4
Stanton stood behind the long wooden desk that served as his pulpit, facing the Judge. The high ceilings of the courtroom echoed Judge Korman when he shouted. There was something about walking into a courtroom, with its odor of aged wood, and seeing the circular golden Great Seal featuring the eagle with raised wings behind the judge’s chair, flanked by American and state flags, that got Stanton’s blood pumping. The clock to his left had the same hands frozen in place since he first began working as a prosecutor five years ago. Typical of a routine arraignment like the one currently in process, the courtroom was mostly empty.
Which made it all the more surprising when a feminine voice rang out behind Stanton, “Puck! Don’t fight them. I’ll get you out.” His head whipped around in the direction of the sultry voice. He blinked. Once. Twice. A drop-dead gorgeous raven-haired beauty was talking back to the biker on the stand. By their resemblance, she was undoubtedly his sister. Dressed in a black satin dress that hugged her curves in all the right places, a little black pincushion hat sat on her head at a provocative angle. He was surprised it managed to stay affixed to her head. She sure didn’t look like a biker. Attached to the hat was a wisp of black lace that floated above a twin set of perfectly arched black brows. Which hovered over a pair of wide-spaced coffee-colored eyes and a pair of lush pink lips. He wanted to wipe the shiny lip gloss off her full lips. With his c**k.
“Goddammit, Sammi,” the biker shouted back to her. “I told you not to come here. I said, no one but Sage.”
“Mr. Brandywine, please stop this outburst immediately,” intoned Judge Korman into his mic.
Talking over her brother and the judge, she called out, “I’m your sister. I had to come.”
Sage hustled over to her, shushing her. Leaning over the wooden bannister dividing court personnel from the public, she talked low and fast. Sage said something that got her pressing her plump lips closed and sitting back down on what he couldn’t see but guessed, by the shape of her hips, was a plum-shaped a*s.
They resumed the hearing, although half his mind was focused on the rustling satin and huffs to the left and back of him where the young sister sat. Without a good reason to look back, he had to suffer through one of Judge Korman’s interminable lectures, because the man obviously thought it was his mission in life to convert every biker back into a civilian. He side-eyed Sage, who was sitting stiffly, red flags on her cheeks. Hey, he’d never told her to dump him and get knocked up by a biker president, although he felt a pang of guilt when she rubbed her large belly.
Rising to his feet, he interrupted Korman’s rambling discourse, “Your Honor, I have a high-profile first-degree homicide with Judge O’Connor that begins in approximately ten minutes. I wouldn’t want to be late for her hearing.” That should shut him up, since he was crushing on O’Connor like a first-class nerd on the head cheerleader. Sage let out a breath of relief, but it was the response of the sexy young sister that got his c**k standing at attention. He felt pricks on his nape when he felt her eyes on him. From a side-glance, he found her taking him in with one long, incisive head-to-toe look-over. A swoosh of heat rushed over him as her eyes coasted from the top of his close-cropped, groomed hair to the tips of his leather wingtip shoes. That was worth whatever grumbling complaints Korman was lobbing at him at the moment.
The gavel slammed down with a loud thud, and Brandywine was dragged away by two guards. The hot sister shot to her feet, swaying over the wooden bannister, calling out, “Puck, I love you. Puck, be good.”
“You stay away, Sammi. Hear me?” he bellowed out, from between two burly guards. “Stay away and don’t visit me!” he shouted, the words echoing from the high ceilings as he was hustled out the side door of the courtroom.
Sage stopped to talk to the sister, who nodded her head brusquely to whatever Sage was explaining. She bit down on that plump bottom lip of hers and batted her eyelashes quickly as if urging her tears to stay in place. Something tore at Stanton’s chest, like vultures were ripping a hole in his core. He didn’t like seeing that girl struggle to remain calm. He didn’t like it one bit.
Sage patted her hand, pointed toward the exit, and then pivoted and walked toward him. He groaned inwardly as his fist clenched around the side of the file folder he was holding. He did not want to converse with his ex. Not now. Not ever. No, he wanted to run after the hot-to-trot chick who was sashaying her fine a*s down the aisle toward the double doors at the back of the courtroom.
Chewing on his lip, his eyes narrowed on the curves of her undulating body. That a*s. Christ, the way she swung those hips. Like a f*****g siren calling for him to follow. Don’t worry little girl, I’m coming for you. Jamming files into his briefcase, he turned a fake smile on Sage as she stopped a couple of feet away from him. He’d just gotten back into the courtroom and now a sweet, sexy little bundle like that girl had dropped into his lap. Luck was finally, finally giving him the time of day. He had to seize the moment, not let Sage, or the past she represented, trip him up.
“Thanks for intervening, Stanton. Korman likes to go on whenever I show up with a client who’s a member of a motorcycle club.”
“Not a problem. I hope you don’t think I was anything but fair with your client.”
“At times I do find you a tad zealous, but today you were perfectly within your rights.” She sighed. “It didn’t help that he confessed to the policeman.”
“He did seem proud of his actions,” Stanton noted. Once upon a time, talking to Sage was fraught with tension. Four years later, guilt still weighed on him for cheating on her with Melanie, but since she’d moved on and was now pregnant and seemingly happy, their interactions had settled into professional decorum. Even though their breakup was his fault, it had initially grated on him that she’d gone with a hardened biker, of all things. But he knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He’d pushed her to that. Soon, he’d approach her with true and sincere amends and would seal shut that chapter of his life for good.
“Stubborn i***t,” she said under her breath.
His eyes caught the closing of the large wooden door at the far back of the courthouse. He didn’t have much time if he was going to catch that sexy chick.
“Well, if there’s nothing else.” He lifted his briefcase, along with another case stuffed with the rest of his files for the day. “Like I said, I have O’Connor in a few minutes.” He fake-checked his watch for good measure.
Sage tipped her head to the side, a furrow between her brows. “I didn’t hear about you having a high-profile case with O’Connor.” Of course, Sage would catch on to that little lie.
“I don’t have time to get into it right now. I have to find one of the witnesses before we go in. Don’t mean to be rude, but I really have to go.”
She took a step back from him, her brows still knitted. “Oh, sorry.”
He flung open the wooden gate of the wooden bannister and tossed over his shoulder, “No problem,” as he rushed down the aisle and out of the courtroom.