Washing quickly, he dried his aching body, then brushed the fuzzy residue of Patrón from his mouth. He groaned as he pulled on clothes, but at least he could find some aspirin and coffee now, in that order.

As he stood in the kitchen, Raine’s kitchen, that familiar anxiety he’d been unable to contain grabbed him by the balls.

Willing the coffee to brew faster, he watched the drip-drip-drip of the little device. Before today, he’d only made coffee for himself once in the last six years, when Raine had fallen ill with the flu. He’d sat by her bed all night, watching her sleep fitfully, and helped her to the bathroom on cue. To keep himself awake, he’d fixed a pot of coffee, then took the steaming cup back to her room to watch over her some more.

But that was then…and now she was gone.

After downing plenty of pain reliever and pouring a hefty mug of coffee, he stepped into the deserted dungeon. All the members were long gone, and the cavernous room seemed cold and dead… much like his soul.

Weaving his way through the various stations, he wasn’t surprised when he again found himself staring at the spanking bench on which he’d witnessed Raine’s punishment. Had that just been two long, miserable days ago? Yeah, but it seemed like two lifetimes ago to Hammer.

Images of Raine cuffed to the bench punched him in the gut. Like the damned pervert he was, his cock jerked to life. Even as he’d wanted to kill Liam for claiming his Raine and stealing her out from under him, he’d been unable to deny how phenomenally gorgeous she’d looked bound and submissive and shattering. She’d looked even more beautiful in his bed, taking his cock.

But even if he didn’t intend to ever touch her again, he refused to sit back idly and let Liam get away with stealing Raine. He would search the ends of the fucking earth until he found her, starting with Liam’s house in New York. He was due to take his annual trip there anyway…and he didn’t want to think about that task at all.

Sipping the bitter brew in his mug, he made a mental list of phone calls and arrangements needed. He had every intention of being on the other side of the country before dinner.

He trailed his fingers over the soft leather of the bench. “I’m going to find you, precious. And I’m going to bring you back home, where you belong.”

Then what? An annoying voice in the back of his pounding head scoffed. With a heavy sigh, he shook the disturbing question away. He’d figure out something. Details weren’t important, just finding her. Right now, he needed to pack for his flight. No, what he really needed was to see her beautiful face… feel her lush body warm in his arms… hear her sweet cries of pleasure resonating in his ears.

Goddamnit, no. He just needed to know that she was safe. End of story.

Tearing himself away from the bench, he marched in long strides toward his office. The sound of the front door opening stopped him dead in his tracks. It was far too early for guests to play or even for anyone to man the lobby.

A flutter of hope burst inside him as he raced to the staircase, taking the steps up two at a time. When he rounded the corner, there she was. Raine. Oh, thank god. She’d come home to him.

Barely cognizant of Liam hovering closer by her side, Hammer couldn’t miss the resounding waves of anger rolling off him. Fuck the bastard. Liam could be as pissed as he wanted. All that mattered now was that Raine had returned.

Hammer’s steps quickly ate up the ground between them. He couldn’t get to her fast enough, couldn’t touch her soon enough.

As he reached to pull her in his arms, Liam tucked Raine behind his back, his stance both protective and warning. The man’s eyes leveled him with a glare that was flat, cold.

“Move. You have no right to keep her from me.” Hammer skirted the other man and invaded Raine’s personal space, staring his way into her eyes. But, for once, he couldn’t read what she was thinking. What the fuck was happening here? He leaned down to cup her cheek.

“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Liam growled.

Hammer froze as he held Raine’s gaze. “I need to talk to you, precious. Come with me to my office where we can have a few minutes.” He glared at Liam. “In private.”

She bit her lip, then turned away from him to look up at Liam with a silent question in her eyes. It felt like someone had kicked him in the nuts when he realized she was asking Liam for permission to speak to him. Oh, fuck no!

How the hell had Liam tamed her in little more than twenty-four hours?

Hammer gulped in a stunned breath. This had to be some kind of fucked-up episode of The Twilight Zone.

Liam shook his head. Raine’s shoulders sagged with her sigh, but she nodded and cast her gaze to the floor.

“Motherfucker!” Hammer hissed as his heart clutched in shock and agony. “What did you do to her, you son of a bitch? Turn her into some kind of Stepford sub?”

“What you should have done!” Liam stepped in Hammer’s face and lowered his voice. “And if she is pregnant, you selfish prick, I swear by all that’s holy, they’ll need tweezers to find all the parts of your body.”

Liam’s threat pissed him off, but her soft face erased the hurt. Pregnant? The logical part of him recoiled, but his primal side? That chunk of his psyche wanted to celebrate. Raine was too softhearted to ever end a pregnancy, and the notion that there would be a part of her and him melded together always felt right, as if the natural order of the world were falling into place. God, wasn’t he a stupid bastard?

But if she was pregnant, he’d rip her from O’Neill’s arms faster than the man could blink.

“How the fuck could you treat her like that?” Liam went on. “There’s barely an inch of her body that isn’t bruised, inside and out.”

The stupid prick thought he’d abused Raine? Christ, Liam wouldn’t know the marks of passion if they raised up and bit the end of his cock off.

“So don’t be thinking for one minute that I’ll be leaving her unprotected and alone with you,” Liam continued. “Whatever you need to say, you’ll say in front of me or you won’t say it at all. Get it through your thick head, she’s mine. If you shit all over the code of conduct again, she’ll be leaving with me. Permanently.”

There was no fucking way on this green earth that Liam would take Raine away from him again.

“I didn’t give her anything she didn’t beg for,” Hammer snarled. “Over and over again.”

Raine’s jaw gaped open, and she sent him an imploring stare, one that begged him to stop throwing fuel on the fire.

Well, hell. And Liam’s gaze drilling into him left him no doubt that the fucker was looking for an excuse—any excuse—to make good on his threat.

Shit. All right. He was prepared to say or do whatever necessary to keep her here. If Liam took her away for good...the last interminable hours had proven that he’d go crazy without her.

As if feeling her approach behind him, Liam turned to look over his shoulder. Most submissives would stare at the floor in silence when two angry Doms turned this much intent focus on her. Not Raine. She sidled around Liam and stepped between them. She put a palm to the Irish bastard’s chest first. Hammer didn’t have more than a second to let jealousy eat at him before she put her hand on him, too. Her touch seared him all the way to his balls, then eased him down to his soul. Liam could say what he wanted; she was still his.

“I know I’m speaking out of turn, and you can punish me later if you want,” she said to Liam. “But I was thinking on the drive down the mountain... A lot has happened lately. Things have occurred, insults have been traded. But guys...you were friends long before me. This disagreement is just a momentary blip. I don’t want to fight with my boss or my Sir. And I certainly don’t want you two fighting with one another. It’s the kind of toxic thing that can only hurt all of us and the club as a whole. And I know tempers are running high now. Just...think about it. For me.”

Hammer feared that she was asking the impossible, but he remained silent when she faced Liam.

“I’m going to start tidying up and getting to work. It’s my day to check supplies and complete the liquor inventory. You two should talk.” She stood on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss over the man’s lips before shooting him a little smile and walking toward the stairs.

“That’s fine by me, but we should make a few things crystal clear, right here and now.” Liam’s voice filled the silence.

She turned back to them both, lashes blinking over her wary eyes.

“If you want to continue working here, then fine, but working is all you’ll be doing, love. Hammer is capable of taking care of himself. Not only that, you know he has other submissives at his beck and call, should he require...extras.”

Hammer smirked, barely resisting the urge to shake his head. Liam must be slipping to play Raine’s insecurity card right off the top of the deck. That was fine by Hammer. The pompous prick only managed to remind Raine of her jealousy when he spent time with other subs. That’s it, asshole…keep that red-hot longing bubbling up inside her. In fact, Hammer was willing to give Liam all the rope he needed to hang himself.

“You’ll not be his maid, fuss after him, change his sheets, make his coffee, or bake him treats,” Liam insisted. “You will stop all the other hundred and one things you’ve done quietly with such grace through the years, Raine. He’ll not have the right to lay hands on you again. None of this is negotiable.” He stared at Raine, brow raised. “Are we clear?”

Hammer watched Raine flinch, then swallow slowly. His blood boiled.

“Yes, Sir.” She said the words, but no mistaking the sad note in her voice.

Apparently Liam didn’t understand Raine at all. The asshole was ordering her to deny a huge chunk of her submissive nature. Liam had crossed the line from losing it to fucking idiocy. And in that mental state, what would he do to Raine? Without conscious thought, Hammer’s fist curled into a ball and he lifted his arm.

Raine pinned a pleading stare on him and she shook her head. Oh, fuck. His violent urge goaded him to whisk her to safety and pound the hell out of his “friend.”

I’m not worth this, she mouthed for him alone.

She couldn’t be more wrong. But her beseeching blue eyes... Hell, he couldn’t make matters worse for her.

Hammer sent her a fierce gaze that told Raine she was damn wrong. Then without sparing Liam a glance, he spun away, taking in deep breaths to get his rage under control.

At least Raine was safe and home. It was far more than he’d woken up expecting today. But she was still Liam’s...at least for now. His calculating friend had been thinking with his head most every step of the way. He’d studied the girl, waited for a vulnerable moment, crafting a plan to convince Raine that he could give her what she needed. Liam had likely made himself the balm that eased her wounded soul. And Hammer had no one to blame but himself. He’d been thinking with nothing but his heart and his dick.

And that had to change now.

Because no matter what Liam said, he didn’t have his shit together. The man had a dark side Raine hadn’t seen…yet. Eventually, he’d chew her up and spit her out, and Hammer meant to do whatever it took to keep the bastard from hurting her.

Jogging down the stairs, he plotted, waiting for just the right moment...

Hammer paced his room like a caged animal. Liam’s words rolled in his brain over and again… If she’s pregnant… If she’s pregnant... But what if she were pregnant and decided not to tell him? He’d know eventually, but that wasn’t the point.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair as uneasiness ricocheted through him. Stepping from his office, he prowled the hall, checking the kitchen, then the liquor storage room, then the sanitation room. No Raine.

Hammer passed through the hallway again, pausing at Liam’s closed door. Holding his breath, he pressed his ear to the wooden surface and listened intently. All was quiet. He spun on his heel and quickly rounded the corner into the dungeon and there she was, cleaning the equipment and readying things, like she always did, for the evening members.

Quickly scanning the room, a smile of triumph spread over his lips. She was alone. As he watched her work, calmness settled over him, and for the first time in two days, he was able to take a deep breath without feeling a knife slicing his chest. Beneath her short skirt, he eyed the ugly bruises on the tops of her thighs that Beck had left and clenched his teeth. As she turned to throw the cleaning cloths in the trash, he also saw the deep purple marks on her arms and neck that he’d left on her. His fingers itched to touch her again, to feel her silkiness upon his naked body once more.

Sucking in a deep breath, he quietly walked toward Raine, stopping a few feet behind her. As if sensing his approach, she turned and stared into his eyes for a half second before she lowered her gaze. She didn’t look away fast enough to mask the guilt flitting through her blue eyes. He shouldn’t be talking to her. Her body language screamed that she was dishonoring Liam. He should walk away and leave her alone, but he couldn’t.