High in Trial - By Donna Ball Page 0,20

“That’s nice of you…”

“Raine,” I supplied. “Raine Stockton.”

“I’m Marcie Wilbanks. Thanks,” she added, “for catching Bryte. And for this.” She managed a quick, if weak, smile as she nodded toward the sweatshirt.

“I brought these too.” I held out a package of antiseptic wipes. “You should probably take care of that knee.”

She turned away to pull on the sweatshirt and clean her injured knee, and I took advantage of the moment to slip my phone out of my pocket and snap a photo of myself with Bryte. I tapped out the caption, “Here I am with National Champion Bryte!” and sent it on to Facebook. Melanie would get a kick out of that.

“What the hell are you doing with my dog?”

I barely had time to get to my feet and stuff my phone back into my pocket before Neil Kellog snatched Bryte’s leash from my hand with such abruptness that the dog’s two front feet left the ground as he jerked her to his side. “Hey!” I objected. “There’s no need for that!”

“Calm down, Neil.” Marcie came forward quickly. “She’s okay. She got out of her crate and went for a run, but this girl caught her. You should be thanking her—”

Neil turned on her. His face was red and his eyes were snapping furiously. “So this is your game now? Stealing my dog? Do you really want to play by those rules, Marcie? Do you?”

“Are you crazy? Nobody tried to steal your dog!”

“Yeah, I’m crazy all right! Crazy for thinking I could trust you with her. The minute my back was turned—”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Neil, it was an accident! If you hadn’t trained her with that cockeyed method of yours, she would’ve come when I called her and—”

“I’ll show you accidents, Marcie.” He took a step toward her that couldn’t be construed as anything but threatening. I could see the veins on the side of his neck bulging. “If you ever touch my dog again, you can look forward to an accident that will take you weeks to get over.”

I said, trying to sound reasonable, “Listen, any dog can get loose. The important thing is—”

He turned on me. The color of his face and the fire in his eyes actually made me shrink back. “Who the hell are you?” He was in my face, practically roaring at me. I threw up an instinctive hand in self-defense. “You need to stay out of this if you know what’s good for you!”

“For the love of Pete, will you lower your voice?” Marcie caught his arm and he flung her away. She stumbled back.

“Everything okay here?” A hand fell lightly upon my shoulder, the touch casual, the gesture unmistakably protective. And though Miles’s tone was mild, I didn’t have to turn to look at him to feel the steel in his eyes. I’d seen that look before, and I could see it now in the way that Neil, subduing the blaze of anger in his face, looked away and scowled. I could see it in the breath of relief that passed through Marcie’s parted lips. And I could hear it in Neil’s tightly muttered, “I’m taking Bryte home.” He turned on his heel and strode away with Bryte prancing to keep up.

Alarm flashed in Marcie’s face. “You can’t do that!” She ran after him. “Stop right there! That’s not our agreement!”

I blew out a long, slow breath and turned to look at Miles. I felt as though I should apologize on behalf of the AKC—he was, after all, a guest of the sport—but I honestly didn’t know what to say. He said it for me.

“Roller derby,” he repeated. He squeezed my shoulder and added, “Do me a favor and stay out of that guy’s way, okay? I don’t like the way his eyes were spinning around in his head.”

I shrugged uneasily. “Some people get a little carried away when it comes to their dogs.”

He pretended surprise. “You don’t say.” Then he winked and tugged my ponytail. “Okay, I’m outta here. Text me your score.”

“Time,” I corrected him. “In agility, it’s time.”

“Right.”

I couldn’t help smiling as I tiptoed to brush a kiss across his lips. “Thanks for coming, Miles,” I said, because, as my mother always said, you should never fail to reward the effort. “That was nice of you. It showed real character.”

“Hey, I’m all about character.” His eyes danced with amusement and he cupped my neck lightly as he turned to go. “Run fast.” His phone rang and he took it