Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
The first one lunged, overextending his arm in his effort to punch Pierce in the face, but Pierce was too quick for him. He bent low and punched the guy in the ribs, before rising and giving him a brutal uppercut, which sent the guard flying backward to land with a hard thud on the linoleum floor.
Pierce rounded on Steve. The one who’d actually hit me. He raised his clenched fists.
Steve pulled his handgun, aiming it at Pierce’s head. “I’m going to enjoy shooting that arrogant rich boy smirk off your face. You waltz around here like fucking God, but you’ll die like any other bitch.”
Pierce’s gaze hardened. “I was just going to beat you to within an inch of your life for touching her. Now I’m going to kill you.”
I screamed as Pierce lunged for the guard.
CHAPTER 13
HAILEY
“Wait!”
I ducked under one man’s outstretched arm and ran, slamming into the back of another.
The stranger grabbed me by my upper arms. “Hey sexy, where are you going so fast?”
I looked past him and panicked. Madison’s crappy attorney was getting away. “Let me go!”
I wrenched free and shoved at the closing courtroom doors.
They swung open into chaos.
Reporters crowded around the entrance typing furiously into their phones or sitting on the marble tiles with their laptops balanced on their crossed legs. For such a small freaking town they sure had a lot of damn reporters.
Fucking Worthingtons.
I rose on my toes and searched the crowd over the tops of all the heads.
It took a second to spot his wrinkled cheap brown suit where he stood, stuffing the rest of his files into his briefcase and snapping it closed.
I sprinted after him. Lunging forward, I snatched at his sleeve as I called out, “Fink, stop!”
He turned and pulled his arm free. Smoothing the rumpled suit fabric as if it would make any difference, he huffed. “It’s Finkle.”
“Right, Mr. Finkle, whatever. What are you doing?”
His brow furrowed. “I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave. Madison still needs your help.”
He wagged his finger at me. “No, I’m finished. I did my job. I can’t help her now.”
“You can’t do this. You’re still her attorney. Didn’t you take some kind of oath or vow or something?”
“I provided her a defense. There is a verdict. Just because she jumped up in court and embarrassed everyone by crying out, doesn’t change the fact the trial is over. Now let me pass.”
Uncaring about the consequences, I held up my palms, blocking his cowardly retreat. “This isn’t over. She’s innocent and you fucking know it. Stop being such a momma’s boy idiot and do something about it—or have the Worthingtons paid you off like everyone else?”
Her numbnuts attorney had either been paid to look the other way or was too spineless to fight. Either way, he wasn’t walking away from this.
Finkle breathed heavily through his nose several times as his eyes bulged. He then scrunched up his face and thinned his lips. He swung the arm holding his bulging briefcase back, then forward, hitting me square in the stomach.
My arms wrapped around my middle as I doubled over.
Finkle’s overstuffed briefcase burst open on impact, sending a shower of papers, files, and various pens onto the courthouse lobby floor.
I smirked; it served him right for hitting me.
Finkle cried out as the crowd trampled his papers beneath their shoes.
Straightening, I clenched my fists and stepped forward, ready to confront him again.
Instead, I crashed into a wall of a man who planted himself in my path, completely blocking my view.
He grabbed Finkle by his grubby tie and lifted him off his feet.
Despite all the surrounding noise, I could hear his softly growled command. “Apologize to the lady.”
Finkle choked, clawing at the wrists holding him up. He tried calling out for help but either the security guards didn’t hear or didn’t care, because none came.
The stranger repeated his order. “Apologize to the lady, now.”
My attention darted between them. Finkle was either going to pass out from fear or pee himself. Probably both.
I moved to the right and craned my neck, way up, to get a look at him.
My knight in shining armor looked more like Superman’s evil twin. I hadn’t seen this face before. I would have remembered. He was tall and muscular with ink-black hair worn slicked back.
I found myself leaning in, and when he looked at me, all the air left my body. He was, quite frankly, the most arrestingly handsome man I’d ever seen.
Which didn’t matter. None of it mattered. I had no idea what was happening to Madison behind those doors, and no one in that courtroom had lifted a finger to stop it. Not the judge. Not her attorney. Not me. The last image I had of Madison slammed into my mind—her face white with panic as the guards wrenched her arms back and hauled her through the courtroom doors.