Page 102 of Hero's Prize

Rick reached into his pocket, and suddenly, getting the gun out of his truck wasn’t an option. Colton had no idea if Rick was going for a weapon, so he did a flying tackle of his own. Once they were on the ground, Colton didn’t waste any time getting Rick flipped over and pulling one arm up behind his back.

“Ow!”

“If I jerk this much farther, it’s going to break your arm. What were you going for in your pocket? Gun? Knife?”

“No, man, my phone. I just wanted to show you what Tony showed me.”

Colton patted down Rick’s front pockets. Sure enough, the onlything he had on him was a phone. He let the man go, and they both rolled over to sit on the grass. Rick got the phone then a second later stuck it in Colton’s face.

“See?”

Colton had to admit, it looked like an electronic copy of some sort of restraining order. And it was signed by Colton.

Colton hadn’t signed anything of the sort.

“This isn’t right. Yes, I signed the paperwork to fire you, but that was because Tony said you’d had a plan to blame Ella from the beginning.”

“It wasn’t me. I’m telling you, it wasn’t me.”

Colton had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Why didn’t you call me and tell me what happened?”

“I’ve been trying to call you all day. But my calls were blocked.”

“I didn’t block your calls.” Colton took his phone out of his pocket and looked up Rick’s contact info. Sure enough, the contact was blocked.

Colton knew for a fact that he hadn’t been the one who’d done that.

He also knew that Tony had taken his phone for a minute at the Eagle’s Nest today. Colton had been so caught up in his guilt over Ella that he hadn’t thought much about it.

Until now.

“I think something really bad is going on, Rick.”

He dialed Tony’s number, but it immediately went to voice mail.

He sent a text.

Need to talk to you. STAT.

No response. In the year that Tony had worked for him, he had never once not responded to a text within just a minute or two.

Something definitely wasn’t right.

“Yes, I did fire you, but I thought it was because you’d set Ella up. But it sounds like somebody might be settingyouup.”

“What do you mean?”

They both got to their feet.

“Is that your hoodie, Rick? I’ve never seen you wear it.” Colton definitely would’ve remembered if he had.

Rick looked down at the piece of clothing. “No, actually, I found this in my car. Somebody must’ve left it there, but it was cold tonight so I thought I would wear it.” He shrugged sheepishly. “Also, because it meant it would be harder for you to see me as you got home.”

The guy was a good cameraman, but he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

“You know that Ella saw the stalker in a black hoodie at her shop, right? And you remember how we were talking the other day about there being a man involved in all this, maybe as the stalker’s partner?”

“Whoa. That’s not me. I have nothing to do with the stalker.”