“That’s just the leftover hangover,” I told him before placing the ring on his finger, adding, “Also, I love you beyond exploding capacity, and into the realm of the event horizon of a particularly massive black hole.”
“God.Scientists,” Bess said to Corbin, who just gave her a long look in return.
“By the authority bestowed upon me, I am delighted to pronounce Fang and Emily a wedded couple.Please feel free to share your first kiss as husband and—”
It was at that moment that three complete and utter strangers burst out to the garden, two women and a man.
“Here you are!”the man shouted, striking a dramatic pose and pointing at Bess.“You’re not going to escape again!Santana, grab them!Rosie, find Herbert!”
“Run!”Bess shrieked, and, without so much as a blink, bolted out of the garden, Monk directly on her heels.A woman in green—clearly Santana—ran after Bess, only narrowly missing mowing down Fang in the process.
“What?Who—” I started to ask, but the man strode forward and started shouting.
“I want my property back,” he bellowed as he stormed down the aisle.“And if I don’t get it, I’ll make sure each and every one of your damned group ends up behind bars, where you all deserve to rot.”
“This is a private wedding,” Iain said, his voice going very Scottish as Devon moved from Fang’s side to join him in facing the intruder.“Why don’t ye be movin’ on until after the ceremony.Then, if you want a word with—”
“Aha!Thought you could hide him?”The woman attacker (Rosie, evidently) spotted Holly and Herbert, and started around the outside of the chair arrangement.
“Marla, protect them!”I shouted, pointing at Holly.
Marla—who was proficient in three different martial arts—stopped watching the argument and caught sight of Rosie on her way toward them.Her eyes lit with pleasure, enough so that the woman paused, obviously hesitating when faced with Marla in a defender’s stance.
Rosie glanced back at her cohort in crime.
“I’ve had it up to here with you terrorists!”the man shouted, waving his arms around like he was a deranged windmill.“And this is the last straw, do you hear me?Theverylast straw!First you harass me in court, then you make sure the studio in Birmingham is closed down, and then you destroy my business by stealing the last of my birds.Well, no more!Leander West is a victim no more!I’ll see to it that all of you are destroyed, instead!”
“You’re leaving.Now,” Devon said, and grabbed him by his sleeve.
The man Leander took objection to that, and threw a punch.It was wild, and Devon was no stranger to scrapping (as he and Fang referred to it), so he easily avoided the blow.
“Oh lord,” I said, resisting when Fang pulled me behind him, though my heart warmed at the protective gesture.Could any man be more wonderful?I sniffled a happy tear and kissed the back of his neck before moving to his side, saying, “OK, bonus points for protective mode, but they’ll have to be delivered later.Look, buster, I don’t know who you are, or why you think it’s OK to come to my wedding and make a scene, but—”
Fang said, “Stay here, Em,” at the same time Leander shoved Devon, who, of course, shoved him back, hard enough that former stumbled backward into Iain.
“Oh!”Kathie yelled, jumping onto the seat of the wooden chair she’d been sitting on.“Don’t you dare hurt Iain’s owie knee!We still have to work out the details of the trail riding and yurts before he can stop farming!”
Clara pulled out her phone and started filming the chaos.
“Good idea.Make sure you keep it on these crackpots,” I told her, giving Rosie a glare.She was still at the far end of the chairs, Marla standing guard in front of Holly and Herbert, her gaze wavering from Leander to the men, then to Marla.“Focus on that one.We’ll want video evidence of her crime.”
“I’m filming, too,” Amy said, and pulled out her phone.
“Should I help, do you think?”Corbin asked, glancing behind them where the man was raging.“I don’t like to presume in a country that isn’t my own, but on the other hand, I don’t like bullies.”
“Let’s hold back and jump in if we’re needed,” Amy told him, and they rose, blocking off the side aisle as they both had their phones out, filming the fracas.
The shoving match had Fang moving forward; he clearly intended on helping get rid of the evil Leander.Unfortunately, at that moment, the man in question threw another punch at Devon.
Devon, sensing movement behind him, both dodged the blow and turned while stepping back.Fang, suddenly in range, took the stranger’s fist straight to his nose.He shouted something in Welsh and threw himself on the man, both of them going down into a heap of legs and arms and the carnations from one of the buckets of flowers that bedecked the end of the aisle.
“Careful, he’s got a knife!”Devon shouted, dancing around as Fang and the man rolled around, fists still flying.
Mom, who had moved over to stand with Holly and Marla, gasped.
“Stay with her,” Marla told Mom, and vaulted the two rows of seats to join the fray.
“Get the knife!”I yelled, and hoisted up the hem of my dress in preparation to running forward to defend my fallen hero, but at that moment, Rosie leaped forward, knocking down a chair as she did so.
