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Liam jerked and gripped the armrest. “Slow down, will you? Christ. We won’t be able to protect our girl if we’re belly up in a heap of twisted metal.”
“Just call her,” he bit out, not bothering to ease off the accelerator.
Liam dug into his pocket and dialed Raine, looking decidedly nervous. “It’s ringing. Since River thinks she’s just a sex worker, maybe he won’t check property records.”
Maybe. But Hammer refused to leave anything to chance. Fear had him by the balls. Guilt for all the ways he’d been failing her and Liam squeezed his throat.
“She’s not answering.” Liam clutched the phone in a white-knuckled grip. “Her voice mail picked up. I’m worried.”
“Try again.”
Liam was already on it, intently focused on the device in his hand. With another tap, he raised it to his ear, his expression turning bleaker with every second.
Ahead, the light turned red. Hammer swore. Urgency pounded through his veins. “C’mon. C’mon!” He turned to Liam. “Anything?”
“Voice mail again. Macen… Fuck, I’m bloody shaking.”
Fear ate at his composure, too. “Damn it. Keep trying. She’s got to pick up. Maybe she’s in the shower. Or has her head in a recipe. Or she’s with the contractor.”
Liam redialed again. “Let’s be logical. River thinks he’s protecting his sister. I don’t think he’s planning to hurt her.”
“I don’t fucking trust that son of a bitch. What if he’s Bill reincarnated? Hell, River may actually be worse.”
Besides being younger, stronger, and clearly capable, Raine’s brother hadn’t bothered to discuss, negotiate, or placate. He hadn’t listened at all. He’d come with terms and demands and a whole lot of fuck you. “Not knowing his next move scares the hell out of me. We can’t let him hurt—”
“I know. Don’t go there. As long as we reach Raine in time, we’ll protect her. He can’t get past us both,” Liam assured. “But I’m gut sick with worry that he’ll twist the truth and somehow convince her she’s better off with him.”
“She loves us,” Hammer argued.
“Yes, but that hasn’t come without its difficulties.”
Hammer knew all too well that a woman with a problem could be unpredictable. Maybe Raine might decide she valued peace more than this angst-filled, difficult, all-consuming love they tried to keep together.
And if she left, who could he blame but himself?
Liam looked ready to crawl out of his seat. “Bloody hell, we have to keep Raine away from him.”
“How do you propose we do that? The minute we forbid her to see that shithead, she’ll insist on meeting him. And if the law somehow gets involved, River has more legal rights to her than we do. That fucking chafes. We should have demanded she marry one of us. We still should.”
“She doesn’t want to choose. How can we push her before she’s ready?” Liam frowned, ending one call to Raine and starting another. His hand trembled. “River could have come forward at the hospital that morning and blocked us from seeing Raine. Why didn’t he?”
“Who knows? Maybe the TV news calling her a sex worker shocked him, so he came to investigate. He must have overheard us celebrating her pregnancy. I’ll bet he decided then who and what we were.”
“And used the last two months to dig up dirt on us.” Liam frowned. “If I’d been in River’s position, I bloody well would have talked to my sister and heard her side of things before I made up my mind.”
“Well, you’re reasonable.” Hammer grimaced as he sped toward their neighborhood. “In River’s crazy-ass head, we’ve abused and deceived Raine. Now he thinks he has plenty of material to persuade her we’re first-class deviants who are ruining her life.”
“He means to confront her. Despite all his fact checking, River hasn’t managed to unearth the truth.” Liam sighed. “I can’t believe I was ready to give that prick the benefit of the doubt. And now we have to tell Raine we tossed her brother out of Shadows and that he might be dangerous. And before you say she doesn’t need to know, think.”
As much as Hammer wished he could shelter her from this, he couldn’t disagree. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
“Good. We have to explain everything and keep that cocktrough away from our girl,” Liam growled.
“And make her marry one of us.”
“You’re really not good with touchy-feely shit. Good luck keeping your balls if you present marriage to her like that.” Liam rolled his eyes, then dialed her again.
“I won’t be that big of an asshole. I’ll bring her flowers and shit. That’s romantic.”
“That’s transparent,” Liam shot back. “We’ll have to do better if we’re going to overcome her reluctance and convince her to legally marry one of us.”
Hammer hated to remember the day they’d proposed. He and Liam had both dropped to their knees and professed their love. Raine’s eyes had filled with tears of joy. But she’d quickly wiped them away and reminded them that only a handful of days ago they’d been at each other’s throats.
