Chapter One
“DON’T LET HIM die, Brody. Don’t you dare let him die!”
Retired Navy SEAL, Brody Crawford, tuned out his sister-in-law’s screams. This trip had been voodoo from the start. He’d told his identical twin brother, Brandon, it was a bad year for ice climbing. Unseasonably warm daytime temps had caused too much rapid thawing, pocking the ice and making it rotten.
“Hang tight,” Brody called, voice flat against the frozen waterfall’s five-story vertical face. Night had fallen, meaning his headlamp was the only thing keeping his twin in view. Brody had pre-placed a series of belays, which Brandon and his high school and college sweetheart—now bride, had systematically clipped in and out of on their ascent. The plan was to spend Christmas Eve climbing, then camp that night atop the falls. “Don’t move…”
The night was still save for the chilling creaks and groans made by cracking ice.
Liliana’s tears worsened the already bad scene. She had no business being out here. Inexperienced and afraid was no way to ascend a multi-tiered beast like Kodiak Falls.
“Lili, hon, pull it together.” An anesthesiologist, Brandon never lost his cool. “Brody knows what he’s doing.”
“Shut up,” Brody said, inching closer to his idiot brother. “When I tell you not to move an inch, I mean it.”
“D-don’t talk to him like that!”
Brody ignored Liliana’s histrionics in favor of hanging straight-armed while chipping a hole in good ice. Done, he unclipped a screw from his harness, jabbing it in at waist level for reaching maximum penetration. After two quick turns it was seated, at which point the quickdraw line flowed from his chest-mount, bringing him that much closer to his brother.
The ice sheet beneath him groaned.
“Brandon,” he said from between clenched teeth while popping in another screw, feverishly setting up a fresh belay on good ice. “Don’t even breathe.”
“You’re worrying for nothing. From my vantage, you’ve got about three more screws until you’re above me. Drop a line, and I’m golden.”
“Honey…” Liliana’s voice shook from fear. “Please, do what Brody says.”
Brandon laughed. “Have both of you forgotten I’m the oldest by four whole minutes? That means I’m smarter, stronger, and way better look—”
The massive ice sheet cracked, slipping in a freefall that took Brandon with it. The sheer edge clipped Brandon’s Kevlar rope as if it was thread.
“Brandon! Brandon!” Liliana’s cries warred with the horror in Brody’s head. One minute his brother dangled beneath him. The next—he was gone. Pulse surging, he abandoned his own line to free climb to Liliana. “Brody, do something! You have to save him!”
His heart pounded in his ears.
Adrenaline spurred him into taking suicidal risks. Brandon was already gone. He now had to save his brother’s wife—the same woman he’d secretly loved since they’d been kids. He wasn’t saving her for himself, but because he’d rather die himself than lose them both. Taking his spare pick from his tool belt, he moved in a fluid sideways motion. Biceps and shoulders screaming, he finally made it to her.
“Y-you have to s-save him,” Liliana said over and over until her voice made Brody physically ill. Maybe it was the overexertion, maybe it was adrenaline, maybe the shock of watching his twin brother fall to his certain death, but he hit a mental and physical wall—frozen still fifteen feet from Brandon’s wife. “Please, please save him…”
Move! his mind commanded, but his body refused to listen. He’d told Brandon this was a busted mission. He’d told him, but he refused to listen. He never listened. That time when they’d gone backcountry camping without extra ammo because Brandon said it was too heavy, they’d damn near been eaten by a pissed momma grizzly. The time they’d gone fishing in a leaky boat that Brandon promised wouldn’t sink, had indeed sunk. The twenty-yard swim to shore in melting glacial water had almost killed them both.
Brandon believed he was invincible, and he usually was. He got the grades. The money. The girl. But now, what good was any of it?
“Brody?” Liliana asked, her voice thin and defeated. “Do you think there’s any chance he survived the fall?”
“I. Don’t. Know.”
“Please tell me he could. He has to live. I have to give him his Christmas present.”
“What is it?” he asked out of sheer morbid curiosity. What could she possibly give his brother who already had the world?
“I’m pregnant. Once we made camp, I was going to tell him we’re finally having a baby…”
Look for the exciting conclusion to HAPPY NEW YEAR, BABY
Available everywhere December 19th!