Page 104 of Hero's Prize

Colton rolled his eyes. How the hell was he supposed to know where that was off the top of his head?

“Honestly, I don’t know,” he continued with Tony. “I just want to talk options, you know? Pick your brain.” He needed to keep this conversation going with Tony while he texted Lincoln back.

Is it near Reddington City?

No. South. Colorado. Closest town seems to be some place called Fairytale.

She’d gone to the cabin. Relief flooded Colton’s gut. Tony didn’t have her.

“Okay,” Tony said. “I’m happy to talk plans out with you. Let me handle this at the store, and we can touch base maybe tomorrow morning? I know it’s been a long day for you.”

“Sure, tomorrow morning sounds good. Let’s plan on breakfast. I’ll call you.”

But he wouldn’t be meeting Tony for breakfast. He disconnected the call and immediately called Callum Webb. The sheriff agreed to go to Reddington City and bring Tony in for questioning. Theo and Lilah were going with him in case Tony decided to make a run for it.

Colton trusted his friends to get the bad guy.

He was going to get the girl.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-FIVE

Ella didn’t know why she had come back to this cabin near Fairytale. She’d just known she couldn’t stay in Oak Creek. She loved her hometown, but sometimes having everyone know everything wasn’t beneficial to her mental health.

She’d needed to be alone. Hadn’t wanted to talk to friends or family. Although she knew they loved her, this was something she needed to work out for herself. The relationship between her and Colton only had to do with her and Colton.

She’d already decided that she wasn’t going to tell anybody what he’d accused her of. Not because he had any justification in doing so, but because she needed to fight her own battles. Not just let her protective friends fight them for her.

She could only imagine what Lilah would say—and do—if she found out. Probably beat Colton to a pulp. So, Ella would keep it to herself.

Some would probably argue that she was protecting him and she shouldn’t do that. Yet she wasn’t. But she also didn’t want Lilah to fight her battles for her.

It was time for her to stand up for herself when it came to Colton Harrison.

She let herself inside the cabin using the hidden switch to unlockthe door that he’d shown her. She was immediately surrounded by the memories that permeated this place. She could almost feel his lips on her skin and couldn’t even glance over at the hot spring without blushing after what they’d done there.

She loved him. She’d loved him most of her adult life. That was true, and nearly everyone knew it.

But she’d also faced a hard truth coming up here.

If Colton Harrison couldn’t appreciate her, then he didn’t get the privilege of being with her.

Because she was enough for any man—even Colton—just as she was. Yeah, she was a few pounds overweight and was probably on the plain side. She didn’t wear makeup, didn’t care about fashion, had better things to do with her time than spend an hour doing her hair each day. But she was smart, industrious, hardworking, and kind.

And she wasn’t going to be a doormat, not for anyone.

Just because she’d loved Colton first didn’t mean she was less worthy of his love. And if he couldn’t give her that, and the respect and consideration that went along with it, then they had no future at all.

The relief she felt at having finalized this in her mind was immense. She could live without Colton Harrison. She didn’t want to, especially not after seeing how good they were for each other, but she could do it.

And while loving him had been an important part of her life for a long time, loving herself was always going to be the most important thing.

So yeah, she and Colton were going to have a showdown. He owed her an apology, and she owed him an explanation about that damn scrapbook.

But she wasn’t just going to give up on their relationship and run away crying. She was going to stand her ground. And see if Colton was willing to fight for their relationship too. If he wasn’t, she would walk away with her head held high.

She slipped off her shoes and dipped her feet in the hot spring,pulling out her phone as she did so. There were a number of messages from Colton, but she didn’t want to look at those yet. She had another set of demons she needed to face first.

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