Mountain Secrets by Elizabeth Goddard (good books to read for teens txt) 📕

was more that she was afraid to love again. She had a feeling that Colin could be that man if only she’d let him in.

But she shoved those thoughts away. She had to get to The Alabaster Sky.

“You’re right. He is dangerous. That’s exactly why I have to go back.”

“To save Meral? You think she’ll listen?” Colin’s tone challenged.

No. She’d tried to stop Meral. Make her see the light about Buck, but her sister wanted too badly to believe that she’d found her happily-ever-after. She wouldn’t listen to a word against Buck. And anyway, there was more to her need to return to the boat than that. More that Colin didn’t know. “You don’t understand.”

She slid toward Colin, acting as though she expected him to move out of her way. But he didn’t budge, and now she sat closer to him.

“Then make me understand, Jewel. Tell me what you haven’t been willing to tell me before now. I’m done skirting the real issue, dancing around it.”

She hadn’t wanted to tell him the whole truth at first because she couldn’t bear to see his disappointment in her. And then she had hung on to the slim hope she was wrong about Buck. But now? Colin needed to know it all because she’d been wrong to withhold it. She saw that now.

And telling him, seeing his reaction to the truth, would go a long way in burying anything she might otherwise have with him. She drew in a breath, fortified herself.

“Have you ever done something that completely went against everything you are or believed in? Something that you’ve regretted for the rest of your life?”

“Yes, Jewel. I think we’ve all done that.”

“Years ago, I took something valuable that didn’t belong to me, and I left it on the boat.”

He paled. “Something worth killing for?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“It doesn’t matter. I have to get it back.”

“Tell me what it is and where you’ve hidden it, and I’ll get it for you.”

“There are things you don’t know about me, Colin. For starters, I come from an old-money, wealthy family back east.”

The words didn’t seem to faze him. Did he already know? But he couldn’t know the rest, and she had to tell him quickly. They were running out of time. “I was in my early twenties when I went on a cruise in Alaska with some friends and I met Silas. That weekend, as he showed us the wilderness and nature, I fell in love with this place. But it didn’t end there. Silas and I...we had a connection. It seemed crazy. I thought I’d never see him again, but he followed me home and even though it sounds old-fashioned, he courted me. At the time, my family thought he was after our money.”

Jewel shifted. Dragged in air. She was doing this. Really doing this. “They did everything they could to keep us apart, but I was in love and wouldn’t listen. Silas made me feel alive. And I knew he didn’t care about the money, so I planned to elope with him. My father got wind of it and threatened to disinherit me if I went through with it. I knew he was serious—that once I left with Silas, he wouldn’t accept me back into the family, even if I came back a few months later and said it had all been a mistake. Risking everything like that for Silas...it scared me. I guess that I wasn’t completely convinced it wasn’t all a dream. I figured if the worst happened, then I wanted something to fall back on, some security. I didn’t have my own money, not in any significant way, and now I see that was a way they controlled me. But there was something else I could get to—something valuable.”

Colin leaned closer, intent on her story. “What did you take?”

“I took the Krizan Diamond. It’s a family heirloom from an ancient mine in India. It was handed down to my mother, whose family founded Simmons Diamonds. My father married into the business. They groomed me to be part of that business, too. But diamonds are cold and hard and lifeless and don’t give love, so I left it all behind for Silas. Except for...the Krizan Diamond. It’s worth a small fortune.”

He paled and slid away from her in the booth. His move was subtle, but she’d seen it.

It was just as she’d feared. He thought less of her now for stealing a diamond and harboring it in her home—not to mention keeping the information from him. She didn’t blame him. But what would he, an officer of the law, do with her now? She wasn’t a jewel thief in the typical sense. And once this was over, though she couldn’t see how it would end, she was willing to give the diamond back to her family, to Meral. Jewel no longer needed it. No longer wanted it.

In fact, she had never needed it. But she’d been afraid to trust completely.

With Colin’s reaction, she saw that perhaps she had been wrong to trust him with the truth.

“Why did you bring the diamond?”

“All these years I had it hidden away in the attic, but with the attacks I suspected that someone might be after it. I’ve suspected Buck all along. Learning that a woman had driven the truck that rammed me made me doubt my suspicions because I just couldn’t believe that Meral would be involved. I thought to put it in a safe-deposit box, but I couldn’t get away. And then if I brought it with me on the boat and the attacks continued or the diamond was stolen, I would know for sure that Buck had been behind the attacks.” Maybe. Saying it out loud now, she wasn’t sure it made any sense.

“And you didn’t trust me enough to tell me?”

“Telling you about it meant implicating Buck. I didn’t want to believe it could be him. I wasn’t sure. But now I have to