By Kristy McCaffrey
I've got a double-release today!!
COLD HORIZON
The Pathway Series Book 2
Ambition and courage at the top of the world …
Lindsey Coulson likes to scale mountains. With her sister,
Alison, she has made a name for herself climbing the tallest and most
treacherous peaks in the world. But when Alison dies on a K2 expedition—the
second highest mountain on earth—Lindsey stops climbing. Unable to shed her
grief, it becomes clear she must return to the wilderness and only one place will
do—K2, the Savage Mountain.
Tyler Galloway has finally secured a permit from the
Pakistani government to bring an American team to K2. When Lindsey Coulson
inquires about joining the expedition, he gladly brings the famed mountaineer
on board. Her strong climbing resume precedes her, and she’ll be a welcome
addition to the small crew he has assembled. But K2 is a force unto itself, as
is Lindsey. Both will test his limits. And both will test his heart.
Each Pathway novel can be savored as a standalone story, but
for maximum enjoyment the recommended reading order is:
Deep Blue
Deep Blue: Australia (A Pathway Novella available
exclusively to Kristy’s newsletter subscribers)
Cold Horizon
Cold Horizon: Telluride (A Pathway Novella)
Now Available in Digital (print is coming)
Read an excerpt
The wind blasted Lindsey, threatening to rip her off the
mountain and throw her into the abyss far below.
It was blisteringly obvious that K2 wasn’t going to give up
her summit without a fight. Descending the Bottleneck in this shitstorm of low visibility
was bad enough but having to guide an impaired Elena down was enough to give
Lindsey sharp pangs of panic.
Had Alison been in this same spot, gripped with the same
bone-deep fear?
Her sister had died on this mountain two years ago, likely
not far from where Lindsey currently stood.
This won’t be my fate.
Two climbers materialized behind them in the darkness. For a
moment, Lindsey thought it was Tyler, but that elation was dashed when the
first one spoke with a German accent. Frieder.
They came to Ditch first, but to her surprise didn’t stop
and instead climbed around him and Elena.
When they tried to do the same to Lindsey, she blocked them.
“Can you help us get Elena through the Bottleneck?” she
asked.
Frieder stopped and said nothing, then finally shook his
head and uttered one word, “Nein.”
To Lindsey’s shock, he said nothing more and climbed past
her, hooking himself to the fixed rope.
What the hell?
When the second German, Volker, moved to do the same, she
planted her axe in front of his face. “We need help with Elena.”
Volker shook his head. “We are spent.”
“So are we. If we leave her here, she’ll die.”
“Then she should not be here. Not our responsibility.”
“Bullshit,” Lindsey said. “It’ll go faster with four of us.”
Volker ignored her and climbed up a few feet to get past
her. Then he went to the fixed rope, clipped on, and the swirling snow
swallowed him up.
Stunned, Lindsey remained where she was, trying to quell her
anger.
A loud snap filled the air, and then a rumble.
Shit!
“Hold on!” she yelled, facing the mountain and tucking her
head, praying her helmet would fend off any blocks of ice.
She closed her eyes
and held her breath, waiting as the roar grew. A cloud of snow and ice slammed
into her, and she held tight to her ice axes to keep from being blown off the
mountain.
But the avalanche hadn’t hit them.
Trembling, she didn’t move.
“Lindsey,” Ditch said. “Where are the Germans?”
Her headlamp revealed the fixed rope to be still intact.
Maybe the two shithead Germans were okay. She almost didn’t care.
She swung her light back toward Ditch and Elena, trying to
answer, but the words wouldn’t come. Ditch had retrieved his radio. “David,
come in.”
In addition to Ty, Lindsey, and Ditch, their team had
consisted of David Shaw and Billy Packer. Since Shaw had summited the day
before with the Poles, a move that had irritated Lindsey, he had nonetheless
stepped up to care for Packer at Camp Four until the rest of them could return
to help.
“I’m here,” Shaw replied.
“We think part of the serac broke off. Frieder and Volker
might have gotten hit. Over.”
“Copy that. I’ll go out and look for them, but it’s a
white-out. Be careful. Over.”
Ditch stowed the radio. “Is the fixed rope still there?” he
asked Lindsey.
“It looks like it,” she answered, her teeth chattering.
“You stay here with Elena,” he said. “I’ll go check.”
Unable to move, all Lindsey could do was watch as he moved
above her and soon disappeared into the snowstorm, just as the Germans had.
Ditch had hooked Elena to an ice screw before he had left
them, so she was secure for the moment, allowing Lindsey to remain where she
was and regroup.
She was shakier than she wanted to be.
The snow conditions were becoming untenable. It was too
dark. A piece of the serac had just broken off, possibly killing Frieder and
Volker. And if the two German men weren’t dead, how would anyone find them? Was
there anyone left at Camp Four besides David and Packer?
And now, as the she waited for Ditch to return, she faced
the fact that she might have to bivouac with Elena right here. Spending the
night hanging off the side of K2 was a terrible idea, and one she wanted to
avoid. Climbers joked that bivouac was French for “mistake.” And Elena had
certainly made a mistake as she’d tried to reach the summit earlier today,
instead of turning around. Now, Lindsey was paying the price for the woman’s
piss-poor decision-making.
Knowing she needed to stop complaining, Lindsey switched to
problem-solving mode, trying to corral her errant thoughts into something
useful. Hours—no, it had been days—of oxygen deprivation was fast destroying
her cognitive skills.
She had a bivy sac, but it was only meant for one person.
There was no way she could secure it on this near vertical face, so they would
need to ascend. But what if they got lost?
What about Ty? Was he still behind her? And wasn’t the other
American team also downclimbing from the summit? If she waited long enough,
surely they would meet up with her and could help get Elena down. But it was
already so late. They could be hunkered down, bivouacking despite the lunacy of
sitting still and waiting out the storm. Waiting for sunrise.
Or they could be lost themselves.
Copyright ©
2019 K. McCaffrey LLC
COLD HORIZON: Telluride
The Pathway Series Book 2.1
Lindsey Coulson has lost her edge. After surviving a
harrowing descent of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, life back
home has left her with serious doubts about continuing the dangerous life of a
high-altitude mountain climber. When she accompanies her boyfriend, Ty
Galloway, to a trade show in Telluride, Colorado, a chance encounter with a
climber who knew her deceased dad—famed mountaineer Robbie Coulson—sets her on
a different course.
Ty Galloway has settled into a nine-to-five routine with his
new job as editor-in-chief of Mountaineer Magazine, but the monotony is already
beginning to chafe. A weekend away with Lindsey at his parents’ place seems
like the perfect antidote, but when his mom and dad unexpectedly arrive, their
presence puts a damper on his romantic plans. And they’ve got a few surprises
in store for Ty.
This short novella follows the full-length novel, COLD
HORIZON, and includes appearances from Italian climber Elena Rossi and the irreverent
mountaineer Dan Beck.
Learn more and read Chapter One at Kristy's website.
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