Brawler by Tracey Ward Read Free Book Online Page B

what that is,” she said indifferently, turning her face back to the screen.
    “ Inglorious Bastards ?”
    “Nope.”
    “ Devil’s Own ?”
    “No.”
    I paused, working through my vague memory of Pitt movies.
    Laney started giggling, falling into a fit seconds before a punchline.
    “ Snatch ?”
    “Oh my God!” she cried, turning to swat at me. The backs of her fingers snapped sharply against my hard stomach. “I didn’t say it was the only one I hadn’t seen. I said it was ‘like’ the only one.”
    “Yeah, I noticed the way you said it.”
    “Are you giving me shit for my grammar?”
    I grinned. “Not directly.”
    “God, you’re as bad as my dad,” she laughed. “Take it easy, Einstein. Not all of us read the dictionary for fun.”
    “Sorry, I’ll try to remember that.”
    “Thank you.” She shook out her hand lightly, grinning. “You hurt my fingers.”
    “You hit me,” I reminded her.
    “Still hurt. You should come with a warning.”
    “Sorry,” I repeated.
    “Stop saying sorry.”
    “Stop trying to make me feel guilty.”
    “Maybe you should make it up to me instead.”
    “How would I do that?”
    She smiled wickedly and it was the first time all afternoon that she really turned it on. That she shifted out of casual, comfortable Laney and showed me the girl that knew what she was, what she looked like, and exactly what she did to me just sitting there on the other end of that couch.
    “You’re the genius,” she purred. “You figure it out.”
    By the time Dan came out of his office five minutes later – full of apologies that made me uncomfortable to hear – Laney’s toes were less than an inch from my leg and I’d memorized the curvature of her body sprawled out next to me. I wasn’t going to do anything stupid, though. I wasn’t a dick. Dan was doing me a huge favor and this was his house and his daughter. What kind of man would I be if I made a move on her under his roof an hour after meeting her?
    The kind of man they all thought I was, that’s what kind.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    It took Dan only two months to get the battery charges dropped. I was surprised when Emma showed up and stood in front of the judge to tell him what had happened. She explained how afraid she’d been and how I had thrown the first punch but they had attacked her first. She even showed him the scar on the back of her hand from the burn. The judge was sympathetic, he appreciated that the fight hadn’t been a drunken brawl, but we’d still resolved the issue physically. The fact that I’d been a medal winning boxer since I was eight years old didn’t help my case any. If Emma hadn’t shown up, it could have been a lot worse for me. As it was Dan was able to get the battery charges dropped and negotiate community service as punishment for the underage drinking and trespassing on a private beach. Jenner and Miner got the same.
    That – the fact that Dan was able to level the playing field between me and two golden elites – surprised me. At least it did until I found out about his history.
    Turns out Dan grew up a lot like I was. Poor, wrong part of town, too smart to fall into a lot of the traps that came with those circumstances. He’d made it to college on a deluge of scholarships and Top Ramen, met and married Karen, shot up the ladder of a local law firm, joined ranks with two of his most successful college buddies, and built his own empire.
    It was an inspiring story for a guy like me.
    It was extremely lucky for me that Weston never caught wind of any of the details of the fight and I was allowed to finish my last year in the Higher Focus program, no questions. Things were different at school, though. I never hung out with Will again, Callum was somehow stuck to me like glue, and just over a week after she appeared in that courtroom for me, Emma disappeared from school entirely. I heard she went to Europe to study abroad. She wouldn’t be back for graduation.
    When we were prepping