Page 69 of Hero's Prize

“Lincoln, he’s baiting you. Just ignore him.”

Colton watched as the teen’s muscles tensed. He was about to make a run for it. Colton squatted down closer to him. “If you make me run after you again, I will catch you. But you won’t like it when I do.”

“I don’t even know why you guys were chasing me in the first place. That’s why I was running. What was I supposed to do?” The kid was lying, but his muscles relaxed, so at least he wasn’t about to take off again.

“We were chasing you because we told you to stop, and you ran,” Lincoln stated.

Colton shook his head. Talking reasonably with this kid wasn’t going to get them far, but reason and logic were the only things Lincoln knew.

Sure enough, the teen turned to Lincoln, eyes wide. “I’m just a kid, man. I see grown men running toward me, and yeah, I’m going to take off. How did I know you weren’t going to kidnap me or something?”

Colton could see that Lincoln was about to debate the issue with him. “He’s baiting you again, Linc. Trying to distract us so he can make a run for it again.”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Lincoln was stopped from arguing with the kid further by Callum walking up behind them. “Jeremy Ritter?”

“Shit,” the kid muttered.

“You know him?” Colton asked as he stood back up.

Callum raised an eyebrow. “Jeremy and I go way back. A couple of misdemeanor B&Es, underage drinking, and recreational drug use.”

Colton scrubbed a hand down his face. “There is no way this ismy stalker. Hell, even if we got the gender wrong, there is no way this punk is my stalker.”

“Got anything to say, Jeremy?” Callum asked.

“Dude, these guys were chasing me, and how was I supposed to know if they were going to take me back to their love cave or something.”

Lincoln and Colton both rolled their eyes. Even Lincoln could recognize the absurdity of this statement.

Theo arrived in a rush a few seconds later, saw the kid, and immediately surmised the situation. “Great.”

“Who put you up to this, Jeremy?” Callum crouched down beside him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Somebody paid you to put a knife and the picture on that truck, right? If you tell me who did that, we could pretend like there’s no problem.”

Jeremy shrugged. “I have no idea what you mean.”

Colton reached over and grabbed the knife off the ground, holding it by the handle in front of the kid. “Let me guess, you were supposed to use this to put the letter and picture into my truck door, but you decided to keep the knife for yourself.”

Jeremy looked away, and Colton knew he’d discovered the truth.

“Who was it?” he pressed. “Who told you to do this?”

The kid caved. “Look, I don’t know. I got a text earlier today, offering me some money to deliver some stuff. I didn’t know what it was I’d be delivering.”

Callum shook his head. “Let me guess, you thought it would be drugs? You know you’re only a half step from juvie, Jeremy.”

He shook his head. “No. As a matter of fact, I was very clear that I couldn’t do anything illegal. So yeah, when I heard it was just putting a love letter and a picture on a truck, it seemed like easy money.”

“And the knife?” Colton asked.

Jeremy shrugged. “Seemed like a waste to just leave it there if Icould get the letter and picture to stay attached to the truck without it. Listen, I didn’t know any of this was illegal.”

“Who paid you?” Callum asked. “Did you get a name?”

“Well, I asked for a business card and a few references, but…” Jeremy rolled his eyes. “No, man, I didn’t get a name.”

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