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The ground beneath Macen crumbled. Shock and panic deluged him. This was not happening.
River. The motherfucking prick had given the cops his “proof,” whatever that was. Hammer noticed the officers weren’t calling Liam a rapist, so this must have something to do with the fact that he’d taken Raine in as a minor.
“No!” Raine exploded. “None of that is true. There’s been a misunderstanding. A mistake!”
Hammer blessed her for wanting to save him, but he feared it wouldn’t help now.
He turned a grim expression Liam’s way. “Call Sterling Barnes. Have him meet me at the station.”
“I’m on it, man.” His friend looked pale and worried.
“River did this.” Raine rushed to the door and faced the cops. “Whatever my brother is saying, it isn’t true. I’m the supposed victim, but I swear I’m here of my own free will. I always have been. Don’t take Hammer away when he’s done nothing wrong.”
“Everything will be sorted out at the station,” the officer assured dispassionately. “Mr. Hammerman, if you’ll come with us?”
Macen gave the cop a curt nod, then settled a tender gaze on Raine. “It’ll be okay, precious. Don’t worry. I’ll be back home in no time.”
“He will be,” Bryn assured.
Raine wrapped her arms around Hammer’s chest. “Let me come with you. I’ll fix this. I’ll tell them—”
“No.” Hammer cupped her face and gazed into her eyes. “No need for you to be interrogated. I’ll sort this out and see you soon.”
“But—”
Hammer slanted his lips over hers and silenced her with a hard kiss. He breathed in her scent and clutched her soft, lush body while imprinting every one of her subtle nuances on his heart. “I love you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I love you.”
He turned away and squared his shoulders. Whatever evidence River had presented might look damning, but Hammer was prepared to fight any allegations with his last, dying breath.
As the cops led him toward their patrol car, Raine rushed from the house with Liam by her side. “I’ll find that asshole brother of mine and make him fix this.”
Hammer spun; fear warred with anger. “I don’t want you anywhere near that son of a bitch.” He pinned Liam with a silent demand. “Do not let her even talk to that sack of shit.”
“I’ll take care of our girl.” Liam pulled his cell phone from his pants pocket. “Ringing up your lawyer now, mate. No worries.”
“Absolutely none,” Hammer lied for Raine’s benefit, then climbed into the back of the cruiser.
The officers locked him in the backseat. Through the grimy window, he looked back at the two people he loved most and the house they shared, wondering if anything would ever be the same again.
Concern flattened Liam’s mouth into a tight line. He held Raine, who wore every worry on her pale face. As the car sped away, he couldn’t take his gaze off them.
Especially when Raine’s eyes slid shut and she collapsed in Liam’s arms.
A mountain of anxiety suffocated Hammer as he waited in the precinct’s cold, empty interview room. He struggled to tamp down his anger and project a cool veneer of indifference. This wasn’t his first rodeo, so he wasn’t about to let the pricks watching his every move behind the two-way glass see him sweat. But inside, he felt the earth shifting beneath his feet in a landslide of shit.
Kidnapping, rape, sodomy and oral copulation with a minor, pimping, human trafficking… If this didn’t go well, Hammer knew he could go down for life.
Ignoring the authorities’ prying eyes, he pulled out his cell phone, desperate for an update about Raine. After they’d watched her collapse in Liam’s arms, the bastards driving the squad car had refused to stop so he could see if she was all right. Thankfully, Liam had already assured Hammer that their girl was fine. Emotional distress had merely gotten the better of her for a moment. Still, Hammer wouldn’t rest easy until he was back home with her in his arms. But now, he could only wait.
For someone to stroll into the room and grill him.
For his lawyer, Sterling Barnes, to slide into the chair beside him and keep this interrogation from going south.
For some resolution to this shit storm.
Macen wished he and Liam had throttled River Kendall when they’d had the chance. Whatever the son of a bitch’s circumstantial evidence was, it must be incriminating as hell.
Since even the truth would look damning, Hammer had to hope that mercy and justice would prevail.
He wanted to pace but remained seated, staring at a fixed point on the table in front of him. It tested his control, but if he gave the goons on the other side of the glass any indication he was going stir crazy, they would only isolate him longer, try to unhinge him.
When the door finally opened, two plainclothes detectives entered, one tall and thin, the other short and balding. Hammer quickly sized them up. No-nonsense types. Good, he wasn’t in the mood to play games.
