Page 64 of Layne Closure Ahead

Joey grinned at how much spunk Rebecca had. He shouldn’t have been surprised given anyone lucky enough to have Layne in their life needed to have a bit of a spark.

Before Rebecca could give Joey the third degree, Layne looked at them both. “We should get the hell out of here.”

Nobody argued with that plan of action. While they were walking out, Layne looked over at Joey as a question nagged at her. “How did you know where I was?”

He smirked. “I can’t give away all my secrets. Although,” he reached over to take a look at the soaked mask down around her neck, “it looks like I’m not the only one keeping secrets.”

After getting Rebecca back home safely, Layne met Joey back at O’Reilly Manor. She parked her car out front. The Beamer had been the one thing that had been spared from the fire all thanks to the inability of people to read a damn sign that said not to block the driveway.

Layne turned off the engine and sighed as she leaned back in her seat. It had been a hell of a night. She tried to summon what little energy she had left to get out of the car.

One final sigh and she opened the car door. That’s when she remembered that Rebecca had written down the name of a doctor who could squeeze her in for a quick look at her rib. Layne had insisted that a doctor wasn’t necessary, but Rebecca threatened to never make her famous berry oatmeal bake for her again if she didn’t agree.

She opened up her console and saw the note sitting right on top. However, something else caught her eye. Layne had completely forgotten that she had left the blue envelope she had found in her dad’s paperwork in her car. She reached in and pulled it out to take inside with her.

Joey was already waiting for her when she walked in the door, though she still had her eyes focused on the envelope in her hands with her name written across it. She opened it up and unfolded the papers inside. Her eyes looked over the contents with the expectation that it would be nothing important.

When Joey saw her jaw drop and her expression go wide-eyed, he walked over to her side to see what she was looking at. “What is it?” His eyes scanned over what she was staring at on the first page before he muttered. “Holy shit.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

To Layne’s surprise, it had taken much longer for the NYPD to be alerted that there were decomposing bodies inside Smitty’s Fitness Center. Apparently, no one had been checking on the abandoned property on any sort of regular interval.

There was a pitiful investigation done by the police. After the realization that Eric Ellis had been a major player in the underground sex trafficking world thanks to an anonymous tip from someone by the name of Cowboy, there was little public outrage to look into what transpired inside the gym that night. It was assumed that the dangerous criminals of the world took out the trash living in their own backyard. They weren’t entirely wrong.

Layne had been more than happy to celebrate her status as Eric’s not-so-grieving widow. Particularly since it turned out that the insurance policies and his assets went to her by default. She bet he had never expected that one. Needless to say, finances were looking up for the O’Reilly organization.

As for the documents left for Layne by her father? Layne and Joey decided to keep that to themselves for now. There was no sense in rocking the boat…yet.

Several months had passed, and on this particular night, Joey stepped inside O’Reilly Manor at nearly three in the morning. He shrugged his jacket off and hung it up in the coat closet right near the front entrance.

In what should have been a minor job that night had taken longer than expected. The house was expectedly cast into pitch darkness indicating that Layne was already in bed fast asleep.

Quietly, he made his way upstairs and to the master bedroom. Pushing the door open, it only gave the slightest of creaks while swinging on its hinges. He walked over to the bed they had been sharing nearly every night for the past couple of months.

His hands reached behind him, grabbed the back of his shirt, and pulled it up over his head exposing the muscled physique underneath that was home to all the tattoos he had. Joey walked over to her side of the king-sized bed to check on her before he planned to hop in the shower to get cleaned up.

As he reached out to feel for Layne, his hand felt nothing but the cold sheets. His hand patted the mattress finding no one was there in the bed. Sighing, he hoped she hadn’t fallen asleep in the office again. He had carried her upstairs to bed on several occasions as a result of her spending hours diving into figuring out damage control of the failing criminal empire bearing the O’Reilly name.

Joey headed back downstairs to check the office. A glimmer of light was shining from underneath the door. When he walked inside, he was surprised not to find her asleep on the desk with her head on top of the keyboard.

As he approached the desk, a small but powerful body rammed into his back knocking him forward unexpectedly. Slender arms wrapped around his throat and bare legs around his waist. Fortunately, he was easily able to upright himself. The arms around his neck squeezed threateningly, and a sultry and demanding voice whispered into his ear.

“It’s just you and me now, handsome. I’m only going to ask my questions once, and you’re going to be a good boy and answer them.”

He inhaled the familiar scent of daisies after a rainstorm. His hands grasped onto Layne’s legs wrapped around him as he smirked. “Is that right?”

“Mmhmm.” She responded as her hand spread out and ran over several of the tattoos covering the front of his chest. “Where were you tonight?”

He tensed at the question before he walked over to the desk with her still clinging to his back like a little monkey. “I told you I had a job to wrap up.”

She slid down off of him, placing her feet firmly on the floor. Layne’s hands spun him around to face her. “That’s not what I heard.”

Joey looked down at the sight before him, his eyes lighting up in excitement at what he saw. Layne stood there wearing a pair of black panties with a matching bralette. Her long locks of chestnut hair hung down freely in loose waves around her shoulders. However, it was the dark and twisted mask stretched across her face with the green and orange threads crisscrossed over the skull teeth that sealed the deal on his cock quickly jumping to full attention in his pants.

“Doing a little stalking of your own?” He lifted a brow at her curiously.

Layne nudged him back until he voluntarily sat on the edge of the desk. Her hands grabbed his knees and pushed his legs apart so she could stand between them. “I believe I asked you a question. Are you making me ask twice?”

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