That tracked, considering the guy had consumed about as much sugar as the kids. Ryden sped up, and Kevin made the mistake of looking behind him, driving right into a giant sand pit set up to be an “excavation site.”
Kevin went down with a dramatic roar, gift bags flying everywhere. Ryden tackled Kevin before he could take off again. Trying to keep hold of a guy in a nine-foot inflatable T-Rex costume was not easy. Ryden had wrangled livestock less slippery.
“Damn it, Kevin,” Ryden growled. “Stop tryin’ to run, man.”
The more Kevin struggled, the more he fell over, kicking sand everywhere. Ryden stopped struggling and stood. He wasn’t about to get sand kicked into his eyes. He brushed the sand off his clothes as Kevin flailed, then rolled onto his back, arms and legs flailing.
“Stop. Please. It’s just sad now.” Ryden hauled Kevin to his feet as the kids cheered, then fired their Nerf bullets at Kevin, who forgot he was in a nine-foot-tall suit and tried to hide behind Ryden. There was no use trying to avoid it. Ryden stood with his hands on his hips and just whacked any of the Nerf bullets that came at his face until it was over. When the kids finished their foam assault, they returned to their mini vehicles and drove off, cheering and waving their small fists in victory. This party was lessJurassic Parkand moreMad Max.
“I’m sorry,” Kevin groaned, his voice somewhat muffled by the dinosaur suit. “I think I had too many lava cakes.” From the smell of him, he’d had too much of something else, too.
Saint jogged over to them, three security agents trailing behind. How conveniently tardy of them. “We’ll take him.” Saint looked like he was trying so very hard not to laugh. Asshole.
“Next time,you’rechasin’ the high dinosaur,” Ryden grumbled.
Saint laughed. “There’s something you don’t hear every day.”
“Am I going to jail?” Kevin whined.
Ryden handed him off to Saint. “I don’t know. That’s up to the Rusticuccis.”
“Rusticucci,” Kevin giggled. “Ohmigod.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go,” Saint said, chuckling. “I can’t wait to tell Val about this.”
They hauled Kevin away, and Ryden snuck a photo with his phone. Yeah, okay, so this was one for the books. A ten-year-old cowboy riding a dinosaur hobby horse stopped before Ryden and tipped his hat. For the love of—Now what?
“Marshal,” the kid drawled.
Ryden tipped his hat in return. “Howdy there, partner. What can I do ya fer?”
“There are dinosaur hunters in the Raptor pen trying to wake up the volcano.”
Ryden blinked at the kid. “I have no idea what that means.”
The boy sighed like Ryden was the most frustrating person in the world. Because why wouldn’t what he said make total sense?
“The volcano. In the Raptor pen,” the boy repeated. “Dinosaur hunters are trying to wake up the volcano! You have to stop them.”
“Okay, those are the same words, just in a different order.” Ryden tapped his earpiece. “Red, I’m at a loss here.”
“Just here?” Red teased.
“Ah ha ha. Funny guy. Somethin’ about dinosaur hunters tryin’ to wake up a volcano in the Raptor pen. I got nothin’.”
“Give me a sec.”
While Ryden waited for someone to make sense of whatever was going on, he stood awkwardly, the kid staring up at him with a curled lip, like he’d looked into Ryden’s soul and found him lacking. How could something so small be filled with so much judgment?
“So, uh, what do ya feed that thing?” Ryden asked, pointing to the dinosaur hobby horse.
The kid’s unimpressed expression could have sent even the hardest person crawling away with their tail between their legs. “It’s not real.”
Wow. “Let me guess. You want to be a CEO when you grow up.”
The boy snorted. “Please. I’m going to be a senator.”
“That sounds ’bout right,” Ryden muttered. His earpiece came to life. Thank goodness. This day could not be over soon enough.
