Page 1 of Chaos Luck Wrath

Chapter One

THE AFTERMATH

Continued from Incoming Layne Shift

Ahand waved in front of her face. “Miss?” The man dressed in a cheap gray suit stood in front of her. The emptiness of her emerald eyes stared ahead, not seeing the man or the hospital waiting room they were both in.

Layne sat there in her soiled wedding dress, sections of her hair had come loose from their previously pristine position in her bun, and Joey’s blood stained everything including what was left of her heart.

Chaos

This was what her life consisted of; it was how he entered her life.

Luck

Both good and bad followed her everywhere; it was how he managed to save her from herself.

Wrath

Equally her affliction and what she planned to inflict on the world; it was what put him where he was now.

Gage returned with a bottle of water in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Seeing the middle-aged man in front of Layne, he immediately rushed over, setting both beverages down on the table next to the set of seats where Layne was. “Hey, hey, hey! What the fuck are you doing, man?”

The man frowned as he looked up at Gage. “Detective Adams. I need to ask Ms.…” He checked a notepad in his hand. “Ms. O’Reilly, a few questions about what happened in front of St. Mary’s today.”

Before Gage could tell him to get lost, Layne said her first semi-coherent words since leaving the church steps, “De Luca.” The tone of her voice was cold, flat, and empty, much like the rest of her felt.

“What?” The detective looked over at her, being caught off-guard by her sudden decision to speak up.

“My name. It’s Layne…De Luca.” Her eyes finally moved slowly through the sludge of emotions they were drowning in to settle on the man looking for answers on the day’s catastrophe.

The man cleared his throat. “Oh, um, yeah so, I’m really sorry, but it’s standard protocol that we get statements from witnesses as soon as possible while everything is still fresh. The remaining witnesses have been less than cooperative. I was hoping you could provide some clarity.”

Layne’s voice continued to remain soft and monotone, “I didn’t see anything.” She had seen everything, and she continued to see it on replay inside her mind. A fresh set of tears welled up in her eyes as she squeezed them shut, expelling them onto her cheeks.

The detective frowned again. “I’m sure there must have been something that stood out?—”

That’s when Gage interfered, placing a hand on the detective’s shoulder with a solid grip. “Now isn’t a good time. She said she didn’t see anything.” He knew that was bullshit, they all had seen it.

He took a few steps away from Layne, guiding the detective with an arm around his shoulders as he lowered his voice. Several moments later, Detective Adams handed over a business card to Gage and went on his way. The card was immediately dropped into the trash.

Gage came back, picking up both beverages and sitting down next to Layne. “Baby, you should at least drink something. It’s been hours.”

When she said nothing, he leaned over to whisper in her ear, “I told you to do something; is this how you show me you’re listening?” It was his last-ditch effort to get any level of reaction from her. It failed. He frowned, lowering his forehead to her shoulder while his lips kissed her arm lightly.

With her eyes still shut, flashbacks of the day were on a continuous loop in her head. The love and the pain. He told her it was okay and yet nothing was. The second a sob started to crawl from her chest into her throat, she opened her eyes, shook her head, and stood.

Choking down the sob, she looked at Gage. “I wanted a lot of things from him, but I never wanted him to sacrifice himself for me. I’d rather give myself to all the monsters lurking under my bed at night than to have him do what he did.” Truth be told, those monsters were already poisoning her thoughts and beckoning her to surrender herself to the darkness calling to her soul. Without Joey, the fire within her was slowly being snuffed out.

Looking around at the piss-poor attempt of the hospital to look warm and welcoming, all she could see was despair and pity. “I can’t be here.” She wasn’t sure where she could go to find her escape, but sitting for hours inside this waiting room wasn’t it.

Gage’s hand reached out and wrapped around her wrist. “Layne…” He wasn’t sure what he could say to her to make this better, because he was feeling just as lost inside.

Before she could pry his grasp off of her, a doctor approached. It was a woman in her late fifties wearing dark blue scrubs that gave a boxy appearance to her body. “Mrs. De Luca?” She looked at Layne with eyes full of empathy, likely mastered from countless depressing conversations with families of patients.

Layne looked up at the doctor who was now standing in front of her. This was it. This was the moment she didn’t want to be present for. She had played it out in her mind a thousand times over in the past hour alone. She could hear the words over and over that yet again someone was sorry for her loss. He was dead and gone with no chance of ever coming back to her. She would be told that the doctors did all they could and it still wasn’t fucking good enough.

“I’m Dr. Monroe, I am the surgeon who worked on your husband.” She pulled a tablet from under her arm.

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