Page 53 of Incoming Layne Shift

Layne listened to the other end ring only once before the gravelly voice answered on the other end, “Hello?” She collapsed down onto a bench hearing the sound of heaven on earth.

“Joey?” She leaned over with her elbows resting on her knees as she sighed with relief. “Please come get me.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

When she had spoken with Joey, he rapidly fired off what felt like a thousand questions. He asked her if she was okay, where she was, what happened, and more. Layne couldn’t focus on answering any of them except the nearest intersection she was at. Everything was beginning to hurt, even her thoughts.

Within twenty minutes, both he and Gage had picked her up. The drive should have taken at least thirty, but Joey ignored just about every traffic law on the way. She was just over the New York State Line in New Jersey.

When they arrived, Joey nearly forgot to put the car in park before hopping out. The two of them smothered her with hugs and kisses despite the wreck she was. Gage had managed to stop Joey from hammering her with a million more questions. The important thing was that she was okay and they weren’t going to let her out of their sight until they had the full story of what transpired.

On the ride back to O’Reilly Manor, she laid across the back seat of the Challenger with her head in Gage’s lap while his hand stroked over her head. For once they hadn’t harassed her about buckling up. Seeing the state she was in, they both didn’t want to do anything more than allow her to find a little bit of comfort. Once they made it back to her house, they gave her the space she needed despite wanting to hover.

The guilt and fear had eaten away at Gage while she had been gone and nobody knew where she was. If Layne hadn’t been there helping clean up, she wouldn’t have been in the wrong damn place at the wrong time. Conversely, Joey had simply been ready to start busting down every criminal syndicate’s door and racking up body counts in search of her.

She stood in the shower for nearly forty-five minutes washing all the filth and blood from herself as the hot water and soap stung the abrasions on her body. Afterward, she pulled on a pair of her favorite sleep shorts with a bralette.It was the only set of clothes she could get comfortable in with the way her body ached.

Now she found herself sitting on the kitchen counter with both the guys staring at her. “I told you I’m fine, just tired.” Her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose while trying to fend off the lingering headache.

Gage dabbed some antiseptic on her knuckles eliciting a hiss of pain from her. “Sorry, I’m trying to be gentle, baby.”

Joey frowned as his hand carefully turned her head so he could inspect what injuries she had now that the blood had been washed away. Every bruise, cut, and rope burn he saw notched up his anger one more tick. He knew that for each mark visible on her, she had to be hurting internally on top of it.

Taking a measured exhale, Joey turned her to look at him. “What happened?”

Layne shook her head. “I don’t want to get into it. I just need my phone so I can call Thomas and?—”

“Now is not the time to make me ask twice, Layne.” Joey’s voice grew heavier and from the look of his brown eyes, they were ready to turn black with death.

She knew this was all going to go over like a damn lead balloon for both of them. Layne began to recount what happened from being jumped in the back alley after Danielle lured her out there, to waking up in the dingy room tied to a chair, and Danielle’s failed attempt to get her boys to do all her dirty work. All the while, Layne avoided telling the kicker of it all. If Joey and Gage both didn’t already have all the reasons to lash out at Russell Spencer, this was going to be the breaking point.

Gage finished patching up her hand and laid a kiss lightly on top of the bandage. “Why? What the hell was her issue with you?”

“Besides being twisted in the head?” Layne paused, hating that they were at this point. She had both guys staring at her looking for answers that would make all of this make sense.

The silence from Layne continued for a little while until Joey’s agitation began to eat away at him. “I swear, Layne, if you don’t just spit it the hell out…” It may not have been the gentlest of prompts, but it was effective as he saw Layne’s shoulders sink in forfeit.

She shook her head. “Her dad is Russell Spencer. She wanted to make him proud or some shit, I don’t know.”

“Motherfucker!” It was Joey who reacted first. Before he could storm off, Layne grabbed him by his belt and nearly slid off the counter if it hadn’t been for Gage who caught her before she did. He eased her down onto her feet while Layne refused to release her grasp on Joey.

“Dammit, Joey, wait!” She pleaded. “I don’t think he knows and I want it to stay that way. If shit is going down, I want plans in place. That’s why I want to get Thomas on board so he can prepare the rest of the team.”

He reluctantly turned back around. The desire to go visit Russ right now and destroy every bone in that fucker’s body was right up there with wishing he could resurrect Eric Ellis just to send him right back down to hell.

“Wait for what, Layne?! Wait so another motherfucker can take a shot at you?!” All of Joey’s pent-up frustrations and fears that had weighed on him during her disappearance were all getting unleashed. “I’m tired of waiting around! You could have died and there was nothing I could have done to stop it. Do you even get that?!”

His words of anger were accompanied by a sense of misery in his eyes that he had been hurting knowing that there had been the possibility of her life being ripped from him forever.

In response, her green hues began to glisten with unshed tears as she felt the pain in his words.

Gage interjected, speaking to his brother, “You’re not going to do shit without me.” Then, he turned to look at Layne. “And you’re not doing anything until you get some rest.” He wasn’t going to add to the already emotionally charged situation with what he was feeling.

Now it was her turn to be irritated, but with how much her body wanted to crash, she couldn’t even raise an argument with him.

Joey sighed, realizing he probably shouldn’t have gone off on her the way he did. It didn’t make anything he said less true, but his fears had come uncomfortably close to fruition. “Look, it’s been a fucker of a time for all of us. Go get in bed and we’ll be up in a minute to join you.” He agreed with Gage’s determination that Layne needed to sleep and allow herself to recover after everything she had been through.

Maybe it was the ‘we’ in that statement that convinced her to listen or the fact that she could hardly keep herself up on her feet, but Layne nodded. “I’ll be upstairs, don’t take too long.”

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