Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Ben watched Charlie disappear up the mountain, her snowmobile's taillight vanishing into the darkness and falling snow. Three more lights followed—Viv, Rowan, Duke.
His chest felt tight. She was working. This was her job.
But he still wanted to be up there with her.
“You're staring, Moose,” Elias said, appearing at his elbow with two steaming cups of coffee. They seriously clashed with his medieval-style armor. “Want one?”
“I'm good.” He took it anyway.
“You're not good. You're pining.” Elias grinned. “When are you going to pop the question?”
Ben felt his ears go red. “Christmas.”
“Finally.” Elias clapped him on the shoulder. “About damn time.”
Gabe, Bear, and Waylon drifted over in their Embersworn Knight costumes minus the helmets. They were having the time of their lives.
Nerds, Ben thought with a smile. Next, I’ll have to get them into playing Chronicles of the Realm.
“What are we talking about?” Gabe asked.
“Moose is getting married,” Elias boomed.
“We know,” Bear said. His deep voice was warm with approval. “Made the rings already, didn't you?”
Ben nodded. “Finished them last week.”
Waylon's face split into a grin. “Brother, You've made them for all of us. It’s about time you made yours.”
I never thought I’d be making rings for my own wedding.
Ben’s throat felt tight. “Making a ring for Charlie, knowing what it means…”
“That's love, brother,” Bear said quietly. “It’s the most important ring you've ever made.”
Gabe nodded. “She's lucky to have you. You're both lucky.”
“Yeah.” Ben looked back toward the mountain where Charlie had disappeared. “Yeah, we are.”
“We’ll all be up there filming in an hour,” Waylon said. “Stop worrying.”
“I'm not worrying.”
“You're absolutely worrying.” But Waylon's smile was understanding. Then he looked at his brothers. “Come on, let's get coffee before we freeze our asses off.”
The group headed toward the craft trailer where the warmth of the work lights and equipment created a bubble of relative comfort in the freezing night.
Ben started to follow when he noticed Maddie walking past, heading toward the snowmobiles. She’d looked unhappy all night. Now her body language told him she was absolutely devastated.
“Hey, Maddie,” Ben called. “You okay?”
She stopped and turned. Her face looked strange in the work lights—pale, drawn. Then she managed a small smile.
“Just tired.”
“Long day.” Ben nodded toward the crew area. “You should grab some coffee, warm up.”
“I can’t. Viv…needs something fixed. So do I.
” She looked past him toward the mountain, then back.
Her expression shifted—something vulnerable breaking through.
She looked down at her gloves. “My boyfriend and I broke up. I thought he felt the same way I did, but...” She trailed off. “He lied to me.”
“Maddie, I'm sorry,” Ben said. “That's hard. And you of all people. You don’t deserve that treatment.”
She looked up at him, heartbreak in her eyes. “You're lucky. With Charlie. Don't take it for granted.”
“I don't.”
“Good.” She gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. “Because you never know when things can change and you lose the one you love.”
She turned and walked toward the snowmobiles before Ben could respond. He watched her climb onto one of the snowmobiles and start the engine.
“Maddie!” someone shouted. “Where are you going?”
She didn't answer. Just gunned the engine and headed up the trail after Charlie and the others. Ben watched her taillight disappearing into the darkness, feeling awful for her.
He also wished he’d jumped on the back of the snowmobile with her, just to be with Charlie sooner. Maybe it was what Maddie said, or the weather, or seeing an avalanche and knowing Charlie was up there right now that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.
Ben turned back toward the crew area where his brothers were still joking around. Elias was taking photos with his phone. Bear was trying to adjust Waylon's chainmail.
“Let me do that before you hurt yourself.” Ben stepped in and adjusted Waylon’s belt. “Better?”
“Much. This shit is heavy. I don’t know how you nerds walk around in it all day.”
“I’d explain the physics, but it might sprain your tiny brain.”
“Har har!”
Ben chuckled as he poured himself another coffee from the craft services table, then checked his watch.
They'd all be heading up there in a Snowcat in another few minutes, depending on how quickly the crew could pack everything. They’d watch Rowan and Duke do one of Ben’s favorite scenes, then it would be their turn to pretend to march up the mountain and die beneath Lord Felldark’s snowy wrath.
Then back down and to a hotel in Georgetown. One day closer to Christmas and proposing to Charlie.
“Moose!” Elias called. “Come settle this. Bear says my cape is on upside down.”
“It is,” Bear rumbled.
“It's a cape! How can it be upside down?”
Ben walked over, grateful for the distraction. He helped Elias adjust the cape—which wasn’t upside down, but was inside out—while Gabe took videos for their extremely jealous women waiting back home.
Then he wandered to the crew, who were packing the last of the equipment from the avalanche shoot into a Snowcat. Four others stood empty, waiting to transport personnel. Ben checked his watch. Charlie and the others had been gone almost twenty minutes now.
Shane appeared at Ben's side, radio in hand. “Have you seen Maddie?”
“She took a snowmobile up to the site.”
“When? She was supposed to wait and go with the rest of us.”
Ben checked his watch. “About ten minutes ago. She said Viv needed something fixed.”
“Fixed? What could be broken? They didn’t take any real equipment up there.”
Shane's radio crackled just then. It was Charlie's voice, broken by static.
“Elk... send... early? Over.”
“Dammit. Mountains are blocking the signal,” Shane muttered. He keyed his mic. “King, confirm. Is Maddie there. Over.”
Nothing.
“Shit,” Ben said. “Unless it’s one of the snowmobiles. But, why would Maddie go up? This makes no sense.”
Shane looked at Ben. “Did Maddie say anything else to you? Before she left?”
Ben thought back. You never know when things can change.
“She told me her boyfriend broke up with her,” Ben said slowly. “She seemed... off.”
“Yeah, Charlie mentioned she was acting stressed.” Shane tried the radio again. Still static. “Who was her boyfriend? Did she say?”
“No.” But even as Ben said it, pieces were clicking together in his mind.
Maddie's reaction when Duke had flirted with that fan.
Her eyes looked the same right before she walked away from Ben a few minutes ago.
Fuck.
And, she was the biggest insider of all, at Viv’s side nearly twenty-four seven.
Glued to her tablet.
She could have easily been feeding fans all sorts of things without ever logging directly into sites. And if she was secretly dating Duke, that would be plenty of motive to keep him on the series.
But now he’d moved on to another show. What if he didn’t need her anymore and had moved on from Maddie as well?
The sabotaged saddle strap.
Maddie had been away at lunch just before the joust.
But what if she wasn’t at lunch?
Ben's blood went cold.
“Duke. I think Maddie's boyfriend was Duke.”
Shane's face went white. “Oh shit.” He keyed his radio. “King, do you copy? Charlie!”
No response. He radioed CDOT next.
Bear joined them, Waylon, Elias and Gabe right behind him. “What's wrong?”
“Maddie. We think she's the one who cut the saddle strap. She's going after Duke.”
“And Charlie's with them,” Elias said.
A CDOT supervisor ran from a trailer. “What’s happening?”
“We have a potential active threat situation—four individuals plus suspect at upper staging area—”
The supervisor was on his radio before Shane finished.
“Dispatch, Loveland Pass CDOT. Possible armed suspect, avalanche terrain. We need law enforcement and S&R—”
A sharp crack bounced and echoed across the mountain.
Ben’s heart froze. He’d never mistake the sound of a gun in the mountains.
“Was that—” someone started.
Then came a deep, percussive roaring from above.
Everyone knew what that was because they’d just listened to it less than an hour ago.
It was the sound every person in these mountains learned to fear.
Ben looked up and saw it—the white mass cracking and breaking loose high on the Seven Sisters. Moving. Accelerating.
Heading straight for where Charlie was.
“No!” Ben was already running for the snowmobile, Shane on his heels.
The CDOT supervisor shouted after him.
“Sir, stop! You can't go up there during an active slide—”
Ben threw himself into the seat and started the engine.
Shane grabbed his arm. “Moose, wait for S&R—”
“Charlie's up there!” Ben wrenched free.
Bear was suddenly beside him, reaching for the snowmobile.
“Then we're going, too—”
“No one is going anywhere!” The CDOT supervisor stepped between them and the machine. “That mountain is still moving. You go up there now, you'll get caught in a secondary slide. You'll die up there.”
Ben looked the CDOT supervisor in the eye.
“Then I die.”
Ben gunned the engine. He shot forward before anyone could stop him.
He left chaos behind him. Shane shouting. The CDOT supervisor calling for backup. Bear and the others scrambling for the Snowcat.
Ben didn't look back.
He raced up the trail, following snow mobile tracks. His heart hammered against his ribs. Charlie. I have to get to Charlie.
The grade grew steeper. Ben's headlight cut through the blowing snow. Ben pushed the machine as fast as he dared, maybe faster. Snow flew up from the treads.
Come on. Come on.
The avalanche had stopped. The mountain had gone silent. But secondary slides could come at any moment. The whole slope was unstable.
Ben didn't care.
The trail got harder to follow. Fresh avalanche debris covered everything. The original snowmobile tracks disappeared under feet of new snow. Ben's headlight swept across the staging area.
Gone. All of it.