Chapter Eighty-Two

Colton was being followed. It wasn’t as obvious as the white sedan with the floppy windshield stripping. It had started out as more of a feeling of paranoia as he and Pudge got into the truck that morning and left the motel. But after a few miles of trailing him, the SUV hanging several cars back was impossible to miss.

He had a clue about Angel, at least. At the continental breakfast this morning, three college boys had been whispering about their missing car. It sounded like they’d been to a party last night and couldn’t remember where they’d left it. They’d been debating the challenges of reporting it stolen when it had drugs inside.

The owner obviously wanted his vehicle back, but one of the other boys had enough money to get them bus fare back to Seattle. When they finally agreed that was the best thing to do, they’d eaten every stitch of bacon on the buffet, then left.

If his hunch was correct, Angel had stolen their car. If he was wrong and they truly were that stupid, it meant she was wandering around this small town with no way to get back home.

Either way, it was impossible to look for her with law enforcement tailing him.

His only option was to drive straight home and hope she turned up after the people in the SUV behind him gave up.

“How long do you think it will take for them to give up?” he asked Pudge, who didn’t have an answer. He simply whined and put his head out the window again.

When they arrived home early that afternoon, Colton took the bag of her things and stashed it in the hiding place under his closet floor. He took a few moments to wipe down the house again, even though she’d done it before they left.

He did laundry, and tried to act normal as he waited for whoever had been following him to make contact. Was it the cops from the motel? Or that obnoxious Special Agent Markel, or one of his buddies from the feds? Probably not anyone from Task Force Phoenix. They’d just have knocked on his door.

He invited Kenny out for ice cream the next day. He wanted an excuse to get out of the house, but he wanted to talk to him, too. The SUV was still there, following at a discreet distance.

Kenny didn’t notice the tail, or Colton’s lack of attention. He rambled on as they ordered their sundaes and sat at an outside table in the shade at the Ice Cream Shack. Colton made Pudge sit as he waited for his doggie cone.

When the cute teenaged waitress brought the food to the table, Kenny’s tongue was hanging out nearly as much as Pudge’s. Colton smiled and watched the exchange between Kenny and the girl. Pudge stole all the attention—the shameless flirt—and the girl left with a smile and a handful of drool. Pudge’s, not Kenny’s.

“So, I’ve decided I want to go to the police academy,” Kenny said after the waitress left.

“Uh-uh. We can talk about that later. What was that all about?” Colton pointed after the waitress who’d disappeared back inside.

“What was what?” Kenny’s cheeks flushed pink.

The kid really needed to figure out how not to blush when he lied if he wanted to go into law enforcement.

“The girl, and the ‘Thank you, Morgan.’ And the watching her walk all the way back into the Shack.” He made his voice all dreamy sounding in an imitation of Kenny.

“I was raised to thank people who bring me food.”

Colton wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. “There’s thanking people, and there’s, ‘Thank you, Morgan.’” He exaggerated the dreaminess even more.

Kenny’s lips pulled up on the one side and he looked away. Classic.

“You like her,” Colton pushed, even bumping the kid with his elbow the way his older brothers had done to him.

“Maybe,” Kenny said with apparent disinterest, but the way he then glanced longingly in her direction when she came out again told Colton it was more than maybe.

“Why don’t you go talk to her? I can sit over here like a good wingman.”

“Nah. That’s okay.”

“You should ask her out.”

“No way. She would say no.”

“Are you a hundred percent positive she’ll say no?”

“Maybe like ninety-seven percent.”

Colton smiled both because Kenny had confessed to a chance that Morgan would say yes, and because they were using math in a casual situation. The teacher in him cheered proudly.

He pulled two twenties out of his wallet and put them on the table. “If she says yes, you’ll use this to take her to the movies. If she says no, you and I will go to the movies. If you don’t try, no one is going to the movies.”

“Seriously? You’re bribing me into asking her out?”

Colton grinned unrepentantly. “Yes. And don’t forget to smile. You’ve got a good smile.” It was true. The kid’s parents had probably paid a fortune for that smile, and Kenny rarely used it.

The boy took a deep breath, then stood. Two steps later, Colton stopped him. “Wait. Take the dog.”

Kenny looked down at Pudge, who was sitting and staring at Colton’s ice cream as if he ever shared.

“Trust me, the dog will get you in. Let her pet the dog, then say, ‘Would you like to go to the movies with me?’”

“Seriously? Just straight off like that?”

“Exactly like that. Don’t try too hard.”

“Do I get to pick the movie when we go, or are you going to pick it?” Kenny muttered, already resigned that she would say no.

“She’s going to pick it,” Colton said. “Now, go.”

While Kenny went to face his destiny, Colton noticed the SUV was still sitting in the parking lot. He could just imagine how annoyed they were, having to wait while a seventeen-year-old’s love life played out. He snickered softly. Too bad for them.

Kenny’s face was blank when he walked back to the table. Colton couldn’t decipher what had happened. Was it good or bad?

Kenny sat down.

“Well?” Colton asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

Kenny snatched the two twenties off the table and smiled. “Sorry, Mr. Willis, but you’re going to have to go to the movies by yourself. I have other plans.”

Colton smacked him on the back and laughed. “Good for you.”

“I can’t believe she actually said yes.” He seemed truly shocked.

“I’m sure it was the dog. Dogs are chick magnets,” Colton joked, then turned serious. “Make sure to be yourself. You’re going to be nervous, there’s really no way around that. But just be yourself. Always. Okay?”

Kenny looked incredulous. “That’s your advice? Be myself? You know me enough to know myself is not all that great.” He held out a hand and let it drop.

“No. You’re awesome. And she said yes because you asked. She’s smiling over here at you, and I know it’s you she’s smiling at because Pudge is licking himself and no one would be smiling at that.” He nudged his dog with his foot. “Cool it until you get home, Pudge.”

Kenny laughed, and twisted the napkin in his hands. “Thanks for making me do that.”

“I didn’t make you,” Colton protested. When Kenny raised a skeptical brow, Colton gave in. “Okay, but only because I was ninety-seven percent sure she would say yes.” He couldn’t help but put some math in there again. “So, you were saying you’re going to go into the police academy?”

“Yes.” Kenny’s eyes lit up with excitement. That was a good sign. “My parents were surprised, but they seem to be onboard. But then I printed out the application and panicked. I mean, what if I can’t do it? What if I suck?”

Colton ignored the men watching them from the SUV so he could focus on Kenny. This was important.

“Why do you want to be a police officer?” he asked.

No adult had ever cared to ask Colton that question. If he’d been given the chance, who knew what he might have said.

“Chicks like a man in uniform,” Kenny said, and smiled.

Colton chuckled, then said, “No, this is serious. At the end of the day, you need to be okay with this decision. You can’t sign up just because of what other people will think.”

Colton blinked, wishing someone had given him that same advice.

“You can be anything you want to be, Kenny. You got that?”

“Yeah, okay. I know.” He shifted in his chair and his cheeks turned pink. “When I was ten, I was riding home from a friend’s house. It was late afternoon and it was Mill Street. The one down from your house with all the trees.” When Colton nodded, he continued, “The sun was coming through the trees and I didn’t see there was a car. I turned my bike onto the street and blam! This woman hit me.” Kenny smacked his fist into his palm.

Colton frowned. “Were you hurt?”

“Oh, yeah. I was wearing a helmet, but my elbows were bleeding and my leg was broken. The woman was crying into her phone. A police officer was the first person on the scene. Everything was going crazy. I was kind of dizzy, my leg hurt, the lady was wailing, traffic was backing up, and cars were blowing their horns. But when the officer got there, he took care of everything. Even kept my dad back when he started yelling at me for not looking where I was going.”

Colton nodded, remembering when he’d been a beat cop coming up on a scene like that.

“I want to do that for someone else. In the middle of all the noise and craziness, I want to be able to step up and take control of the situation so they feel better and aren’t so scared. Is that dumb?”

Colton smiled. “It’s not dumb at all.”

In fact, it was a much better reason than what Colton could come up with for his own choice. This was the right reason.

Still, Colton would be remiss if he didn’t help prepare the kid for what he would face. “I’m not going to blow sunshine up your ass. It won’t be easy. But here’s the thing. You graduated from high school, which means you successfully passed classes you don’t care about. It will be different when you’re learning something that really interests you, about something you really want to do.”

“What about the physical part?” He looked down at his chest with a grimace.

Colton looked him over, as well. He wasn’t much skinnier than Colton had been at that age. The military had whipped him into shape. “Trust me, they’ll take care of that for you.” He grinned.

“Do you think I can do it, Mr. Willis?” The boy’s voice was filled with equal parts hope and fear.

“I do. If it’s what you really want, you’ll make it happen.”

Kenny nodded and threw their trash away with an extra spring in his step. “Should we take some ice cream back to The Mantis?” he asked, his voice lowered even though no one else was close by.

“No. She had to go away for a little while,” Colton said as fresh pain twisted the ice cream in his stomach.

“So I can stop by without having a gun pulled on me?”

Colton forced a smile, but didn’t make any promises. “Funny.”

Kenny didn’t say anything for a few blocks, then he let out a breath. “It’s probably better Angel isn’t around right now,” he said.

“Why’s that?” Colton asked.

“Because there are two men in an SUV following you.”

Colton shot him a surprised look, then slapped him on the shoulder with a smile. “You’re going to make a kickass cop someday, kid. Come on. Let’s have some fun.”