29. Greatest Act of Love

Chapter Twenty-Nine

GREATEST ACT OF LOVE

I t sounded insane, even to her, to say the name of a dead man out loud. Every plan that she had plotted inside her head hadn't accounted for his presence.

With a cocky smile, he took a step closer to her. "Speechless? I guess death isn't the end after all." Each word he spoke sent a chill through her body like pointed icicles stabbing the strength of her resolve.

Layne pushed past all the questions clouding her brain and lunged at Mick, barreling her shoulder into his chest to knock him off balance. Despite the minimal light, she was able to grab hold of his shirt with one hand while her other drew her firearm.

Mick's bear paw of a hand was soon wrapped around her wrist as she struggled to aim the gun at the fucker who should have been buried six feet under. So much for headshots being permanent. Questions could be asked later.

As his upper body strength quickly overtook her, she thrust her heel up into his gut. Her wrist broke free from his grasp as they both stumbled back from one another. Aiming the weapon in his direction, she pulled the trigger to fire off the first shot.

With her finger squeezing the trigger, a force slammed into her head from behind. The bullet from her gun shot up into the darkness, missing its intended target. Her Glock clattered against the floor and slid several feet from her. Immediately, she dropped to the ground harder than a bag of cement. Trying to maintain her wits, she winced at the pain blossoming across the back of her skull.

Layne had been so distracted by Mick's resurrection that she hadn't realized there was another goon waiting to strike.

Weakly, she attempted to scramble onto all fours, only to have the rubber sole of a boot force her back down onto her stomach. Mick had a satisfied smirk stretched across his weathered face as he walked toward her.

"As I've always said, you're a stupid little bitch," Mick spoke with such disdain that she was certain that she'd be seeing either brimstone and hellfire or pearly gates soon enough.

Despite the sweet allure of unconsciousness wanting to drag her under, she stubbornly willed herself to keep her eyes mostly open. However, it was questionable how much she succeeded in those efforts as her recollection of the trip up to the former ballroom one floor above was spotty after she had been yanked to her feet.

When the double doors swung open to the expansive room, the lights from the chandeliers were blinding in comparison to the rest of the lack of lighting throughout the house. With one hand of the miscreant latched on the back of her neck, and the other squeezing her upper arm painfully, she had nowhere to go.

Layne was still feeling wobbly on her feet, and as she looked at the occupants of the sweeping expanse of the ballroom her remaining strength was ready to check-the-fuck-out.

There were hired hands all around the room, more than she wanted to give her brother credit for. At the center of it all, Liam was standing there with a stupid fucking glass of whiskey in his hand like he suddenly was the epitome of sophistication amongst douchebags. To his right, tied to an ornate gilded chair, was Joey.

Controlling her facial expressions was never a strong suit, and seeing half of her heart strapped down to the chair with obvious wounds to his face and bloodied clothes made it nearly impossible. There was no telling just how much of Liam or Mick's hatred he had endured in her absence. With the skull mask covering the lower half of her face, she considered it a blessing in this instance.

"Sis!" Liam exclaimed like he was seeing her for the first time in years. "I am so happy you made it! Fuck, you certainly took your time, didn't you?"

Mick walked past her to join Liam at his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, like a proud papa. "I told you, Liam. It just requires a little bit of patience."

Still being detained by the asshole at her back, she began quickly assessing the already dire situation. Her emerald eyes kept glancing over at Joey. His eyes were shut and all she could do was pray to see them open one more time. Duct tape was not only covering his mouth but bound his hands behind his back and adhered his ankles to the legs of the chair.

"You got me here, Li. Congrats," she spoke up without looking at her brother. Layne took notice of several other men standing along the far walls. Even with her anticipated support on its way, they were still outnumbered.

She continued, "I guess this means you win." Her words lacked any level of sincerity.

The sound of her voice prompted Joey to open his eyes wearily. He was alive and that in and of itself was motivation to keep fighting. If she walked in here only to find him dead, she would have gone blind unleashing the wrath of all hell's inner circles.

Sipping from his glass, Liam was all too happy as he smiled. "Oh, I've always been the winner, Layne. I've just been waiting to see how long you were willing to keep pathetically playing along."

Her eyes met Joey's, trying to convey reassurance to him with looks alone. It was interrupted when Mick stepped between them, breaking her line of sight.

Layne ground her teeth together as she glared at Mick. "How the hell are you even here?"

The man who she could have sworn had been killed in the dining room of O'Reilly Manor, seemingly had an aversion to death.

Mick grinned at her before turning and walking to Joey's side, gripping his shoulder firmly. "Well, it seems your fucktoy here isn't as great of a shot as he thinks he is. You should have seen his face when I caught him trying to set an explosive on my truck last night." He gave a laugh reminiscent of a clown on crack.

He lifted two fingers to a spot just behind his ear, tapping a scar at the base of his skull by his hairline. "Call it a blessing from God, maybe even a damn miracle, but the bullet entered behind my ear here and came out just above my occipital bone. Head wounds bleed like a fucker though, don't they?"

"And your funeral?" Layne inquired.

"A setup," Mick responded with a shrug like he was discussing the weather. "I had a real come-to-Jesus moment after that night. I realized with your dad withering away and Liam having no one to guide him, there was a real opportunity to see to it that the business remained in good hands. He's been so kind to make sure I've had adequate accommodations." Mick gestured at the room they were all in.

Liam added his side of the story, "You look as shocked as I was, Layne. When Uncle Mick showed up at my door, I couldn't believe it. He explained what really happened that night and how he wanted nothing but to see the family business thrive in the hands of its rightful owner. The only problem is you kept doing what you fucking do. You kept ignoring your place."

Taking another sip of the whiskey, Liam went to the other side of Joey and spat at the side of his face. "Then, you invite this asshole to live permanently between your legs and reap the benefits of a business that isn't his."

Joey grunted and pulled against his restraints in the chair. Layne's body tensed, waiting on edge for Liam to be stupid enough to do something that would force her to try to take on every fucking soul in this room by herself.

Chuckling, Liam looked at his sister. "To add insult to injury, you had to drag his brother into it. Speaking of which, I'm sure he's not too far. The great thing about Eric was he knew how to make a home a fortress, so my men will find him before he gets too far."

Liam looked at Mick like he was some savior. "Nevertheless, Mick has been guiding me and teaching me how to take back control of what is rightfully mine. If it wasn't for him, I may have eaten a bullet after Dad died."

If only.

Her brother continued to reminisce, "I was in a dark place, Layne. But once Mick helped me see my true potential, he made sure that my failed assassination attempt on your life became my advantage. He has been by my side nearly every day, ensuring that I never fail again."

Jesus Christ, Layne would have thought that Liam was ready to drop to his knees and start sucking Mick's cock the way he was placing the man on a pedestal.

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.

Wrapping the metal chain around some asshole's neck, Layne left it pinched around his throat letting him choke to death before she moved onto the next person looking to die.

Layne caught sight of Liam as he cowardly made a run for it up the stairs several feet from where she was. There was no way he was escaping so easily. "No, you don't, little fucker," she murmured.

Using her small figure, she managed to push through a couple of guys as she ran for the stairs after her brother.

Joey tossed one of Liam's goons off him, slamming a fist into his cheek and knocking him to the ground. He looked up as Layne ran up the stairs two at a time after Liam. "Layne!!"

The shouting of her name prompted Gage to thrust a knee into the scrappy asshole he was dealing with before directing his attention to the same sight that had Joey barking out their girl's name.

"Devon!" Gage shouted, glancing over his shoulder at his friend nearest to him. "Need your help over here!" If they were going to chase after Layne, they needed to get past the group of men blocking their path.

Layne made it halfway up the stairs before she turned to look at both men. It was a split second or less but her face softened with a silent apology clouding her green eyes. She tore her skull mask from her face, dropping it to the ground at her feet. Her perfect lips mouthed her love for them with those three little words before she continued her ascent up the steps following Liam behind the door at the top.

Just like that, she was gone.