Wild For Mr. Wrong Read Free

until he solved it.
    Thanks to Tam, he just might have the chance.
    The clerk called court into session.  Vaguely, he listened as the public defender and Bryn handled the first few cases.  Then, when the clerk called Kyle Winsor’s case, he rose and made his way to the front of the courtroom.  He sat at the defense table with his client, a nineteen-year-old punk with too much time on his hands, but a punk who could still turn his life around.
    “ Are we still set for jury trial next week, Mr. Mays?” the judge asked.
    “ Unless Ms. Donovon is willing to agree to probation in exchange for a no contest plea?”  He glanced at Bryn’s profile even though he already knew what she was going to say.
    Without looking at him, Bryn quietly said, “That’s not going to happen, your honor.  The people are asking for the maximum sentence in this case, and we’re prepared to go to trial.”
    “ Very well, counselors.”
    As the judge discussed logistics with his clerk, Kyle cursed softly.  Behind them, his father, known to Daniel only as Winsor, cursed far more loudly.
    Winsor’s curse was the only warning the courtroom got.
    Before anyone noticed the man’s intent, he’d leaped over the low wall separating the audience from the court staff and made a beeline for Bryn.  Bryn looked up, eyes widening as Kyle’s angry father charged her.  Fear flashed across her face.  
    “ No!” Daniel shouted, lunging out of his seat.  By the time he reached Bryn, Winsor had her pinned against the table.  She frantically clawed at his hands.  Gasped for air.  She kneed Winsor in the nuts an instant before Daniel grabbed the guy by the back of his shirt.  
    Winsor released her throat but managed to grab hold of her lapel, pulling her with him.  Daniel wrested her away and covered her body with his own.  Winsor lunged again, and the bailiff hit him in the back of the head with his baton.  He crumpled to the ground. The bailiff picked the man up by the back of his pants and dragged him back, away from Bryn.
    Shouts echoed.  The judge ordered everyone to calm down as Daniel and Bryn stood, Bryn trembling.  Someone jostled for a space next to her, but Daniel shouldered him aside. When Kyle’s brother Paul made a move for Bryn, Daniel grabbed the asshole.
    “ Get back,” Daniel growled, wrapping his arms around Paul’s chest.  The man kept going, trying to drag Daniel forward.
    “ Let me go,” he wheezed.  “I’ll finish what my dad started.  Witch!  Leave my brother alone,” he spat at Bryn.  
    As Daniel tackled him to the floor, Paul got in a powerful punch to Daniel’s face, bloodying his lip before two more bailiffs dragged him after Winsor.  A quick glance confirmed to Daniel that his client was being ushered out of the courtroom.  Just before he disappeared around a corner, he looked back at Daniel, his expression one of shock.
    Bryn half-leaned against the table.  Daniel rushed up to her.  With one hand under her elbow and one wrapped around the base of her neck, he looked into her dazed eyes.  Unlike the air he was dragging in and out of his billowing chest, she seemed unable to breathe.  “Bryn, are you okay?  Bryn!”
    She just looked at him.  He ran his eyes over her body, trying to assess if she was hurt.  Her throat was red from where Winsor’s fingers had squeezed her delicate skin.  Her jacket had been wrenched to the side, and her button-down shirt ripped open, exposing part of a lacy pink bra covering a rounded breast.  His heart slowed its awful pounding when she finally managed to take in some air.
    “ You’re okay,” he reassured her.  And himself.  He reached out to straighten her clothes when he noticed a dark mark just above the breast that peeked out from behind her shirt.  Thinking it was a bruise, he pushed the fabric back.  Not a bruise.  A tattoo.  A scrolled heart on her pale ivory skin.  
    Daniel raised his brows and glanced at Bryn.  She was still shaken,