Page 8 of Layne Closure Ahead

It may have been a little dramatic the way that she let out a sigh and sank back into the couch, not having much of a choice other than to listen to what he had to say.

Taking her decision to relax a little bit as a green light to continue, Joey began to explain his predicament, “A job came up?—”

Layne interrupted. “With your police pals?” The disdain etched over her words after recalling what had been the final straw that forced them apart a little less than a year ago. His total disregard for loyalty in assisting the boys in blue by providing them with valuable intel.

“No, I already told you that there were special circumstances with that, Layne. If you had given me the chance to explain, we could have moved beyond that.”

She rolled her eyes, though she would have been surprised if he could see it in the dark.

Joey stood up and took a step back so he could sit on the edge of the coffee table in front of her. “You know what? I wasn’t going to bring it up, but since I have you here, you’re going to sit there and listen.”

He rested his elbows on his knees as his eyes stared at her. “I was going to get pinned on some old charges that were teetering on the edge of the statute of limitations. My only options were to let them rake me over the coals for a lifetime or to find a way around it by scratching their backs. The information I fed to them when it came to anything even remotely tied to you was crafted to send them on a wild goose chase.”

The volume of his voice elevated slightly as he made his final point. “I kept your ass from getting raided and diverted their interests elsewhere. I’m not going to sit here and apologize for not only saving my ass but saving yours, too. I did what I had to do.”

“And I did what I had to do. I guess that makes us even.” Layne hated that his explanation even held the littlest bit of weight. Even knowing she would have likely done the same thing if she had been in his shoes, she was still angry. She was always angry these days.

He stood back up and leaned over, getting in her face so she couldn’t avoid what he was about to tell her. “Bullshit, you did what you always do. You shoved me away. You were the one who tossed in the towel and ran away like a scared little girl.”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she turned her face away from him only to have his hand take her by the jaw and turn her head back to face him. “What’s the matter, Layne? Is the truth a little too fucking hard to hear?” His words brutally bore down on her, leaving her emotionally reeling in the downward spiral her fractured mental state was already in.

Joey had a way of making it feel impossible to hide behind her defenses and shut everything down inside of her. Layne squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to imagine he wasn’t back here in her house again. What she couldn’t escape was the telltale scent of the mixture of leather and sage cologne that lingered in the air between them.

Not willing to admit that he pegged the truth spot-on, she sat there silently trying to shrink down into a mental hiding place.

It was unclear how long they both stubbornly and silently stood their ground. Eventually, she felt his hand ease up off of her face. When she opened her eyes back up, his shadow was no longer there in front of her.

There was a click and a pop and suddenly the power was flicking back on throughout her house. Layne squinted as the lights erased the darkness and startled her vision.

Joey walked back into the room, shaking his head to himself as he griped, “You keep so much damn crap in front of your breaker box.”

Unsurprisingly, he was wearing his signature style of black cargo pants and a black shirt but this time he had added a black zip-up hoodie overtop of it. As she got a good look at him, she hated that she noticed her eyes drifting to the front of his pants first before roaming upward to visually consume the rest of him. Either she had really missed him or he had added a few more pounds of solid bulk at the gym over the past year, and it did him damn good.

Not only did it appear he had been working out more, but there were other noticeable differences. Joey’s dirty blonde hair had grown a little longer and shaggier. It suited him, and the way her body was beginning to react, it seemed it didn’t disagree.

CHAPTER FOUR

The storm outside was gradually easing up, slowing to an entrancing drizzle. It was nearly reminiscent of one of those meditative sound machines.

As the evening approached, the sunshine never returned from behind the grey storm clouds. Instead, the sky sunk further into darkness.

Once Joey was comfortable that Layne wasn’t going to make good on her promise to immediately shoot him, he eased her up off of the couch and spun her around. She was suddenly aware that as his hands touched her bare skin, she was still shirtless and standing there in her fuchsia bra still damp from being caught in the rain. His fingers trailed down the backs of her arms until they met her restraints.

With a twist and a click, each of the cuffs unlatched from around her wrists.

She mindlessly rubbed each of them, easing away the slight discomfort she had created by overzealously tugging on them earlier.

“Were those necessary?” She turned around, finding herself now looking up into his chocolate-colored eyes that easily had melted her soul so many times before this.

He must have seen something in her face which caused him to step back and create a healthy amount of space between them. “You tell me.”

Joey looked her over and raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t just the soaked-to-the-bone look, but other stressors taking a toll on her physically. “You look like shit.”

Rude. She tried to give him an offended look, but after the day she had coupled with getting caught in the rain, she had experienced better days. “You really know how to flatter the ladies, don’t you?”

He unzipped his sweatshirt, pulling his arms from the sleeves as his muscles flexed underneath his shirt. Joey tossed it over to her. “Here. We still need to talk about my favor.”

Reacting quickly, her hands caught the hoodie resisting the urge to wrap it around her and bask in its warmth and scent.

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