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 wasDuke.”
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?—”
