Page 105 of Hero's Prize

The people who had posted all those mean things about her on social media. Because like it or not, even if Colton decided he was changing directions in his career, he would still be in the public eye.

And there would always be petty people who posted petty things.

The comments were just as ugly as when she’d glanced at them with Lilah, and Ella couldn’t help but shed a couple of tears.

But those were the last. She wouldn’t be shedding any more tears based on strangers’ comments about her.

People were jerks sometimes; you just had to accept that and move on. She wasn’t going to live her life based on their opinions. She deleted the app from her phone. That wouldn’t stop them from saying their ugly things, but she didn’t have to subject herself to it.

Then she moved to Colton’s messages. She had to admit, it did quite a bit for both her heart and self-esteem to see so many. Probably fifty texts and at least two dozen missed phone calls.

Apologies. Requests for forgiveness. Self-flagellation.

If she had any doubt that he wanted her back, these communications put it to rest. She listened to the first few messages, then deleted the rest.

She would go back, they would fight it out, but she wouldn’t continue to drag out his pain. That wasn’t in her nature. Yes, they were going to restart their relationship on more equal footing, but she wasn’t going to make him suffer needlessly.

“You know, you’ve made my life so much easier by being out here and leaving the door ajar.”

Ella let out a little shriek at the sound of a voice behind her. She spun, hand at her heart. She relaxed a little when she saw who it was.

“Tony. What are you doing here? Is Colton okay?”

“He will be. After today.”

She didn’t understand. “Did something happen? Another accident?”

Tony shook his head slowly. “No, no accident. At least, not involving Colton.”

Something wasn’t right here. How had Tony found her in the first place?

“I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t. I know you have questions. How could you not have questions?” He walked farther inside the cabin, and she froze when she saw the gun in his hand.

“What’s going on, Tony? How did you know I was here?”

“The same way I knew you went to that sporting goods store and leaked the information online—I put a tracking device on your car.”

“Youleaked the information about Colton at that store?”

He stretched his neck as if it was sore. “Yeah. I was hoping it would scare you off, but it didn’t. Then I had the brilliant idea of blaming you for it, hoping that would scare Colton straight out of Oak Creek, but that didn’t work either.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Trust me, I tried to get Colton back into the headspace he needs to be in by reasoning with him. I spent weeks doing that, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.”

“What headspace?”

“The one where he’s most productive. Where he’s the best version of himself. And when talking it out with him didn’t work and reasoning with him didn’t work and giving him time didn’t work, I had to resort to more drastic measures.”

“Like what?”

“Like pretending to be a fucking stalker.”

Ella felt sick. “You’re the stalker?”

“It didn’t start that way. There was a real stalker, but she’d already been phasing herself out. Hell, I even know who she is. She was never going to hurt Colton or even make contact with him. She just got a little overzealous after the accident and sent him a fewletters. Normally, I would consider that to be a pain in the ass, but it actually helped Colton focus. Got him to forget about his little panic attacks.”

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