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“Oh, shit,” Hammer groused.
“It’s fine. Really.” She glanced somewhere over their right shoulders. “We just have a visitor…”
Raine didn’t finish the sentence. Liam whirled around to see what had distracted her. Beck and Seth strode around the corner and back into the living room—with River Kendall right behind them.
Liam lost his mind.
“What are you doing here?” He charged at Raine’s brother. “Get the fuck out!”
Fists clenched, teeth bared, Hammer followed with a feral roar.
Beck and Seth blocked them. Like they were…what? Protecting Kendall? Liam scowled. Oh, hell no.
Pandemonium exploded. Raine tried to reason with him, but her words were lost in a din of angry wasps filling his head.
“Step aside.” He set her behind him.
She tugged on his arm with all her might. He shrugged her grip off.
“You cocksucking asshole, how dare you set foot in this house!” Hammer pinned River with a stare that promised violence, snarling the warning around the doctor’s shoulder. “You’re a motherfucking dead man, Kendall.”
“I’ll be happy to help him,” Liam spat.
“That’s enough!” Raine screamed over the chaos. “You accused him of not listening, but you’re not doing any better.”
Hammer shoved against Beck again. Liam surged forward to help him push the other man aside. Seth blocked his way. The swarm of wasps in his head buzzed louder. A red haze of fury filmed his gaze.
“Take your bloody hands off me and get out of my way, Seth. I will lay your ass out.”
“No, you won’t.” The big PI’s calm tone belied the vise-like death grip he had on Liam’s arm. “Give Kendall a chance to explain. If you don’t like what he says, Beck and I will help you kick his ass.”
Seth’s offer did nothing to appease the rage surging through Liam’s veins. Instead, he tried to shove past his friend again while Beck and Hammer fought their own brutal struggle. Yells and curses filled the air.
Somewhere in the back of Liam’s head, his mother tugged at his thoughts, chastising, as she darted down the stairs. He cursed under his breath.
“—I mean it, damn it!” Raine stamped her foot angrily, her face a glowing red. “Will you two Neanderthals give my brother a chance to speak? I asked him to come here, and neither of you will undo in two minutes what took me two hours to accomplish!”
Hammer snarled. “That son of a bitch can’t say anything that will change—”
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you, Hammer. Liam,” River interrupted with a somber frown. “After seeing how concerned you were for Raine just now, I’m hoping you understand that I was out of my head with worry for my kid sister. She’s all I have left. And I’m only here because she told me to come and see your relationship for myself. Now I…understand what she’s been trying to get through my stubborn head,” River bit out as if eating crow burned his tongue. “You both love her.”
“Of course they do.” Bryn suddenly appeared with a smile, Duncan by her side. “Now that we’ve cleared that misunderstanding up, why don’t you all sit down and chat?”
Liam couldn’t breathe past his anger. He clenched his fists. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was look at River Kendall across his table and pretend he didn’t hate the home-wrecking bastard.
“Pull it together, son,” Duncan said quietly in his ear. “It’s time to listen and heal.”
It took all his will and strength to swallow his fury back long enough to nod his father’s way.
“Great idea, Bryn.” Raine turned to Liam and Hammer. “Take a nice, deep breath. Act like adults and listen. Please?”
“Watch yourself, girl,” Hammer warned.
Rage still seethed under Liam’s surface. “You’re on thin ice.”
“Behave, boys. I’ll make us some tea,” Bryn offered before darting away. “Duncan?”
The pair left, and Liam wondered if they’d taken his only hope of sanity.
“You good here, princess?” Beck asked.
She hugged the sadist and sent him a dry smile. “I think we’ll be okay. I don’t know what the world is coming to when I’m the coolest head in the room, but we’ll make do.”
Seth pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go get ’em once more, tiger. You can do it. We’ll check in with you soon.”
“Go take Heavenly to dinner,” she suggested.
“I plan to.” Seth flashed a cocky grin. “Before I have her for dessert.”
Beck looked dead furious. “No, you fucking won’t.”
Beck and Seth argued all the way to the door. In the interest of not committing murder on Raine’s pale beige carpet, Liam let them go.
He settled around the kitchen table with Hammer and Raine. River sat last. The animosity and blame still weighed heavily on Liam as Raine recounted everything that had transpired in River’s hotel room.
His heart ached, knowing she’d once again had to relive the anguish she’d survived.
“I only wanted my sister safe. What I saw from the kitchen just now…” River looked stunned. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen sooner.”
