AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hammer rose, stiff and stoic, and made his way to the door. With a tight grip on the knob and a sharp intake of breath, he braced himself, looking for the courage to open it and meet his fate.
“Macen?” Raine called from behind him at the top of the stairs. “What’s going on?”
He turned to Liam, jaw clenched tight. “Don’t let her see this.”
Liam thoroughly agreed, especially when he glimpsed a horde of cars and agents outside the window, just waiting to descend.
“I’ve got your back. We’ll see you soon.” Giving Hammer a brotherly clap, he crossed the room and took the stairs two at a time.
“What’s going on?” Raine watched him ascend with a wary gaze and tried to dart past him. “No. This can’t be…”
Liam grabbed her around the waist and hauled her off her feet and into his arms, grateful when his parents seemed to melt out of the woodwork to stand beside his best friend. “Let him go with dignity.”
“No!” she screeched even louder. “They can’t take him. Macen…”
“Stop,” Liam insisted. “Barnes will have him out soon.”
Hammer didn’t turn to look at her again, and Liam hid her face in his shoulder. “Don’t look. Don’t make this any harder for him.”
Raine tensed. He could feel the fight in her. She wanted to argue with every cell in her body. Instead, she clutched at him, digging her nails into his skin.
Liam grimaced. The pain of her wee scratches was nothing compared to the agony gashing his chest when Hammer opened the door.
Things got ugly fast.
“Macen Daniel Hammerman, I have a warrant for your arrest for the purchase of a minor for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Please turn around and place your hands behind your back. You have the right to remain silent—”
“Liam?”
“I’ve got her, mate,” he assured.
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Hammer wasn’t listening to the feds. “Take care of her.”
Liam kept Raine’s face buried against his neck. “I will.”
Raine’s jagged sob resounded above the chaos in the room. “Macen…”
“You have the right to an attorney…” As the agent led him out the door, he clamped handcuffs around Hammer’s wrists.
The click sounded ominously final.
With his arms stretched uncomfortably behind him in the back of an unmarked car, Hammer’s shoulders screamed. Liam and Sterling had warned him, but he hadn’t truly been prepared for the terrible reality of the feds hauling him away with his hands secured behind his back. Now, he tried to force himself to relax. He’d cuffed many subs over the years. They’d survived, sure. But Macen wasn’t a sub, and being bound like one pissed him off—and demeaned him—even more.
Purchasing a minor for the purpose of sexual exploitation? Bullshit!
Obviously, River hadn’t done a stellar job of recanting his claims to the authorities—if he’d even tried at all. He’d bet the prick had been blowing smoke up his ass, plotting all the while to zap him from Raine’s life. No doubt the motherfucker would devise a way to get rid of Liam next.
I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you, Hammer. Liam.
“You’re not yet, you fuckfaced son of a bitch. But if you didn’t keep your word, I’ll make sure you will be soon,” Hammer muttered to himself.
Inside the station, he tried to block out the booking process. After the humiliation of being fingerprinted, having his mug shot taken, and being divested of all the personal property in his pockets, an officer led him down the narrow, steel-cage hallway filled with cursing and shouting. The armed officer directed him inside an empty cell.
He should have been grateful he was alone, but once the door rattled shut behind him and the lock clattered like the lid of his coffin, Hammer’s rage reawakened. He wanted to beat the fucking shit out of someone—preferably River.
Avoiding the dilapidated mattress and its dingy sheet, Hammer paced the eight-by-eight cell. His thoughts swirled in a furious cyclone while niggling doubt began burrowing in his brain.
River wanted Raine in his life. Even the cynic in Hammer had believed her brother intended to clean up the mess he’d made. If he’d tried—if he hadn’t been the one who’d stolen the security footage from Shadows—then someone else was behind this sabotage on his life. But who? Who had he pissed off enough to warrant this vile revenge?
Yes, he’d been a snarling prick at the club for the past few months, snapping at members over the slightest provocation. But had he seriously wounded another Dominant’s pride so deeply they’d resort to ruining his future with Raine and Liam? Carl lacked the balls. And no one else with a beef readily leapt to Hammer’s mind.
“Shit.” He scrubbed a hand over his face.
Maybe this vendetta went back further. Hell, Juliet’s mother had vowed over her youngest daughter’s grave that she’d see Hammer dead for his “irresponsibility and abuse.” Since she’d never hired a hit man, could the old woman have found the next best opportunity?
