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“But he seemed angry. Did someone betray him? Screw up?”
More than you know… “He suspects someone is trying to dupe him. But he’s smart, so he’ll get it all worked out. If he needs us, he’ll let us know.”
Raine sent him a slow nod. She didn’t look happy, but Macen hoped that was the end of her interrogation. Though he was more accustomed to shielding her from ugly truths, he and Liam had to come clean. He was nervous as hell about telling her everything tonight, but he refused to lose her when a few words might keep her near. Hammer tried not to think that those same words might also push her away.
Swallowing the tight lump lodged in his throat, he prayed that before breakfast was through, Liam would have Gwyneth confessing the truth and this whole shit storm sorted out.
They pulled into a local diner, and Hammer helped Raine from the car. Once seated in a booth, he chugged his coffee and fixated on the adorable little line that appeared between her brows as she sipped juice and studied the menu. “What sounds good, precious?”
“It’s all tasty.” She shrugged. Tipping the edge of the menu down, she gazed at him with pensive blue eyes. “But it would have been my pleasure to cook for you. Why didn’t you let me? Liam needs food, too.”
Guilt sludged through his veins. A confession sat on the tip of his tongue, but he and Liam had agreed to tell her together. Raine would need reassurances from them both.
He took another swig of coffee and tried to smooth out his expression. “I know. I love that you want to cook for us. But you’re tired.”
“I’m fine.”
The waiter arrived with a pad and a pen before he could say anything else. Raine ordered next to nothing. With a scowl, Hammer asked for his favorite dish, along with a few hearty sides to share in case he could coax Raine into eating more.
“Christmas is in less than three weeks,” he began. “I’m sure you’ll want to start decorating and planning the annual holiday gift exchange for the members.”
Hopefully, that project would take her mind off everything else, at least until tonight.
Raine frowned. “How long have you known Liam?”
No such luck. He sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Almost a decade. He’s fine. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Has he ever been into adult-baby play?”
Hammer had braced himself for a question about Liam’s mood, his troubles, his lack of honesty—anything except his fetishes. “What?”
She blushed. For all that Raine had finished growing up in a BDSM club, she’d never participated until the last few weeks. Some things she understood purely from observation. “You know, ‘daddy’ play. Diapers, bottles, rocking, and powdering butts. Is he into that?”
Her question made it clear she didn’t like the idea at all.
Hammer didn’t think he had to lie about that…but he also hadn’t known that Liam had spent any time as a sadist. “He’s never expressed even a remote interest. Why do you ask?”
Raine let out a little sigh, but that line of confusion still wrinkled her brow. “I found this just after my shower.”
She reached into the pocket of her jacket and slammed something on the table between them. It sounded plastic as it hit the faux wooden surface, but nothing could have surprised him more than to see a pacifier sitting between them.
Instantly, he knew Gwyneth had left it behind for Liam—or Raine—to find. Even before they’d returned to Shadows, that bitch had been planting what she hoped were seeds of destruction.
He gritted his teeth and swallowed back rage. His goddamn blood pressure must have shot up fifty points. Macen felt like a pressure cooker ready to explode.
“That’s definitely odd,” he finally choked out.
“You don’t know anything about it?”
He shrugged, trying really hard to keep his promise to Liam and not lie to Raine. “Maybe it belongs to one of the other club members who used it in their play. Maybe it got caught up in the laundry and—”
“I found it in the bathroom, in one of Liam’s drawers with his toiletries.”
Oh, that bitch. Hammer really wished he could just kill Gwyneth. He’d be doing the world a big favor. “I don’t know for sure. Let’s talk to Liam about it tonight. I doubt he’s interested in making you his baby girl, not in that way.”
“Good.” She shoved it back in her pocket. “After my terrible relationship with my own father, I can’t imagine taking pleasure in playing with a man pretending to assume that role.”
That didn’t surprise Hammer at all. “We may be perverts, but I’ve never had any interest in little girls, pretend or otherwise. I wouldn’t touch you for how many years? I can’t imagine Liam feeling any differently.” At her halfhearted nod, he tapped a finger under her chin. “Smile.”
