Page 72 of Chaos Luck Wrath

The man she used to call her uncle had the largest shit-eating grin on his poorly aged face. “Layne, I’m rather hurt. It took until tonight to recognize me after all the chances I gave you. My years may not have been kind, but just because I was sporting a beard and a baseball cap you still should have seen it. I expected better from you, sweetheart. Your dad would have been so disappointed.”

Racking her brain for what she missed, she cursed as she realized that he had hidden in plain sight, starting with the day at the Chinese restaurant.

She looked over at her idiotic sibling who didn’t deny any of Mick’s account of events. “Liam, you stupid fuck.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Do you think he gives a shit about you? He betrayed our family. Once you’re no longer of value he will betray you, too.”

Barking back at her loudly, Liam’s face turned bright red, “Betrayed?! Let’s talk about betrayal, Layne! How about not just you fucking the psycho who killed Mom but marrying him, huh?! How about your betrayal in trying to take over what belongs to me? FUCK YOU!”

Her brother’s insults fell flat against her defenses. If he wanted to pitch stones in an attempt to hurt her feelings, he would need to try harder.

“I told you,” Mick spoke knowingly as he walked to Liam, “She doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong. Typical woman, all wrapped up in her feelings. That’s why women don’t deserve to be in our position of power.”

Glaring at Mick as he added his damn two cents, Layne was determined to make sure the next time he was shot, he wouldn’t be able to come back from the dead.

“Oh, there are plenty of things I’ve done wrong. Starting with letting Liam get away with all his shit for this long,” she confessed.

Gulping down the rest of the drink in his hand, Liam lazily tossed the glass to the side where it shattered upon impact with the floor. He snapped his fingers at the nearest man willing to follow his unspoken orders. His lackey brought him a heavy length of chain.

The odds weren’t in her favor and she was beginning to think that maybe Gage and the rest of the crew ran into trouble down on the sublevel. Shitty odds never stopped her before though.

Liam swung the end of the chain in his hand threateningly as he stalked towards her. “Time to pay the piper, Layne.” Arriving in front of her, he wound up and whipped the chain at her. Instinctively she raised her free arm to block the lash of metal.

As the links made contact with her left wrist, she embraced the pain and rotated her hand to wrap the chain into her grasp so he couldn’t pull it back.

Simultaneously, the fucking cavalry finally burst through the doors and Gage poured in with Jax, Devon, Isaiah, Hunter, Ethan, and Sammy.

The intrusion set chaos into motion, and unlike the rest of these assholes, she had learned to embrace chaos a long time ago. Layne jerked on the chain circling her wrist causing Liam to stumble off balance towards her where her foot kicked harshly into his chest, sending him right back again.

The goon at her back had been distracted by her backup charging in, so when she bent over, she propelled him over her right shoulder onto the ground. She swung the weight of the chain and it crashed right into his temple, knocking him out.

Gunfire erupted around her as her small army began picking off targets.

Layne immediately ran towards Joey, dropping to her knees and sliding a few inches towards his feet. She shook the chain from her wrist and withdrew the pocketknife Liam had gifted her with. It took nearly no time to slice through the silver tape and free Joey’s hands and ankles, freeing him to rip the tape from his mouth himself.

Shoving the knife back into her pocket, she exchanged it for her gun which she thrusted into Joey’s palm. No matter what Mick said, she trusted Joey’s aim any day of the week.

“You okay?” There wasn’t much time to have a long-winded conversation as she snatched up the heavy-duty chain from the ground.

Joey nodded. “You’re late.” He raised the gun and fired a couple of shots at the nearest threats.

She lightly scoffed, “It’s your job to be on time, not mine.” Layne grinned behind her mask as her eyes darted around the room, looking for Liam and Mick. Landing eyes on her brother first, he was ducking behind a column and returning gunfire as he began making his way gradually toward the curved staircase that led to the next floor up.

Before she could visually track down Mick, a few of Liam’s hired hands ran at her and Joey. Despite the rough shape Joey appeared to be in, you’d never know it by the way he fought off the first attacker that made it to them.

Layne wielded the chain to smack it against the arm of a man who came at her. However, she fell forward as another one pummeled into her from behind. “Oof!” She hit the ground hard.

No sooner than she met the floor, the weight on her back was lifted. Gage easily jerked the man off her and shoved him toward Joey who dropped him like a fly with one shot between the eyes.

Both De Lucas grabbed one end of the metal chain wrapped around her left hand and assisted in pulling her up to her feet as it felt like shell casings were raining down all around them.

Joey and Gage glanced down at the links in her grasp, the irony not lost on them that what should have been an item used to keep a person bound, their feisty shamrock repurposed it as a weapon.

With the others managing to hold their own, she searched for any sign of Mick. “Where did Mick go?”

Taking a quick glance around, Gage responded, “He’s got to be here somewhere. We’ll find him.”

At that time, another wave of Liam’s supporters swarmed into the room. Fucking hell.

The three of them immediately got put on the defensive, as everyone began utilizing whatever they had to survive. Joey emptied the remainder of the bullets in the gun Layne had given him before he began physically assaulting anyone who looked like a threat.

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