Page 68 of Hero's Prize

“Roger that,” Lincoln responded. “I think she’s going to—shit.”

“What?” Lincoln wasn’t one to express frustration in curse words.

“She just cut down Lexington,” the other man said.

They all muttered curses. The stalker had just gotten extremely lucky—Lexington gave her more exits out of town than any other street she could’ve picked to dash down.

“We’re going to have to split up.” Colton ran the options in his head.

“Agreed,” Callum said. “I’ll stay on Grant in the car in case she spins back around. Theo, you go down Baxter Road. Lincoln, try to force her west. Colton, you come around from the east side and box her in.”

They muttered agreements and pushed for speed.

“She’s not slowing down,” Lincoln said. “And I’m not making any gains on her.”

Just their luck his stalker was some sort of Olympic sprinter.

Colton and Theo split off from each other without a word. They both knew where they needed to go.

Everyone ran in silence for a few moments before Lincoln’s voice came through the comms system again. “She turned south on Branch.”

Colton muttered another curse through labored breath. Damn it. This woman was making all the right choices—her change in direction down that road would also give her a way out of town. So much for trapping her.

But Colton knew a shorter way. It required him to cut through an alley and leap over a damn trash can, but he did it.

“Almost to you, Lincoln.” Colton could hear the clanging sound of someone trying to climb the fence and knew that they had her now. He turned the corner, and, sure enough, the woman—and in a black hoodie, no less—was climbing up a chain link fence. If she made it over that, she’d be pretty much home free.

Colton didn’t think about it; he leaped—landing hard against the woman and then pulling them both down to the ground, knocking the wind out of himself.

Shit, that hurt.

It didn’t feel any better when the woman swung her fist out and caught him in the jaw. “Goddamn it.”

Colton wasn’t one to hit women, but neither was he one to sit there and get his ass kicked just because she was female. But Lincoln caught up to them and did a flying tackle of his own, taking her down completely so she was face first on the ground, Lincoln pulling her arms behind her.

“Get the fuck off me, man.”

Wait. That wasn’t a woman’s voice at all.What the hell?

A knife clattered out of the guy’s pocket as Lincoln flipped him around so they could see his face.

Hell, not a woman, but not really a man either—a fuckingteenager.

Colton kicked the knife out of the way, and Lincoln pulled him so he was sitting up against the fence. Colton and Lincoln stood there for a long minute staring down at him, trying to catch their breaths and figure out what the hell was going on.

“Colton, Lincoln, come in.” Callum’s voice came over the comms. “Update.”

“We’re at the end of Adams Street. We caught our perp,” Colton got out, breathing almost normally enough to talk in full sentences.

“Okay. I’ll be there in less than one minute. Don’t do anything to her.”

“Oh, believe me, we won’t do anything to her.”

“Teenager, what is your name?” Lincoln asked.

“My name isFuck You, Man,” the kid spat out.

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. “I’m fairly certain that is not your actual name.”

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