Page 59 of Peach Blossom Hollow

They were still down on the scoreboard.

He glanced behind him.

Dezzie was still dancing.

Violet was normally so positive, so optimistic in the way she thought and spoke that Leo didn’t want to think how she might be feeling inside her costume right now. He hoped the fans weren’t yelling at her. She deserved better. And not just from spectators, but from guys who called themselves her friends.

“Eyes on the ice,” the coach snapped.

“Yes, sir,” Leo said. Maverick shot him a guilty look, and they both turned their attention back to the game.

The team captain sure had it bad for Daisy-Mae. Leo smirked at him and got a scowl in return. Women. So distracting.

The other team scored a goal and the tension on the bench increased, as well as in the stands. Leo could feel it down his back, an unpleasant prickling sensation. It spread up his spine, through to the baseof his skull, then over his scalp like it was covered in ants.

When he felt like this in a rodeo, something bad was going to happen.

He jiggled his legs again, feeling claustrophobic in the players’ box.

Another face-off. The Dragons lost it, the opposing team in possession of the puck and already racing over the blue line, lining up for the shot.

Moments later, angry shouts erupted behind the bench in spite of Landon’s great save. Despite Coach Louis’s earlier reprimand, Leo turned. A fan in a Dragons jersey was squaring off with Dezzie, arms waving, face red.

Leo stood.

“Sit down,” the coach growled.

“You’re facing the wrong way, Socks,” Maverick said mildly, before swinging himself over the boards and onto the rink, back on the ice to try and save the game.

Leo scanned the stands for security guards. None. He looked at the guards normally seated near their box to protect the players. They hadn’t heard the shouts, and he was unable to make eye contact with them.

The man several rows above the box shoved Dezzie, sending her tumbling into Daisy-Mae, who’d been trying to talk reason into him.

Leo unlatched the gate that kept fans from entering the players’ area. He was over barricades and empty seats before anyone had a chance to grab him, before he had a chance to think. His skate blades clanked against the concrete steps as he closed the distance between himself and Violet.

Other fans had circled the fallen mascot in shock, but because of the staggered seats, few could get to the angry man, who was about to reach down and shake her.

Leo leaped up the final three steps and grabbed the guy in a bear hug. He fisted the back hem of the man’s Dragons jersey, and in one fluid move, yanked it up over the man’s head in a familiar hockey-fight move, restricting the assailant’s arms as well as impairing his ability to see.

In a flash, two security guards flanked the fan as Leo pulled back his fist.

“No,” Daisy-Mae warned, and he caught himself before he completed the swing, adrenaline surging through him.

Daisy-Mae, who’d tumbled after Dezzie collided with her, was back on her feet, pulling on Violet’s dragon costume head, which had gotten wedged between two rows of seats, trapping Violet. As soon as it was free, Leo grabbed Violet’s arm like he had on the day they’d met, hoisting her to her feet. He clasped her headpiece, angling it downward so he could peer through the shaded eyeholes.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his heart screaming like he’d just raced a bull across the ring, climbing the fence at the last possible moment before the beast crashed into it with its horns.

He could barely see Violet’s face inside.

“She says she’s fine,” Daisy-Mae said quietly.

How could she be? She’d just been shouted at and shoved, wedged into a vulnerable position. If she’d needed to, she couldn’t have escaped or defended herself.

He saw a glimmer through the eyeholes. A tear. Wetness on her cheek.

Leo’s hands tightened back into fists and he whirled, searching for the tough guy in the jersey. He was being marched away by security, and Leo’s desire to chase them down and pummel him intensified. He leaned forward to pursue him up the steps, but more security guards had filled the small area, blocking him. He swore under his breath and ushered Violet into the ring of safety they created.

“Don’t let her come back out again tonight,” he ordered, and Daisy-Mae nodded briskly, her face pale.

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