Wilderness Peril. Elizabeth Goddard

      ONE

      Interior Alaska

      “Did your brother ever show?” Shay Ridiker asked as she climbed into the passenger seat of an old rusty Jeep Cherokee. She fought to keep her voice calm and to shake off the eerie, uncomfortable feeling that she was being watched.

      She might be one of the best aircraft mechanics around and people might think she was tough because of it, but that didn’t mean she could handle a day of travel to Nowhere, Alaska, without her nerves starting to kick in, especially if there was a chance they would have to face trouble.

      And trouble was exactly what she saw in Rick Savage’s gunmetal grays. “No,” he said.

      Aiden Savage—a fellow employee of Deep Horizon Recovery Services—was supposed to have met them two hours ago to lead them to the plane he had come to Alaska to repossess—only it needed a mechanic, hence why Aiden had asked for Shay’s help. They’d arrived to find no sign of him. But Aiden... He had a few troubles. Wasn’t always the most dependable person, and maybe this was one of those times.

      Rick’s brother had struggled with alcohol abuse in the past, but Connor Jacobson, the owner of Deep Horizon Recovery Services, had given him a break because he’d served in the armed forces like Connor—the guy had a big heart and was all about second chances. Aiden had been sober for a year now and definitely deserved that chance. And as far as she knew, in the time that he’d worked for Deep Horizon, he’d never let Connor down.

      Something was wrong.

      “Maybe someone’s onto us taking the plane.” And had prevented Aiden from meeting them.

      “Maybe.”

      Shay rubbed her forehead. His one-word answers were getting to her. Obviously, he was thinking things through and didn’t want her opinion. Either that or he didn’t want to tell her everything.

      Behind the wheel, Rick shifted into Drive and urged the vehicle he’d begged or borrowed for the day out of the dark alley where he’d parked and onto the street. The beautiful, sunny autumn day seemed to contradict the uneasiness spilling off Rick.

      Their short visit to Alaska wouldn’t allow Shay to experience the midnight sun or inordinately long nights since it was September, and for that she was thankful. But it was the only thing she could find to be thankful about this trip. Shay wasn’t a wilderness girl. She might be a mechanic, but she didn’t like roughing it.

      Rick steered away from the general store and the hostel next door that provided meager accommodations for the few who traveled into Alaska’s interior. A glance into the backseat revealed their bags and coats. Rick hadn’t checked them into the hostel as planned?

      “Your tools, the replacement part for the plane, they’re in the back,” he said.

      Shay blew out a breath. “So that’s why you got the wheels? We’re going to look for him? As in drive some wilderness back roads?”

      “Yes.” Rick focused on the road, his voice gruff, concerned.

      When Rick’s brother had called from Alaska to say that the plane they were supposed to repossess had a mechanical problem, it had been easy for Shay to diagnose the problem as an exhaust leak. The hard part had come when it was decided that she’d have to go out in person to fix it. Add that the plane was in the middle of the Alaskan bush and it was decided that Rick would escort her to meet his brother.

      “He’ll make sure you get there safely,” Shay’s boss, Connor, had said.

      Somehow, remembering those words didn’t make her feel any better now. Rick’s semiautomatic rested on the seat between them, but even that didn’t give her a sense of security. She had her reasons for disliking guns. Besides, Shay and that particular weapon had a past together that she wanted to forget.

      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

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