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.”

She smiled patiently at him and waited, her gaze losing a small degree of its joy.

He tried to speak. And couldn’t.

Her face fell and her eyes pleaded with him. “Come on, Alex. Where are you?”

He wanted to please her, he wanted that brightness back in her gaze, but he still couldn’t speak and he didn’t know where he was. His eyes closed in frustration as his brain silently screamed.

He was so fucked.

Brynn couldn’t feel her hands anymore. The cold of the snow was making them numb. I won’t stop. I won’t stop. She dug, ignoring the splinters of pain from her upper arms. A picture of Alex, lifeless and gray, flooded her brain and she shoved it away.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

“Good girl, Kiana. Where is he? Dig him out!”

Kiana paused to shove her nose into the deep hole she’d dug and started digging again. Kiana was like a little snowblower, shooting snow in an arc behind her. The dog’s determination calmed Brynn. Surely Kiana wouldn’t be digging if nothing were down there.

Jim sat back on his heels and huffed. His face was red, and he wouldn’t meet Brynn’s eyes. “Just catching my breath.”

She nodded and kept digging. A second later she jumped to her feet, scanning the area. “I’m so stupid. Where are the packs? Why in the hell aren’t we using the shovels?” A small collapsible shovel was standard equipment in their packs.

Jim grimaced. “Already thought about it. Don’t know where they are. The avalanche spun the body of the plane in place, but it sucked up the packs that were beside it.”

Brynn stood still. “No packs?” Their lives were in their packs. They weren’t going to survive out here if they didn’t have them. She looked at the hole at her feet. Was she digging Alex out to die in the elements? She glanced over at the big piece of the plane where she’d dropped her pack before hiking up to Ryan. Sure enough. The avalanche had caught the edge of the plane and rotated it ninety degrees.