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“I’m not talking about me, asswipe. I meant Raine. She loves you.”
“Oh, so you’re suddenly concerned about salvaging my relationship with Raine? This from the man who bragged just days ago that he’d get her back in bed. Isn’t that just your way?”
“And what’s your way, Liam? Ripping the collar from her throat and shoving her out the fucking door? You’re goddamn lucky we found her because I would have killed you if she’d left me for good.”
“Left you, is it? She’s mine!” Liam growled.
“Not now, dumbass.” Hammer smirked.
“That’s enough, you two,” Seth barked.
“Shut the fuck up,” Liam snarled at Seth before glancing over the man’s shoulder to pin his anger on Hammer once again. “You know, I tried hard to forgive you from keeping secrets from me. I even managed to feel sorry for you. After Thanksgiving, I’d hoped you’d gotten over your shit so we could finally put our differences to rest. But no. You buried the only worthwhile pieces of yourself with Juliet.”
“Stop!” Beck roared, sidling next to Seth. “Sit the fuck down, you two.”
“Butt out.” Hammer scowled at the other two Doms before he turned back to Liam. “You leave Juliet out of this.”
“How can I? You can’t let it go. Instead of dealing with your guilt, you’ve hurt me. You’ve hurt Raine. And you don’t give a bloody fuck.”
Liam couldn’t miss the flash of pain in Hammer’s eyes. Good! The bastard needed to feel how much it hurt to have his heart ripped from his damn chest—exactly the way Liam had.
“This is about your sorry ass. Don’t pin this on me. I thought you’d be a man about helping Raine grow. But obviously you’d rather shit in your diaper than pull your head out of your ass.” Hammer leveled him a glare of contempt.
“Take off your rose-colored glasses, Macen. Did you honestly think the three of us were going to set up house and live happily ever after just because you had a boner to do it ten years ago? Hate to burst your bubble, mate. But when we leave here, Raine will be mine again,” he blustered, knowing he had no way to make that hope a reality.
“Over my dead body,” Hammer fumed.
“For fuck’s sake. Shut. Up,” Beck howled as he glanced toward the stairs.
Liam turned.
There stood Raine. Dressed in jeans and a dark sweater, she clutched her suitcase as tears streamed down her face.
“Fuck,” Hammer groaned in regret.
Swiping a careless hand across her cheeks, Raine burned them both with a stare steeped in pain. She took Liam’s knees out from under him. His heart clutched, and a wave of dread tingled through his limbs.
As he and Hammer both started toward her, Raine pinned them with a scathing glare, shaking her head and halting them in their tracks. Liam longed to scoop her into his arms, hold her tight, and tell her he was sorry for breaking his vow.
As she descended the stairs, she gave off a near-palpable blast of arctic air that rattled his bones. He could almost feel her reconstructing her walls, building them tight and impenetrable. His guts seized. All the progress they’d made was now destroyed because he and Hammer hadn’t kept a lid on their shit.
“I agreed to do this with you both under one condition,” she spit out through clenched teeth. “Just one!”
The agony in her voice slammed Liam with guilt.
Hammer tried to take another step closer. “Raine, listen. We—”
“Shut up!” she snapped as she seared him with a fierce scowl. “Don’t you dare come near me.”
For once, Hammer was stunned silent.
“I let you both bring me here so I could try and fix myself, to finally have a fucking happy life. And I’d almost been convinced that my dreams would come true. But Liam just admitted that you two can’t share me. How naïve I was to think you could.” Raine’s voice cracked on a gut-wrenching sob. “Even knowing that it didn’t work with Juliet, I fooled myself into believing it would be different with me—that we were different. I bought into the fantasy.” She looked at Beck. “Didn’t you tell me to grow up earlier? You couldn’t have been more right.”
Liam shook his head. No. No. “It can work, love, if—”
“Don’t you talk to me, either,” Raine choked. “I appreciate all the ways you both helped me. But I thought that today’s task about honesty would run both ways. I see now it was a stunt. While I was ripping my heart open, you two were beating your chests over which of you got to slide into my panties again. Whatever. I thought you two were everything I ever wanted. But I finally understand that you’re both so fucking broken, I’m not sure you’ll ever be what I need.”
“Bullshit!” Hammer growled.
Raine’s words utterly demolished Liam. Her truth about the baby earlier today hadn’t cut his soul as wide open as her words now. Even walking in on Gwyneth’s adulterous ménage hadn’t charred him this completely. He had to make this up to Raine. But first, he had to force her to hear his apology and pray she accepted it.
