Page 136 of The Warrior
“You did, didn’t you?” Magni growled low.
I was just about to protest and clear up the misunderstanding when Solomon heroically pushed me back and got between me and Magni.
“I won’t let you touch her.”
Both Magni and I warned him to stay out of it.
“I’ll fight you if I have to, but I won’t let you put a finger on Laura.”
“You would fightme?” Magni pushed forward. “Are you kidding me?”
“Solo, no!” The fear in Willow’s voice was real.
“I’ve been wanting to kick your arrogant little ass for a long time,” Magni hissed at the teenager. “But I don’t have time right now.Movethe fuck away from my wife.”
Archer moved closer. “Solo, do as he says. Don’t meddle in things you don’t understand.”
“I understand that Laura has been sad and that he’s not treating his wife right,” Solo shouted back to Archer.
“What did you say?” Magni grabbed the boy’s collar. In reflex, Solo pushed back with a hand to Magni’s shoulder.
“Hey, hey, stop.” Marco came back. “Whatever you’re angry about, don’t take it out on the boy. If you want to fight someone, you can fight me.”
Magni changed his focus from Solomon to Marco. “Oh yeah? Those are big words coming from a man who ran like a coward just a minute ago.”
“Marco isn’t the coward. You are!” Solomon accused my husband. “YouleftLaura.”
A warning growl came from Magni, and Archer scolded Solomon. “You’re way out of order, boy. You’re coming with me to my office, right now.”
“Solo, I don’t need you to protect me,” I assured the young man, but he wouldn’t budge and held his stance between me and Magni.
“It’s okay, Laura, I can take him in a fight.” Solo didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before he got knocked out cold by Magni.
Willow screamed as if Solo had been killed and ran to throw herself on top of his body.
“Magni, no. He’s just a kid.” Kya came running too, and I bent down, shaking his shoulder. “Solo, open your eyes.”
“He’s going to be fine,” Magni said when Willow looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
Solo’s eyes blinked open after Kya had slapped his cheeks a few times.
“What happened?” he asked with confusion on his face.
“Magni hit you,” Willow explained and took Solo’s hand.
“Be happy I only put him to sleep for a second instead of knocking his teeth out. I bet you wouldn’t find him so pretty with short hair and no teeth.”
Willow opened her mouth to speak, but Archer was quick to put his hand on her shoulder. “Magni had every right to hit Solo. If he’d come between me and Kya like that, I’d have done much worse.”
Willow defended her boyfriend. “He was just trying to protect, Laura.”
“Laura was never in danger,” Archer argued. “And if she had been, Marco and I would have handled it.”
“Willow, Archer is right,” I told the girl. “Magni would never hurt me.”
I turned to Magni. “Why did you chase Marco like that?”
Magni pointed at Marco, who was now only about ten feet away. “Keep your hands off my wife.”
