Chapter 21

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Despite what he said to Ella, Colton was truly concerned about his stalker for the first time now.

"This picture was taken yesterday, Callum. That's on the obstacle course. How the hell did someone get there without any of us noticing a stranger?"

Callum studied his copy of the picture from where he sat behind his desk. "It looks like whoever took it was right there with the crowd, but it's probably just a very clever zoom."

Colton scrubbed a hand down his face and leaned forward in his own chair. "I still don't like it. And I particularly don't like the fact that I was looking at Ella in this picture."

He'd looked over and found her watching him, and he hadn't been able to stop himself from doing a little pose and winking. It seemed his stalker had caught that for posterity. "Whoever this stalker is, I don't want her deciding that she can't get to me, so she'll go after Ella instead."

He was relieved when the sheriff didn't blow off his concerns. "I agree. I don't think it's to that point yet, but it's logical to think the stalker will be upset if she realizes your attention is focused somewhere else, particularly on another woman. "

"Do you think the sketch artist will be able to get anything from Ella?" She was in working with the county's sketch artist right now.

Callum shrugged. "To tell the truth, probably not. Given that Ella thought it was a man until finding out you have a stalker of the female persuasion, I doubt that she actually saw enough to be helpful. A sketch artist can't do much if the memory isn't there."

Colton had pretty much feared the same thing. He shifted and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't like this letter either, Callum. I know there's nothing concrete that makes it feel more like a threat, but both this one and the one at the Linear Tactical cabin feel stronger to me."

"A knife tip through the face can do that, too."

Colton gave a wry chuckle. "True. But honestly, the first letters I got from this woman, and even when she started including pictures, I didn't really feel like it was a threat. Did I want to be trapped in an elevator with this woman? No. But I truly felt like we were in the fantasy realm, not the danger realm."

"But that changed when you got here?"

Colton shrugged. "Yeah. I can't pinpoint exactly why, but it definitely put me more on edge."

He looked down and read his copy of the letter again.

My dearest Colton,

I dream of you nearly every night now. And thank God every day that you are alive. I know that's true because we are supposed to meet and because we will be together forever.

It won't be long now. I can feel it, can't you? I wonder if you dream of me also. You do, don't you? That's the way it's meant to be.

I can't wait till we hold each other forever. One lifetime isn't enough with you. But it's a start .

"I don't know. Maybe I'm paranoid. Can you see a difference in the earlier letters and these last two?"

Colton chuckled as Callum patted around his desk before he finally found the reading glasses he was searching for. He flipped Colton off as he placed them on his nose.

"I'm not really sure," he said after reading the letter. "There is nothing overt that makes it more of a threat, but I can understand why it feels more…immediate. Almost more calculating."

Colton nodded. "Yes. Calculating is a good word for it." And he didn't like it at all.

"Your team is most familiar with all of this and, realistically, has the most to gain by getting this taken care of as quickly as possible. Maybe it's time to call them back to Oak Creek."

Colton's jaw tightened at just the thought. He appreciated everything Tony and his team did for him, but he didn't want them around.

"Yeah, maybe."

Callum wasn't fooled. "I get it, they're a lot. But they seem to have your best interests at heart. Although Nick is a pain in the ass and a little too obnoxious for my taste."

"Rick. But yeah."

Colton felt a slight tremor take over his hand, and he gripped it into a fist to stop it, before standing up and walking over to the window. He needed to keep it together. He wasn't going to let the thought of his stalker cause him to lose it right here in the sheriff's office.

But Callum wasn't fooled. "You okay?"

Damn him for being so observant.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Colton lied, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I just want to be able to do something, you know? I'm fucking tired of twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the stalker to strike again."

"Well, I actually have an idea, so I'm glad to hear you say that."

The trembling in his hand stopped immediately. He pulled them out of his pockets. "I'm all ears. "

"Your stalker is here in Oak Creek, but she may not have taken into consideration that everyone in Oak Creek knows everyone else."

"You're thinking of setting a trap." He walked back over and sat down, anxious to hear what the man had to say.

Callum gave a low chuckle. "It probably won't end up being quite that cloak-and-dagger, but yeah. What if you were at the Eagle's Nest having a drink at the bar by yourself? It might be catnip for your stalker, the perfect time to initiate contact or at least snap a picture."

"You think she would just expose herself like that?"

Callum crossed his arms over his chest. "I wish we could get that lucky, but no, probably not. But what I do think is that we can use Oak Creek to our advantage. Have people we know and trust set up around you with eyes for anybody unfamiliar."

Colton sat up more fully in his chair. "That might actually work. She'd be comfortable enough in a crowded place that she wouldn't know that almost everyone else knew each other and that she's an odd man out."

Callum grinned. "Exactly. We can get your Linear Tactical buddies out here. They aren't law enforcement, but they can handle this sort of sting operation, for sure."

"In between them and people we know from town, we should recognize just about everyone who's not a stranger."

"There may be a few tourists around, but we can try to vet them on the fly."

"You know who can help with that."

Callum rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm very aware that Lincoln is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to computers. It's not like he would ever let anyone forget it."

Colton tried to hold back his smile, but he couldn't. "Linc doesn't do it on purpose, you know that. In his mind, he's just stating a fact when he lets everyone know that he can do damn near anything having to do with software. "

Callum's face was comical. "Fine. We can have him run any strangers we think fit the bill and hopefully get this taken care of."

Colton pushed out of his chair. "Let's do it tonight. In a couple of days, everybody's going to be needed to take the campers out in the wilderness, and like I said, I'm tired of just sitting around here with my thumb up my ass, waiting for the next letter or something worse to happen."

"It'll be tight to get everything in place by tonight. This'll have to be more off the books than I want, although that happens with your little buddies more than I would like anyway."

"I can make some calls and get everybody in place by nine o'clock tonight. It's worth a shot."

Callum stood up. "I agree. I don't want anybody thinking they can come in and cause trouble in my town just because they want to."

Colton winked at him. "Yeah, that privilege belongs to those of us who were raised here. So, let's get this handled."

There was no shaking in his hands now.

"For Christ's sake, you guys are like a bunch of fucking toddlers."

Snickers went through the various comms units at Callum's words later that evening.

So far, their sting operation hadn't produced anything much worthwhile. Colton had been sitting at the bar for the past thirty minutes. The Eagle's Nest was fairly busy, but so far, nobody who fit the bill of the stalker—female, relatively young, and a stranger in Oak Creek—had been spotted.

So yeah, Colton's friends who were helping out were a little chatty. He could see why Callum was frustrated, although the other man knew everyone would immediately focus if needed.

"Maybe if Colton had worn a tighter T-shirt, he'd look more approachable," Lilah said into the comms unit.

Colton turned his head and glared in her direction where she was sitting at the far end of the bar. Or at least as discreetly as he could since they weren't supposed to be noticing each other at all.

"Don't you think his biceps would burst through the seams if his shirt were any tighter?" Theo's voice rang in his ears. "Do they make that brand in adult sizes, Colton, or is it just for kids?"

Colton now turned to glare at his friend who was sitting in a far booth with Derek Bollinger. Meanwhile, Lilah nearly spewed her drink, barely covering the mishap with a cough.

Colton reached up and scratched his cheek deliberately with his middle finger, spinning slowly on the stool under the guise of looking around casually so all his friends could see the gesture. "Always a pleasure to be back home," he muttered behind his hand.

"You guys want to lock it down?" Callum asked. "Anybody with an IQ over sixty is going to be able to tell something is going on if you're not careful."

"Roger that," Theo said. "Let's get serious."

Callum was right. If the stalker felt like something was off, she might not approach Colton, or hell, she might not even come all the way into the bar at all.

As Callum had feared, Ella hadn't been able to remember any details about the face in the window, outside of the black hoodie. So the forensic artist hadn't been able to come up with any sort of sketch. Colton had taken Ella home from the sheriff's office and tucked her into bed so she could rest. She'd been so tired, she hadn't even pressed when he'd told her he needed to meet his buddies for something tonight. Becky and Eva were with her right now.

All his friends had been down to help with this sting operation, once he'd explained about the stalker and how the situation seemed to be escalating. They'd come up with a plan where Colton would be by himself at the bar, to look approachable. Lilah would monitor from the other end. Derek and Theo would have eyes on the back of the room.

Of course, anybody from Oak Creek would wonder why the four buddies weren't sitting together as they normally did. But for tonight, they would just give the gossipmongers something to feast on—let them assume they were having a big fight or something.

All of them had comms units, discreet and top-of-the-line from Linear Tactical. Everyone could talk and hear one another with tiny electronic pieces inside their ears. His friends all knew what they were looking for. Bear knew too, although he wasn't on comms. He was working a shift behind the bar like he sometimes did.

As a matter of fact, it was Bear who gestured with his chin when two women walked in the door. Colton glanced at them without making it obvious.

"We got two possibilities entering," Lilah said. "Both female, roughly age thirty, five foot eight and five foot six, both slim build."

"I'll come inside and get a shot of them and run them through my system," Lincoln said. He'd been quiet on the comms unit so far. Small talk wasn't his forte.

"Be discreet, Linc," Derek told their cousin.

"They'll never know."

Colton had to admit, Lincoln was right. He had some sort of pen that was able to take a digital photograph. He walked by the women as they were still figuring out where they wanted to sit and then walked back out the door.

Lincoln walking in and then deciding to leave without saying anything to anybody actually wouldn't tip off anyone from Oak Creek as being unusual. He did that sort of thing all the time.

Lincoln was Lincoln.

Colton was careful not to stare at the women. He didn't want to do anything to tip them off. Lilah, Theo, and Derek were in much better positions to observe.

"So far, it doesn't look like either of them is taking much interest in Colton," Theo said.

"Just keep an eye on them," Callum said. "There's a couple who just parked and are on their way inside. Using the date as a disguise would be a smart play, so don't write this woman off just because she's with another man."

Callum and Lincoln were out in a van in the parking lot so that Lincoln could utilize his computer system on images of anybody unfamiliar. It wouldn't definitively tell them if they'd found the stalker, but Lincoln had set up parameters in his system to provide them details that would be useful.

"Somebody else get me pictures of the couple while I'm running these two women," Lincoln said. "I need eighty-seven seconds to finish and get the info."

Nobody doubted that when he said eighty-seven seconds, he meant it exactly.

"I can get them," Lilah said. "Hold and I'll send it."

She signaled over to Bear so that he walked to her, then pulled out her phone like she was taking a selfie of the two of them. Colton had no doubt that her camera was actually facing the direction of the couple and she was getting the shot she needed.

"Okay, I'm fairly certain we can eliminate these two women. Neither of them has any social media accounts—public or private—that are associated with Colton. Neither of them has been at any of his stunts or gotten caught on camera, nor does either of them have travel records to anywhere he's been in the past two years."

"This is so fucking illegal," Callum muttered.

"Technically not," Lincoln argued. "All I'm doing is searching what people have made public. It's amazing how many details of their lives people post on the internet without thinking about the ramifications. Now, I can slip into illegal territory if you guys want me?—"

"No." They all said it at the same time.

"I didn't think so." They could hear Lincoln typing on his computer at a speed faster than most humans on the planet. "Looks like the couple is relatively clean too. The guy has watched a couple of Colton's bigger stunts—including the avalanche—but not enough to raise any red flags."

Colton sipped slowly at his beer and talked to a few townspeople who came over to him throughout the next hour. He kept the conversations short, not wanting to scare away anyone else wanting to strike up a conversation, but it didn't seem to matter .

The team found a couple more people who Lincoln put through his system, but none of them fit the profile nor had any seeming attachment to Colton. Moreover, none of them seemed to pay him any attention at all.

It was getting close to eleven when Colton finally decided to shut it all down. There was no point in making the bar stay open later just to continue this.

"I'm calling it," he said into his comms. "If she was coming, she'd have been here by now. Either she didn't show up at all, or she got spooked somehow."

"Probably got spooked by a grown-ass man wearing a child's shirt," Lilah said.

Callum ignored her. "I concur. I'll have one of my deputies monitor those two women who came in at first since they best suit our profile. But my gut says it's not either of them."

"My software says that too, which is better than any gut." Lincoln's tone dripped defensiveness—the concept of trusting a "gut" was completely foreign to his computer of a brain.

"Regardless, just to double-check," Callum said.

One by one, everyone took off, keeping the ruse in place in case they happened to still be watched, no matter how unlikely it seemed.

Colton wasn't sure what he was going to do now. The stalker was still out there, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do about it.