15. Let the Games Begin

Chapter Fifteen

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

T he crisp air outside the restaurant had been more refreshing than the beer she had been drinking inside. The breeze swept away some of the panic that had been attempting to pull her under.

She pushed her arms into the sleeves of her cargo-style jacket, her hands pulling her long brunette tresses out from underneath the back of it afterward.

Layne remained standing out front, watching the hustle and bustle of the people on the sidewalk. The microbrewery, Qwerty, was basically in the center of the busiest section of Times Square. Even with the evening quickly falling over the city, the massive number of electronic signs lit up the area like it was high noon.

A pair of strong arms came down around her, pulling her back into the safety and warmth of Gage's chest. His face nuzzled into the side of her neck, lightly kissing over the soft skin, and inhaling the scent of her soap.

"How are you doing, Lucky Charm?" His voice was just loud enough for her to hear, but gentle enough to not come off as startling.

She swallowed down another piece of her anxiety. "I'm fine."

Gage's arms squeezed around her, wishing they could make everything right in her world.

Stepping outside right as Layne responded, Joey came around to face her. He cradled her face in his hands. "Layney, we all know that's bullshit. It's okay if?—"

With a bit more forcefulness in her tone, she repeated herself, "I said, I'm fine. If he wants to give me more reason to hate him, he's only making my life easier."

It was the answer she wanted them to hear, not the one she wanted to scream into the void. Trying to blow by the topic of her asshole sibling, she stepped out from between the two men. "We're going to be late for the show."

Allowing her to create space for herself, Gage dropped his arms from around her and Joey's fingertips glided across her cheeks as she began to walk into the flow of foot traffic.

Layne led the way, with Joey and Gage quietly conversing two strides behind her. Both of them made sure they had a set of eyes on her back.

Joey leaned over, whispering to his brother, "Have you heard back from any of your buddies if they've discovered any other shifts amongst the other factions?"

Gage shook his head. "Nothing. Have you made the call?"

Inhaling deeply with a slow exhale, Joey also shook his head. "I'm trying to avoid it. It's a favor I don't want to ask unless we get desperate."

"Joe, this shit isn't going to de-escalate itself. He already tried to shoot her once."

Grunting at the memory of the pain of having a bullet lodged in his chest, Joey's hand rubbed the fresh scar over his heart. "Don't have to remind me."

They all passed by a set of doors that led from a theater. Timing as it was, a show was just letting out and a sea of people came pouring from the double doors. The human stampede came between Layne and the guys, separating them further and obscuring Joey and Gage's view of their girl.

Joey yelled out, "Layne, hold up!" His words were lost over the sound of boisterous conversations of the audience that had just left the theater.

"Fuck," Gage muttered as he tried to push through the crowd.

When both guys got past the sudden surge of people, they still couldn't lay eyes on where Layne had wandered off to.

"She probably is still heading straight for the show's venue," Joey attempted to reason.

The two of them stepped off to the side, out of the flow of pedestrian traffic. Gage took out his phone and was in the process of pulling up Layne's location when a seemingly old homeless man with a Yankees ball cap approached them.

The strange man was hunched over and wobbly on his two feet. The brim of the cap shrouded his face, but visible was his peppered beard which was unkempt and scraggly as it extended several inches below his chin.

With an unsure and meek voice, the disheveled man leaned in towards Gage, "P-please, excuse me. Could you spare some money? I could use some food."

Barely sparing the man a glance and irritated with the homeless man's shitty timing, Joey placed a hand on the vagrant's chest to stop him from getting closer to Gage. "Sorry, man, can't help." Joey continued to peer over at the phone in Gage's hand.

Gage's impatience grew by the second as he waited for Layne's blue dot to appear on the phone's digital map. Just as it did, the stranger tried to pull the phone from his hands.

"Maybe I could use your phone instead?" The strange man's strangely clean hands tugged at the device Gage was holding.

Defensively, Gage grabbed the dude's wrist and took back possession of his phone. He flung the man's hand away from him.

Angrily, Gage shouted, "Back the fuck up, motherfucker! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Jesus, he had never seen a homeless person so damn brazen before.

Joey huffed and pulled a twenty from his pocket and tossed it at the guy. "Here, get the hell outta here asshole!"

The man fumbled for the bill and began to profusely thank them both, trying to shake their hands and grace them with all the blessings in the world.

When the crazy beggar went on his way, Joey looked over at Gage's phone. "Got eyes on her?"

With a nod, Gage zoomed in on her location and then looked up at their surroundings. "She should be right over there," his finger pointing towards the mob of tourists filling the heart of the popular sightseeing destination.

"Fuckin' Times Square," Joey muttered at the insanely busy area that made this place a nightmare to traverse.

Feeling the sudden herd of people behind her, Layne stopped and looked back. Her eyes were unable to locate either Joey or Gage. "Great…"

After feeling a figure knock into her shoulder, she stumbled a half step before a painful grip curled around her bicep. Her head spun around to face whoever was holding onto her, to be greeted with the face of the last person she wished to see tonight.

Liam's lips curled into a forced smile. "Keep walking." He yanked her close to his side.

Before she could protest, underneath the coverage of her jacket she felt the unforgiving metal tip of a blade digging into her side. It was positioned perfectly between her fourth and fifth ribs, if he wanted to drive it into her heart he easily could have.

Her brother leaned over and whispered into her ear as he led her farther away from her dutiful protectors, "At least fuckin' smile like you're happy to see me."

When her scowl didn't leave her face, more pressure was applied to the knife placed at her side.

Layne snarled as she mustered as much of a damn smile as he was going to get from her. "I'll be happy to see you when you're lying in a coffin."

As they walked into the thick crowd of the tourist area, he came to a stop right in the middle of the most densely populated section and also the most public. Times Tower, the twenty-five-story building with its iconic three-hundred-and-fifty-foot LED screen, loomed over them. The colors of the changing advertisements flashed across both their faces.

Her eyes quickly surveyed the busy surroundings. She scanned the area for Joey and Gage, assessed opportunities for a swift getaway, and noted the occasional police officer performing their public safety duties. Nothing was in her favor; Joey and Gage were lost in the crowd, the foot traffic was too thick and unpredictable, and murdering her brother in the middle of Times Square would be a publicity nightmare in the best-case scenario—battling homicide charges was the worst case. This was all assuming she wasn't stabbed to death first.

Keeping close to her, Liam's painful grip never let up. He kept his face inches from hers. "Did you get my message, Layne?"

She glared at him. "What message?"

Liam snickered, clearly getting off on the games he was playing that had been concocted inside his demented mind. "The message that there isn't anyone who I'm not willing to turn against you. Everybody has their price and I have the funds to pay it."

"Go fuck yourself, Li. Not everyone in my inner circle can be bought." Trying to pull her body away from the threat of being stabbed was unsuccessful and the tip poked through the thin layer of her shirt and then pierced the first layers of skin. Her hardened exterior faltered for the first time. Layne sharply inhaled as she winced, feeling the light tickle of a drop of her blood begin to drip down her side.

Her brother's face displayed wicked amusement at getting that brief reflection of her pain from her.

"Oh, you mean fuck boys one and two? Are you sure they're as loyal to you as they say?" He cocked his head at her, hazel eyes staring into her own and beating at the door of her soul's resiliency.

When she refused to respond, she was sure he was going to shove the blade between her ribs as the pressure continued to painfully increase.

"Check your phone." His weapon pulled back on the threat to impale her, but only just enough that she could breathe a little easier.

The urge to take her chances of making national headlines by blowing her brother away in Times Square was looking more and more appealing. However, she followed his instructions and her hand slowly pulled her phone from her jacket pocket. Her eyes glanced down at the screen where a notification from an unknown number was waiting for her.

"Go on, Layne, check your messages," Liam urged with nearly giddy excitement.

Using her thumb to unlock the phone and check the latest message, her fingers barely could conceal their trembling. When she pulled up the text, it only contained pictures.

The first picture was of a young woman in her early twenties with a large pregnant belly. Layne didn't recognize the girl at all. "So what? Do you need the birds and the bees to be explained to you?"

"Don't you know who that is? That's Mackenzie Pearce, the daughter of the tragically murdered Mayor Pearce. She's due with a baby boy any day now." The way Liam pretended he cared made Layne's disgust come to a head.

Her thoughts reeled back to when Joey had taken the contract on the retired mayor's head a little over eight months ago.

"You said it was an in-and-out job," Layne looked at Joey as he came into the living room, coming home later than expected.

He tossed his work duffle onto the floor next to the sofa, and his words came out strained with irritation, "It would have been, but apparently his daughter was visiting for the holiday and was staying over."

Layne lifted a brow. "So, what did you do?"

Joey's hand pinched the bridge of his nose. "What the hell do you think? I took care of it–of her."

She blinked several times at him at his snippy response and uncharacteristically bad mood.

"I'm going upstairs to shower and go to bed." He left her there without so much as an apology or effort to smooth over his shortness with her.

Normally after he finished a contract, he wanted nothing more than to curl up with her and relax. Not this time.

Coming back to the present with the image of the woman in front of her she felt conflicted with all the things her heart knew about Joey and what her brain was trying to rationalize.

Liam lowered his voice to ask his next question, "How confident are you that he bothered using protection when he was fucking her?"

Layne pressed her lips together in a hard line, trying to combat the intrusive thoughts riddling her core with doubts. Joey had never bothered using a condom when he was with her and since she was on birth control, she had never questioned it before now.

She tried to move past all the scenarios trying to infiltrate her mind by swiping to the next picture in the message.

The next image was of Gage and two attractive women inside his club. Looking closer at the surroundings, it was sometime after the renovations were done to convert Cassidy's Cave into Cassidy's Chains. Each woman was perched on one of his knees with his hands holding each of them around their waists. They were leaning in close to him, their fucking tits practically up in his face and their hands resting right on top of his damn crotch like they owned it.

Her brother frowned. "I'm sorry, sis. You deserve better. You can't possibly expect them to stick to one partner when you won't do the same." He watched as he saw the gradual decline in the faith of her two guys in her eyes filled with unshed tears.

Trying to come up with good reasons for the stories behind both pictures was becoming a losing battle. Her hand shakily turned the screen off yet she could see both photos popping up in her mind still.

Sniffling back her emotions, her eyes looked at Liam and shook her head firmly. "It doesn't change what you've done." Internally, she grasped for any straw of anger to chase back her rattled insecurities.

Liam shrugged and tapped the knife idly against her ribcage. "When you're ready to fall in line, I will be waiting. You had your chance to hand everything over to me and take your leave quietly. Now? Things have to get messy so that you can learn your lesson."

In the distance, over the dull roar of the crowd, she heard her name being shouted. Her attention was drawn away from Liam as she looked frantically for a familiar face or two. The first pair of chocolate eyes she met was Gage's, followed by the coffee hues belonging to Joey.

Realizing his time with Layne was up, Liam withdrew the threatening blade from her side and released his painful hold on her arm. No sooner had he done both of those things, than he thrust the knife down into the muscle of her thigh.

Layne gasped as she felt the cold steel enter her leg, when she looked down there was a goddamn pocket knife in her body. Well, fuck. That wasn't supposed to be there, was it? The searing pain quickly followed the sight her brain was trying to wrap itself around.

When she looked back up, Liam was already quickly blending back into the movement of people all around her. Ragged breaths escaped her as the pain and rage fused together in her veins.

Both her men had rushed to her the second they saw Liam leering over their girl. From their angle, they only saw a movement from Liam before Layne flinched and hunched over. The coward took off quickly thereafter.

"Layne!" Joey appeared at her side first.

Losing all sense in the hurricane of her feelings, she was already pulling out her Glock. Layne was prepared to empty her goddamn clip if it meant there was a chance of one bullet finding its way into Liam's skull.

Coming to her other side, Gage's hand abruptly shoved her arm back down, quickly pulling the firearm from her grasp and tucking it inside the front of his waistband underneath his shirt. He harshly whispered in her ear, "Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

"That fucking, son of a bitch, asshole!" The anger in her voice was enhanced by both the physical and emotional pain she was experiencing. She went to take a step to go after Liam, forgetting there was a fucking pocket knife stuck in her. Layne stumbled as the pain reminded her of that small but important fact.

Joey's hands caught her by her arm and waist. He looked down at Liam's parting gift and cursed under his breath. "Gage, we gotta get her out of here." He glanced around them, hoping between the both of them, they could cloak Layne's injury with their massive frames until they got someplace private.

Gage wrapped an arm around her. "Baby, just hold onto me."

She winced as the pain just seemed to blossom across her entire thigh now that her adrenaline was slowly fading. Feeling both of their hands on her, images flashed across her memory of the images on her phone.

"Don't touch me!" She snapped at them, shoving their hands away.

Seeing her lash out at both of them as they tried to help took them by surprise.

Her gaze fell back down to her leg and the blood soaking into her jeans. "Fuck!" Layne groaned as her hand went to the handle of the knife, wrapping around it ready to yank it out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Joey took both her hands before she did something stupid. "Just stop, Layne. Look at me and fucking think for a damn second."

While she was directing her vicious stare at Joey, it was Gage who began tying the arms of his jacket around Layne's hips to cover the glaring injury before anyone else noticed.

As clouded as her head was, filled with a myriad of emotions ranging from highs to lows, Layne still recognized that she couldn't just stand there in her current state. "Call Jonathan and have him come here to pick me up and bring me to Dr. Patty's."

Gage tightened the knot of the jacket around her hips and looked over at Joey, hoping he wasn't the only one of them confused by her request for one of her associates.

Not seeing any indication that Joey knew what the fuck was going on, Gage reached over to try to hold her face. "Look at me, Layne," his tone soft in hopes she wouldn't verbally or physically lash out again. "Let us help you, baby. I don't know what happened, but we need to get you patched up."

The tug of emotions in her eyes was causing them to fill with watery frustration and pain. "I don't want you to do anything except call Jonathan and have him come get me." Her voice shook. Jonathan wasn't her first choice, but he was likely the next best one given she knew he had been in the area after their discussion at the restaurant.

Joey's irritation was clear as he spoke under his breath, "This is fucking insane." Regardless, he pulled out his phone and called her associate as requested.

While he gave Jonathan directions, he and Gage assisted Layne to the nearest side street that was mostly out of the public eye. She stubbornly tried to refuse as much of their help as possible. Gage finally bit the bullet and risked suffering her wrath when he wrapped an arm around her waist and all but damn carried her the last few steps against his side.

Refusing to make eye contact with either De Luca brother, she silently leaned back against the side of a building while they waited for Layne's ride to arrive. Not accepting any further assistance, she used Gage's jacket to help stem the bleeding until she got proper medical attention.

Layne looked down at the knife buried in her left quadriceps. Her chin quivered as she saw the silver inscription lasered into the black handle.

J. De Luca