Page 11 of Chaos Luck Wrath

Her brother checked his phone before tucking it into the interior breast pocket of his suit. “As much as I would love to stay here and discuss this further, I have some clients who are waiting on me. I will be in touch, but just know one more thing. If you start taking too long to come to terms with this, I won’t hesitate to forcefully take everything you have one asset at a time. If it comes to that point, I will find more creative and personal methods to persuade you to cooperate.”

Liam got out of his seat and straightened out his suit jacket, smoothing his hands over the front of it. He came over to her side, placing one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the edge of the table. Bowing his head down, he whispered to her, “I heard Rebecca is still single; do you think she still has that middle-school crush on me?”

That was the tipping point. Her anger spilled over the edge and she began to rise from her seat ready to break her hand on his face a thousand times over. Her brother anticipated as much and grabbed her roughly by the back of the neck forcing her back down into her seat.

Keeping his words quiet he snarled into her ear. “Fucking try me, Layne. I’ve made a lot more friends than you even realize. I could blow your damn brains out right now, then sit down for some kung pao chicken and nobody here would blink a damn eye.”

She winced as his grasp on her painfully tightened. Just when she thought maybe her head would pop off her shoulders like a broken bobblehead, his hand released her, leaving a red mark behind on her fair skin.

He straightened up and gave her a pleasant smile like they just had the best time catching up. “This was nice; I’m looking forward to our next chat sometime soon. Enjoy the rest of your day, sis.” Liam nodded to the two men he had drawn attention to earlier and both got up from their respective tables. The three of them left the Chinese restaurant, leaving Layne behind.

Layne sat there hoping to feel a sense of relief now that he was gone, but that sense of dread never lifted.

Chapter Six

CONFESSIONS

Layne sat there inside Gage’s Jeep staring at her phone cradled in her palm. The logo popped up on the screen as it powered back on. Moments after it booted up, the backlogged text messages from the group chat between her, Gage, and Joey began to pour in.

GAGE

Where are you?

JOEY

Answer your damn phone.

GAGE

Layne?

Baby, we need to know you’re safe.

JOEY

Layne, so help me.

Where the fuck did you go??

Give us something to work with.

GAGE

You don’t get to get up and ditch us like you’re the only one capable of making decisions in this relationship!

THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!

That’s when the texts stopped coming in from Gage. Joey had sent several more repeating things he had already said. It had been the only thing they could do without more information on her whereabouts. Gage tended to be more patient with her, so the fact he had lost his shit in the chat had her shrinking down lower into a darker headspace than she was already in.

Layne leaned forward in the driver’s seat, resting her forehead against the worn and faded leather-wrapped steering wheel. She tried to rein in all the competing emotions of guilt, stress, fear, and anger. She knew that leaving without saying a word to either of them was less than fair but risking their lives thanks to her brother’s newfound penchant for retribution was also unfair. Seeing Joey on the cusp of death was an image that would never leave her and one she never wished to see again.

Her phone began ringing in her hand. Lifting her head upright, she saw Gage’s name sprawled across the top of the screen. She frowned, preparing to get an earful. Her finger swiped and she answered, “Hey, I’m okay.” She figured reassuring him she wasn’t lying dead in an alley somewhere probably was at the top of the list of things to say.

Waiting for Gage to scream or even say anything at all felt like an eternity.

He blew out a breath of air into the phone. “What the hell, Layne?” His tone wasn’t loud or angry but was full of a wearisome relief.

When she wasn’t greeted with the same level of aggression he had reflected in his last texts to her, she hoped it meant he would give her the chance to explain herself.

---