Chilled (Bone Secrets, #2)(44)

Brynn couldn’t breathe; she’d never felt so utterly powerless. She dropped to her knees and watched as the cloud overtook Alex, swept past the large piece of plane, and then buried the cockpit.





“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.”

Brynn squeezed her eyes shut and dug her knuckles into her eyelids, but it didn’t hide the image burned on her retinas. Alex vanishing under that snow.

It was quiet on the hill, but her ears were still ringing from the roar of the avalanche. She slowly lowered her hands, hoping to see Alex climbing up the hill. The unseen helicopter had flown away, and a tank brigade of snow had ripped down the mountain, leaving a jumbled wake of white fluff. Ryan pulled on her arm.

“Let’s go.”

She hated the determination in his voice. In her gut she knew all was lost. No one could live through that. Ryan yanked harder.

“Brynn. Get moving. We’ve got to hurry.” Her feet started to follow, concrete weights tied to her ankles. He’s dead. Alex is dead.

No. No. No! Silent words hammered her brain. I don’t believe it.

She couldn’t give up without trying. She couldn’t give up on Alex.

She wrenched her arm out of Ryan’s grasp and started to run down the side of the slope. Kiana raced ahead, while far below Thomas and Jim dashed from the trees. Thomas was pointing in one direction, but Jim was shaking his head.

“Where is he? Did you see where he went?” she screamed at the two men.

Jim pointed to a spot twenty yards away from a spot Thomas was indicating.

Brynn stumbled and fell. Ryan stopped to help her up and roughly pushed her ahead. “Go, go!”

Minutes. They only had minutes to find Alex before he suffocated.

Death’s clock clanged in her brain.

It took too long for them to get down the slope. It felt like hours before they met up with the men. Thomas and Jim were frantically scooping snow, yelling Alex’s name.

“Is this the spot? Did you see him go under?” Brynn fell to her knees and pawed at the snow like a dog. Ryan did the same. Kiana sniffed at the snow by Brynn’s hands, ran in a circle around the group, and barked.

Thomas and Jim exchanged a glance, Jim nodded.

“I think he’s over there.” Thomas gestured to his left.

Were they digging in the wrong spot? Brynn froze at the possibility. She turned wide eyes to Jim. He angrily shook his head. “I don’t know. I swear he should be about here.” He stood and gestured. “Thomas, take Ryan. Go dig over there.”

Brynn’s breath shot out. By splitting up they’d lose speed at this dig site. “Jim—”

“I know. I know! What else can I do? Thomas is as positive about what he saw as I am.”

Tears stung. “Dig faster,” she begged and doubled her speed.

Darrin was on his feet, mouth open, binoculars pressed hard enough to leave rings around his eyes as he watched the diggers.

Holy shit.

He’d never seen an avalanche except on TV, and he didn’t want to ever see one again. The power of that thing! It’d been like a hungry monster, devouring everything in its path. How had silent snow made so much noise?

It had smacked directly into Alex Kinton. Darrin had watched him pump his arms like a swimmer. Was Kinton dead?

Darrin ran his binoculars over the snow. Kinton had to be dead. It was like getting sucked under in the ocean, only you wouldn’t float to the top.

Wow.

His shoulders twitched, waiting for Kinton to appear. Besides Alex, the snow had scooped up and eaten the cockpit of the plane like it was a tasty snack. How could they expect to find a person under the snow when they couldn’t even see a piece of the plane?

Darrin zoomed in on the woman and watched tears flow down her face. He could see her lips moving as she shouted at the other men, but he couldn’t hear the words. His eyes widened.

Now there were three men in red. Where did the third guy come from? He’d been so focused on the damage down the slope Darrin hadn’t watched the woman come back down. She must have brought the third man.

The nutty dog was running in circles. Going from one set of diggers to the next. It finally decided to dig next to the woman and sent the snow flying from between its legs. Handy animal.

Darrin straightened as the new guy stopped digging, leaned to one side, vomited, and then immediately started digging again.

Adrenaline. Darrin understood that effect on the stomach. They must be utterly freaked.

The new guy dug slower than the others, but all their faces reflected the same determination to find Kinton. The woman didn’t even stop to wipe at her cheeks.

Paul Whittenhall couldn’t believe it.

The two-man team he’d sent to tail Kinton was trudging out of the woods and back into his base camp. A chorus of questions and excitement rose out of the media corral. The team had been gone only half the day.

“What the f*ck?” Paul muttered and jogged to meet them. That * Sheriff Collins moved faster. He beat Paul to the team and started peppering them with questions. Good men. They were ignoring the sheriff. Gary Stewart locked eyes with his boss. He looked defeated.

What kind of cowards would be back so fast?

“What happened?” Paul reached the men and cut his question in over the sheriff’s.

Stewart glanced at the sheriff then back to his boss, his brown eyes tired.