Page 11 of Incoming Layne Shift

He waved off her question. “You’re going to play that angle? My brother doesn’t start getting hot and throwing punches over a one-nighter. Though, I am surprised he was willing to get on one knee.” He shrugged at the thought of Joey popping the question to any woman. Maybe the woman standing in front of him was that great of a lay. He wouldn’t mind taking a tour of everything she had to offer to see what had Joey getting all possessive over.

“He’s not here.” As if on cue, the front door creaked open. Joey stumbled in, his hand clutching onto his side. A large patch of red soaked into the white fibers of his shirt, and his blood covered the hand he was using to apply pressure to the area.

Layne looked over her shoulder at the sound of the door opening. When she saw him trudge in with a grimace on his face, her face fell and her heart sank right along with it.

“Shit,” she uttered as she ran over to him. Her hand grabbed onto his arm, though she wasn’t sure what good it was going to do if he fell. His weight was easily twice her own and would take her right down with him, and hard. “What the hell happened?!”

Joey groaned as he looked up at her trying to brush it all off. “Son of a bitch brought a cracked-out friend thinking he was getting out of handing over the package…” His eyes caught sight of Gage standing off to the side.

His pain turned to anger with the flip of a switch. “What the fuck is he doing here?!” He tried to straighten up but immediately doubled back over again as pain shot through his body. Layne stumbled under the weight as her arm tried to at least keep him upright.

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about him right now. I’ll shoot him on your behalf if I have to. Let’s get you in a chair.”

Gage snorted. “Hopefully your aim is better than your swing.” Then, seeing the struggle between the both of them, Gage took pity and approached. “Move,” he commanded as he encroached on Layne’s space at Joey’s side.

It only took a brief moment for Layne to assess that Gage didn’t have any malicious intent in his eyes before she allowed him to take her spot. He took up Joey’s non-injured side, wrapping Joey’s arm around the back of his shoulders to help take the burden of the weight.

Layne left to grab a chair out of the dining room, returning to meet Gage and Joey halfway across the foyer. She set the chair down in front of Joey. “Here. I will go get supplies.” Moving quickly, she disappeared to gather any first aid supplies they might need.

Gage eased Joey into the chair. Immediately, Joey let out a sigh and leaned back. With Joey’s jaw set in a hard line from both the searing pain in his side and his anger, he leered at his younger brother. “What the fuck is wrong with your hearing? Have you gone deaf in the last ten years and didn’t hear me when I told you to stay the fuck away?”

Squatting down, Gage began to peel back the shirt to try and see how bad the damage was underneath. When Joey didn’t move his hand to allow him to take a look, Gage sighed. “I heard you, but you think I give a shit? At least let me check this out and see how much of a pussy you’re being right now.” He had seen his fair share of wounds from fights breaking out in the various establishments where he worked as head of security over the years.

“Fuck you.” Joey relented and eased his hand away to allow Gage to further lift the bottom of his shirt up to expose the injury.

Despite all the blood surrounding the area making it difficult to determine the full extent of the damage, it was obvious that the slash was the deepest right above the waist of his black pants on his side.

Layne returned, a bin of various medical supplies in her hands. She knelt at Joey’s side to see the laceration for herself. Her emerald hues looked up at Joey silently saying everything she was thinking. His stubborn ass should have called. He should have been more careful. The last thing she wanted was to lose him.

She pulled out disinfectant, but Gage plucked it out of her hands. “No offense, but I think someone who has full use of both hands automatically makes me more qualified.” He motioned to the black brace on her right hand.

Joey grumbled but didn’t protest, allowing Gage to proceed.

Almost an hour later, Gage removed his gloves after applying a bandage to the freshly stitched wound. During the course of the hour, Layne had tried to break the awkward tension between the two of them every so often by asking Joey questions but only received one or two-word responses.

“All set.” Gage stood and offered a hand to help Joey up out of the chair. It was either hard-headedness or pride, but Joey pushed through the pain still very much present, and stood from his chair on his own accord.

Layne gently hugged Joey’s uninjured side as she looked up at him. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get some rest?” Seeing the distrust painted over his face of leaving her alone with Gage, she rolled her eyes. She reached up and grabbed his face to turn and look at her. “I can handle getting him out the door.”

As a means of reassuring him and maybe even sending a message to Gage as well, she stood on her tiptoes and brought her lips to Joey’s. Kissing him long and slow, she allowed the taste of him to linger in her mouth. Once she felt some of the tension in his body fade, she pulled back with a sweet smile promising more to come.

After Joey was upstairs, Layne turned and looked at Gage as the sweetness of her smile shifted into a conflicted look between gratitude and sheer irritation he was still lingering. “Thank you for helping.”

Gage grinned, finishing her unspoken thoughts, “But, get the fuck out?”

She tried to hide the smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, but she wasn’t quick enough and he caught sight of it. He already knew from that glimpse that he wanted to see just how big of a smile he could get out of her in the future.

Layne walked him over to the door. He turned after stepping foot onto the front step to look at her. “I still need to talk to him about a few things.”

Scoffing at the thought of Joey willing to entertain the notion of having another talk with Gage, she shook her head. “Good luck with that.”

Trying to re-engage his charm and smooth-talking, his eyes looked into hers. “Well, that’s what you are - luck. I’m sure you can find a way to convince him to come down to Cassidy’s and have a chat. What do you say, lucky charm?”

“Why would I do that for you of all people? After everything that’s happened between the two of you.” She didn’t make any effort to diminish the skepticism in her tone.

He tilted his head slightly with a curious note in his words. “And, just what did he tell you happened?”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave a small shrug. “Everything I needed to know.”

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