Ben inhaled a tight breath. “Easton has a portable temperature sensor in his supplies. Check that. It factors in windchill.”

“Does it matter?” River asked as she dug through his things, looking for the sensor. “There’s nothing we can do about the weather.”

When Ben didn’t answer, River ignored what that silence might mean. Instead, she found the sensor. “Okay, it says negative thirty-four degrees.”

Having never been in temperature anywhere close to that cold, River wondered why she didn’t feel panicked. Ben’s voice stayed calm.

“River. If you can’t wake Easton up, you need to leave him.”

“What?” There was no way she could have heard Ben right.

“Listen to me. He’s too heavy for you, and those temperatures are too dangerous for you to stay outside in. Leave Easton, get to the tent, and then get warmed up as best you can. When you feel strong enough, take him something to wrap around him. But do not stay out with him.”

For a long time, River sat there. “I’m sorry, are you saying I need to let Easton freeze out here?”

“Where are you at?”

When River explained the fall to him, including where they had landed, Ben’s voice grew deeper, gruff with emotion.

“Give yourself an hour for him to snap out of it, and if he doesn’t, leave him. We’ll get up there as quick as we can to help.”

In the background, River could hear a steady stream of curses. Ash was clearly not handling this well.

“River, he loves you,” Ben said quietly. “A man like Easton isn’t going to want the woman he loves to get hurt, not if he can help it. This is a reality for us mountaineers. Take shelter. I’ll meet you as soon as I can safely get to elevation. Ash’s helicopter won’t go that high, so I’ll need to get someone with a bigger bird to help.”

This was her fault. As she looked down at the man in the snow, his beard still, his eyes closed, she knew that if he died, it was 100 percent her fault.

How many nights ago had they stood in the Tourist Trap, with Easton gazing down at her, telling her he wouldn’t be able to leave her up here? River had thought she understood what he meant, but now…now she got it. If you couldn’t leave someone behind…if you had to, but you couldn’t.

Or if you wouldn’t.

Sucking in a shallow lungful of frozen air, River steeled her spine and her shaking hands. “Ben, I’m bringing him down with me. Tell Ash I’m not leaving her brother up here. Either you’ll have two Popsicles or no Popsicles, but I’m not leaving him.”

“River—”

“Don’t even think about it.” Using the voice that made the roughest of roughnecks pause, River added, “Would he leave me?”