Chapter 9

CHAPTER

NINE

Ella hefted the last of her boxes onto the luggage cart and eased it out her hotel room door. She had no idea why she was doing it herself. She could've paid someone to do all this—brought an assistant from Oak Creek or even given the bellboys here at the resort a large tip to load it for her.

It wasn't like her family didn't have the money. Ella and her sister Jess had grown up with money. Their dad, Cade Conner, had been a huge music superstar when they were young. Some of Ella's earliest memories were of her family sitting on a giant hotel bed together, eating room service breakfast—she and Jess laughing their heads off at something their dad said, their mom's quiet smile and gentle eyes taking it all in.

They'd spent a lot of Ella's youth traveling around with Cade Conner's tours. Luxury had been part of that. But her parents had also taught her to value money and never take it for granted. Taught her that the hard work she did herself would always mean more than what she paid others to do.

Loading up boxes after a catering event probably hadn't been the hard work they'd meant, but Ella still didn't mind doing it herself .

Plus, it gave her an excuse not to talk to anyone or sit and gawk over Colton's stunt like everyone else would be doing. She'd already heard the commotion in the lobby as she'd supervised the pack-up of the kitchen items. Everyone had been there for hours, waiting for the start of the stunt.

Which should be about right now. Ella didn't have to check her watch to know. Colton was probably in that helicopter heading up the mountain right at this second.

She wasn't going to watch. She knew all her friends from Oak Creek were in the lobby too—probably with a prime viewing location on some large screen. But she didn't want to talk to them. Didn't want them all studying her a little too closely like they did whenever she was watching anything Colton.

And she definitely couldn't take a chance on running into those two women she'd met outside Colton's door last night. Couldn't risk word spreading that she'd been in the suite with him at that hour of the night.

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 was not 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. Ella wanted 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.

"Colton was more than halfway down the mountain, past all the most dangerous parts of the stunt, when the avalanche hit like ten or fifteen minutes ago," Becky explained. "He stayed in front of it for a little bit, then…"

Then he went under.

"Was it ten or fifteen minutes ago?" Ella whispered.

Becky blinked at the question. "Honestly, I'm not sure the exact time. Why?"

"The first thirty minutes with an avalanche are the most important." Ella forced the words out. She knew this from research she'd done about some of Colton's other stunts. "After thirty minutes, life expectancy… "

She didn't finish. She didn't have to. The reporter on the screen was talking about the same thing, statistics popping up. Survival probability plummeted fromninety-two percent at fifteen minutesto nearly zero after thirty minutes.

Every minute they didn't find Colton literally brought him closer to death. So, whether the avalanche was ten or fifteen minutes ago made a huge difference.

"He was wearing a beacon," Lilah said. "They'll get to him."

A beacon meant they weren't looking for a needle in a haystack, but it didn't necessarily mean they'd get to him in time. Not to mention the injuries he could've sustained during the avalanche itself. The sliding snow looked deceptively smooth when watching it from a distance. But in reality, the force was enough to take down buildings.

Lilah's phone rang, causing them all to jump. "Bear. Talk to us. I've got Becky and Ella here with me." She put the call on speaker so they could all hear.

"I'm on the comms system with Derek and trying to relay info to you guys and Aunt Girl as we get it, so bear with me. The helo has the beacon signal, and they are over Colton's location."

"What do we know?" Lilah asked. "How many minutes has he been under?"

"Seventeen," Bear said, his usually jovial voice more somber than Ella had ever heard it.

Seventeen minutes. Ella looked down at her watch and marked the time.

"Derek is in the helicopter with Uncle Boy and one of the camera operators. Derek is getting them as low to the beacon as he can. They don't have a lot of equipment, but they're going to be Colton's best chance."

Because no other rescuers would be able to get to him in time.

"Derek and Uncle Boy Riley know what they're doing," Becky said, wrapping her arm around Ella.

Becky had every confidence in her husband's piloting abilities, and honestly, Ella did too. And Boy Riley—Colton's dad—had more experience with stunts and rescues than the majority of the people on the planet.

But everybody in the room knew the odds were not in Colton's favor right now.

"There's no place to land close enough to get to Colton in time," Bear said. "And… Shit. Hold."

Bear's voice cut off.

They all looked up at the screen as they waited for Bear to come back to the report. The news had switched to footage of people all over the resort, both inside and outside, watching their screens. Some were crying; some were praying.

"That's so damned fake. What do they care? They don't even know Colton." Ella knew her rage at Colton's fans was misplaced, but she couldn't stop it. "I found two of his little fan club members outside his door in the middle of the night last night. They'd paid hotel staff to tell them what room Colton was in. But they didn't know him. They don't really care about him."

Becky's arm tightened around her shoulders. "It's going to be okay, Ella."

"You don't know that." Ella glanced at her watch. Colton had now been entombed nearly twenty minutes. "He's running out of time."

"Holy shit." Bear's voice came back on the line. "Derek couldn't land the bird, so Uncle Boy Riley jumped while Derek hovered as low as he could. He's in the snow, digging with a fucking helmet. Sorry, I had to tell Aunt Girl first."

No one could blame Bear for giving Colton's mother an update before them.

"Can they tell how deep in the snow Colton is?" Lilah asked.

"Derek said the beacon was reporting four to six feet."

Ella shuddered at the thought that Colton was currently six feet under. It felt way too ominous.

"Nobody will fight as hard for him as his dad," Becky said. "We'd all do whatever we could, but Phoenix won't stop, no matter what. "

Phoenix . Boy Riley's nickname back when he did these same sorts of stunts as his son. They needed Phoenix's son to rise from the ashes now.

A tear fell from Ella's eyes. She couldn't help it. Why had she snuck out while Colton was sleeping? Why hadn't she used every second possible with him?

Becky noticed. "Ella, Colton is going to be okay. He's cool under pressure, and he has the beacon. Those are two huge factors in his favor."

Ella checked her watch again. He'd been under for twenty-one minutes. Time was running out.

"He was talking about you this morning, El," Bear said.

Ella knew Bear was trying to distract her from the potential tragedy at hand, but she felt her face flush red anyway.

"Very interesting. Especially since Elly-Belly just let slip that she saw two no-good skanks outside Colton's room last night in the middle of the night." Lilah raised one eyebrow. "Question is, what were you doing at Colton's room in the middle of the night?"

Damn it .

"This is not the time to discuss this." If possible, Ella's face turned even more red.

"Oh, if I know Colton Harrison, even now, his ears are burning inside that snow, and he's fighting harder to get out because a pretty woman is talking about him," Bear said. "Hell, he'll probably meet his dad halfway."

Ella laughed, but a couple seconds into it, it turned into a sob. Immediately, Becky's and Lilah's arms were around her.

"He's going to be okay, Ella," Becky said again.

"He has to be." Ella couldn't think about a world without Colton in it.

"I just got word—Riley's got him!" Bear yelled. "Derek said he's pulling Colton out of the snow right now. The rest of the rescue team will be there soon to get him down the mountain, but it looks like Riley got him out of the snow!"

A grin broke out on Ella's face. They'd found him. They'd found Colton in time. She hugged her friends, and this time as she cried, it was tears of relief.

"Oh shit." The single horrified phrase from Bear destroyed their joy instantly.

"What, Bear?" Lilah demanded. "What?"

"Riley has started CPR. Colton isn't breathing."