Chapter 29

Awar had been brewing and Layne was now ready to kick it off. She had been spending the last couple of weeks making plans with all her associates. Danielle may have been the most recent primary aggressor, but the Spencer name would spread like cancer if Layne didn't take action to put an end to it now.

Russ knew what games he was playing trying to encroach on the O'Reilly territory and hell if she was going to let him get away with it any longer. She had been too nice in trying to play politics. The time for sweet talking was over. She was going to send a message loud and clear to any factions in the city that supported him that she wasn't going to tolerate his bullshit any longer.

Joey and Gage both had her back in this endeavor. It didn't hurt to know if they wiped Russell from the playing board, with a little bit of luck they would also get to unleash their chaos and wrath on the man responsible for Rose's death.

Layne sat on the hood of her car in the middle of an empty parking lot, looking at her crew of men who had shown up for this evening's strategized power play. She was dressed in all black from her boots up to her long-sleeved shirt, and in her hand was her skull mask with its orange and green laces. Her hair crisscrossed into a French braid with matching orange and green ribbons running through it.

"Ethan, you take your crew and see to it that Russell's little souvenir shop with his office gets a hot bath in some gasoline." She couldn't wait to see that retail storefront burn down to its foundation.

Layne pointed at the man standing next to Ethan. "Sammy, go see to it that Russell's right-hand man doesn't see the light of day tomorrow."

She smiled as she got to the last of her senior associates gathered there with them. "And Jonathan, pay a visit to his favorite butcher shop and let them know we will be taking over all the accounts. If they have a problem with it, they can expect Ethan to show up there next."

Jonathan nodded at her, understanding the assignment, but he had some hesitation. "Layne, there's a lot more business in Russ's territory, this is a drop in the bucket."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and sighed. "I know, but it will have to be the starting point. We can keep pushing until everybody learns a damn lesson of who not to fuck with in this city."

Standing back a few feet from Layne"s car were both De Luca brothers. Each wore tactical black pants and black hoodies, ready to assist Layne in her role in tonight's endeavors. Joey had on his mask with its smiling skull jaw on it and Gage wore his hellish demon mask across his face.

"Actually…" Joey stepped up to Layne's right with a phone in his hand and showed it to Layne. A familiar face was on the video call smirking at her.

"Pchelka, why did you not invite me to the party sooner, eh?" Alexei winked at her. "I have my men on their way to visit a few other of Mr. Spencer's top clients. Consider it an early wedding gift."

Her eyes stared at Kuznetsov in shock and then over at Joey who even with his mask on seemed to be beaming with pride at this little surprise he presented her with. "Thank you." Layne meant it for both the Russian on the video call and the sneaky asshole who had coordinated with him.

Then, Gage came up on her left also with a video call on his phone. "That's not all, lucky charm."

Layne blinked a few times as she looked at Gage and on his screen were several faces she didn't recognize at all.

"I called in a few favors from some old friends from my days in Jersey City. They're going to help us out wherever we need them tonight." Gage explained to her, and one of the guys on the phone spoke up with a heavy Jersey accent.

"Don't let him fool you, he's a conniving asshole." The man joked with a hearty laugh. "Anything you need tonight, we got you."

She smiled and looked at Gage, moved that he had also gone out of his way to seek out extra help. God, she loved him. She loved them both so much. Layne offered her words of appreciation for Gage's friends before hopping down onto her feet in front of her car.

"Let's go give Russell the news." She dismissed the crew present with her and then turned to see Joey and Gage now side by side ready to accompany her.

Joey stepped up to her, took the mask from her hands, and placed it over her face. "No matter what happens, I've never been prouder, Layney."

"Me, too." Gage came up to her side and the three of them came into an embrace.

She smiled and patted each of them on their sides. "Alright, let's go before I change my damn mind and beg you both to take me home instead."

Each of their hands gave a swat to a side of her ass with Joey chuckling. "You can beg us later."

They piled into her car and Layne took the seat behind the wheel. She drove them all to Russell's house which was on the Upper West Side. Parking down the street from the Spencer residence, she sat in the driver's seat for a second running down her checklist and patting herself down to ensure she had her weapons all in place.

She took one more deep breath and nodded to herself. "I'm ready." Pulling out her phone, she shot off a text to Ethan to give him the green light to proceed burning down Russell's base of operations.

Layne got out of the car and began heading towards Russ's house. If she was going to do this, she was going to bestow the news on him herself. Joey and Gage stuck close to her, keeping an eye out for anything that might become a threat.

It was quiet in the neighborhood, which she had counted on being that it was half past midnight. She jogged up to Spencer's front door and waited off to the side, glancing at her watch. Layne was waiting on Russ getting the call that his shop was on fire, given the yelling she heard from coming inside the house, he had just received the unfortunate news.

A few more minutes passed and she nodded to Joey and Gage who were across from her on the other side of the door as she heard footsteps approaching from inside the house.

The moment the door opened up and Russ was ready to rush out to deal with the situation at his store, Gage rushed him and pushed him right back inside. Layne followed next and Joey filed in behind her, shutting the door.

Alarmed, Russ yelled out as Gage's hand had a grip on his shirt shoving him back against a wall. "WHAT THE FU—" His exclamation was cut off by Gage's fist colliding into his face.

A huge smirk pulled at Gage's mouth underneath the mask, it had felt exceptionally fucking cathartic to hit this motherfucker. Russ was stunned by the strike and was now glaring at the three of them. "What do you want?"

Layne pulled down her mask away from her face. "Hi, Russ." Her smile at him was full of confidence and fake pleasantries. "Hope you don't mind the late-night visit. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd swing by."

Joey did a quick check to make sure that there wasn't anyone else in the house before coming back to standby while Layne had her conversation.

Russ shook his head. "You stupid little bitch! Didn't you learn anything from the last time you came barging onto my property?"

She pursed her lips in thought. "Hmm, it seems not. It also seems you didn't learn anything either." Layne stepped in front of him, her striking green eyes staring at him. "I promised you a war. The sad thing about war is that it comes with casualties. Your psycho-bitch daughter was the first of what I imagine will be many more to come."

He made a move to come at her, but Gage shoved him back against the wall and Joey stepped up to assist in pinning him there. With one hand on Russ's shoulder, Joey dug the end of a handgun up underneath Russ's jaw. "Give me the tiniest excuse to blow your fuckin' brains out."

The ding of her phone went off in her pocket, followed by another one and another. She pulled her phone out and smiled to herself. "You see, Russ," her finger flipped through a few messages on her phone. "I have my men all over the city tonight taking over your assets one by one."

He scoffed at her. "You don't have the resources."

She gave an indifferent shrug. "No, you're right about that. However, I had quite a few friends step up to the plate to provide some assistance. While you were so busy focusing on picking off my assets one by one, I was having talks with other factions. It turns out, you're not as much of a well-liked guy as you seem to think."

Russ scowled at her and tried to maintain his confidence that this was all one huge bluff. "They'll all turn on you the moment you close your eyes. Even if they don't, my employees will feed your corpse to a bunch of rabid dogs."

She placed a hand on her chest, feigning the hurt of his words. "Oh, wow. That hurts nearly enough to make me change my mind." Layne shook her head and smirked. "Tell me one thing, Russ, who's going to give the order to come at me if I don't let you walk out of here tonight?"

Layne pulled up a photo on her phone from a message that had just come in from Ethan. She showed it to Russ and the way his face fell and the color drained from his face had been worth all the stress and sleepless nights the past few weeks. There on the screen was a photograph of his second-in-command, lying in bed with two fresh holes in his head.

She turned off her phone and slid it back into her pocket. "What happens next is up to you, Russ. I have some questions that I'm dying to know the answers to."

"Yeah, like what?" He struggled to get comfortable with both Joey and Gage tightly gripping onto him and the ever-present threat of the firearm lodged up against his neck.

Watching his face carefully to see how his expression would change, Layne spoke casually like they were about to discuss who won last night's hockey game. "When did you first meet Eric Ellis?"

The question seemed to throw Russ, unclear of where she was heading with this. "What?"

Gage tightened his hold painfully. "The lady asked a goddamn question." He said through clenched teeth.

Russell seemed to take a moment to count back the years. "It was well over ten years ago. Why the hell do you care about Ellis? He's fucking nothing but worm food now."

She pressed her lips together in a hard line knowing the next question quite possibly had an answer that she didn't want any of them to hear. Not because she wanted to live in ignorant bliss, but because she knew that it would be one that either confirmed years of pain and brought healing or left them at a loss with more unanswered questions.

"Did you take a job from him? One that involved taking an innocent woman and physically collecting a debt from her that left her for dead?" She swallowed hard as her chest tightened.

The reaction from him didn't satisfy Layne and she stepped closer so her face was up near his. "Did you?"

"I tossed Eric a favor every now and again, so it's possible. If you're talking about some blonde cutie that my guys picked up, then yeah, she was easy money. Too bad she broke a little too easily though, I had to ditch her to get her pussy sewn back up at the nearest vet." Each of his words lacked remorse.

Layne shook her head in disappointment and stepped back. "I am more than happy to let you walk out of here tonight, Russ. I want you to see how it's me taking all your assets from you and letting you get swallowed up by the rest of the scum in this city."

She looked at Joey and Gage, giving them both the look they had been waiting for. "But it's not about what I want. These two," she motioned to the masked men standing before him, "won't be allowing that to happen. They're going to be collecting a long overdue debt from you."

Joey shoved his pistol into his thigh holster so he could use two hands on Russ. They both yanked him away from the wall and dragged him through the house until they got to the kitchen.

Layne followed behind, watching as Russ cursed at all of them and attempted to wound them with insults. She leaned back against a wall and comfortably crossed her arms in front of her stomach. Her eyes were void of any empathy for the man who had scarred both her guys so many years ago.

What transpired next ended up being a kind ending to Russell Spencer's life in comparison to what he had put Rosie through. Both Joey and Gage took turns using him as a punching bag, allowing all their years of accumulated pain to be taken out on the man responsible for it. After that, things got a little more creative with the use of the garbage disposal destroying each one of Russ's hands at a time. The heavy stainless steel fridge door was slammed against the man's head until the door itself broke.

Finally, just when Russ was losing consciousness from the brutal attacks, Gage tossed him to the floor and pinned him there underneath the weight of his boot. "Goodnight, motherfucker." He pulled out his semi-automatic and fired three shots into the back of Russ's skull.

Layne slowly released a breath as it all came to a bloody conclusion. Standing there witnessing them both avenge Rosie's murder filled her with a mixture of feelings. One of which had her understanding both the guys on a different level. Her panties were growing damp with desire and arousal as each of them unleashed their fury.

She hoped that tonight could help them both heal and find their peace. More importantly, she hoped that this would be a clear message to anyone who fucked with her or anyone that she loved that Chaos and Wrath would follow. If anyone found themselves in the presence of Luck, may it be her good side.