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

Isabel reached for Jason’s hand. The ice cracked around her where a shot was fired.

“Hurry.” He could see the trailhead not more than twenty yards away. Nick fired another shot.

An eerie quiet descended around them, their feet tapping on the ice the only noise. He looked over his shoulder. Nick was headed back up the bank toward his truck. Probably to swing around to the road to try to catch them on the trailhead before they could get to a house.

They came to the edge of the lake. “We’ll have to cut through the trees. He’ll be waiting for us at the end of the trailhead.”

The trees were more like tall bare bushes. Within minutes, the menacing sound of the diesel truck reached Jason’s ears. Would Nick come in after them or just wait for them to emerge?

The brush became thick and hard to navigate through.

“We can’t go back.” Isabel’s whisper filled with panic.

The bright colors of Jason’s coat would be easy enough to see if Nick chose to come in after them.

“Get low,” Jason whispered as he squeezed between two bushes. They worked their way through the labyrinth of bare branches and brush.

When he lifted his head, he saw smoke rising up through the air. Someone’s woodstove.

The brush ended at the edge of a property. A small cottage-like house with a barn beside it was a welcome sight.

Isabel let out a breath. “We made it.” She rushed toward the door and knocked.

Jason stood beside her. “We’ll get warmed up and I’ll call a friend to come get us. I don’t think we should go back to my place or yours.”

She cast her gaze downward. “I’m sure Nick or whoever he works for will have people watching.”

A woman of about forty opened the door. She was short and round with granny glasses. She held a coffee cup in her hand. Her expression changed from confused to fearful as her eyes grew wide. “Can I help you?”

“Please,” Isabel said. “I know this looks crazy.” She touched her robe. “It’s a long story. We just need to get warmed up and use your phone.”

“I can have a friend here to pick us up in ten minutes,” Jason said, hoping to allay the woman’s understandable wariness.

The woman’s gaze traveled from Isabel to Jason and then back to Isabel. “Okay, come in and sit by the fire.”

Jason glanced from side to side, not seeing any sign of Nick or his truck. That didn’t mean they were in the clear. Nick knew they were both alive. Sooner or later he’d come for them.

Though the woman at the house had grabbed a blanket for Isabel to wrap around herself, it felt like the cold had sunk down into her bones, and she would never be warm again.

Pulling the curtains to one side, Jason watched out the window. He stepped back and paced the floor. “The man I called is not connected to the Bureau in any way. He’s a family friend.”

If she wasn’t so exhausted from running and being cold, she might be just as agitated. She drew the blanket around her shoulders.

Despair sank even deeper into her bones than the cold, down to the marrow. She was tired, hungry and scared. They couldn’t count on help from the Bureau until the turncoat was outed. She couldn’t go back to her cozy apartment.

The woman brought Isabel a steaming cup of coffee. “Here you go, dear.”

“Thank you so much for your kindness,” Isabel said.

“We’ll be out of your hair in a few minutes,” Jason said. “My friend doesn’t live too far from here.”

The woman nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.

Jason peered out the window again. He whirled around, swinging his hand up and down. “Get out of view.”

Isabel jumped up. Her coffee splashed in the cup as she moved away from the window and stood beside Jason.

“His truck went by. Going real slow.”

So Nick was trolling the neighborhood looking for them. “We can go to the police and tell them we’re being stalked. They’ll pick Nick up.”

“That’s a short-term solution. They’ll hold him for a few hours and then someone from the organization will bail him out,” Jason said. “I can’t tell the police anything about the investigation.”

She leaned close to Jason, touching his upper arm. The desperation of their situation sank in. They really were in this alone together.

Outside in the driveway, a car pulled up and flashed its lights three times.

Jason took Isabel’s hand. “That’s the signal. Let’s go.”

Isabel put her nearly full cup of coffee on a side table and yelled a hasty thank-you to the kind woman in the kitchen. They hurried outside into the overcast gray of late afternoon. This time of year it got dark around five o’clock. They had been on the run all day.

The friend turned out to be an older man, balding and broad through the shoulders. Jason got into the front seat and Isabel slipped into the back, but not before a quick glance around. She saw no other vehicles.

As the driver backed up, Jason turned sideways. “Isabel, this is Fred. He used to be a cop and a friend of my father’s.”

“Pleased to meet you.” The formality felt odd considering the threat they were under. There’s always time for manners. The thought was almost sarcastic.

Fred nodded.

“Can you set us up with a place to sleep and food and maybe a car after we are rested?”

Jason seemed to have come up with some kind of plan. Right now, all she could think about was food, rest and getting warmed up.

“Can do,” said Fred.

Isabel glanced over her shoulder, expecting to spot the black truck. She saw only the dark road. This part of town didn’t have streetlamps.

Fred took them to a tiny apartment on the second floor of an apartment building. The living room and kitchen were tidy but very impersonal. No photographs or pictures. There was a display case with antique handguns in it and a rack on