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.
I should have been finding a way to help her, not standing here gawking at some man.
He returned his attention to Finkle who had turned an alarming shade of mottled purple as he squeaked out an apology.The man released his grip. Finkle landed on his feet but then stumbled and fell back on his ass. He got onto his knees and scurried around the floor like a crab, picking up his papers as he continued to sputter apologies.
That was when the man focused on me.
Holy shit. As if his height wasn’t intimidating enough, the direct stare he leveled at me from those deep blue, almost black eyes was…unsettling.
I dropped my gaze to the floor and mumbled, “Thank you for your help.”
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
Startled by his harsh tone, my head snapped up. “What?”
He took a step forward.
I stepped back.
He kept coming at me until my back was pressed against the cold marble wall.
Around me everything seemed to move in slow motion. All sound was muffled. The focus of my world narrowed to only this tall, enigmatic stranger. It was…disorienting.
I tried to shimmy past him as if we were passing on a sidewalk. “Excuse me.”
With his hands on his hips, he shifted his stance to block my path and then repeated his angry question. “I said, what the fuck were you thinking?”
Okay, it was fun seeing all over six feet of him making Finkle squirm, but now that all that anger was directed at me? Not so much. My mouth opened and closed several times before I could respond. I then played dumb. “I don’t know what you mean?”
“Why would you confront a man alone like that? Where is your husband?”
I crossed my arms over my middle and raised my chin. “I don’t have a husband or a boyfriend. And I wasn’t alone! I’m inthe middle of a freaking courthouse…and….and…I don’t need a man to fight my battles for me.”
There. That told him.
His dark brow furrowed, giving his hooded eyes an even more sinister edge. “Apparently you do. What is your name?”
“What’s yours?” I fired back.
“Greyson Stockford. Now are you going to tell me your name,” his eyes dropped to my mouth, “or do I have to switch tactics to get the information out of you?”
I blinked. It was impossible to look around his enormous frame to see if anyone was observing our highly unusual exchange, or if anyone was coming to my rescue. I had no idea where Rylee was and thought of crying out, but somehow, I knew I wouldn’t have any more success than poor Finkle over there. “It’s Hailey.”
