Free To Trust a Thief by Michelle McLean

he was? She had been here first. The necklace was hers and she would be damned if she would let the smoldering man in front of her, or anyone else for that matter, steal the treasure out from under her nose.
    She straightened up, pressing her body against his chest. Startled, Mr. Westley jerked back.
    “I appreciate your concern, sir,” she bit out, gripping the wall behind her to calm the vertigo the dizzying height and her own adrenaline were causing. “But I’ve been wandering the grounds for years. It is my aunt’s house, after all. I’m perfectly entitled to explore my own family’s property.” His eyes narrowed at her defiant tone and Min pressed her palms into the rough stone at her back to keep them from trembling.
    She cleared her throat. “However, I will take more care in the future.”
    Mr. Westley glared and crossed his arms, leaning a hip on the wall beside her. “See that you do. I’d hate for something to happen to you.” Min had no doubt of the threat behind those piercing blue eyes.
    He bent closer. She opened her mouth to speak but only a startled squeak emerged as the wall crumbled beneath their combined weight. Mr. Westley jumped back. Min had half a second to see a look of abject horror on his face before the section of wall behind her disintegrated. She scrambled at the crumbling rocks, terror squeezing her throat so tightly she couldn’t even scream. Her hands clawed at stone and mortar that turned to dust in her grasp. And then there was nothing but air.
    “Minuette!”
    Her stomach plummeted as she fell, Mr. Westley’s shout ringing through her ears. Something caught her arm and she screamed at the sickening pop that sent a searing pain shooting through her shoulder. Min looked up. Mr. Westley hung halfway out over the gaping hole in the wall, his hand in a viselike grip on her arm.
    “Hold on,” he gasped.

Chapter Nine
    Bryant fought for control. Minuette’s terrified eyes seared into his. But the whimper that escaped her lips tore straight through his heart. He’d felt her arm slip from its joint when he’d grabbed her, though he didn’t think it was entirely dislocated…yet. He braced himself against the solid part of the ledge and pulled.
    A feeling of intense relief poured through him as soon as she was safely in his arms. He didn’t understand his feelings. He certainly hadn’t meant to injure her. He’d never killed except in self-defense, and though the girl was a threat to him, he had no desire to harm her. But the nearly crippling fear that permeated every cell of his body when he saw her tumble over the edge went beyond a simple desire to keep an innocent girl safe. He wanted to wrap himself around her, protect her. If he could have made her pain his own, he’d have done so in a heartbeat.
    He’d never felt so strongly for anyone before. And he couldn’t afford to feel so now. Minuette Sinclair was proving to be much more of a danger than he ever thought possible. She was after the necklace; he was sure of it.
    He had to make sure he got to it first. A few distracting and unwanted emotions were irrelevant.
    Min trembled against him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and led her back inside the attic. Min sank onto the couch, her arm limp and useless at her side, her lips pressed so tightly together they were almost invisible in her pale face.
    Bryant knelt in front of her. “I think your shoulder is dislocated.”
    “You saved me,” she whispered, tears running down her face.
    “Yes.”
    “You could have let me fall.”
    His gaze raked over her face.
    No. He couldn’t have.
    He didn’t answer her and Min let her head fall back against the couch. She bit her lip, her breath coming in short, whimpering bursts.
    “The doctor is still downstairs, I believe. I’ll go fetch him.”
    “No!” Min grabbed his hand with her good arm. “Please don’t.”
    Bryant frowned. “You are injured.”
    “I don’t want to deal with…” She sucked in her breath,