“I can’t hold back,” she panted. “Please…”
“Promise you’ll not leave and take our babe first.”
“Never.” She shook her head wildly. “Can’t do without you.”
Satisfaction burned through his veins. Tears filled his eyes, leaked from the corners. The need to fill her with his seed rushed to the fore. “Come with me, sweetheart.”
She screamed his name as she fell apart for him. Liam buried his head in her neck and tried not to sob like a fucking baby as her sweet pussy clamped all around him and bliss poured through him like lava, turning him inside out. He emptied himself inside her. Finally, he felt whole again. Almost.
Sunday, February 17
The following morning, Raine woke in their big bed to find Liam lying on her right, staring at the ceiling. The bed on her left, where Hammer should have been, was cold. Empty.
Yesterday, she’d surrendered her tears and concerns to Liam. She didn’t want to start the morning doing the same. He would take them, but if they were going to save Hammer from this awful fate, she had to stop wallowing and use her damn logic. The detectives hadn’t investigated anything. They’d smelled blood in the water and saw a quick conviction for a supposed sexual predator who didn’t deserve his freedom to find another victim. So far, the federal investigators had done even less to discern the truth, probably for similar reasons.
Saving Hammer was up to her and Liam.
“Morning,” she murmured. “Did you sleep?”
“More than I’d thought; not as much as I should.”
“Ditto.” Raine rolled over and cuddled up to Liam, giving him a soft kiss.
He cradled the crown of her head and savored her lips for a sweet moment before he pulled away with a sigh. “Macen is like a ghost in the room.”
Here but not. “Yeah. He should have been with us last night. We’ll be able to arrange bail today, right?”
Liam’s face tightened, and Raine’s hope plummeted to her toes. “Sterling called me back late last night. He’s working on that now, and the wheels are in motion. But…this is a serious charge, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be granted bail.”
“What?” she screeched. “He’s got a clean record. He’s not violent. He’s—”
“A flight risk. He has a passport and a lot of money.”
Raine lay back and tried to imagine Hammer gone for the weeks or months it might take to get this trial underway. A night was already killing her. She wouldn’t last. And what if the trial was a sham? What if they put him away for life?
“You have a passport and money,” she said.
“I’m not a flight risk, love.” He gathered her against his side again. “You should know that after yesterday.”
“Maybe…you should be. Maybe if Macen makes bail, you two should skip the country and hide out someplace safe.”
Thunder rolled across his face. “Didn’t we cover this? Where do you think you’ll be, besides between us, I mean?”
She closed her eyes. Raine didn’t want to upset Liam. She’d felt his ferocity on this subject. But maybe he’d see the logic… “I’ll be here. I don’t have a passport. I’ve never needed one.”
“No.”
“It isn’t my first option. But you two could hunker down someplace safe. I could eventually follow. Maybe after the baby is born, the heat would die down—”
“You think we should just piss off and leave you, our woman, while you’re with child? So we can while away our days and…what, sip fucking mai tais on the beach, like we don’t have a care in the world? We could never have contact with you or our child again because the feds would, no doubt, be watching. And of course we could never return, either. So we’d all be apart forever…” He cocked a brow at her. “Thought this through, did you?”
She winced. “Okay, so not completely. I’m just trying to come up with something helpful.”
“Do you want to guess what Hammer’s reaction to your suggestion would be, love?”
Liam’s silky warning made her flinch. Yeah, he would swear a blue streak before he gave her a bright red ass. Liam and Macen were too protective to simply leave her here alone, especially pregnant. The submissive in her appreciated their meticulous care. The woman in her just wanted her men happy and free.
“I can guess.” She sighed. “But we should consider every option, even the crappy ones.”
“Next grand idea?”
Raine sighed, not surprised by his attitude, though she was both slightly miffed and relieved. “I don’t have any more right now.”
“Hammer’s arraignment is tomorrow. If he makes bail, we’ll have him home in the afternoon. We’ll discuss ideas together then.”
Horror spread through her. “He has to sit in jail another fucking day?”
It said a lot that Liam didn’t balk at her language. “I’m afraid so.”
“Can we at least see him today?”
Liam shook his head. “If he didn’t want you to see him be arrested, he certainly doesn’t want you to see him in a bloody jail cell. We’ll get to clap eyes on him in the morning at the arraignment.”