by Shayla Black
Urgency pumping through him, he parked the car in the wide, empty lot and killed the engine.
The instant the vehicle stopped, Hammer bolted out of the SUV, drawing his gun and holding it close against his leg. Liam followed. Together, they darted forward. Macen gave him a look clearly asking if he was ready. Liam nodded grimly. Hammer rounded the corner, stopping to examine the doors. They weren’t locked. In fact, a small gap between them attested to the fact that Bill hadn’t even closed them completely.
Hammer tried to peek through, then shook his head. “It’ll make noise if I open it.”
Which would alert Bill.
Liam looked at the rusting tracks. “It will. There’s a smaller door to the left.”
When he jerked his head in that direction, Macen followed. Liam reached it first and wrapped his hand around the knob, then gave it a little turn, praying for a break.
Thankfully, he got one. The door shimmied a crack.
He eased it open farther, hoping the hinges wouldn’t squeak. He managed to push it wide enough to squeeze through. Hammer slipped in behind him.
The space inside was huge and ominous in the low light. Just beyond the doors sat Kendall’s late-model red truck covered in grime. The van he’d abducted Raine in was nowhere to be seen, and Liam suspected he’d dumped it elsewhere.
Breath held, he crept around the vehicle, Hammer just behind him. Then they both spotted Raine.
Hammer froze. Liam’s heart stopped.
Oh, dear god…
Chapter Twenty
Raine sat naked and crouched on the floor. In one hand, she clutched a knife dripping blood. The other she wrapped around her knees as she rocked back and forth, staring at Bill beside her, unmoving and lying in a puddle of his own fluids.
Her swollen right eye and the bleeding gash in her bottom lip told them that Bill had beaten her. As she gripped the serrated blade, crimson stained her fingers, her face, and her body. Liam felt his heart seize. His poor, wee lass had battled her demon again, and it had taken a toll on her.
But thank God she was alive.
Hammer approached Bill, gun pointed. Bending slowly, he pressed two fingers against the carotid artery. “He’s dead.”
Liam went limp with relief. Thank the fucking stars Bill Kendall could never, ever hurt their girl again. She had fought and won—for the final time.
“Raine,” Liam breathed, afraid to dart toward her too suddenly and risk scaring her more.
She didn’t respond, simply stared fixedly at the body lying near a metal-framed cot. Bill had once tied her to it, judging from the rope still hanging off the corners.
Hammer shoved his gun in his holster. Before Liam could call out to him, Macen ran toward Raine, kneeling beside her. He reached for her, then stopped and clenched his fingers into a fist as if afraid to startle the terrified girl. His gaze flittered between her face and the knife, still tightly gripped in her hand.
“Oh, baby. Sweet Raine. We’re here, precious.” Hammer’s voice broke. “Can you hear me, sweetheart? Look at me. Drop the knife. You’re safe. Bill can’t hurt you ever again. He’s dead.”
At the sound of her father’s name, Raine clasped the knife tighter, refusing to take her eyes off his prostrate body. Suddenly, she screamed, a blood-curdling sound that reverberated through the empty cavern of the warehouse, turning Liam’s veins to ice. Gooseflesh prickled across his skin.
Hammer jerked back and stood. He flashed Liam a look of helpless horror.
“She’s in shock, man,” Liam murmured. “Don’t raise your voice. It’s freaking her out.”
Hammer glowered. “Damn it—”
Liam laid a hand on his shoulder and swallowed down his own anxiety. “She’s naked, armed, and non-responsive. She’s covered in blood, which might be hiding wounds of her own. And it’s freezing in here. She needs Beck. Go get him. I’ve got this.”
“I can’t leave her now,” he shot back, his face contorted with devastation and shock, with remorse, guilt, and terror.
Liam couldn’t help them both at once.
Fighting his own panic, he tamped down his urgency to rush to Raine. “Let me handle her.”
Hammer swiped angrily at his face, struggling to gather his composure, clearly torn. Finally, he nodded. “Bring her back to us.”
Liam remembered Hammer saying nearly those same words to Raine just before she’d made love to him a few hours ago. Now they sounded like an eerie echo. “Call 9-1-1 and get Beck. Tell him to bring his bag.”
“I’m on it.”
When Hammer ran for the entrance, Liam inched closer, visually examining her for other injuries. He couldn’t tell with all the bloody streaks coating her skin.
“Raine, can you hear me?” He kept his voice deliberately low, not taking his eyes off her. He didn’t want to see her shredded clothes littered around the metal cot or the instruments of torture—a heavy baseball bat, a power drill, screwdrivers, hammers, pliers—lined up on the makeshift table nearby. What had Bill done to her?
Fuck.
An empty gin bottle lay nearby. The air around them reeked with the stench of copper, along with the contents of his bladder and bowels, which he’d voided as he’d died. Based on the man’s ashen skin, starkly white in the gloom, Liam guessed that Bill had bled out. He lay on his back, eyes staring wide in surprise, pupils dilated and fixed. At some point in Raine’s ordeal, Bill had removed his pants. His flaccid cock lay exposed.
Liam wanted to kill the bastard all over again.
Raine’s voice rose once more in an unnerving wail of distress.
Easing closer, avoiding the pool of blood surrounding Bill so he didn’t contaminate evidence, Liam took off his coat while speaking softly to her. The distance between them chafed. “There, love. He can’t hurt you now. Not ever again.”
This time she moaned as if she heard him and broke apart inside. But she never tore her stare from Bill, as though she feared the animal would rise up and finish her off.
Liam crept closer still, crouching before her and putting himself between her and the body of her nemesis.
Finally, Raine blinked, then moaned thinly as she tried to stare around him, still gripping the bloody knife for dear life. Her pupils flared wide. Shock swam in her eyes. Liam hated how haunted she looked and tried not to think about what the mongrel might have done to send her off the deep end.
Focus. Fall apart all you want later, but don’t you dare fucking lose it now.
“Oh, my sweet Raine,” he crooned. “Hammer and I are here. Drop the knife for us.” He couldn’t startle her by snatching it from her when she felt threatened. And he couldn’t risk tampering with the evidence by putting his fingerprints on the blade. “Come back to me, love…”
Instead of answering, she shivered and tried to peer around him. Her lips had gone blue, almost matching her troubled eyes.
Liam shifted to block Bill from her sight line again. He heard the sound of the warehouse doors being thrown wide, footsteps running toward them. Without looking back, he shoved up a palm to stop their approach and focused on Raine. Since cajoling wasn’t working, he needed to try something else.
“Drop the knife, sub,” Liam demanded, hoping the familiar tone of his Dom voice might reach her instead.
At first, Raine didn’t respond—except to blink. She hadn’t even done that since he’d found her huddled and keening. Liam counted the slight change as a win.
“Don’t make me feed you pickles,” he warned sternly, then let his voice drop to a whisper-soft tone. “I’d rather love you. Drop the knife, and I’ll make you feel safe again.”
A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth before she dissolved into a silent sob. She drew in a shuddering breath, blinked again, then finally looked up at him. Slowly, she loosened her hold on the knife, and it slid free from her fingers to clatter on the concrete.
Relief slid through him in a drugging rush as he stood, avoiding the pool of blood. “Good girl. Such a wonderful, sw
eet love. Rise and come to me now. You’re cold. Let me warm you.”
Liam watched her face. The stupor lifted slowly, like a fog fading away. Raine focused on him, her face crumbling as recognition seeped in. The shell-shocked horror in her expression nearly floored him. She didn’t move.
“Liam…”
“I’ll help you, love.” He reached a hand out to her, praying she’d take it and let him hold her. Every moment she held herself away from him felt like another eternity of death. “Come here.”
“H-he hurt me.”
Those tiny words wrenched everything inside him as he reached out to her. “I know. I’m so sorry. We’re here, and nothing else will happen to you. Take my hand.”
As she tried to rise on unsteady legs, she wobbled. When she would have fallen, Liam caught her, wrapping her in his coat, then swept her into his arms, away from Bill Kendall’s remains.
Hammer and Beck rushed forward, meeting him halfway.
“Give her to me!” Hammer thrust out his arms and took her from Liam as Beck performed a cursory check for open wounds, broken bones, and head trauma.
“She’s bruised and obviously in shock,” Beck muttered in a soothing monotone, clearly trying not to upset Raine. “The bite marks?”
“Ours,” Hammer admitted.
Beck just nodded. “I don’t see any new wounds, but we won’t know for sure what she’s been through until we get her to the ER.”
Sobbing now, she clutched Hammer, who fell to his knees with her and gripped her tightly in his embrace, pressing his forehead to hers and breathing fast.
“That’s it, precious,” Hammer whispered. “You’re back with us now. Everything is going to be all right. We love you, Raine.”
Liam knelt down beside them and wrapped his hand in hers. He could feel the dam within him cracking as the fear and anger he’d suppressed finally escaped. He pressed a fist smeared with blood to his chest, working to hold in tears. They were useless now. Their girl needed help.
Beck knelt next to Hammer, his expression compassionate but insistent. “Raine? Are you with me?”
She nodded before another sob broke her.
“Good. Listen to me, princess. This is important. Vital.” Beck checked her pupils again, then cupped her face and drew her stare to his. “The cops are coming. They’re going to ask you a lot of questions. So will the doctors. No matter what, you must tell them every mark on your body is one your father inflicted. Do you understand?”
“But Hammer and Liam gave me—”
“I know. But if you tell the police that, they could be arrested. Then they can’t help you. Or comfort you. You have to do this. Okay?”
“Yeah,” she managed to breathe out. “I will.”
“Perfect,” Beck praised. “When they ask, just tell them that Kendall gave you every bite, bruise, cut, scrape, rope burn… Don’t forget.”
As Beck released her face, Raine stared at the three of them, holding tight to Liam’s hand while clinging to Hammer with the other. “I won’t. I want to go home.”
“I know, precious.” Hammer cupped her chin. “Soon. I’m so sorry he got to you.”
“We’ll need to get you checked out at the hospital first,” Beck explained. “But before the paramedics show up, I need to get some more details from you. Are you allergic to anything?”
“Just sulphur-based antibiotics,” Hammer supplied. “That’s all I know of.”
Raine nodded in agreement.
“Do you take regular meds for any condition?” Beck inquired.
“Only the occasional pain pill for her migraines,” Liam replied.
Beck nodded. “You’re on the pill, right?”
Raine shook her head, and Beck shot a disbelieving look toward Liam and Hammer.
“When were we supposed to find time for that between holidays, running away, and psychos?” Hammer growled.
“Understood,” Beck answered in a calm voice. “These are questions the ER doc is going to need to know. If I can provide him the answers, it will expedite Raine’s treatment.”
“We can tell him,” Liam insisted.
Beck shook his head. “You two won’t be allowed back with her for the initial examination. This is a crime scene, and you’re not family.”
“Bullshit. We’re all the family she’s got.” Hammer clearly struggled for composure.
“I’ll help get you two back to see her as soon as possible. Just a few more questions before the cavalry shows up…” Beck focused his attention on Raine once more. “So I’m assuming you haven’t voluntarily had unprotected sex recently?”
Liam heard the subtext and winced. So the presence of any semen should be Bill’s?
“She and I made love earlier this morning,” Liam breathed. “Bareback.”
Christ, it felt like a lifetime since she’d surrounded him with her warm body.
Shock swept over Beck’s face, one brow arching up sharply.
In the distance, the wail of sirens screamed closer. A movement near the door caught Liam’s eye. Gwyneth. She stared at Raine trembling in Hammer’s arms. Somehow, his ex managed to look completely shocked that Raine had truly been hurt.
Rage roared inside Liam. Battling his anger, he softly released Raine’s hand and stood slowly. Once out of her sight, he tore off and headed straight for Gwyneth. When she saw him charging after her, she backed away, clearly deciding it might be a good idea to flee.
With a scream, she took off running. Liam pursued her. She didn’t get far. Emergency vehicles poured into the car park. A patrol car skidded to a halt in front of her.
Jerking her hands into the air, she startled the emerging officers, including Sergeant Gorman, with her pleading. “Arrest me. Please!”
* * *
Hammer wore out the carpet in the emergency room. Thirteen paces. Back and forth. Over. And over. Since they’d arrived, forty-eight minutes had gone by according to the clock above the triage desk. It felt like forever. How fucking long until they had some information about Raine’s condition? Until they found out what the hell she’d survived? How much longer before he and Liam could see her, touch her, assure themselves she’d be all right? Hell, his attorney had already been escorted to Raine’s side and would see her even before he did. What a stupid injustice.
The image of her clutching the bloody knife, rocking and in shock, had seared itself in his brain. It would never fade. He would never forget. And he’d never stop reliving this terrible day.
Would it haunt Raine for the rest of her life, too?
He’d almost fucking lost her. He’d closed his eyes to sleep, and when he’d awakened, she had been gone. She’d nearly been taken—poof, in a blink, in an instant—forever.
Macen picked up the pace as he trekked across the room once more, as if he could escape that reality. He watched Liam parked on the edge of a chair, staring fixedly at the wall, somewhere between shocked and too furious for words. He’d said almost nothing since the ambulance had carted Raine away. Dean Gorman had sent the detectives to take their statements, and Liam had given appropriate, if short, answers to all their questions. Since then? Nothing.
In a corner of the empty room, a small TV irritated him with canned talk show laughter. A breaking news story interrupted, and a perky newscaster appeared to say that Raine Kendall, a sex worker at a local BDSM club, had been abducted in the parking lot by her estranged father. She’d been found alive and was being treated at a local hospital. Her condition was uncertain. They also flashed Raine’s picture all over the screen.
