Page 12 of Layne Closure Ahead

Biting her lip gently, she tried to assemble her words intelligently. “About the invitation, parties aren’t my thing, but Liam thought it would be a good idea to be seen out and about rubbing elbows with the city’s top-tier elite.” Yes, she was lying out of her ass and may have added another item to her checklist to let Liam know what a good idea he had when she saw him later.

There was a pause on the other end of the line leaving Layne wondering if the call had dropped. Finally, after the awkward pause, Eric responded, “You surprised me, Layne. I expected you to call to tell me where I could shove the invite.”

“I very strongly considered it.” At least that part was the God-honest truth.

His laugh echoed on the other end. “Nonetheless, I will make sure that you are my guest of honor. I have been looking forward to continuing our discussion about how we can help one another. How about I pick you up tomorrow morning and we can talk about things during a walk around Central Park?”

She pressed her lips into a hard line doing her best to remind herself that she needed to focus on the business side of things and see past her personal feelings. “Fine, I will see you tomorrow morning, but don’t get your hopes up.”

Eric set a time and they said brief goodbyes before terminating the call. Layne was already regretting her decision, but with her back up against the proverbial wall, she needed to keep her options open. Not just for herself, but for the sake of the O’Reilly legacy.

That afternoon, she sat in her dad’s former office in O’Reilly Manor waiting for Liam to show up. She looked at her smartwatch for what felt like the fifth or sixth time. He was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.

Liam had taken over the office since their dad had passed, but it was only in the past couple of months that he began changing up the decor to fit his personal and flashy style. The formerly glossy wooden desk no longer filled the room and in its place was something more ultra-modern with metal and thick panes of glass.

She walked over to the window and peered out across the street watching the cars that drove by. Seeing a sports bike across the street that looked familiar, she narrowed her eyes to focus on it. However, her focus was quickly interrupted when the office door swung open forcefully.

Spinning around, she saw Liam walking in, a scowl on his face as he stomped over to his desk. His auburn hair looked like he had been running his fingers through it repeatedly, leaving the short locks sticking up in various directions.

“What are you doing here?” he said grumpily, clearly in a foul ass mood. Today was looking like a bucket of sunshine, wasn’t it?

“We had a meeting scheduled, remember?” She walked away from her spot at the window and sat down in one of the two chairs across from him.

Her brother took his seat and then motioned for her to continue. “Just tell me what the hell is wrong now, and let’s get this over with.”

Under normal circumstances that would have been a fair assumption, but this time she was aiming for a more positive discussion. “There’s a few things, actually, so you might as well get comfortable.”

The irritation written across his face was plain as day. “Layne, I don’t have time for this. Give me the shortest possible version.”

This was proving to be such a stark comparison to the way their dad ran things, even when he was pressed for time, he had made others wait while he set aside time to listen to whomever he was meeting with.

She dropped the biggest item of focus. “Eric Ellis wants to discuss us potentially helping each other out. A whole ‘we scratch his back, he scratches ours’ type of situation.”

That caught Liam’s attention. “Ellis? The bougie asshole that moved here six months ago?”

She nodded. “Yes, that one. I’m vetting the whole thing; it may end up being nothing at all. He invited me to this get-together he is having so we can talk things over.”

Maybe she fudged that part a little bit, but there was no reason to make Liam think that it was anything more than just idle talks. Nor did he know about Joey coming back around, or as Liam only knew him as the masked freak hired to dispose of Michael Franzetti.

To his credit, he sat there mulling it over as he sat back in his chair. His fingers lightly scratched at his chin. “What the hell does he have going on that we would need him for? You know what? Never mind, just find out. Anything else?”

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Li, we need to talk about the books and client debts going uncollected. People are noticing the cracks, and?—”

A bunch of commotion was heard coming down the hall, a shrill voice shrieking out words as the click-clacking of heels stomped against the floor until Kristill appeared at the entrance of the office.

Layne groaned and rubbed her forehead seeing Liam’s favorite hookup fuming with daggers for eyes.

Pointing a bony finger all accusatory at Liam, Kristill shouted. “You are a fuckin’ prick, ya know that?! I want the damn money you promised me!”

Her brother rose to his feet and grabbed a decorative glass paperweight chucking it in the woman’s direction. It flew far right and smashed into the door. “I told you that you’d get the money when you did your job, you dumb whore!”

It was incredibly clear to Layne that she was unlikely to finish her discussion with Liam, at least not without getting in his volatile path and being the next person he tossed something at.

Kristill was undeterred by the flying object and was bound and determined to get up in his face. She spat her words out at him, saliva sputtering out venomously. “You’re a sick bastard! I ain’t sticking any of that up in my p?—”

As a sister, Layne did not want to hear Kristill finish that sentence and hear about any of her sibling’s more peculiar proclivities. However, Liam didn’t allow her to finish her shouting as the sound of the violent slap of his palm across the woman’s face cut off the words.

Shit. Layne popped out of her seat and scurried over between the two of them right as Liam went to lash out at Kristill once more. His face was beet-red and eyes wild with a whole new level of temper she had never seen before.

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