Page 5 of Chaos Luck Wrath

After a deep inhale, Joey winced as he sat up a little straighter in his bed, fumbling with all the fucking tubes and wires attached to him. “What do we know?”

Her eyes darkened with a glare at Gage for bringing up the topic she had been actively avoiding. “We don’t need to talk about this.” Layne knew she couldn’t ignore this forever, but she wanted to stay in this bubble of happiness a little while longer.

Joey couldn’t pretend to understand what she was going through given her brother was responsible, but he did recognize the signs of her internally shutting down if they didn’t tread carefully. “Layne, you can’t ignore what he did.”

Gage chimed in with his opinion, “We don’t know what the hell else Liam is up to.”

She lashed out with a spark of anger for the first time since the incident. “I’m not fucking ignoring it! I’m going to take care of it!” Immediately, her sharp tongue and even shorter temper had her sinking down into her guilt.

The past twenty-four hours had taken its toll on her. The sleep deprivation, the highs, and lows, and all the stressors that had her running on fumes by this point. Layne put a hand to her forehead and dragged it down over her face as she squeezed her eyes shut in frustration.

“Layney…” Joey’s soothing voice spoke her name, attempting to pull her back from spiraling.

She didn’t make a move from her current position as her thoughts began to swallow her whole.

Standing from his seat, Gage came up behind her rubbing his hands over her shoulders. “Look, now that Joey is awake, why don’t you get some rest and we can pick this up later, hm?” He leaned over and laid a kiss on the back of her neck directly against the curves of the shamrock inked into her skin.

Stubbornly, she shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” She had been using that word a lot, and it was the furthest thing from the truth. Layne didn’t want to rest knowing her idiotic brother was out there; knowing her nightmares would taint her memory of what should have been the happiest day of her life.

“Come here.” Joey’s hand tugged on her wrist, drawing her hand away from her face. When she opened up those beautiful green eyes, they were shaded by sheer exhaustion. He didn’t have much room to shift, but he gave her enough so she could at least perch on the edge of his bed. His arm pulled her down to his side, his strong arms squeezing her tightly.

Layne lay there in his embrace wishing she could bottle up the feeling of him for eternity. Remaining vigilant of his injury, she laid her arm across his stomach. His hold on her helped to relieve some of her tension.

Joey pressed several kisses across her temple. “Go home, let Gage take care of you, and get some rest.”

“I can’t,” she murmured against him.

“Yes, Layne, you can. I need you to. I didn’t fight like hell for you to run yourself down.” His fingers lifted her face by the chin. “You’re going to need the rest. When I get out of here, my cock is going to be making up for lost time.” He grinned playfully before he closed the gap between their mouths. Passionately, he locked his lips onto hers like he hadn’t tasted her in years.

It was enough that when she finally came up for air, she was already looking a little more amenable to listening to reason.

“I love you. We will be back as soon as we can, okay?” Layne stole one more kiss from him to hold her over until they returned.

While she pulled away to gather her things, Joey looked at Gage. “Don’t?—”

His little brother cut him off, “I know. I’ve got her.”

Gage waited for Layne to collect her things before leaving the room with her.

Once the two of them left, Joey exhaled and leaned back. His brows pinched together as he winced in pain, his hand lightly resting on top of his chest. He had done his best to mask the injury’s toll on him for Layne’s sake, but holy fuck. This brush with death and coming to terms with his own mortality had him seeing things in a very different light than he had ever before.

Chapter Three

TROUBLES & BUBBLES

Gage decided to bring her back to his condo in Hudson Yards. There was too much uncertainty surrounding Liam to take the chance of going back to O’Reilly Manor. On the way, Layne texted Sammy to let him know that she needed him to get her home secured. Everything had to be checked from attic to basement, all the locks changed, and the entire residence secured better than Fort Knox. There was no telling what else Liam may have had planned.

After unlocking the door and pushing it open, Gage held a hand out to stop Layne from entering. “Wait.”

She drew up a brow at his sudden change of mind. “What is it?”

He gave her his typical smile filled with boyish charm. “I know things didn’t go as planned yesterday, but if you’re going to have the De Luca last name, I’m going to do right by it.”

Before she could ask him what the hell he was going on about, he bent over and scooped her up into his arms. Turning sideways, he carried her into his unit over the threshold.

Layne giggled as her hands clutched onto him. “Are you really that superstitious?”

“When it comes to you, Lucky Charm, I’m not taking my chances.” He grinned. Continuing to hold her in his arms, he carried her back to their bedroom and into the master bathroom before setting her down on her feet.

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