4. No News

Chapter Four

NO NEWS

" I 'm dying," Joey grunted. "The food here tastes like Layne cooked it." He tossed the plastic fork down on the tray in front of him. The plate housed what could only be described as slop in a shape that might resemble the food it was supposed to be.

"Fuck you!" Layne's hand smacked his leg at the offensive statement.

It had been a little over three weeks of listening to Joey bitch about still being stuck in the hospital. If it wasn't the food, it was the bed, the lack of anything to do, and most importantly, the lack of sex. At least his chest tube had been removed and he had been transitioned from the Intensive Care Unit into a regular room as of last week. It granted him a little more freedom and space.

Joey winked at her. "My cock is right here. Mount up, Layney." In response, he got one of those eye rolls from her that made his sexually deprived dick begin to perk up.

Gage laughed as he looked over at Layne and shrugged. "Baby, you have many talents, but cooking is definitely not one of them. There's a reason why Rebecca is always stocking up your freezer with meals."

Layne pointed a finger at Gage. "Don't you start." Her eyes went back to Joey as he sat there in his bed and she took another bite from her granola bar. After swallowing, she sternly spoke to him, "I told you, you're not getting anything until you're cleared for physical activity. I don't need my last memories of you to be performing CPR on you while your dick is still in me."

Sitting on the spare seat next to a circular table across from Layne and Joey, Gage smirked with pride. "Don't worry, bro. I've been keeping her pussy busy for you." He was all too happy to point it out.

Glaring at his brother, Joey grumbled and shook his head. Other than the moment inside the church, he hadn't even been able to give his wife a proper fucking and it was leaving him with the worst case of blue balls. He would rather go down drowning in Layne's pussy than via gunshot, that was for sure.

Intentionally, he changed the topic. If they continued talking about sex, he would be tempted to say fuck it and jerk off right there in front of them both.

Approaching the topic cautiously after Layne's last blow-up over her brother, his chocolate-colored eyes looked at Layne, trying to keep his gaze above her shoulders. "Any news on where Liam is holed up?"

She pulled her legs up onto the chair she was sitting in at Joey's bedside as she nibbled at the nut and oat snack in her hand. Shaking her head she spoke with clear frustration, "No. There's been nothing from the guys on tracking him down. He's gotta be hiding out somewhere. I had Ethan check out his old place down in Tribeca, but it doesn't look like it's been touched since he got arrested." At the same time Ethan had scoped the place out, he had helped her coordinate getting Liam's crap out of there and into storage for the time being.

Gage raised a brow, "Do we even know when he got out? I thought he didn't make bail."

She shrugged. "I didn't think he did either, but both the court clerk and Department of Corrections aren't being cooperative in giving me any information."

Joey blew out a breath of air angrily. "Motherfucker better be prepared when I get out of here. I don't care what rock he is hiding under; I'm going to track his ass down."

Pulling a knee to her chest and resting her chin on top of it, she looked over at him. "And do what, Joey? Give him another chance to finish the job?" She frowned, hating that they were in this situation at all. Despite being her little brother, Liam had shattered the last of her shaky bond with him the day he aimed his weapon at her.

Quickly replacing Joey's feeling of horniness was his rage at the little shithead. "I don't give a fuck, Layne! Sitting here and doing nothing keeps you an open target."

Lifting her chin off her knee she reflected the irritation right back at him. "I'm not sitting here and doing nothing! Jesus Christ! I've been trying to juggle business, worrying about you, and this entire fucking Liam disaster. What else do you want me to do, huh? If he was smart, he has left the damn country already." Wasn't that wishful thinking?

Deciding to play referee, Gage got up from his chair and walked over to them. "Alright, let's just chill the hell out for a second, okay?" He looked at Layne. "We know you've got a lot going on, nobody is suggesting you handle this all on your own." Then, he turned to Joey. "She's not going to be a target as long as I've got eyes on her. We'll find him."

Just as she was going to tell Gage she didn't need him constantly keeping eyes on her, the same nurse with the dark hair Layne had met up in the ICU walked in with a bright and bubbly smile on her face. "Hope I'm not interrupting; I just need to swap in some fresh fluids." Her hand motioned to the bags leading into Joey's IV.

Joey nodded, "Yeah, go ahead." It would at least give him the opportunity to simmer down a little.

The conversation between the three of them paused with the nurse now present. The general public didn't need to be privy to the plotting and conspiring of her brother's ultimate demise.

Layne felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She reached in for it and pulled it out seeing an unknown number on the screen, not an uncommon occurrence given the clientele she worked with. "I need to take this." There was a strong hope that maybe one of her associates had uncovered something useful.

She stood from her seat and walked away from them both, keeping her back to them. Layne stopped and stood at the small table where Gage had left the last half of his lunch, his wallet, and his keys scattered across it. Answering the call she placed the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

A dark and harsh voice spoke quietly, "Don't say a damn thing. I would hate for one of the nurses to fuck up and introduce a deadly air embolism into fuckface's vein." Liam's voice on the other end of the call sent a chill down her spine.

Glancing back over her shoulder, the nurse was seemingly having a pleasant conversation with the guys. Layne looked back down at the table in front of her as she placed a hand on her hip and bit her tongue. She wanted nothing more than to lay into him with all the hate-filled words she could come up with.

It was clear he knew precisely where she was and who she was with. She couldn't be sure if he was bluffing or not, but after almost losing Joey once she wasn't going to take the risk of it happening again.

When she said nothing further, Liam continued speaking. "We need to meet and talk." He gave a thoughtful pause before continuing, "Unless you'd rather I find someone else worthy of paying the price on your behalf since your freak of a husband didn't have the good sense to die?"

Layne's body tensed from head to toe with her anger. Her hand squeezed tighter onto her hip to prevent the trembling from her emotions from being visible while adrenaline surged to prompt her heart to gallop in her chest. She tried to swallow down the knot in her throat, but no matter how many times she attempted it remained lodged there. "Just give me the details." She had chosen her words carefully to not draw any attention from Joey or Gage to the conversation.

The malicious chuckle on the other end of the line made her want to put her fist through a window. Liam responded to her request, "Thirty minutes, House of the Chinese Dragon. Have the good sense to come alone and don't be late, okay? We are long overdue for a little brother-sister bonding time. I would hate to feel like I need to make good on my promises to finally get you to listen."

Being familiar with the restaurant, she knew it would be a tight timeframe to make it down there in half an hour. She didn't even have her damn car here since Gage had insisted on driving her all over the place. "Sure thing."

Before Liam hung up, he left her with a short and artificially sweet goodbye, "See you soon, sis."

Keeping the phone to her ear even after Liam ended the call, she turned around and walked past the guys. On her way by, she pointed to her phone and then out to the hallway to indicate she was going to finish the call right outside Joey's room. She got a nod from each of them in acknowledgment before disappearing from their sight.

Not long after Layne stepped out, the nurse's pager went off and she glanced down at it. Quickly, she finished up her work of swapping out some bags and making sure that Joey's vitals were all on point before she presumably left to see the next patient.

Joey rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. "I can't sit in this place any longer. It's driving me fucking insane. Not being able to see or touch Layne any time I wake up in the middle of the night is a damn nightmare."

Gage sighed, "I told you, I've got this. Did they give you an idea of when you're being released?" He leaned back against a wall comfortably.

Shaking his head, Joey responded, "If all continues to look good, in the next two weeks. Apparently, I've been healing like a fucking badass." He proudly smiled. "The doctor said on the 15th, I think." Then, it hit him, his smile faded, and he groaned. "Fuuuck." He tilted his head back against his pillow.

Gage's eyes widened with a bit of concern at the sudden shift in Joey's demeanor. "What is it?"

Joey frowned and pulled his head upright again. "That's the anniversary of Layne's mother's death." His fingers combed through his dirty blonde hair. "Goddammit. I have to be out of here before then."

He saw the look on Gage's face which indicated that while he was empathetic about the gravity of the day itself, his brother was clueless about what it meant for their girl. Joey further explained, "She's going to be a fucking wreck that day, she always is. I'm talking about drinking to find the bottom of the barrel and then some. With everything going on, I have to be there for her this time."

"We'll figure it out, man. I'll talk to the doctor, get him to clear you, and we can both find a way to keep her…preoccupied that day." Gage paused and looked at his watch, "She's been on the phone for twenty minutes."

"Fuck, I hope that means it was good news." Joey shook his head, feeling doubtful.

Gage walked over to the round table where all his belongings were. He grabbed a bag of gummy bears and then paused, tilting his head. "Huh."

Joey raised a brow, "Hm?"

His brother turned with a puzzled and concerned look on his face. "My keys were right here." Gage patted the pockets of his jeans to make sure he hadn't put the set of keys back in them. Each pocket turned up empty.

"Fucking hell." He dropped the bag of gummies down onto the table and jogged out of the room into the hallway. He saw nothing but medical staff and visitors milling about. There was no sign of Layne.

Jumping to the same conclusion as Gage, Joey cursed and shoved the sheets off of himself as he got out of bed. He ripped the tape off where the IV fed into the back of his hand, then pulled the line out. There wasn't even a wince at the pain which paled in comparison to everything else he had already been through.

If Layne took off, it wasn't for anything good and Joey wasn't going to wait until he was discharged to get the hell out of this godforsaken hospital. They would have to detain him against his will and have all of the New York Army National Guard posted at the door.