Page 23 of Hero's Prize

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she ignored it, taking the elevator down to the hotel’s service entrance, where her van was parked. When she got out of the elevator, her phone was buzzing again. This time, she glanced at it, but she stuffed it back into her pocket when she saw it was Lilah.

No doubt, her friend was wondering where Ella was and why she wasn’t watching Colton’s stunt with bated breath, as always. Lilah would just have to wonder because Ella definitely wasn’t going to explain what happened.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Ella was loading the last of the boxes into the van, thinking she was going to make a clean getaway, when Lilah’s voice boomed out behind her.

“Don’t start with me, Lilah.”

Lilah rushed over to her and pulled her into a bear hug. “Are you okay? It’s going to be okay. It has to be.”

Ella blinked multiple times at her friend’s embrace. Lilah wasnot typically a hugger. She must’ve found out about what had happened between her and Colton. Ella didn’t know how, but that didn’t really matter anyway.

“Yeah, I’m a little embarrassed by how it all went down, and no, I don’t want to talk about that, although I’m sure you have an opinion.” She pulled away and hoisted the last box into the back of the van. “It happened, it probably won’t happen again, and?—”

“Oh my God. You don’t know, do you?”

Ella spun toward her friend, noticing for the first time how pinched and pale Lilah looked. Her heart began racing in her chest. “What? What’s going on?”

“There’s been an accident.”

Ice formed in Ella’s veins. “Who? Mom? Dad? Jess?”

“Colton.”

If possible, her heart seized even more. “But he’s out on the snowboarding stunt right now.”

“There was an avalanche a few minutes ago. I started calling you immediately as soon as it happened.”

“Avalanche?” Ella whispered the word like she had no idea what it meant, but she did. They all did. They lived surrounded by the Grand Tetons. Avalanches happened all the time, but not usually while people were barreling down the mountain at top speed doing tricks.

She felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from the planet. “Is Colton… Is he…?”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

Lilah squeezed her arm, then held out her phone where she was watching the footage. “We don’t have any news yet. Let’s get to the TV so we can see better.”

They sprinted to the lobby, only to find Colton’s fans glued to every television available in the large room as well as the ones in all the restaurants and bars. Most people were watching silently, but some were crying and holding each other.

It was impossible to get near a screen with the crowds. Ellawanted to tear a path through the people, scream at them to get out of the way.

But what good would that do? Being closer to the TV wasn’t going to get her closer to Colton.

Lilah grabbed her arm. “Manager’s office. There’s a private television. Becky is already in there.”

Ella ran in that direction, not caring how it looked. Lilah was right behind her, phone to her ear.

As soon as Ella opened the office door, she found herself engulfed in Becky’s embrace. Ella couldn’t look at her or return the embrace. All she could do was stare at the screen attached to the wall, praying she’d see Colton’s grinning face at any moment, laughing about how he’d cheated death. Instead, it was an overhead shot from local news of the damage the avalanche had done as tons of snow had slid down the mountain.

Extreme sports superstar Colton Harrison taken out by avalanche.

The words rolled in repeat on the bottom of the screen as a reporter talked to someone Ella didn’t recognize.

“How did reporters get here so fast?”

Becky shook her head. “They were already here to cover the event. They just pivoted their story.”

“What do we know?” Ella’s voice sounded weak and croaky to her own ears, eyes still glued to the screen.

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