“Well, the DNA test is due back in a few hours, anyway, and the jig would be up. She knew that.”

  Granted, Raine had only met Gwyneth once, but that didn’t sound like her at all.

  Hammer palmed her abdomen with a frown. “I hear what you’re saying, but what else could she do to Liam?”

  “I don’t know, but some people would do a lot more crap for a lot less money.”

  “True,” Hammer agreed. “But in this case, I think Gwyneth is played out. She doesn’t have any other moves.”

  Maybe not obvious ones, no. But the woman’s whole plan had been pretty unexpected and unbalanced. Raine wouldn’t be surprised if Liam’s ex had something else up her sleeve. Then again, childhood with Bill Kendall had made Raine naturally wary.

  “I don’t think I can stay awake anymore, love.” Liam lay back and closed his eyes.

  Most of this day had been truly awful for him. Like, the worst day ever. She understood why he’d reached the end of his energy and wanted it over.

  She leaned in and brushed a kiss on his lips. “I love you. I can’t wait to move into our new house together. Thank you.”

  “Love you…” he muttered.

  In the next breath, he began to snore.

  She smiled fondly, then turned to glance Hammer’s way. “He’s wiped out.”

  Macen frowned and rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m afraid I’m not far behind him. Hell of a day.”

  “Yeah,” she sighed. “Let’s not wake up later and have this much drama.”

  “You got it, precious.” He curled an arm around her. Then from one breath to the next, he dropped into a deep slumber, too.

  And despite the fact that the December temperatures had dropped tonight, sandwiched between Liam and Hammer, she might as well have been curled up in a furnace. And the three of them definitely needed something bigger than a queen bed.

  It was her last thought before she succumbed to fatigue, as well.

  She woke with a start to some god-awful chainsaw-like noise. Heart racing, she sat up in the dark room, wondering what that sound was. Then she realized it wasn’t a power tool at all but Liam and Hammer grinding out dueling soundtracks of some of the loudest snoring she’d ever heard. A glance at the bedside clock told her she’d barely been asleep for an hour.

  Sighing, she tried to lie back and catch more shut-eye. Liam rolled to his side and tried to take his third of the bed out of the middle. With his mouth near her ear, it only increased the decibel level of his snoring. Hammer decided to fight someone in his sleep, and Raine ended up with knees and elbows in her back. As they closed in on her, her body temperature went from toasty to roasting.

  There’d be no peace in this bed tonight—or what was left of it.

  Shaking her head, she crawled out from between them and pulled on the robe she’d discarded while making love to Liam earlier. He was naked next to Hammer, who wore only his boxer briefs. They looked cute in bed together. What a shame she didn’t have her phone to snap a picture. If she did, though, they’d paddle her ass silly.

  Raine pulled the sheet over the two of them. She could find her own bed, she supposed, but she found herself incredibly exhilarated by the promise of their future. The house, the love, the way they’d worked through more of their issues… She didn’t want to sleep now; she wanted to live.

  They wouldn’t be up for hours yet, but she could make their coming morning much better than the one they’d just had. Hammer had his apple spice muffins, but she intended to make date scones for Liam.

  Grabbing her laptop, she rushed to the kitchen while searching for a recipe. Orange and date scones, no. Maple and date, no. Bacon and date scones? Oh, just hell no. Finally, she found a recipe that sounded edible. If he didn’t like this version, she’d try another next time until she got the pastry right.

  She bustled around the kitchen and grabbed her ingredients. Self-rising flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, eggs, milk—check. Dates…no. She glanced at the time on her computer and debated. Go to the store now or wait until sunrise? Raine sighed. She was awake and wanted to get these baked, try one herself before she unleashed them on Liam, just in case they sucked and she had to start over.

  With a little curse, she tiptoed back to Liam’s room, tossed on some yoga pants, a T-shirt, and some flip-flops. She searched the club until she found her purse, phone, and car keys. It had become an old habit of hers to inform Hammer before she left, but he looked so peaceful sleeping. She’d run out to the twenty-four-hour market just around the corner and be back in less than half an hour. They’d never miss her.

  Pushing her way out the club door, she heard it click shut behind her. The parking lot was fairly well lit and mostly empty. Of course, her little compact sat there, along with Liam’s Escalade. Hammer kept his Audi in the garage out back. Some of the other cars she didn’t recognize, except Beck’s Mercedes. When had he arrived?

  With a shrug, she glanced past what looked like Seth’s rental and a van she’d never seen, then strode to her four-door. She’d just pressed the button on the fob to unlock it and opened the door when someone behind her growled, put a brutal hand over her mouth, then shoved something hard against her ribs.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hammer rolled over in bed, not fully awake, but floating in and out of sleep. As he breathed in, the scents of Raine, sex, and something unfamiliar filled his senses. Slitting open one eye, he saw that he wasn’t in his own room but Liam’s.

  Hammer remembered exactly why. Raine had climbed on top of his friend and ridden Liam like a goddess until it seemed Liam’s hurt and insecurity had melted away. Watching and listening to their erotic melding, Hammer had stroked his own cock and joined their shared orgasm by coming all over his stomach in a hot, spine-tingling rush.

  Rolling to his side now, he slung his arm around Raine and snuggled close. But when he tried to palm her breast, he caressed an expanse of flat, hairy chest instead. Jolting awake, Hammer jerked up. Christ, he’d been snuggling Liam.

  His cock instantly deflated. Good thing he hadn’t tried to tap that.

  He shook his head. What a wake-up that would have been.

  Glancing around the shadowy room, Hammer searched for Raine but didn’t see her. He peered toward the bathroom. The light was off. The door stood wide open. Where the hell had she gone at just after five a.m.?

  Grumbling, Hammer inched off the bed and grabbed his pants. As he meandered out of the room, he zipped up and left Liam stretched out on the bed, snoring like a lumberjack.

  As Hammer made his way down the hall, light spilled from the kitchen. He frowned. Raine never ate this early. Hell, she was rarely even awake. Was she baking because something had upset her? He couldn’t imagine what. A few hours ago, she’d showered Liam with love and exorcised the jealous demon inside him. Raine should be basking in her achievement, not burying her sorrows in dough. Things were good between the three of them now. At least Hammer thought so.

  Yeah, and you thought Juliet was on the same page as you for years. You learned the hard way never to assume anything.

  If something was bothering Raine, Macen swore he’d press her until he got to the bottom of her distress and fix it.

  Rounding the doorway, he found the kitchen empty, other than counters cluttered with bowls, measuring cups, and various baking ingredients all surrounding her laptop. Hammer fingered the track pad until her screen illuminated. A recipe for date scones?

  He scrubbed a hand through his hair. Had she ever made anything with dates? Not that Hammer could remember, and especially not at the ass crack of dawn. Darting a gaze over the ingredients on the counter, he scowled. It looked as if everything lay out, waiting for Raine’s baking magic…but she’d simply walked away.

  Hammer felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. Surely she wouldn’t have run away again. Would she?

  With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Hammer turned and sprinted down the hall. As he burst into Raine’s room, he flipped on the light and flung open her closet door. Her clothes hung in a row, just as she’d left them. He knew she hadn’t taken any of her things from Liam’s closet; he would have heard that. A wave of blessed relief washed through him.

  But as Hammer turned off the light, he couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling seeping through his bones.

  “Damn it, where are you, Raine?” he whispered.

  The state of the kitchen stuck in his head. She never left it cluttered or untidy, much less abandoned a recipe like that. He strode back to the mess, then compared the recipe to the items on the counter.

  “She didn’t have any dates.” He scowled and stormed toward the back door, his keys jingling in his pocket with every step. If Raine had gone to the grocery store in the damn dark without telling him or Liam… Hammer shook his head. He’d redden her ass another shade darker.

  Shoving the heavy metal door open, he stepped out into the cool night air. Raine’s car sat beneath a floodlight. But the driver’s side door stood wide open. Her purse littering the ground blasted Hammer with ice-cold fear.

  Sprinting to her car, he found her personal items spilled haphazardly across the pavement. Her keys gleamed in the driver’s seat, and her cell phone lay upside down on the floorboard. His heart thundered in his chest.

  Raine would never leave her things here voluntarily. Hammer looked around for anything that might tell him what had happened. What could have transpired in Shadows’ small parking lot? A mugger? A rapist?

  Bill?

  Son of a bitch.

  “Raine!” Hammer screamed, hoping she might be nearby and hear him, scream in return.

  Nothing but silence.

  Panic bled through his veins. “Oh, god. Raine! No, baby. No.”

  Racing toward the club, Hammer yanked his keys from his pocket. At the door, he trembled as he tried to open the lock. Dread crawled up his spine and wrapped around his throat, choking the air in his lungs.

  “If you have her, you cocksucking motherfucker, I’m going to kill you,” Hammer vowed as he yanked the door open. “Liam!” he bellowed, tearing down the hall. “Liam!”

  The doors to Beck’s and Seth’s rooms banged opened simultaneously as both men stood blinking at Hammer. Roused from sleep, they looked startled and confused.

  “What the hell are you yelling about?” Seth asked with a scowl.

  “For fuck’s sake. Are you two idiots arguing again?” Beck shook his head in disgust. “Keep it down before Raine has both sets of your balls hanging from the kitchen window like wind chimes.”

  Hammer ignored their comments. “Liam!”

  As he thundered down the hall, his friend emerged with his pants half zipped and looking disoriented. “What the bloody… What’s wrong, Macen?”

  “She’s gone,” Hammer choked out, trying to swallow the fear and anger lodged in his throat. “I’m worried Bill has her. Her car’s in the lot. The driver’s door is open, and her stuff spilled everywhere. She wouldn’t have walked away and left her wallet, her phone, her…”

  Macen’s whole body trembled as he gripped Liam’s shoulders, needing to ground himself with something solid.

  “No. That can’t be.” The same horror Hammer felt filled Liam’s voice and stare.

  “I don’t know how long she’s been gone,” Hammer barked, trying to contain his panic. “I woke up maybe five or ten minutes ago and found her missing.”

  “Oh, fuck. If it’s Bill…” Beck growled, pinning Hammer with a knowing stare.

  The doctor knew exactly what Bill Kendall was capable of since Hammer had called him the night Macen had discovered Raine in the alley. The two had slipped a sedative in her soda so Beck could examine her. Hammer had taken photos to document the horrific abuse she’d endured at the hands of her loving father. Liam had seen the pictures just last week. He’d also had the displeasure of meeting Bill, so he understood well the urgency to find Raine.

  Swallowing tightly, Liam gripped Macen’s arm. “The security room, mate. The cameras will tell us if that piece of shit has our girl.”

  As all four men raced down the hall, an ominous déjà vu crested through Hammer. He swallowed back the urge to vomit.

  “What was Raine doing in the car park alone during the wee hours?” Liam asked.

  “I think she intended to bake something.” Hammer unlocked the door, flipped on the lights, and hurried inside the private room. “There’s flour, sugar, and other shit all over the counters, but I think she needed an ingredient she didn’t have.” He scrubbed a hand over his face as he sat in front of a bank of wide monitors. “I can’t believe she didn’t wake one of us up to go with her.”

  Liam paled. “What was she baking?”

  “Something she’s never made. Date scones, I think,” Hammer growled.

  Why did Liam care? Bill could well have taken the woman they loved. Macen didn’t want to focus too keenly on the brutalities she could be suffering at this very moment. He just wanted her back.

  “God, no.” Liam’s voice cracked. “Oh, love… Not the scones.”

  “Why not?” Seth asked. His brows slashed as he stared at Liam, who looked more shaken than ever.

  “She wanted to make them for me.” Guilt and remorse roughened Liam’s voice.

  Struggling to keep his own emotions in check, Hammer rewound the security feed from the parking lot. “We never had the chance to tell her that Bill had been sniffing around. She went out to that lot, never imagining…”

  God, now he wished he’d made the time.

  Liam curled his hands into fists. “I thought we could protect her.”

  Hammer had, too. They’d been wrong.

  When he found the right file and hit play, no one in the room said a word, just stared at the monitor. As Raine hurried from the back door, the time stamp showed four forty-six a.m. Hammer glanced at his watch. Quarter past five now. His gut clenched at the thought of all the terrible things that could befall her in nearly thirty tormenting minutes.

  On the monitor, she made her way toward her car. A tall figure dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap stepped into view, sneaking up behind her. Hammer’s stomach pitched as he watched the man grab her. Raine fought, throwing an elbow, stamping on his foot, struggling like a mad thing, using every trick she’d learned in the self-defense classes in which he’d enrolled her. When she turned on the man, still fighting, she tried to knee him in the groin, but he held her down. Raine attempted to shove the heel of her palm into his nose but only succeeded in flipping the hat off his head. Startled recognition had her jaw dropping, her eyes widening.

  The face and glowing blue eyes Hammer had hoped never to see again filled the screen.

  “I knew it,” he roared, turning toward Liam. “That motherfucker has her.”

  Liam nodded grimly. “Wind it back.”

  Hammer jerked his attention to the screen once more. Without the hat to conceal Bill’s expression, an evil sneer consumed his face. Chills froze Macen’s every muscle, rolling through him in a debilitating wave.

  Liam pressed the rewind button and homed in on Raine. She snapped her hand toward Bill’s cap, knocking it to the ground. Hammer could clearly see the bastard’s bulbous nose and the long white scar bisecting his cheek—a result of a wound Raine had given the son of a bitch over six years ago, when she’d last fought not to let her father take her innocence and her life.

  The image played on, and Raine shot a frightened glance at the security camera mounted to the nearby lamppost.

  “She knew we’d come here. Our brave little…” Liam’s voice cracked.

  Cold fury filled Hammer with an even colder purpose. He and Liam knew the enemy and had no doubt what Bill was capable of. He’d do whatever it took to rescue Raine. And if her father’s head start was too big to overcome… Macen ground his jaw tight. He’d kill the fucker so slowly and painfully Bill would grovel for death.

  “Your brave little sub clearly wanted the cameras to catch her assailant,” Seth concluded as they watched Bill jam something that looked like a cell phone against Raine’s ribs.

  Hammer leaned forward, trying to decipher the mysterious object in Bill’s fist. The man suddenly slapped his hand around Raine’s arm, twisting it behind her back. Her mouth opened as if gasping in pain.

  Rage thundered through Hammer as Bill yanked her tight against his round belly, drawing the hand with the black square up a few inches under Raine’s ear. A stun gun. He could kill her with that. Oh, dear god.

  Unable to look away, even knowing what would happen next, Hammer gnashed his teeth as Bill pressed the probes against Raine’s neck. Her body spasmed, then she fell limp into her father’s arms. He carted her toward a dark van, jumped in, and rolled out of the lot.

  “No!” Liam shouted, his face distorting in agony. “Oh, Raine.”

  Hammer lost it. Bolting out of the chair, a feral roar ripped from his throat before he slammed his fist on the metal desktop. Every cell inside him seemed to detonate like an atomic bomb. His body shook with uncontrollable rage.

  “How do we find her?” Beck asked.

  “We?” Hammer arched a brow.

  “Yes,” Beck insisted. “If she needs a doctor…”

  “Bill Kendall is a dead man,” Liam vowed.

  “Fuck yes. He is. We end this now,” Hammer agreed.

  “Guys, we need to call the police,” Seth interjected. “You’ve got video proof that Bill kidnapped her. If we zero in, we might even be able to get a plate number off that van.”

  Macen didn’t want to involve the authorities yet. When the police found Bill, they’d merely arrest the prick and let him live through a trial, during which Raine would have to recount everything her father had ever done to her, as well as the violence he heaped on her now.

  Liam had it right; Bill Kendall needed to die. Hammer wanted to end his miserable existence. The end more than justified the means if it meant they could bring Raine back home. But no way would he sit at the club with his thumb up his ass, answering a shitload of questions while the wheels of the justice system creaked along at a snail’s pace.