Page 32 of Hero's Prize

He watched as she danced with Lilah and Becky, saying something that made both women laugh. Her own soft smile crept over her face.

“Hey, I’ve been wondering if you need an extra pair of hands getting this first camp set up.” The words were out of Colton’s mouth before he was even aware he was going to say them.

Bear’s eyes widened. “You?”

“Yeah, me. I’ve got a few weeks with no stunts coming up” —Colton was a little surprised that Tony didn’t stick his head out of the conference room and start screaming at the lie— “and I’m thinking a little change of pace might be good for me.”

Bear glanced over his shoulder at the girls and then turned back to his phone. The other man obviously knew what was going on, but he didn’t force the topic.

“We could definitely use your help. Make it out whenever you can, and we’ll put you to work. I’ve got to go, brother. See you soon.”

With a wink, Bear was gone.

Colton slipped his phone back into his pocket, trying to wrap his head around what he’d just done. Tony and the team weren’t going to be happy, but then again, Tony and the team were on Colton’s payroll. They got paid whether he did stunts or not, so they would be fine.

But he needed to get the fuck out of here. Get away from everything.

Ella’s smile flashed through his mind. He shouldn’t want to see her. She’d snuck out after their sex and then hadn’t even come to see him in the hospital.

So, going to Oak Creek would not be about her. It would be about helping a friend launch a project dear to his heart. A good cause. Not about Ella O’Conner at all.

And hopefully Colton could get his own head on straight in the process.

CHAPTER

TWELVE

“When you asked if I needed another set of hands last week, this is not what I was expecting, but I’ll take it.”

Colton reached out his bottle of beer and tapped it against Bear’s at his words. They were both sitting leaned back against what would be the final climbing wall of an obstacle course for the kids coming to camp in a few days.

“Honestly, it wasn’t what I was thinking of either, but I’ve had a hell of a time designing and building it.”

Colton had arrived in Oak Creek four days ago, leaving almost immediately after hanging up with Bear. He’d gone home, packed his shit, put stuff in his truck and driven to Wyoming. Tony had almost had a fit—if the fourteen thousand messages on Colton’s phone were any indication—but Colton didn’t care. He hadn’t told his team leader or any of his team where he was going. He’d just taken off.

Colton’s head was still messed up, he still wasn’t sleeping, he barely felt like he was hanging on… But at least if he was going to go down, he would go down here at home. Not that that changed anything.

Being here felt important and right, but he hadn’t wanted to let on how much he was struggling. So, when the idea of creating somesort of fun activity for the kids got discussed the first morning Colton arrived, he jumped on the idea of designing a small but challenging obstacle course on the Linear Tactical property.

“You know your parents met on one of these things, right?” Bear asked.

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard the stories. Maybe at some point, somebody will consider restarting the Wild Wyoming Adventure Race.”

“Please, no.” Lincoln was walking around rechecking the structural integrity of everything. “You have no idea how many times I’ve heard the story of my dad’s face being trapped in your dad’s ass when that rappelling line broke.”

Both Bear and Colton chuckled. The rappelling was part of the adventure race that Boy Riley had won multiple times, but in this case, there had been sabotage, and Baby Bollinger, Lincoln’s father, had almost died.

Somehow when the story got told now, the danger of plummeting one hundred yards to his death got brushed aside, and Baby made it sound as though Boy Riley’s passing gas in his face was the most dangerous part of that day.

“The kids are going to love this,” Bear said again as Lincoln continued his study farther back on the course. “And the fact that the great Colton Harrison developed it and will be providing tips on how to best navigate it…that will be icing on the cake.”

The great Colton Harrison.It was all he could do not to scoff.

“I’m just happy I could be part of creating it.”

Colton was even more glad that he could have something on which to focus his attention. Working himself into exhaustion, first with the design and then with building the obstacle course, had kept him busy. And, more importantly, had kept everyone from paying too much attention to the state of his mental health.

He still hadn’t gone into town. No one had questioned that either since everyone had been trying to help with the obstacle course and all the other final elements for the camp.

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