hold her against his body as she wept. For Ryan. For herself. And, as she peeked at Artie’s lifeless body, for Colton.
***
When the police asked what had happened, Colt could barely answer them. He remembered Ryan running out to the practice ring, his face smeared with horse shit, yelling something about Verity and Artie and “big trouble.”
No, Colt didn’t remember leaping from Thor’s back. Yes, he remembered seeing Artie’s body pressed against the stable wall. He saw her dress sticking out and knew that Verity was trapped between Artie and the wall. And then? Nothing. He remembered nothing until Verity screamed his name, and suddenly he was holding her in his arms.
The police officers also talked to Ryan, whose face still had remnants of shit on it, and Verity, whose ear had a bite mark and whose right breast had bruising in the shape of fingers when she pulled the bodice of her costume to the side.
“Can’t totally figure out what happened here today,” said Officer Marks to Colton as he was leaving, “but you’d best not plan to go anywhere, son. Lucky for you that boy’s still breathing. You’re not looking at homicide here, but you’re likely looking at battery.”
Colt’s eyes widened in indignation. “Battery? He assaulted my girlfriend and her brother!”
“And they are welcome to file suit against.” He flipped through his notepad. “Arthur Kingston. But I suspect Arthur also has a pretty sturdy case against you. You broke his nose and his arm, his head’s bleeding, and I’m guessing he’s down a few ribs too.”
“His hands were on my—”
“Save it,” said the officer, taking a deep breath. “Listen, I get it, but, well, you don’t have a right to go around beating people up for looking funny at your girlfriend.”
“Looking funny? Come on! She has bruises!”
“Son,” said Officer Marks, putting his hand on his holster and taking a step in Colt’s direction, “if you can’t keep yourself together, I’ll have to cuff you and take you down to the station.”
Verity placed her hand on Colt’s arm and squeezed gently.
“No, sir,” he said, clenching his jaw as he took a step back. “I’ll, uh, I’ll cool down.”
Officer Marks nodded. “We’ll be in touch.”
Lynette looked on in disapproval as the officer trudged back through the practice ring and headed out through the employee hallway. Artie had already been taken to the hospital by ambulance.
“You’re fired, Colton,” she said calmly, then pursed her lips and turned to Verity. “Why don’t you and your brother take a week off? Let all this cool down.”
“But Ryan and I didn’t—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” said Lynette, her eyes narrowing. “You two had trouble written all over you from the very beginning. I should never have hired you. Don’t know what the hell I was thinking. Take a week at half pay. Best I can do.”
“And after that?”
“Come see me next Monday.” She glanced at Ryan, giving him a sour look. “Alone. We’ll talk about what’s best for . . . everyone.”
“You mean you’ll fire us too.”
“I don’t know what I mean!” shrieked Lynette. “My Head Knight was just rolled out of here on a stretcher. Another knight beat him so badly, he was unconscious. The police are involved. You and your brother were in the middle of it. That said, your brother’s an ADA employee. So I’m sorry if I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. All I know is that I need you two out of here while I figure it out! Now, forgive me while I go get a copy of the goddamned police report!”
Lynette turned and stomped toward the exit to follow Officer Marks to his car and get a copy of the police report for HR.
Verity looked up at Colton, huge tears in her eyes. “We just lost our jobs. All three of us.”
“Shhhh,” he said, pulling her close. “You don’t know that yet. We’ll, uh . . . Let’s just get you home.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the stable exit, where Joe and Ryan were waiting.
“Colton,” said Joe, his eyes troubled, “I know you did right. That Artie was a bad seed.”
Ryan’s face had finally been washed, but there was still dried shit in his hair, and it made Colt flinch with fury as he slid his eyes from Joe to Ryan and back again. Bad seed? He could think of a few more-appropriate descriptions for Artie.