Page 75 of Chaos Luck Wrath

Kissing the top of her head, Joey lovingly smiled. “You’re ours, always and forever.”

The priest stood between the two headstones as he spoke loud enough for all to hear, “Two young lives, lost all too soon. Liam and Layne O’Reilly, two vibrant souls who have gone home to be with the Lord.”

Gage and Joey stood there next to each other in their black suits, gathering amongst the others who had come to pay their respects to the O’Reilly siblings.

Joey leaned over and whispered to Gage, “This is weird right?”

Gage lifted a brow and whispered back, “Which part? The part where both of these coffins are empty? Or the part where the woman over there,” he pointed at the dark-haired woman who had introduced herself as Nicole, “has been ready to jump your bones now that you’re technically widowed?”

Layne had been extraordinarily clear that there was no way in hell Liam’s corpse was being buried next to her unoccupied grave, and neither of them could argue with her. She had chosen to have his remains cremated and then dumped into a randomly chosen porta potty. Joey chose to pay his respects to Liam in the most appropriate fashion afterward. A little harsh? None of them thought so.

She sat in the back of Joey’s Challenger and waited patiently as she observed the funeral services from behind the dark-tinted windows. Trying to pass the time, her hands fidgeted with the hem of the black dress she had chosen to mourn her life as the head of O’Reilly Enterprises.

Layne recounted the events that transpired the night she killed Liam. After both her men smothered her with their happiness to see she had survived Mick’s final effort to destroy her, they continued their extraction plans. The intention wasn’t just to get the hell out of that house of horrors, but to remove them all from the insanity of her days of leading a criminal organization.

Instead, the business was left in Sammy and Ethan’s capable hands. If everyone thought she had gone down in a blaze of glory, it gave the three of them a chance at something they never really had. It gave them a chance to enjoy time together without new and constant threats looming over them.

The most heartbreaking decision to make was deciding to keep as few people in the know about her survival which included Layne’s bestie. Joey had been tasked with making the call to Rebecca to gently break the unfortunate news to her. However, things didn’t pan out as expected when she called bullshit on him.

One would have thought Rebecca was in denial, but the reasoning for her disbelief was pretty sound. Rebecca argued that Joey would have been in prison on numerous murder charges if Layne was truly dead–she wasn’t wrong. In fear for his own safety at Rebecca’s hands, Joey caved and added her to the short list of people who knew of Layne’s true fate.

Ultimately, Rebecca decided to stay down in Baltimore, having found her own happily ever after.

There were still a few matters to wrap up before they could ditch the city life, but things were well on the way to finding new adventures to get lost in.

When the graveside service wrapped up, Joey and Gage both returned to the car, taking up the two front seats.

“Was it a nice service?” she asked, hoping that her funeral was exactly how she pictured it.

Gage smirked as he turned to look back at her, “Baby if you’re asking if shots of whiskey were passed around and everybody raised them in a toast to you…”

“Oh, come on! It’s part of my final wishes and nobody had the balls to at least honor that small request?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, clearly disappointed.

Joey looked into the rearview mirror at her and smiled. “Layney, are you seriously going to be upset that your fake funeral didn’t live up to your expectations?”

She rolled her eyes at the stupid question. “How else am I going to make sure that I get the funeral I deserve when I actually die?”

“Are you rolling your eyes at me?” Joey smirked and started up the engine.

Gage looked at his brother with a devious grin. “I think she is.” He turned back around in his seat so he was facing forward. “We’ll have to do something about that when we get back home. I have a new toy with my Lucky Charm’s name on it.”

They all headed back to Gage’s condo in Hudson Yards. With Layne supposedly six feet under, the last thing they needed was anyone to spot her coming and going from O’Reilly Manor. It was a temporary living space, and as long as she had both De Luca brothers there with her, she didn’t care where she was holed up.

Stepping inside the front door, Gage shed his suit jacket, draping it over the back of one of the kitchen stools. Joey unbuttoned his jacket as he went to the fridge, pulling out three bottles of beer.

Layne leaned back against the edge of the kitchen’s center island and smirked as she looked at them both. “I have some news.”

Both guys looked at her curiously; there wasn’t usually anything that came as a surprise to either of them.

Joey popped the caps off of all three bottles before setting them on the counter next to Layne. “About what?”

With ease, Gage grabbed her waist and sat her down on top of the counter. His hands trailed over her hips down to the hem of her dress. Sliding his hands under the skirt of her dress along her bare thighs, he gave his boyish grin. “It better have to do with your lack of panties,” he ran his tongue over his bottom lip thinking about all the ways he could have her in the kitchen right then and there.

She smiled and shook her head. “Not quite.” Layne pulled a small envelope out of her purse that was on the counter next to her. “It was bothering me that Liam’s creepy and cryptic note never really made complete sense. He wanted something to do with 611 and it was driving me insane that I couldn’t figure it out.”

Taking a swig of his beer, Joey looked at the envelope in her hand. “I assumed he was just clinically insane and making shit up.”

She began to explain about the day before they all had ended up going down to the former Ellis residence, and how she had made her routine bank run. “While I was at the bank, the teller reminded me that there was a safety deposit box my dad set up in my name. It just so happens, the number of the box is 611.”

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