plane? Even I didn't know. She was the surprise package. My mother made her living delivering unscheduled passengers and surprises to the bush.”

Sylvie stared at him, unblinking. “Damon, my stepfather. He called to tell me the news. He knew where she was, after all.” She contemplated the words. “Will...he's a powerful man. He could afford to pay someone to sabotage the plane. He could afford to send people after me.”

“But you don't want to believe it.”

“No, even after everything, I don't want to believe it. And that's why I have to go home. I need to find the truth. She had to have left something. Maybe I can prove that Damon wasn't involved.”

“Let me get this straight. You're saying you suspect your stepfather could have something to do with the plane crash. That he killed your mother and now you want to go see him. You want to go right into the lion's den?” Will couldn't help his incredulous tone. “Sylvie, why haven't you told this to the police, if you suspect the man?”

“I have nothing concrete. I don't want it to be true. I don't want all the ugliness that happened between them to have resulted in her murder. I want to prove my suspicions wrong. But I think I could find some answers if I look through Mom's things. After the memorial service I couldn't face going through them as if she was gone, never to return. I think that's another reason why I wanted to find the plane first—because that was the only thing that could make it real.”

He understood that all too well, and it was what had thrown their lives together. “I don't think you should go see him.”

“I'm not going to see him. He won't even be there.”

“I don't understand why you didn't share this information. If he's guilty, the police could have resolved this by now.”

She shook her head. “No, he's powerful. They wouldn't investigate him without a reason.”

Who was this man? What did he do for a living? What was Will missing here? Questions stumbled around in the back of Will's mind, but he wouldn't interrupt.

“He loved my mother in his own way, but like I told you he cheated on her.” She glanced at Will. “Don't say anything, okay? Believe me, my mother tortured herself with the guilt over what she'd done in Mountain Cove and felt like it had all come back on her. She'd committed adultery with a married man, now it was her turn.”

“I'm not judging anyone, Sylvie.”

“On the surface he was good to the both of us. A wonderful father to me. There wasn't anything I wanted that he didn't give except for more time with him. But there was another side to him, which made him seem cruel and manipulative. He hid that from me as much as he could, but I still caught flashes of it—and I think my mother saw more. He knows how to be very persuasive and has kept my mother by his side even with his ongoing affairs. On the one hand I love him, and on the other I hate him for how he treated her. The betrayal. I heard the arguments down the hall, or my mother's tears after phone calls. I cried myself to sleep at night. And between my two fathers, and how they treated my mother, I never wanted to be in a relationship myself.” She'd rushed the last words, as if she hadn't meant to say them. “But that's beside the point.”

Will heard her loud and clear. She'd dropped that little hint to make sure he understood there could be nothing between them. Fine with him—he had his own reasons for avoiding relationships. “I don't think it's safe to go to his home even if he won't be there. He sounds like a dangerous man.”

“You don't understand. He doted on me. Made me feel like a little princess. That's why I'm so torn. I can't imagine that he would ever harm me. In fact, he taught me to be strong and independent, and to find my own way, which is exactly what I did. I pursued a career in the thing I loved most—scuba diving. So I can't—I won't—point the finger at him if I don't have to. I need to find proof that he isn't involved. In finding that truth, I'll find out what happened to my mother. Who killed her and who is trying to kill me.”

“And you can't think of anyone else who would want to harm your mother?” Or his. Will didn't put much stock in someone trying to kill his mother when all the focus seemed to be on Sylvie and her almost discovering the plane.

“I wish... I wish I could. Can you imagine if I accused him to the police, what that would do to him if it wasn't true? And that's if I could even get the police to take the idea seriously. No, I need to find out for myself.” Sylvie dropped her face into her hands. “I've never been in so much pain.”

He didn't like seeing her hurting. Nor did he like her plan. Sylvie could be right that the evidence they'd find would exonerate her stepfather. Or she could be so completely blinded by her need for a loving father figure—considering she had two fails on that point—that she wasn't willing to face the truth.

He couldn't stop himself this time and reached for her, tugged her close and wrapped his arms around her. He was surprised she came into them so quickly and molded against him willingly. It felt right. He wanted to hold her for the sake of holding her, in spite of their mutual determination to avoid relationships.