BELOW ZERO

Riley Cross came to the bottom of the world to be alone. Six weeks into a solitary season at Cape Shirreff, she has tagged sixty-three leopard seals, logged the Shirley Glaciers retreat, and kept the silence at bay the only way she knows how: by doing the work. Her mentor, Dr. Elara Voss, fought for this project for a decade. Riley will not let it die with her. Then the extraction window closes, the satellite link stays dead, and no plane appears on the horizon.

Caleb Rourke was never supposed to be her problem. A former military pilot flying a low-paying supply run to salvage whats left of his name, he sees the storm coming and flies into it anyway. The Twin Otter clips the ridge. The radio dies on impact. By the time Riley finds him hauling crates above the tide line, bruised ribs and a cut hand are the least of what theyve inherited: a camp someone has already started to kill.

The generator line has been sliced clean. The winter fuel reserve is dry. The Zodiac has three deliberate holes in the hull. And on the eastern ridge, a low-profile camp flies the logo of Kraus Logistics—the same private firm that framed Caleb for a cargo theft in Patagonia and ended his career. Dr. Vosss logs stop mid-sentence on March 14. The core samples she never reported through official channels contain commercially viable rare-earth minerals from waters where no one is allowed to drill.

With the polar night closing in and a cleanup crew between them and the only emergency beacon on the coast, Riley and Caleb have one advantage: each other. She knows the ice, the seals, and how to keep a wound closed with whatever is at hand. He knows sabotage patterns, kill zones, and what it costs to be the convenient fall guy. Neither of them wanted a partner. The Antarctic does not care. Out here, trust is not a feeling. It is the decision to keep another person alive for the next hour—and then the hour after that—when leaving would be easier and silence has always been safer.

Below Zero is a high-stakes forced-proximity romantic suspense about grief, competence, and the kind of love that earns its place in the dark.