Beck shrugged. The smirk on his lips pissed Hammer off even more. “Oops.”
What the fuck kind of answer was that? Launching toward Beck, Hammer wrapped his hand around the Dom’s beefy throat and squeezed. “You think that’s funny? I don’t find it the least bit amusing, motherfucker. You did exactly what I told you not to do. So now, you get to deal with me!”
“Don’t take your frustration out on me. You should have taken care of the princess yourself and you know it. It was your punishment to hand down, yet you dragged me into it. The bigger question is, why didn’t you save her from me, instead of that Irish ass? I gave you every opportunity to be a hero, and you let O’Neill steal your thunder. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Hammer didn’t owe Beck any sort of answer. “Right now, what’s wrong with me is you.”
“Raine is just another sub, man. No different from any of the others around here, right?” Into Hammer’s telling silence, Beck’s lips curled up. “C’mon. Admit that, for you, she’s not. You’re crazy if you think nobody knows you’ve got a serious thing for that girl. You treat her like her cunt is made of gol—”
Beck didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence. Hammer’s fist snapped out and plowed him in the jaw. Then he landed another blow to Beck’s chin. “You don’t get to talk about any part of her body, fucker!”
Beck’s powerful right hook caught him off guard, but Hammer welcomed the pain. After watching Liam fuck Raine, he felt hollow, like the life had been sucked right out of him. The red-hot fire boiling beneath his jaw was proof that he wasn’t completely dead.
With his hand still cinched around Beck’s throat, he slammed the bastard up against the wall and drove his knee into the man’s balls. The air left Beck’s lungs in a deeply satisfying rush. Then Hammer unleashed a blistering round of blows to his mouth, nose, and jaw.
With an angry growl, Beck finally shoved Hammer back, then charged at him, blood bubbling from his nostrils. Not about to let up, Hammer drove his fist into the man’s stomach.
“Holy fuck!” Beck coughed and sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so pissed. So I slapped her thighs. Big deal! It’s not like she didn’t deserve it.” Beck landed another blow to Hammer’s jaw and kept on growling out the tough love. “Does she scare you so much you can’t even slap her ass to keep her in line? You’re afraid to touch her, aren’t you?”
“Not another word. I came to you for a simple favor, and you fucked everything up. Because you terrified her so much, she’s paired off with Liam now and is convinced that I’m a monster who plotted to have her beaten way beyond her pain threshold.” He clocked Beck in the jaw again, then shook the sting out of his knuckles. “Thanks so much, pal.”
Beck took a step back and narrowed his eyes at Hammer. “You can hit me with your purse all night long, but I’m nobody’s bitch, Hammer.”
His patronizing smile fueled Hammer’s anger all the more. “Fuck you. You hurt her because you could, and that’s not acceptable around here.”
He punched a fist into Beck’s kidney. The big Dom wrapped him up, and they tumbled to the floor. He felt Beck’s determination as he began to unleash an equally violent wrath. Both men rolled on the concrete, taking turns punching, each striving to gain the upper hand until Hammer found himself pinned beneath Beck’s muscular legs. The sadist leaned over his face, blood and sweat dripping from his brow.
With a wicked sneer, he winked. “You stupid bastard. You lost her to Liam because you were a pussy. Good luck trying to get some sleep tonight. I bet all you’ll be able to picture is Liam buried inside your little princess. I doubt you’ll be able to find a bottle deep enough to drown in.”
Hammer bucked Beck off him, then rolled to his feet, fury like a volcano inside him, primed to erupt. “You’re banned from the club for a week.”
“Again?” Beck chuckled, then stood and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s from a low table against the wall. He unscrewed the cap and tossed it to the floor, then took a long gulp and hissed through the burn. He thrust the bottle toward Hammer.
“Yeah. Again, asswipe,” Hammer snarled as he took the bottle and swallowed a healthy swig.
“A week? That’ll work. I need a break, anyway. You do know that you hit like a bitch, right?”
“Yeah, that’s why your lip is bleeding and your eye is already turning black,” Hammer snarled. “You hurt her. I can forgive a lot of things, man, but it’s going to take a while for me to get over that.”