Chapter 4
The storm outside was gradually easing up, slowing to an entrancing drizzle. It was nearly reminiscent of one of those meditative sound machines.
As the evening approached, the sunshine never returned from behind the grey storm clouds. Instead, the sky sunk further into darkness.
Once Joey was comfortable that Layne wasn’t going to make good on her promise to immediately shoot him, he eased her up off of the couch and spun her around. She was suddenly aware that as his hands touched her bare skin, she was still shirtless and standing there in her fuchsia bra still damp from being caught in the rain. His fingers trailed down the backs of her arms until they met her restraints.
With a twist and a click, each of the cuffs unlatched from around her wrists.
She mindlessly rubbed each of them, easing away the slight discomfort she had created by overzealously tugging on them earlier.
“Were those necessary?” She turned around, finding herself now looking up into his chocolate-colored eyes that easily had melted her soul so many times before this.
He must have seen something in her face which caused him to step back and create a healthy amount of space between them. “You tell me.”
Joey looked her over and raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t just the soaked-to-the-bone look, but other stressors taking a toll on her physically. “You look like shit.”
Rude. She tried to give him an offended look, but after the day she had coupled with getting caught in the rain, she had experienced better days. “You really know how to flatter the ladies, don’t you?”
He unzipped his sweatshirt, pulling his arms from the sleeves as his muscles flexed underneath his shirt. Joey tossed it over to her. “Here. We still need to talk about my favor.”
Reacting quickly, her hands caught the hoodie resisting the urge to wrap it around her and bask in its warmth and scent.
It had been all too easy to hate him while he had been gone. Now that he was standing there in front of her looking like ten delicious sins worth committing, she struggled to keep her thoughts out of the gutter. While her dreams had made it difficult to forget how his hands felt against her body, having him standing right there in front of her was sending sparks straight down to her core.
Layne needed to stomp out the old flames of desire trying to light back up. She couldn’t let herself fall into this same old trap with him again.
She tossed the hoodie back to him. “I will go change. If you want to be useful, go make some coffee.”
She ran upstairs to swap out her wet clothes for a pair of dry joggers and an old UCLA tee. While she brushed the wet tangles from her hair in front of her bathroom mirror, she tried to run herself through a mental pep talk. Layne was not going to let herself get caught up in Joey’s charms, not after everything he had done. Recalling his betrayal, she couldn’t put herself through any more pain, even if he had his reasons.
Her eyes drifted down to the unassuming bottle sitting on the counter. After ingesting one pill to take the edge off of this unexpected visit, her hand paused as she examined the container holding the whispered promise of comfort and escape. The internal debate didn’t last long before she finally gave in to the temptation and swallowed one more little pill down.
When she came back downstairs, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee greeted her. Following the trail, she found Joey seated at her kitchen table, legs propped up on the seat of a chair across from him with his arms folded in front of his chest casually.
The tattoos of various images flexed across his skin. She knew each one of them well. The clocks, the ominous ravens, gloomy headstones, gothic-looking skulls, and the spread of gentle roses between all of them. The least he could have done was cover himself up so they wouldn’t be such a damn distraction.
His eyes grew darker as he nodded over at the vase full of fresh blossoms. “Who sent those?”
The stems situated on her center island had been sent from Eric Ellis earlier in the week. They had come with an over-the-top designed invitation to a formal soiree he was hosting. Layne had no intentions of going to a party where a bunch of people got all dressed up just to talk shit in a classy upper-crust type of way. Thanks, but no thanks.
She noticed the dark green mug on the table and approached, lifting it to take a careful sip as to not burn her mouth. “Why do you care?”
He scoffed incredulously. “I don’t.”
“Well, you obviously do or else you wouldn’t have asked.” He wasn’t the only one that could call bullshit when they saw it.
Her emerald eyes stared at him while waiting for him to dare and try to tell her otherwise. She took her seat on a chair across from him, drawing her legs up underneath her comfortably criss-cross style. The mug assisted in warming up her hands and getting rid of the chill the rain had set into her bones.
Wisely and predictably, Joey changed the subject. “As I told you, I need a favor.”
“Oh?” She didn’t hide the fact that she was delighted she was in a position of having something he needed.
Ignoring her sass he continued, “I have a contract that’s a little outside of my typical job. Less physical confrontation and more gathering of information and surveillance. Then, depending on what I find, I suspect it will end as it always does.”
Listening to him explain the reason for breaking his way back into her life and her house, she waved her hand at him.
“I get it, so what do you need from me?” Forcing him to cut to the chase as she took another sip from the dark brew that he still managed to get just right with the perfect amount of half-and-half.
“Access to Eric Ellis. I heard he’s going to be throwing a party under the guise of charity or some bullshit like that.”
Layne coughed as the coffee started to go down the wrong pipe and she put her hand up to her mouth wiping away the hot liquid.
He raised a brow, dropping his feet down from the chair, ready in the event she truly was going to suffer death via coffee.
Layne shook her head adamantly. “No way.” She put her coffee mug down on the table as she got up to grab a napkin to wipe her hands off. “Figure it out on your own, I don’t want any involvement with this. Absolutely none.”
He got up and walked over to her, his presence still holding that aura of intimidation and dominance he had always been so good at asserting.
“You owe me, just get me in there.” He stared down at her intently.
Layne stepped back bumping into the pantry door. “Damnit, Joey, I said no! I don’t owe you shit. I’m not getting involved with that arrogant, self-absorbed asshole. What makes you even think I could get you in any way? I don’t just get social invitations to every party on the Upper East Side.”
He smirked. “So, you do know about the event.”
Exasperated, she tossed her hands in the air. “Yes, ok? I know about it, but I’m not going. I am not playing a delicate princess for a night and have to pretend to like these people just so you can go play secret agent and snoop around for whatever it is you are looking for.”
When she went to move past him to go back to the table, his tattooed hands slid around her waist to stop her in her tracks. His hold pulled her in close to him so their bodies were flush up against one another.
“Just one favor, that’s all I’m asking.” His voice dropped to a low tone that still had the power to make her legs quiver.
Her breath was stolen away from her when she found herself in the comfort of his touch that she had been unwilling to admit she had missed. But damn, did she miss it. Simultaneously, she was beginning to feel the ease of the two pills she had taken upstairs seeping into her system.
Wrinkling up her forehead, her hands pushed down against the strength of his muscled forearms in a poor attempt to remove his hands from her sides. “I-I can’t. I won’t do this.”
Things began to feel like they were moving too quickly around her or perhaps too slowly. The air was too warm but there were chills dancing along her skin. The normally welcomed fog in her head was making it a challenge to think straight. Maybe she should have stuck to just that one pill after all.
He tilted his head as his eyes carefully assessed the way she was reacting to him. “Can’t do what, Layney?”
Her hands left his arms to rub over her face trying to force her brain to pull its shit together and fight against the high that was taking over. “I’m just tired. Just leave, ok?”
Joey’s hands grabbed hers and easily pulled them away from her face so he could look into her eyes. It may have been the torment and hell of her life over the past year, or maybe it was her pupils beginning to constrict, but his entire demeanor shifted into a softer one of genuine concern.
He bent down and scooped one arm under the back of her legs and the other under her back as he picked her up, cradling her close to his chest.
Layne rested her head against his chest letting the warmth of his body sedate her soul while her brain should have been telling him to piss off. She wanted to tell him to put her back down, but the words were only spoken inside her mind.
Carrying her out of the kitchen, Joey brought her up to her bedroom on the second floor. Her fingers toyed with the fabric of his shirt as she let her mind wander to wherever the pills were taking it.
“You smell like sex. Great sex.” Apparently, they were bringing her thoughts straight back to the gutter.
He shot her a confused look. Normally, it would have been a welcomed compliment, but it was a sharp turn from her mood moments ago down in the kitchen.
After he approached her bed, he gently laid her down on it, and Layne’s hands clung to him. “Wait.” She gave a lazy smile as she stared up at him with heavy eyes. “I didn’t mean it.”
Joey raised an eyebrow at her words. “Didn’t mean what?”
“I don’t know, but I didn’t.” Whatever she was trying to say wasn’t making sense as her body began to feel like it was floating through a cloud. She blinked and when her eyelids opened back up, Joey was next to her in bed with a tight hold on her with his chin resting on top of her head.
Layne curled up against him, drawing in a full breath of his soothing scent and when she exhaled, she murmured, “You asked twice.”
Her eyes closed once more as she let the opiate ease her back into a slumber where she didn’t have to feel or think about the broken pieces of her life.
Joey smoothed her dark tresses away from her face as he watched her soft breaths coming and going rhythmically throughout the rest of the night.
She stretched out her body feeling the pull of her muscles lengthening from her fingertips down through her toes before she rolled over onto her stomach in her bed.
Hearing rustling coming from her adjoined bathroom, she lifted her head from her pillow and saw the light shining out from underneath the small crevice at the bottom of the door. A moment later Joey stepped out, still wearing the clothes he had been in last night sans his boots.
Layne propped herself up on her elbows as she had to mentally try and recall the sequence of events of the night prior. “I didn’t expect to see you still here this morning.”
His face was as serious as she had ever seen it. “What’s going on with you?” He had his suspicions, but given how hard they were for him to believe, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
So, it seemed that this was going to be a morning about picking fights. She scooted to the edge of the bed and got out, nearly stumbling over the boots he had left there on the floor. “God.” She glared at the footwear that nearly killed her, then back to Joey.
“Nothing is going on with me. You’re the one who decided to show up without an invitation.”
She walked towards her bathroom but he stepped in front of her blocking her path. Both her brows perked up as she stared at him. “Do you mind?”
“Layne, something is going on with you.” He made it clear he wasn’t going to let her by without some sort of explanation.
“Ok.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest as both her offensive and defensive mechanisms began to come out. “What’s going on with me? Let’s see, the one guy I was willing to trust with my soul betrayed me and lied to my face. Then, after a year he decides to waltz back into my life asking me to do him a shitty favor.”
The anger and frustration filled her voice as she vented to him about only a fraction of what she had on her plate right now.
His eyes drifted over her trying to assess not only her words but her body language before he let the issue go for the time being. “So, are you going to do it?”
Briefly, she glanced up at the heavens as he renewed his request, and she prayed that whichever god was listening would grant her the patience to deal with his stubbornness that rivaled her own.
Layne sighed as she looked over at him. “You’re so good at breaking into my house, why can’t you just break into his?”
He shrugged unapologetically. “Not for nothing, Layney, but you don’t exactly make it difficult for me. Besides, Ellis has his place built like a damn fortress. Nobody is getting in or out of there without him knowing. Not without enough time, energy, and distractions, anyway.”
There he was saying her name like that again. Growing weary of his insistence about fulfilling his request, her arms dropped to her sides getting the feeling he wasn’t going to let this go. She just didn’t have the fight in her to argue with him for days, and knowing him he would argue with her for weeks if he felt so inclined. “What’s in it for me if I do?”
An amused grin appeared on his face. “Always about the bottom line, aren’t you? What do you want?”
The way he asked that second question seemed to hold a lot more than what met the eye. Then, he took a step toward her, his hands running up along her shoulders and up the sides of her neck until his palms settled on either side of her face. “Hm?”
A dryness overcame her mouth as he peered down at her while embracing her face in his hands.
Days before Mick’s ultimate betrayal, Layne was coming out of her bathroom after her morning shower. Joey had greeted her right outside the doorway as she exited. His hands cupped her face and pulled her in to steal a kiss from her.
After claiming her lips for a moment, he looked down into the sparkle of her green eyes. “Where was my invitation to join you?”
Layne grinned at him. “Since when has a lack of an invitation ever stopped you?”
Snapping back from the playback reel inside of her head, she found herself in the same place and looking up into the very same eyes as he held her face between his hands.
“Just… behave yourself. This isn’t an open invitation for you to start hanging around all the time.” Her hands came up to settle on top of each of his trying to will herself to pull them away.
Joey chuckled at such a minimal request. “Is that all?”
“I mean it, Joey. This one favor changes nothing. I will get you into the party, but that’s it. I’m washing my hands of all of this, including you. I’ve got enough shit going on without having to deal with yours, too.” Layne had no idea why she was bothering to grant him this one favor, but if it meant that he would quickly be back out of her life afterward, then she was willing to bend a little.
He pressed his forehead against hers as his thumb stroked over her cheek. “Thank you.”
She cleared her throat and finally managed to pull away from him before she made any more stupid decisions with her life. Layne hoped that he wouldn’t make her regret this.
“There are going to be ground rules because I don’t want to get dragged into this blindly. One,” she raised a finger at him as she counted, “you need to see someone about a tux. I can’t have you showing up like you rolled out of a Humvee. Two, I don’t want to know what the hell you need or why you need it at the party. I want total plausible deniability. And three, all your favors are all used up after this. Every. Last. One.”
Seemingly, Joey was in agreement with all of her rules as he nodded after each demand. “It’s a done deal then. We can talk about specifics as it gets closer.” The temptation to seal it with a kiss lingered in the air. A temptation that neither of them gave into.
After Joey got his boots back on, she shooed him off so she could go about her busy day of doing damage control around town, primarily trying to rein in Liam.
Layne did her best to convince herself that this wouldn’t get messy and that it was strictly a one-time business deal. The problem was that this had all the hallmarks of going to hell in a handbasket. Wasn’t that how everything in her life went?