Page 91 of Hero's Prize

That wasn’t a topic Colton was expecting. “What do you mean,what happened? We had a crowd, but it ended up being fine.”

“Not exactly,” Tony explained. “Evidently, someone deliberately released on social media that you were at that store at that time.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face. What the actual hell? “How the fuck did that happen when I didn’t even know I would be in that store at that time?”

Tony shook his head. “I’m not sure. But here’s the account that announced you were there.” Tony flipped his electronic tablet around so Colton could see it.

He studied the account on one of the most popular social media sites. “It’s calledColton Harrison Guaranteed Sightings? Not a very original name. And doesn’t even seem to have many followers.”

Tony shook his head. “It’s brand-new, opened yesterday. Individual accounts don’t need many followers now if they know where to post and what hashtags to use—that gets them all the traffic they need. Whoever set up this account definitely knew exactly where to post to start yesterday’s frenzy.”

“When did they post?”

“Yesterday afternoon at 2:18 p.m.”

Colton rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure exactly when we arrived at the store. Probably around then.”

“I got the text from Ella on your phone at 2:42 p.m.”

What the actual fuck? He worked out the timing in his head… “Then that would mean this got posted when we pulled into the goddamn parking lot. It’s not like it was somebody inside the store who saw the crowd and then posted.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tony said.

“That means somebody was following us yesterday.”

Tony shrugged, and Colton looked over at Rick, who was still standing in the corner by Ella’s desk. The other man shrugged also but didn’t say anything.

“None of us like the thought of that, but I’m afraid that may be the case,” Tony said.

Colton walked over to the small couch along the south wall and sat down, trying to wrap his head around all of this. “Allow me to make this even more complicated… Sheriff Webb called me a few minutes ago and told me that Jeremy Ritter admitted to observing amaninvolved with paying him. Didn’t get any sort of description, but Jeremy definitely knew the person was male.”

“Wait, are we saying your stalker is a guy?” Rick asked, even though he wasn’t supposed to be talking.

Colton nodded. “Callum thinks maybe it’s a partner of some kind. Regardless, we have to widen the scope of who we’re looking for.”

Tony leaned up against the wall. “That puts us back at square one a little bit, but it’s not like we had much to go on anyway.”

It was time to get to the main point. “Stopping this stalker is my number one priority, but there’s other stuff we need to talk about too. I’m going to leave Oak Creek.”

“It’s about time,” Rick muttered.

“But only to catch the stalker, and then I’m coming back. Permanently.”

Rick threw up his hands in exasperation but didn’t say anything.Good, because nothing was going to change Colton’s mind. Rick sat down in Ella’s office chair, shaking his head. Colton ignored him.

“There’re going to be some big changes for me. I recognize that means there’re going to be big changes for you and the team also.”

“If we’re talking about moving our headquarters here from Denver, I think that’s doable for the most part.” Tony already had his electronic notebook in his hands and was typing away on it. “Not everyone will be able to relocate, but some of the team is really only utilized when we’re traveling for stunts, so?—”

“I’m not sure how many stunts I’m going to be doing. I’m talking about a complete shift. I want?—”

“Hey, what was the name of that social media site that leaked Colton’s whereabouts yesterday?” Rick interrupted.

Colton had had just about enough of this bullshit. The younger man was totally ignoring what he was saying. “Damn it, Rick?—”

“It wasColton Harrison Guaranteed Sightings, right?” Rick continued.

“Jesus, Rick. Read the room,” Tony replied. “But yes, that was the site. Why?”

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