14. Job Offer

Chapter Fourteen

JOB OFFER

S unrise. Sundown. Rinse and repeat. There had been no word from her trusted trio of associates and it left her questioning whether doomsday would arrive sooner or later. There was no question it would arrive at some point.

Gage had forbidden her from talking with Liam, which had been easy enough since her brother hadn't bothered her since their last phone call. It was either a blessing or curse that she didn't have Liam chirping in her ear. But the silence? It was fucking unnerving.

Layne had kept the information about the unhinged Russian contact to herself. There was no need to get one or both De Lucas riled up over her consideration of involving a potentially risky third party. Not to mention, no matter how many attempts she made to get the QR code to work on the business card, it kept giving her various errors. They weren't your standard 404 errors when the webpage no longer existed; the errors had such foreign code to her that she was pretty sure she had been trying to break into the Matrix.

"Have you heard back from…" Joey grimaced before saying Brandon's cringy hacker name, "Cowboy?"

Layne pulled another dress from the rack inside the high-end clothing store, looking it over she shook her head. "No, he said he should have something soon though. He's just running through the street cameras looking for any sign of Liam and his two miscreants coming or going from the Chinese restaurant."

She turned and raised the black satin cocktail dress for Gage to see. "Yes or no?"

Gage immediately shook his head and gave a thumbs down. "Baby, while anything you pick is going to look amazing on the floor, I think you're better off with something that makes you stand out in the crowd. Everyone needs to know that you're with me and to bow down to the fucking Queen of New York." He grinned proudly.

"You said the theme is ‘Blackout' and everyone was going to be wearing all black!" Layne exclaimed in exasperation as she roughly returned the hanger to the silver hook it came from. Black dresses blended in with a crowd no matter which way you cut it. This was one of the reasons she loathed dress shopping without Rebecca.

Cassidy's Chains was hosting its official Grand Opening party in a month, despite already being open for business full-time. The party was invitation only and Gage was determined to make it one hell of an upscale bash.

Smirking, Gage reached over and pulled another dress from the rack. "How about this one?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her, looking oh-so-hopeful for her acquiescence.

Layne looked at the thin strip of fabric being marketed as a dress and placed a hand on her hip. "Are you kidding me? Wearing tinfoil would be more appealing." She shook her head and went back to flipping through the options in search of another black dress.

Gage chuckled and shrugged before returning the dress to where it came from.

Accompanying Layne shopping wasn't high on Joey's list of favorite things to do, but they had turned their group date into shopping, dinner, and a show. He leaned against a wall, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Feeling his phone vibrate a notification in his pocket, Joey dug it out and looked at the message that just came in. "Jonathan says he might have something of interest."

She shifted her attention over to Joey, her curiosity immediately piqued at the first sign of life from one of her worker bees. "Tell him after we leave here, we are heading to Qwerty for dinner, he can debrief me before we eat."

Clearing his throat, Gage chimed in, " After we eat. Anything related to your brother pisses you off and then you bitch you're not hungry. So, he can tell you after you have something in your stomach."

With a frustrated groan, Layne rolled her eyes. "So, I can be pissed and nauseous throughout the show?"

"After dinner then," Joey confirmed, taking Gage's side as he texted the details over to Jonathan. If she was worried about the topic of Liam souring her mood tonight, he had plans to counteract that. Plans that involved having her squirming in her seat during the show.

His eyes glanced over at Layne, lustfully thinking of all the ways to make sure she was aptly distracted during the highly-rated acrobat show they planned to attend. It wasn't some family-friendly circus show, this one was advertised as quite the opposite with darker themes of seduction and the magnificence of the human body.

Joey dropped his cell back into his pocket. As he was about to get comfortable against the wall, something caught his eye. He promptly walked over to a rack several down from Layne, selecting a dress from it, and he returned to them both.

"This one." The hanger dangled from Joey's fingers and suspended from it was a striking crimson dress.

Her eyes were immediately drawn to the beauty of the garment. While she thought it was stunning, it wasn't even close to the party's dress code. "Joey, it's red."

Gage immediately let out an appreciative whistle. "It's perfect." He smiled broadly, immediately falling in love with the shape of the dress. His dick was stirring to life in his pants just thinking about how it would cling to Layne's body and how the color would match her spirit. Dress code be damned.

Despite her protests, both Joey and Gage refused to consider any other dress but the one Joey had selected. Once again, the De Luca brothers outvoted her.

After they left the store, they all had a delicious meal together at the oddly named upscale restaurant and microbrewery.

At the end of the meal, Jonathan arrived at their table. He stole an unused chair from the next table over and dragged it to the empty space between Gage and Layne.

Standing, Gage's hand took the back of the chair her associate brought over. "Take my seat."

The two men stared at one another in a battle of intimidation before Jonathan looked to Layne for her opinion. Gage didn't bother waiting for input from anyone; he immediately occupied the chair right next to Layne. He didn't give a fuck who the pretty boy thought he was, he didn't want anyone coming between him and his girl.

"Looks like you're taking Gage's seat." Layne shrugged.

Doubling down, Gage draped his arm along the back of Layne's chair and flashed a shit-eating grin.

With Joey seated on the other side of Layne, he smirked knowing damn well he would have done the same exact thing as his brother. Well, maybe he would have done it a bit more aggressively and shoved Jonathan down into the seat.

Layne took a large sip from the frosted pint glass filled with a beer that had hoppy notes of citrus and pine. It carried enough of an alcohol content that she was feeling less tense than she had at the start of dinner.

Not able to wait another minute to hear whatever was discovered, she prompted him, "Spill it." Her eyes set on the man who was supposed to be a diplomatic guru and curator of navigating the toughest conversations.

Jonathan subtly wiped his palms against the thighs of his pants. "He purchased 430 East 84th Street."

She damn near dropped her beer. If it hadn't been for Gage's quick reflexes that took the glass from her hand and set it on the table in front of her, it would have ended all over the front of her blouse and jeans.

"Motherfucker," Joey grumbled, recognizing the address of the residence of one very deceased Eric Ellis. Layne had put the piece of real estate on the market months ago and recently off-loaded it with the acceptance of a generous offer.

The disbelief threaded through each of Layne's words, "What? It was sold to a corporation; it was plain as day on the settlement papers."

Her associate apologetically scrunched his eyebrows together as he looked at her. "SVO everyone on edge, waiting.

"Um, he turned it down, but… Liam offered Sam a well-paid spot on his team if Sam would, I quote, ‘force his dick in you until you were broken and bleeding'." It was clear from the shade of beet red that Jonathan's cheeks were now turning, that he hadn't wanted to deliver this message either.

Gage nearly flipped the damn table over the second he shot up onto his feet, ready to brutally slaughter the messenger.

As the words sank in, Layne sat there feeling like the walls were closing in all around her.

Joey's rage followed closely behind his brother's but had the clarity not to take it out on Jonathan.

In the depths of her soul, Layne wanted to believe that those words never came out of Liam's mouth. Yet, all she could hear was her brother's twisted laughter inside of her head. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force all the thoughts back into a tiny black box inside of her where she never had to acknowledge they existed.

When her eyelids popped back open, Joey was ripping Gage off of her associate who appeared so shaken that she would be surprised if he hadn't pissed his pants.

Getting in Jonathan's face, Gage spat out threat after threat, "If any of you fuckers ever consider laying a goddamn finger on her, I will fucking toss you into a bath of nitric acid and watch you rot!" He clenched onto the front of Jonathan's shirt, gave him several harsh shakes, and refused to let go.

She fought the urge to look around at the gawkers who were watching the scene they were causing in the otherwise tame atmosphere. Instead, she focused on reeling in her thoughts within the unraveling chaos in her small little world there at the table.

Attempting to force the trembling sensation in her limbs to cease, she got onto her feet. She put a hand each on Joey and Gage to draw their attention. Maybe it was the pleading look in her eyes or the draining of color from her face, but the hold on Jonathan's shirt was relinquished and Gage allowed Joey to pull him back a few steps.

Her head was spinning, so when she spoke to her associate who was sitting there wide-eyed, she wasn't even sure how much of what she said was intelligible. "Find out why—why he bought the house."

She backed up a couple steps and grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair on her hurried exit from the restaurant. Gage followed directly behind her, leaving Joey glaring at Jonathan.

"The next time you have any information on that fuckface, you bring it to me first." There was no need for Joey to tack on an ‘or else' to his demand, the deadly cold stare he gave was enough to make a corpse shiver.