Page 33 of Incoming Layne Shift

There was a long pause before he responded to her. “I told you, none of my men had any involvement. Was big misunderstanding.”

She sat up in her chair, dropping her feet back down to the floor. “Misunderstanding?” Her harsh laugh at his minimization of the incident cut through the air. “If you want to avoid any misunderstandings when it comes to who feeds the hand of your vodka distributor, I would highly suggest that you find fucking time in the next week to make room for some drinks with me.”

It sounded like Alexei pulled the phone away from his mouth as he yelled at someone in Russian. With the very limited knowledge she had of the Russian language, Layne only caught a word here or there—both swear words. As he returned to his conversation with her, he had a much softer tone. “Alright, pchelka. We shall talk, yeah?”

Feeling a sense of relief wash over her, she finally cracked a smile. She wrapped up the details with him before hanging up and tossing her phone onto her desk in front of her. There were knots embedded in her muscles all over her body knowing the uphill battles she was fighting daily in the criminal underworld. This entire situation surrounding Sean and McGregor’s added to the already heavy load.

The door to her office creaked open and Joey popped his head in, no longer hearing or seeing her on the phone, he fully stepped inside. “Hey.”

She lifted her gaze off the phone lying there on her desk to see him walking over to her. He came to her chair, turning it to face him so he could take her hands and urge her out of her seat.

Layne smiled sweetly at him. “Hey.”

Joey could see the stress locked tightly into her shoulders. He released her hands and began to knead his fingers into the compactly coiled muscles around the base of her neck. “I wanted to talk.”

She groaned and closed her eyes, giving in to the nearly painful manipulation of the stubborn knots his hands were trying to work out. “Mm, I already told you my plan. If it makes you feel better, I will let you or Gage come to the meetings with me.”

“Let?” He raised a brow at her choice of words. Joey’s fingers stopped their massage and his fingers grabbed ahold of her chin. When she opened her brightly colored eyes at the interruption of his hands’ work, she saw him with a heated gaze.

His face came in closer to her own as he spoke with his voice on the edge of a growl. “Make no mistake, Layney, one or both of us will be there whether you allow it or not.”

The way he slowly spoke the words to her had her heart beating a little quicker inside her chest.

Joey wasn’t going to fuck around with her safety. In a perfect world, she should have been perfectly safe having talks with the other faction heads as the head of her own criminal enterprise. However, he didn’t trust any of those fuckers, not after they all had basically left her for dead when Liam was fucking shit up. “Do you understand me?” The seriousness weighed hard on his words.

Layne gave a small nod. “Yeah.”

“Good.” His mouth closed the gap between them, stealing a kiss from her to reassure her that he was still going to be her shadow whether she liked it or not.

After he pulled back, he gave her shoulders a squeeze. “That’s not what I came to talk to you about though.”

His hands trailed down her arms. “I need to make sure you’re good with how things are between us and Gage.”

She glanced down feeling the spread of the heat on her face at the way both the guys had taken care of her upstairs. Layne licked her lips before biting into her sheepish smile. “Joey…” Finally, she looked up at him. “I’m good. I’m a little surprised, but I’m good with all of it.”

He dropped his hands onto her hips and grinned. “Surprised?”

She gave a soft chuckle. “I didn’t expect you to be okay with any of it. You beat the shit out of a guy for dancing with me at a club, or did you forget about that?”

He grumbled, remembering the way the little punk had been putting his hands on Layne. The ass-beating had been justified. “That was different.” Joey pulled her in closer by her hips.

Layne didn’t look very convinced, so he further explained himself.

“I never want another man laying a hand on you. No other man deserves to hear how it sounds when you come. I never want to hear you screaming out any other name but mine.”

She tilted her head as his words seemed to contradict everything that had transpired upstairs between them and Gage. Before she could question it, he raised a finger and pressed it to her lips to prevent her from speaking.

“The only exception is Gage. He is the only one who ever gets the privilege. Whatever the two of you do together is up to you. At the end of the day, you’re still going to be all mine.” Joey had shared all his favorite things with his little brother growing up, why should this be any different? Especially when Layne was able to get double the pleasure from it. Anything she wanted, he wanted to be able to provide it for her.

Joey removed his finger from those sultry lips of hers. Layne’s hands ran up the front of his chest, her fingers enjoying the feel of hard muscle underneath them. She smiled lovingly at him.

“I will always be yours, Joey. But, two De Lucas?” She grinned. “You’re both going to keep me a very busy girl.”

A devious grin spread across his face. His hands roamed past her hips and gripped tightly onto her ass. “Just wait until I make you my wife, Layney. Gage is gonna have to fight for his turn with you.”

He suddenly lifted her, tossing her over his shoulder. It caused a shriek from her as she was grasping onto the back of his shirt while staring down at his ass. “Ah! Joey!” After the unexpected change in her position, she giggled while he walked out of the office with her, carrying her up the stairs, planning on giving her a taste of what was to come after they said ‘I do.’

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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