Chilled (Bone Secrets, #2)(45)

“Footbridge over the river is under water. We tried, but there’s no way to get across the water that way. Boyles says there’s a train trestle or something farther south that crosses the river.”

Collins nodded. “There is a train trestle a few miles from here. But it’s gonna add a lot of time to getting in there.”

Paul turned on the sheriff. “How’d your team get across? I thought they went in the same way.” Had Collins been lying to him?

Collins shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t underwater when they went over. As far as I know it’s the only way to get across up that way.”

Boyles nodded. “It looked like a tree floated down the river and wedged itself under the bridge, plugging the free space, making the water flow over the bridge. Maybe that happened after your guys went through.”

“My guys…” An odd look passed over Collins’s face.

Instantly suspicious, Paul jumped on it. “What? What about your guys?”

Collins mouth went up on one side as amusement darkened his eyes. “It’s nothing. One’s a woman; they’re not all guys. That’s all.” The amusement vanished. “She’s not fond of crossing water.”

Paul saw Gary Stewart straighten, his face covered with surprise. He read Stewart’s thoughts. A woman went out in that shit?

Paul smirked at the look on his man’s face. Maybe Stewart would stop being such a whiner about the weather. Being shown up by a woman. Ha!

“OK, where’s this train trestle?”

Goddamn, he was cold. Had someone left the tent flap open?

Alex tried to peer through the dark, but his eyes weren’t working right. He was too tired. For once Ryan and Thomas weren’t snoring in unison. He sighed and tried to relax, shift deeper into his sleeping bag.

Icy-hot pain shot through his knee, forcing his eyes wide open. Shit, what had he done to his leg? The pain was nearly as tortuous as when he’d first caught a bullet with it. He tried to move it into a better position.

He couldn’t move his leg.

Snow. Avalanche.

Alex’s breath shot out.

He was underground. Under the snow. He thrashed in instant panic.

Breathing hard, he managed to unstick an arm from the packed snow and reach for the cold ceiling above his face. His frantic thrashing was halted by shock as he found the snowpacked roof. It was so close.

It was ten inches from his nose to the ice. And even less between his chest and the ice. He remembered clawing, waving his arms as he was tossed inside the avalanche. A faint thought from a very tiny part of his brain had screamed, “Swim!”

Those arm movements had probably kept the snow from settling on his face and immediately smothering him.

At least he faced upright. Gravity was telling him that much.

He breathed slowly and purposefully didn’t think about how little oxygen there must be in his snowy coffin.

Alex tugged his other arm free and used both hands to dig at the ceiling of snow above his face. Ice crystals trickled into his eyes, so he moved his hands lower, digging above his chest, moving slowly, not wanting to overexert and use too much oxygen.

Was he close to the surface?

What about the others?

Brynn was safe. She and Ryan had been out of the avalanche’s path. But what about Jim and Thomas? Alex dug faster. The men might be in the exact position as him. They would need help.

An image of Brynn trying to find all three of them physically hurt his brain. She and Jim were so close. He grit his teeth as he pawed at his ceiling.

Why did Jim and Brynn’s closeness irritate him?

Alex barely knew the woman.

And if he didn’t get out of here he wasn’t going to know her any better.

His hands dug faster.

A dog barked faintly. Kiana.

“Hey!” he hollered, hurting his own ears. “I’m down here!”

Nothing. He swallowed hard and yelled again.

Still nothing.

Maybe he’d imagined the dog. Was he oxygen deprived already? Tiny sharp lights danced in his eyes and he sucked in a deep breath to send more oxygen to his brain. But it didn’t help. His lungs burned and he inhaled again, forgetting his previous caution to pace his breathing. He must have been unconscious for quite a while because he was nearly out of air. He felt lightheaded and dizzy. Not good signs.

He settled his hands at his sides and closed his eyes.

There wasn’t any point in fighting anymore.

He exhaled and relaxed. It’d be easy. He’d simply fall asleep.

Then he heard her voice, and his eyes flew open. Brynn’s brown eyes were looking down at him, laughing at him. “Are you trying to make this hard for us?”

He smiled back as relief filled his throat and kept him from speaking. Brynn looked great. From the minute he’d met her, he’d felt she was special. The animation and energy in her face set her apart from other women. One of those people whose spirit illuminates them from the inside, giving them a special glow. One of those people your eye always comes back to, but you don’t know why. You just can’t look away.

He couldn’t look away now.

She seemed to have eyes only for him. Dark brown, expressive, dancing eyes. He’d never met anyone with such communicative eyes. Damn. If he wasn’t careful…

“You need to tell us where you are, Alex. We can’t find you if you don’t tell us.”