Chilled (A Bone Secrets Novel) (21 page)

“You didn’t get very far,” Ryan spoke softly.

“It was loud; I remember that. And then my ears were plugged with snow, but I could still hear the roar. Maybe the sound was in my head.”

Ryan shook his head. “No. It sounded like a train or tornado coming. That sucker was loud.”

“It reminded me of being tossed in the ocean while bodysurfing. You know, when you can’t tell up from down? That absolute panic that makes you pump your arms and legs and hope you’re headed toward the surface. That was my only thought. For some reason I knew I needed to move like I was swimming. I don’t know how I got lucky enough to end up on my back. I could have ended up head down. That would have been a hard target for you diggers to hit.”

Alex clamped his jaw as a full-body shudder rocked him.
God, I was lucky. So damned lucky.

“Nah, your feet probably would’ve been sticking out of the snow. Might’ve been easier to find.” Ryan forced a smile.

Alex let an answering smile spread across his face. His smile wasn’t forced. He was aboveground, and that was all that mattered. He could smile forever.

“I was awake for a while under there.”

“Fuck. I can’t imagine…” Ryan’s eyes widened.

“Looking back, I’m surprised how calm I was. At first I wanted to scream and dig out and fight. But then after the first panic I just accepted it. I knew there was nothing I could do. And I was OK with that. Peaceful almost.”

He met Ryan’s curious gaze and kept quiet about his dream of Brynn. He’d thought about her a lot since he’d been dug out of the ground. When he’d first seen her above him, she’d looked so damned scared, and then relief had shot through her eyes.

At the same moment, something had shot through him, bonding him with her. Some sort of freaky cosmic thing. He’d heard that rescuers would forever carry a piece of the soul of the people they’d saved. He didn’t know he’d physically feel it when it happened to him.

“Thomas knew where you were. He saw you get tossed in the avalanche.”

Alex bit his lip. What if the big guy hadn’t seen him?

“Jim thought he knew where you were. We started digging in two different spots, but Jim’s spot turned up Brynn’s pack.” Ryan cleared his throat. “I thought Brynn was going to lose it when she realized it wasn’t you under all that snow. We were all about to give up after that.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Maybe it was my ears. I don’t know what I heard, but when we were digging at the hole where we finally found you, I swear a sound was coming up from under the snow.”

“What kind of sound?”
Screams? Moans?

“A chime. Just a single quiet chime.” He studied Alex.

Alex blinked. A chime? Like his…he reached in his coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The screen showed two
missed calls and a voice mail. The chime would sound occasionally until he checked his voice mail. He dialed.

“It’s from Jim.” He stared at a grinning Ryan. “He’s cursing at me to answer my phone.”

Both men burst out laughing.

“You tried to call me? Did you think I could tell you where I was?” Alex gasped between laughs. “I can’t believe the call went through.”

Ryan snorted. “We were trying to hear the ring. I’d gotten through to Collins earlier. It was worth a shot.”

“Fuck. I keep it on vibrate.”

“I knew it!” Ryan exclaimed and clutched at his stomach as if he could stop the pain from laughing too hard.

“The only sound it ever makes is that damned chime every five minutes when I’ve got a voice mail. Do you know how many times I’ve tried to get that annoying noise turned off? You can’t do it on this phone.” Alex’s voice choked as he fought to control another laugh.

Ryan’s shoulders shook. “That damned chime might’ve saved your life. We might’ve given up if I hadn’t heard it. Everyone thought I was hearing things.”

Alex’s nose began to run from laughing. He wiped at it. Another sign he was thawing out. He closed his eyes and smiled. Damn, it felt good to laugh and shoot the shit with someone. He hadn’t done this since…he couldn’t think of the last time. A subtle pounding in his head reminded him why. He’d cut himself off from everyone.

He had to start living again. Doing something with his life. Not hiding.

He’d been given a second chance. If it hadn’t been for the determination of this team… He shivered as a chill rocketed
through his nerves and Brynn’s smiling image crossed his mind. She was the type of person who touched lives and made them brighter, lighter. She and all the guys had potential to make big differences in the world.

Alex stared at the tiny stove, chest tightening.

He still had to figure out what to do if he found Darrin Besand. If Darrin was in these woods, Alex might get a chance he never would have had out in the real world. He could meet the man face-to-face, no guards, no bars.

What would he do? His goal suddenly wasn’t as clear as it had been. Could he truly kill a man in cold blood?

Doubt wrapped around him like a cold coat.

Is that
Alex
laughing?

Brynn stopped and cocked her head. She recognized Ryan’s laughter, and the lower-pitched laugh had to be Alex. Turning, she spotted Thomas and Jim digging in various places, still searching for the missing packs. They’d already partly dug out the cockpit. It had ended up a couple of hundred feet down the mountain, the pilots still strapped in their seats. The marshal had been tossed out, but they found him nearby and moved him back in with the pilots. They’d thought the cockpit was twenty feet under until Thomas had spotted some white metal sticking up out of the snow. Why couldn’t their packs have a strap or two poking up out of the snow to see?

She paced a grid pattern, studying the snow for any signs of their packs. She’d sent Ryan in to rest and to keep an eye on Alex. Hopefully they’d keep an eye on each other. Ryan was a walking ghost. He’d insisted on climbing to the ridge to retrieve his own pack, and it’d taken him three times as long as it should have. The vomiting seemed to have stopped, but she’d seen him
frequently touch his abdomen like something still burned. He refused to eat. Could he hike out tomorrow? If they went slowly?

She kicked a fir branch out of her path.

Their walk out of the forest was going to be twice as long if they went down to the railroad river crossing. Maybe they should go back and check on the river footbridge. Maybe the river level had dropped enough. But would the footbridge be stable? It had been slammed with the force of a runaway semi. A shallow wave of dizziness swept through her brain, bringing back the image of the raging water. She breathed deeply and focused on the snow, putting one foot in front of the other. Water didn’t have to be raging to do damage. She knew that all too well.

She dropped to her knees and dug at a shadow under the snow.

A stick.

She continued her rhythmic steps, mentally inventorying their supplies and needs. Her pack held enough food for her. Ryan’s pack held three times as much, but he ate three times as much. Usually. Their food situation was pretty good. The human body could go for weeks without food. Not very efficiently, but well enough for their purposes. Water was abundant. Everyone was dressed for freezing temperatures. And the plane made an excellent shelter for the night. Too bad they couldn’t drag it with them for the next few nights. Now everyone just needed to stay healthy.

Alex looked like he was going to be fine. He’d said he had awoke underground and found breathable room around his face. He’d said he didn’t know how long he was conscious while below the snow. He’d looked away as he said the words, and she had a hunch he knew all too well.

A shudder rippled through Brynn’s chest.

Could she have handled that terror? She’d been aboveground during the avalanche and was going to have nightmares for weeks. She snorted. Alex would have nightmares for the rest of his life. What if they hadn’t found…She firmly placed the thought out of her head.

Kiana’s frustrated barking startled her, and she glanced around for her dog. Out of sight. Probably spotted some small prey that’d darted up a tree and out of reach. As the dog had dug beside her on that first hole of Jim’s, Brynn had been so certain Kiana believed there was a person below the snow. She’d never done any formal rescue training with the dog. Maybe she should. Maybe they would’ve found Alex sooner.

Thank God he was OK.

A rush of confusion and relief swamped her. The same feelings that overpowered her every time she thought about him. She twisted her lips and glanced up the hill at the piece of plane that still sounded with bellows of male laughter at odd intervals. A sort of zing had rattled through her nerves when Alex had made eye contact for the first time at base camp. A warmth had started in her stomach.

He’d been so silent, so serious during the first part of their trip, but she’d felt his eyes on her. And she was more aware of him than she should have been. She’d noticed when he’d start to limp then fight to hide it. She’d noticed his eyes light up as Kiana would tear off in pursuit of something only she could hear.

The other men didn’t pull her attention like that.

And when he’d looked at her after they’d pulled him out of the snow…Brynn stopped and closed her eyes, breathing deep. She’d never felt better in her life than she had at that moment. It wasn’t just the adrenaline from the save. It was the person. If they’d never found him it would have been like part of her had
lost something precious, but something unknown. Like losing the sparkling center diamond from a ring before she’d ever put it on her finger.

She shook herself and continued her steps.

Alex made her palms sweat when he turned that serious gray gaze on her. He made her wish she wasn’t in the forest with three other men around. That she could sit across from him at dinner and huddle together in front of the TV. Simply talk and…

Shit.
She stopped her pattern and stared at nothing, blinking rapidly.

She and Liam had been together for years, but it hadn’t started with an instant rush of attraction and curiosity. They’d been together because they were so similar; they liked the same things. They were an outdoorsy couple with mountain bikes and a dog. But when was the last time they’d biked together? Liam had changed. Over the past year he’d grown increasingly paranoid and protective of her.

He made her feel like she couldn’t breathe.

They’d had the latest version of an old argument the night before this rescue. He’d wanted her home, not in the woods. Why didn’t she find a regular job in a hospital? Why did she work at a job that took her to bloody car accidents in the middle of the night? Why did she insist on doing search and rescue when she could get hurt?

These questions from the pilot who flew a helicopter for his country into unknown situations on a moment’s notice.

She kicked at another shadow in the snow. Another stick. She sighed and moved on. The snowfall was picking up again. The entire day had alternated between showers of heavy snow and light icy pellets.

Brynn frowned as she scanned the ground. Until that rockslide last year she’d never been injured while out on a SAR mission. She’d always felt in control when out in the wilderness, but that time she’d ended up with a broken collarbone and concussion. At the emergency room, Liam had been furious. He’d stated the first ultimatum then.

Give up search and rescue or give up him.

She didn’t care for ultimatums.

Their argument had echoed through the emergency room. A doctor had interrupted, glaring from Liam to Brynn, asking if she needed to call the police. Brynn had shaken her head, and Liam had stomped out of the hospital. Later the same doctor had a well-intentioned but misguided talk with Brynn about abusive men.

Liam would never lay a hand on her. If he did he’d be the one in the emergency room and he knew it.

She’d ignored his ultimatum and he’d kept his mouth shut for a while.

The next one had come a few months later. He wanted kids and he wanted marriage.

Brynn had wanted to panic.

Not learning his lesson from the first provocation, Liam had begged her to agree to an engagement or he’d move out.

He rescinded his words the next day.

But it was too late. Tension had ratcheted between them, and Liam started sleeping on the couch. Then she’d asked him to move out. He’d moved in with his brother and waited a week before speaking to her again. Over the last two months they’d slowly talked about what each of them wanted from the other.

Their needs didn’t match. They were both utterly stubborn. She wouldn’t change, and he wouldn’t listen to her refusals to change. They were so over. And now she was attracted to another man.

Where is the team?

Liam Gentry’s eyes burned from staring into the blinding white stuff for hours. And that was with his protective eyewear. His brother, Tyrone, hadn’t said a word in over thirty minutes. Liam knew Tyrone wanted to head back. The winds were rattling the copter like crazy, and visual range was incredibly short. He glanced at Tyrone, who bounced his gaze from the window to his controls every three seconds. The muscle twitching at his jaw told Liam he’d pushed his brother’s limits. They were both stupid.