by Shayla Black
Liam was right there with her, seizing her mouth and smothering the last of her moan as he released inside her with a bellowing growl.
Seconds later, he rolled off her, still panting. “Jesus, woman…”
Raine would have giggled if she’d had the energy—and if her worries about Hammer hadn’t all come back in a cold splash. “I love you.”
As if he sensed her change in mood—or flipped the same switch himself—he rose. “I love you, too. Now up with you. We have work to do.”
When he made for the bathroom, she caught him by the arm again and kissed him. “Thanks for listening.”
He stroked her cheek. “I’ll always listen, even if I don’t like it.”
Since they’d bathed last night, Raine rinsed off quickly, washing her face and brushing her teeth. She didn’t bother with makeup, just drew her long hair into a messy bun, threw on some cargo pants and a loose black shirt. When she looked up, Liam was waiting for her in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, hair freshly combed.
Together, they made their way to the kitchen, hand in hand, only to find everyone waiting for them.
“Top of the morning, all,” Liam greeted and pulled her closer to kiss her forehead before he let her go.
Raine looked around the room—and froze. One glance at their faces, and she knew they’d heard everything.
Oh, god… A hot flush crawled up her face.
“You did that on purpose,” she whispered.
Liam just grinned.
She wished the ground would swallow her up, but no. Duncan merely cleared his throat and pretended great interest in his placemat. Bryn wore a little smile as she dished up piping hot portions of a breakfast casserole. Beck didn’t bother with anything that subtle; he just laughed outright. Seth winked at her and held up his hand to Liam for a high five. Her beautiful Irishman slapped palms with his friend. Then she made the mistake of looking at River’s face.
Her brother gripped the arms of his chair with white knuckles, giving Liam a look that was locked and loaded and ready to kill.
As the others made small talk and Liam poured coffee, she rushed to River’s side and hugged him, setting her mouth against his ear. “Don’t do this.”
He kissed her temple. To everyone else, the gesture probably looked tender, but he radiated tension. “He violated you.”
“I started it. I wanted him to.” She pulled back enough to look into his eyes, so much like her own. She could see the storm brewing there. “You ever been in love?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t understand and I don’t want to hear it. I love him. I love Hammer, too. Accept it or leave.”
When she released River and turned away, she found Liam watching them closely, attuned to her for any sign of distress. She flashed him the best smile she could muster and held out her arms to him. He embraced her, curling her against his body, tucking her under his arm.
“It smells good, Mum.”
“I timed it just right.” She handed him a plate.
As Bryn slid the steaming dishes across the island, Raine grabbed them. One by one, she set plates in front of all the other men. River took his in silence.
When Liam’s mother handed her an extra-large portion, Raine balked, but the woman wouldn’t hear her protests.
“You’ve eaten next to nothing for days.”
And she was eating for two. “Thanks, Bryn.”
As they all crowded around the little kitchen table, Raine in Liam’s lap, her Irishman took a hearty bite and swallowed back coffee. “We appreciate you coming this morning. As you know, things aren’t looking good for Macen.”
Liam filled the others in on the latest developments in the case.
“Pike and I put Shadows back together yesterday afternoon,” Seth volunteered. “Donald and Vivian came to play early, so they helped, too. Dean stopped by. I could tell he felt like shit. I told him not to worry.”
“It’s not his fault,” Liam agreed.
“Anyway, he pitched in, too. I don’t think the feds found anything. Raine, you might want to put Hammer’s room back together. You know how he likes things.”
She nodded. Macen could be very particular. “I’ll do that this afternoon.”
“I’ll help you, love.” Liam pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “But the reason we asked you all here is to help us think of who might have volunteered to be the prosecution’s witness. Obviously, this is someone who’s got an ax to grind with Hammer. We’re looking for a longtime member of Shadows, someone there almost from the beginning who could have witnessed Raine’s supposed rape as a minor. Beck, this is where I think we’ll lean on you most, since you were with Hammer before he opened the doors. Raine, you know many of the long-timers, too.”
She nodded. “I only missed the first thirteen months or so. I know who was around when I went to live there.”
River scowled, and he was obviously wondering whether she knew them in the Biblical sense. She blew it off. He’d either accept who and what she was or he’d go away. She wanted him in her life, but she wasn’t changing to please him.
Beck took a bite of his casserole and moaned enthusiastically at Bryn, who smiled. Nearly everyone else dove in and ate with gusto, complimenting the woman. Raine took a bite and had to admit it tasted wonderful.
Bryn rubbed a maternal hand on her shoulder. “So glad to see you eating, lass. There’s more in the pan if anyone wants seconds.” She headed to Liam and kissed his cheek. “Da and I are going to grab some lollies for the grandkids. Back in two shakes.”
“My car keys are on the hook just outside the garage,” Liam called to their retreating figures.
When Raine turned back, she discovered that Beck had already devoured every bite. Wiping his mouth with his napkin, he sat back. “Longtime members… Nick is a great bartender. Been there since we opened the doors.”
“He likes everyone,” Liam protested. “I don’t think he’s got revenge on his mind.”
“I agree,” Raine added. “What about Master Carl?”
Beck shook his head. “Hell no. He’s got short-man’s disease. He’s all bluster and no balls. Besides, he’s only cranky now when someone delays his play with his new sub…whatever her name is.”
Raine slapped a hand to her heart and gaped. “You don’t know the name of a sub? Are you feeling well, doctor?”
“Ha! I’ve just been busy.”
“You don’t mean preoccupied, do you?” she probed. “Maybe you’ve got someone more…Heavenly in mind?”
Seth scowled. “Hey. Scrub her from your dirty mind.”
“Fuck you. Like your mind is any cleaner.” Beck rolled his eyes. “Pike would never turn on Hammer.”
“Ever,” Raine agreed. “Hammer helped him pay his mother’s hospital bills. He has no reason… Knotty Master, too. He’s, like, the happy sadist.”
“Yep.” Beck leaned in. “You know, princess, maybe we should go further back. What about Zak?”
She stared down the doctor, wishing she could slap the man. “Really? You had to bring him up?”
“He might be on to something,” Liam mused.
“Who is he?” River asked.
Raine sure as hell didn’t want to answer that question. No one else did, either. Silence hung around the table for an uncomfortable minute. She got up and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge because she couldn’t sit here and wait to be humiliated.
“Raine’s first,” Beck finally said.
“First what?” River looked lost.
“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes as she plopped down in an empty chair. “The guy who took my virginity, okay? It was a conquest for him. I didn’t matter. He has no reason to care now.”
“Except Hammer beat the shit out of him and banned him for life,” Beck piped in. “I doubt Zak liked having his pretty face fucked with.”
“It’s not him.” She shook her head. “I’m sure of it.”
“What about Gabriel?” Beck drawled. “He liked you,
princess. After you two spent the night together, he was willing to go to the mat with Hammer for you. He was too smart to get in a fistfight, but he was awfully willing to work around any obstacle to be with you.”
Raine felt every eye in the room on her. She didn’t know whose stare was more intense, River’s or Liam’s.
“Who’s this, then?” her Irishman drawled, his dark eyes so focused on her that Raine squirmed.
Yeah, he hadn’t expected her to still have secrets.
“You remember when we first got together, and you asked me how long it had been? I told you it had been two years… I meant Gabriel. Why do we have a sudden fascination with my sex life? It wasn’t a big deal.”
Beck snorted. “Before O’Neill here, Gabriel was the only time Hammer was truly worried about losing you.”
And she’d let Gabriel down gently. She’d liked him well enough. The sex had been far better than with Zak. He’d been a decent guy. But she’d told him flat out that she was never going to love him.
She’d known that because he wasn’t Hammer.
“He was disappointed, not angry,” Raine argued. “Macen made sure my first two experiences were both one and done, so neither of them got terribly attached. Can we change the subject?”
Beck opened his mouth, but Liam held up a finger “Wait. Are you telling me that before you and I got together, you’d had sex twice in your entire life?”
Embarrassment burned her. She didn’t want to look at anyone now. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. “Yes. Can we move on?”
“Oh, god.” Liam reached for her hand. “How did I not scare the hell out of you?”
His voice compelled her to look at him. She squeezed his hand back. “You did. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”
He looked stunned, and she could tell the exact moment he started thinking about the events of that weekend she’d first given herself to Liam, then Hammer. The weekend she had almost certainly gotten pregnant. Liam was realizing that she’d been so terribly innocent before he’d publicly claimed her virgin ass in the dungeon, before Hammer had thoroughly ravaged her that night, leaving nearly every inch of her body bitten, bruised, or marked.
“Oh, lass…” Liam looked ready to apologize or regret the way things happened. “Don’t say it.”
He sighed and dragged her plate in front of him before plucking her out of her chair and back into his lap. “If I’d known…”
“I wouldn’t change a thing. Drop it. Please.” She turned her attention to Beck. “Anyone else you can think of?”
She couldn’t help but catch River’s shocked expression. “Hammer kept men away from you? Really? He didn’t—”
“Dozens,” Beck broke in. “The standing edict was, you touch the princess, you lose your balls and your membership—in that order. He watched her just about every moment of every day.”
“Haven’t we beaten this dead horse? It wasn’t Zak. It wasn’t Gabriel. Besides, we also have to be thinking about who might have been around recently enough to have stolen that missing security footage. Someone who knew what had happened on those two dates. November third was public but...” Everyone in the dungeon had known about her punishment. If they hadn’t been there to see for themselves, they’d soon heard. But November fourth, her forbidden hours with Hammer… Almost no one had known about that. “If the witness is also the thief, that rules both of them out.”
Carrying a plastic bag of candy, Bryn bustled back in the kitchen with a frown. “She’s right, and the person who nicked the video is someone else entirely.”
“So we’ve got two people to look for?” Liam clenched his jaw. “Two needles in a bloody haystack?”
“Yes, son. Your witness is somehow obscured, hidden. But now that I’m thinking about it, I sense it’s a woman.”
Beck winced. “That actually narrows it down less. The number of women Hammer has pissed off over the years… I’m not sure I can count that high. Can you give us anything else?”
Bryn frowned. “She’s a blonde. In her mid to late thirties.”
The entire table groaned.
“The last eight years have pretty much been a parade of thirtysomething blondes.” Beck turned to her. “Until Raine.”
When she really thought about all the women Macen had slept with for years, it was a stab in the chest. No, they hadn’t been together then, but he’d known how she felt. “An endless parade.”
Seth nodded. “He did—I mean, he liked—a lot of blondes back in New York, too.”
God, could this conversation get any more painful?
Liam rubbed her back and whispered in her ear. “He loves you.”
Raine did her best to hang on to that.
Beck just shook his head. “Tell you what, Seth. You investigate everything north of the ten. I’ll take everything south. We might track down all the blondes he nailed in the next…three to five years.”
“Can we stay on task?” Liam demanded. “Focus on club members from the early days.”
“The first one who pops to mind is Erika,” Beck said.
“I remember her. She’s the bitch who asked me if I was Hammer’s sister and dropped her panties in front of me just before he came into the room.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t claw her eyes out.” Liam cut a bite of the casserole and fed it to her.
Raine chewed and swallowed. “I wanted to. But I was only seventeen. She was just the first in a long line of women.”
Beck nodded. “Erika wanted marriage, and Hammer wasn’t interested. She didn’t last long. Why wait years to get revenge?”
“Kenneth is on the right track,” Bryn insisted. “This witness is a woman scorned. She’s very angry.”
“Maybe Angel,” Beck suggested. “She had her hopes pinned on him for a long time.”
Yeah, Raine remembered that skank, too. “Didn’t she finally give up on Hammer and move to Denver with some new Dom last summer?”
“Yep. She seemed happy. Amber waited around on Hammer for years, too. But I heard she got married, if you can believe that.” Beck looked stunned. “I mean, I know a lot of kinky girls, but damn… I heard she even had a baby.”
The jealous witch had enjoyed gossiping about Hammer’s prowess every time Raine walked into the room. “Wow, her husband must have his hands full.” She was just glad it wasn’t Hammer. “But she hasn’t been here in…a year?”
“And if she’s married, why ruin his life now?” Beck asked. “He’s still friends with Tiffany and Misty. But they never clung to him, so I can’t imagine they’d resent him now.”
As much as Raine hated to admit it, they were decent women. “No, they respect him. Brandy?”
“That’s her name!” Beck said. “The one with Carl now. Miracles never cease, because she’s into him, too. I don’t get that.”
Raine didn’t, either. But they both seemed way too happy together to want to screw up Hammer’s life. “Chastity?”
Beck shook his head. “She came over to my dark side a couple of years ago. I don’t think she’s played with anyone else since. She doesn’t seem to have any beef with Hammer. She might have one with me… I haven’t paid attention to her in months.”
“You might want to fix that,” Seth suggested.
“I have other interests now.” Beck looked serious—and pissed off.
“Guys,” Raine encouraged. “Come on. Focus. Kristen?”
Suddenly, Seth rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, I might have gone there. More than a few times.”
“Last December?” Raine raised a brow at him. “I wondered why she wasn’t trying to get Hammer’s attention anymore.”
“You and Kristen?” Beck looked smug. “That’s very interesting news.”
“Since I took Heavenly to lunch yesterday and kissed her, that’s over.”
“You’re lying.” Beck stared the man down. “Heavenly doesn’t trust you.”
Seth shrugged. “Ask her…but then to do that you’d be tippi
ng your hand, wouldn’t you? And for the record, I texted Kristen and told her we won’t be playing again.”
To prove his point, Seth opened his text messages and slid his phone across the table. Sure enough, he’d sent the faux blonde sub the Dear John equivalent via iMessage.
“Happy?” he prodded Beck.
The doctor looked ready to kill.
Seth just smiled. “I heard someone named Crystal was asking about Hammer yesterday.”
“She’s a redhead. Marlie?” Raine spit out the name with malice. “A.k.a. Ms. Nastysnatch?”
“That’s fitting.” Liam smiled her way.
Beck barked with laughter. “Absolutely. She’s a good thought. She hated you, princess. I heard she hit you.”
“She what?” River sat up straighter.
“Followed me to the alley behind the club and slapped me like a frustrated little girl.”
“That she did.” Liam tightened his hands on her hips. “There have been very few times I wanted to throttle a woman. That was one of them.”
“I told her off. And Hammer tossed her out.” She glanced River’s way. “We probably got it on video if you want to see.”
“But she wasn’t a member when you were a minor,” Beck pointed out.
“So she wouldn’t have witnessed Hammer supposedly ravishing me as a ‘child,’ true.” Raine would really have liked Marlie to be guilty of something she could go to jail for. “How about Honey? She chased Hammer for years. But she finally stopped last fall.”
It was Liam’s turn to squirm in his seat. Raine swiveled around on his lap. “You?”
“Well…I hadn’t been in LA long, and she seemed—”
“Nice?” She sent him a warning stare. “That better not come out of your mouth.”
“I was going to say…eager.”
“You mean horny.” She batted Liam’s shoulder. “Men… The question is, could she be angry enough with Hammer to want to screw up his life?”
“If she’s mad at anyone, it’s me,” Liam admitted. “But I don’t think she is.”
“Why would you waste your time?” Bryn tsked at her son. “You’d already met the love of your life.”