Chapter 23

It was the end of yet another successful night at Cassidy's Cave. Gage sat in his office, leaning back in his chair with a sigh as he rested his eyes. It was nearly two in the damn morning. He wasn't thinking about sleep though. Instead, he had one particular image in his mind. The way Layne looked up at him while on her knees through her dark lashes, how her body moved while taking him in, and the sight of his handprints being left behind on her curvy ass cheeks.

His dick was quickly twitching in his jeans, growing harder with each thought of Layne and all the things he still wanted to do to her. Gage wanted to see her tiny hands bound together while laid out on his bed begging to be taken any way he pleased. He pictured how his collar would look around her slender neck. All these thoughts had his dick raging with need. His hand drifted down to undo his belt and pants. Sliding his hand inside his pants he took hold of himself.

Quietly he whispered to himself, "That's it, baby. Beg for your Daddy." He groaned imagining Layne's response in his head.

It wasn't long before his fantasy was chased away as he was rudely interrupted by a knock on his office door. Before he could call out to acknowledge the knock, Danielle poked her head in. "You have a second?"

Pulling his hand from his pants, Gage opened up his eyes and leaned forward in his chair forcing her a smile like he wasn't just about to jack himself off. He scooted his chair in while he discreetly while he single-handedly closed his pants back up.

"Yeah, what's up?" He shifted in his seat trying to ignore the throbbing of his cock.

Ever since the night that Layne had come into the private room and interrupted Danielle's weekly gig for Italo and his guys, she had been picking up extra shifts to make up for the generous tips she was now missing out on. Gage had to admit, she was working extra hard around here. If half the girls would put in a fraction of that effort, he would be making bank on even their slowest nights.

Danielle walked in, wearing a pair of black hot shorts that left most of her ass hanging out and a white Cassidy's Cave crop top that barely fit over her fake tits. Like most of the girls he hired, she was extremely attractive and held up the strip club's reputation for having some of the best adult entertainment.

"Before I leave for the night, I was wondering if you need anything." She flipped the extensions of her long bleached hair back over her shoulder. Her eyes drifted down towards his waist.

He stared at her and shook his head. "If you've already closed out all your tabs and helped clean up the tables, you're free to go." Gage wasn't an idiot; he knew that some of the girls had their sights on him. When they all walked around nearly naked, he had seen his share of wet panties and sexy innuendos directed at him. As a good business practice, he didn't lay a finger on any of them. After meeting Layne, he didn't even want to.

She tried to mask her disappointment that he hadn't even thought twice before responding to her. "If you need anything in here taken care of, I can help out." Her eyes glanced down to his lap again as she started to lean forward over his desk.

Another intrusion into his office followed before he could dismiss Danielle's advances, this time it was a much more welcomed one. Layne walked in, stopping short as she had expected him to be alone.

Layne had on a pair of tight and heavily distressed jeans with strategic rips and tears across her thighs. Under the forest green jacket, she was wearing what looked like the top half of some lingerie. The black lace was flush against her skin and pushed up those nicely sized breasts of hers that she flaunted so perfectly.

Right behind her was Joey who seemed equally as surprised at Danielle's presence. He wore a black leather jacket with a faded graphic tee underneath it. His jeans had a few minor spots of old motor oil, indicating he was likely working on his car while wearing them at some point.

Straightening up from her bent-over posture, Danielle glanced back at the two party crashers in disappointment. "Just give me a ring if you change your mind." She turned from Gage, walked up to Layne, and wrapped her arms around her neck in a hug.

Layne stood there awkwardly unsure if she should hug the girl back. She opted for a light pat on her back as she looked over at Gage with a confused expression on her face. Secretly, she had hoped that one of them would save her from the bizarrely random gesture. Had this girl just gone from flirting with Gage to suddenly hugging her? And for what?

Danielle smiled at Layne after releasing her hold. "I wanted to thank you."

One of Layne's eyebrows perked up. "For what?"

"Oh!" She gave the fakest of giggles as she realized that it was unclear to Layne. "Ever since Italo and his gang stopped coming here, it has been such a blessing. They were a bunch of creeps. Honestly, they were shitty tippers with even smaller dicks. After you came that one night, they haven't bothered showing their faces again."

The twist of confusion on Layne's face increased as she tilted her head at the statement. Sure, she had interrupted Danielle's private party in that room, but she had been wearing her mask.

"Um. You're… welcome? I don't know why you think…" Layne shot looks over at Joey at her side and Gage across the room.

Danielle gave her a wink. "I would know these curves anywhere." Her hand slapped Layne's ass. It came so unexpectedly that Layne nearly jumped out of her boots as her eyes widened slightly.

The guys seemed to find humor in Layne's surprised reaction as they stifled their laughter. Danielle walked out of Gage's office, and Joey shut the door after she was gone. "It seems we're not the only ones that appreciate how fuckin' hot you are," he said as he moved over to the chair in front of his brother's desk and took a seat.

Layne was still a little weirded out by the entire encounter. Sure, Rebecca had given her ass a smack or three but it had always been during drunken shenanigans. She shook her head trying to reset her focus on why she and Joey were both here.

She approached Gage's desk, partially taking a seat by perching half her ass on it so she could look at both of them. "I heard back from Brandon." Or, as he preferred to be called by his hacker name, Cowboy. He had been a great asset to Layne after Joey had introduced them during their initial investigation into Eric's dirty work.

"He said that technology has changed so much over the last ten years, there wasn't much to work with to confirm if Russell had a hand in what happened with Rosie. As for Eric," she swallowed down the nausea churning in her stomach at even saying his name. "His operations were still in their infancy, making them far more difficult to trace. He could have contacted Russ, but there's no way to be sure."

Joey's eyes still held a little bit of rage knowing that Eric was still stirring up shit postmortem. He shifted his look to Gage. "Also, since Sean hated anything that left a trail, we don't have anything like cameras to rely on." Despite repeated requests from patrons to at least put a television in McGregor's, Sean had been a hardheaded son of a bitch and refused any bit of technology.

Gage ran his fingers through the shortly-cut blonde hair on his head as he tried to think of other avenues. "What about street cameras?"

Layne shook her head. "That area is jam-packed with people coming and going. It would be impossible to tell who may have been inside at any given time. We'd be pulling from an entire city's worth of straws."

"Fuck," Gage sighed. This wasn't the news he was hoping for. He really wished that Joey and Layne had just let him shove a gun down Russ's mouth that night at Bethesda Fountain. It would have solved a shit ton of his problems, or at the very least would have made him feel better.

Joey propped his feet up on the edge of the desk, crossing his ankles. "The best we've got is what all of the city's top-tier criminal leaders have had to say." Which wasn't much.

The cocoa-colored hues belonging to Gage reflected a moment of realization of a new approach. "What about your brother?"

She wrinkled up her forehead. "What about him?"

"Would he have insight or something that could be a lead that we haven't already considered?" Gage looked so hopeful that maybe this was the key to it all.

It made Layne snort. "Liam wouldn't know good intel from his own ass."

"Is he still at Rikers?" Joey curiously asked since he hadn't heard Layne griping about her brother recently.

Layne shrugged, the lack of fucks obvious from how she did so. "Probably, I guess? I haven't talked to him. I know he didn't make bail at his arraignment and that was the last shit I had to give about it. Let him pay the piper."

"Alright, then back to square one. We keep digging." Gage still was sure that Russ had involvement in all of this. He sure as hell wasn't going to let history repeat itself and allow Layne to suffer the fate that Rosie had. He knew they were two very different women, but he never wanted to see Layne endure anything less than what a goddamn goddess deserved. A fuckin' dangerous goddess that deserved the gods of chaos and wrath at her side.

They all sat around and chatted a little longer, talking out some other unturned stones that perhaps they could turn over. Finally, Layne had decided all the iced coffee she had ingested earlier needed an outlet. She left Gage's office to see herself to the ladies' room.

Once Gage was sure that Layne was out of earshot, he looked over at Joey. "She's stressed. I don't like it." Layne would never admit it, but she would carry the weight of her world on her shoulders even though she had a hell of a support system to share the load.

Joey nodded in agreement. "Until this all gets resolved, I don't think it's going to get any better. She was talking earlier about postponing the wedding just until everything settles."

With an immediate opinion on that issue, Gage shook his head. "You didn't agree to that, did you?"

Dropping his feet back down to the floor, he could only shrug. "It doesn't matter if I agreed to it or not, Gage. She's hellbent and set on it. Rebecca even got involved, threatening to wear some hideous pumpkin gown if Layne didn't change her mind."

Nodding his head as he soaked this all in, Gage let the gears in his head spin. He suddenly smirked, thinking back to earlier when he had been alone with his thoughts. "You know what I think she needs?"

Scoffing, Joey was sure Layne needed a lot of things but he didn't initially follow the mischievous look on his brother's face. He glanced over at Gage who appeared to settle on a devious course of action. Finally catching on, Joey grinned. "You mean…?"

Gage nodded slowly, giving a large smile. "I do. I'm game if you are. Everything should be shut down up front and everyone gone for the night."

"Fuck, yes." Joey's excitement was already building up. "Let's go get her."

Gage's hand dug into his desk drawer, retrieving something that just might come in handy. Shoving the item into his pocket, he stood from his chair ready to give their girl the time of her life.