Chapter 3

Last night had been draining on multiple levels, and this afternoon wasn't shaping up to be much better.

"I think it's better if you're not here." Layne looked at Joey as they both stood there in the office located on the first floor of the home they shared. On the exterior, she may have looked confident and at ease, but internally, her apprehension was coiled tightly with her nerves fraying.

He squeezed her shoulders, seeing straight past the multiple walls she had raised up all around her. With a nod he agreed, not liking it, but she needed to hold her ground on this. "Feel free to pop one in his ass if he gets too far out of line." It's what Joey would like to do to Liam regardless of being given a reason or not.

A smile cracked at the corner of her mouth. Joey grinned seeing a glimpse of one of the things that made his life worth living—Layne's happiness. His thumb and finger took her by the chin and drew her lips into a drawn-out kiss. It was a brief stint in his own personal heaven.

She could feel herself beginning to lose her control over the tough exterior she had spent all morning building up as his mouth took over hers. Layne had come to terms that Joey was capable of getting past all her defenses with so much as a damn look. However, today she couldn't afford to have her vulnerabilities on display like a highway billboard.

As much as she didn't want to end the affectionate moment, she eased her face away from his. "Get the hell out of here before I end up a puddle on the floor."

He smirked at her and whispered in her ear. "I will have you begging to be a puddle later."

Layne's cheeks flushed slightly with heat at the thought and she smacked her hand against his chest. "Go already!" Her teeth pressed into her bottom lip trying to suppress her smile.

Joey finally listened to her and left O'Reilly Manor to go take care of some business matters of his own. Word had gotten around that his masked alter ego might have had a hand in disposing of one very disliked mayor who had just stepped down from his position. Contracts were rolling in left and right, providing a steady stream of income.

Liam arrived twenty minutes later. He walked into the office they had been sharing ever since Layne had moved into their father's house after hers was burned down by that dipshit ex-husband of hers, Eric Ellis.

A pair of designer sunglasses remained over his eyes to protect his hungover ass from being blinded by life itself. He had a coffee in his hand as he looked around at the rather empty space. "Where is everybody?"

Layne sat in the chair behind the desk, the blue envelope from her dad she had discovered months ago in her hands. "I told everyone the meeting was canceled today."

Her brother walked over to the desk and a brow lifted above the top rim of his shades. "Why are you in my chair?" He set the paper coffee cup down on the desk. "And, you what?" His voice was still hoarse from the drunken binge he had engaged in yesterday at the strip club.

"I told everyone we weren't meeting today." Thanks to more financial stability and a few trusted associates, Layne had managed to get the O'Reilly family's business dealings back on track. There was still a lot of work to be done, but at least they were slowly rebuilding their workforce again.

"Why the fuck did I come down here then?!" He yelled at her and then winced as his escalated volume prompted a harder pulse of his headache.

Ignoring his attitude, "Because you and I need to talk, Liam." She stared at him without giving away how apprehensive she was about this entire encounter. "It was driving me insane that you haven't been able to access our primary account."

He groaned in annoyance about this bullshit being brought up again. "For fucks sake, Layne. I will get to taking care of it when I get to it. I have a bunch of shit on my plate right now."

She shook her head and pulled her phone out, dialing the banking institution's number and placing it on speakerphone so he could hear for himself. After a few prompts, a female representative came on the line.

"Thank you for calling Sandy Island Financials. How may I help you today?"

Layne sat back in the chair and motioned for Liam to go ahead and get this taken care of.

He rolled his eyes and placed his hands on the desk. "Yeah, I can't access my damn account. Something is fucked up on your end of the system, this is the fifth time I've called."

She quietly scoffed and shook her head; it was more like the second time he had called.

The banking rep, who sounded like someone's sweet little grandmother who baked cookies every morning, took Liam's personal information. After several long moments, she responded with an apologetic voice. "I'm sorry, Mr. O'Reilly, but you don't have access to that account."

Liam gave a huff. "Someone over there obviously made a big fuckin' mistake."

Layne leaned forward and interrupted Liam before he went on a tirade stating how important he thought he was. "I'm sorry, I know you said my brother doesn't have any authority on the account, but could you check to see if I do?"

"Of course, I will just need your name and a few other pieces of information to check." The lady seemed pleased to be dealing with someone who wasn't ready to berate her for doing her job.

After taking all of Layne's information, it didn't take long for her to check it against the account. Layne's green hues never left Liam's face while they waited.

"Ms. O'Reilly, yes, I see here you are the sole authority listed on the account. Is there a transaction you would like to make today that I can help you with?" Now, wasn't that funny? Liam had zero control over the accounts their father had left behind.

As much as Layne wanted to flash a snarky grin at Liam, she refrained since she was trying to handle this situation with as much grace as humanly possible. "No, that's all. Thank you so much for all your help." Her finger tapped the phone screen to end the call.

Liam's face was riddled with confusion. "What the hell? Why didn't you tell her to put me on the account instead?!" He pushed away from the desk and began to pace as his irritability increased.

Her eyes tracked each step he made knowing that this was about to go from bad to worse. "Li, it's not just the account."

He paused and looked over at her, his jaw hanging open slightly. "What the fuck do you mean it's not just the account?"

She handed the blue envelope over to him containing everything he needed to know. It held everything she found out months ago and had opted to keep close to her chest until things settled with the business. Going from being on the verge of collapse to freshly stabilized, Layne hadn't wished to shake up the mix too soon.

Angrily, he yanked it from her hand and pulled the contents from it. His eyes quickly read over page after page. The documents contained their father's final wishes and distribution of assets, including some that were never known to either of his children. It was all dated the day before his passing. Layne had full control of all the O'Reilly enterprises.

As Liam stood there soaking in the information, she was predicting a volcanic eruption. When it never came, it was more frightening than if he had flown off the handle.

He finally tossed the collection of papers onto the desk. "You think these mean anything? Nobody is going to listen to you. You don't even have a damn clue how to run things."

She stood up from her seat, her temper prickling at the length of her spine. Layne's gaze hardened as she stared at his body language. Then, it finally hit her. "You knew, didn't you? You've known this entire damn time?!" Her anger was spreading to her limbs now.

His silence and lack of denial said it all. Rounding the end of the desk, she scowled at him. "You've got to be fucking kidding me, right? You knew and you didn't say anything?"

He shrugged at her. "I knew you couldn't handle things. You're too busy playing house." His dislike of Joey living there or even existing grated on his nerves.

Not taking the bait on his dig on her personal life, she stuck to the topic at hand. "Dad didn't seem to think so. We were on the brink of utter devastation for months, and you kept telling me to keep out of it! We had one foot in the grave and you still chose to be a selfish asshole?! Even now we are just barely coming out of that hole that you put us in!" Each word that exited her mouth grew more heated.

The nagging ache of his head didn't stop him from barking back at her. "All of this belongs to me, it always has!"

"Not anymore it doesn't. Either you can accept that and help or you can get out of my way." She was willing to give Liam the chance she never got, but hell if she was going to let him think he was going to continue as the head of this organization.

He gave his answer to the idea of sharing leadership by laying his hands on her. Liam shoved her back hard enough that had the desk not been behind her to brace against, she likely would have landed on her ass on the floor.

Layne charged back at him, returning a shove using every ounce of her body weight behind it. He only budged a couple of steps, but she didn't stop there. She gave him another push and immediately followed with her right hook colliding precisely on target with the hinge point of his upper jaw. The impact knocked his sunglasses square off his face.

If she hadn't been so pissed off, she would have immediately recognized the pop of pain in her hand. Thank God for adrenaline surges.

Liam's face got rocked by her strike and it only took him a moment to recover and take a swing right back at her. She dipped down, causing his hand to swipe above her head. When she stood back up, she drove her fist up into his stomach.

He doubled over and heaved. Last night's hefty overindulgence of booze had left his stomach queasy, and her fist assisted in pushing it over the edge as he coughed and expelled whatever was in his stomach onto the floor.

Layne stepped back from him, shaking her hand as that second hit didn't get the full benefit of adrenaline that the first one had. She clutched onto her trembling fist which was now feeling the intensity of the injury it had sustained upon that first punch.

Her brother coughed and spit out the last bit of vomit onto the floor. He used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe off his mouth while glaring at her. His breathing was ragged while he spoke through the continued waves of nausea, "You should have just stayed in your own damn lane."

She bent over to look at him, resting her good hand on her knee. "Well, it's my highway now. So, you can get off at the nearest goddamn exit." Straightening up, she walked over to the office door. Layne shook her head, leaving him there to contemplate what he wanted to do.Either he was going to answer to her or could fuck off.

Now the real work was going to have to happen. There was a new face to the O'Reilly faction, and she was going to take back the respect and power that had been lost since the death of her father.