“He said he would be,” Rooster said as he jogged up the pathway and glanced through the door. “Can’t see shit in there, it’s just a huge-ass foyer,” he threw the words behind his back.
The back of Layne’s neck twitched. The guy was here, they just had to find him. “He’s here,” Layne told them. His tone spoke of no argument, no second-guessing, and no questioning. He was very sure in his words.
Venturing off on his own, he knew that Jagger followed him, but he wasn’t sure about anyone else. He quietly made his way around the house, looking for any weak point where they might be able to break in without too much fuss and muss. As they rounded the back of the house, he spotted two French doors with more glass in them than any one person needed. “Bingo,” he breathed out, walking over to the doors. His gaze swept them, from the bottom to the top, up and around. He ran his hands over the top of the door frame and then turned to Jagger.
“Go get Steele, I need him back here, but we can get in pretty easily.”
It amazed Jagger how Layne could quietly take in a situation, do his own research, and come back within minutes, a plan in mind. “Be right back.” He shook his head, smiling slightly.
As he rounded the front of the house, the other members of the club were looking through windows, and he whistled softly. “Layne’s got us a way in, but he needs Steele.”
“That’s my Government-taught criminal,” Liam grinned, clapping his hands on Jagger’s shoulders.
The came around the back, and Steele stepped up to the other man. “What do we have here?”
Layne became all business. “Some sort of security system. It’s got a tripwire up top. I don’t wanna set this thing off. Even though we have a sheriff with us, this is city jurisdiction, and if this thing makes a racket, we’re gonna have to take off anyway. Can you disable it? If you can, that lock is easy as fuck to pick.”
They watched as Steele reached into his bag and pulled his black-rimmed glasses out.
“Fuckin’ hipster,” Tyler cracked, laughing when Steele flipped him the bird.
“Not all of us were blessed with great eyesight. Some of us need a little help.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He slapped Steele on the back. “Just do your thing and help us get in.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, VP.”
Grabbing his bag, he pulled out a case packed full of cutters and tools. Steele was shorter than the rest of them, not by much, just enough that he couldn’t see the top of the door frame. “Tyler, can you tell me if there are two wires and what color they are?”
“So now you want my help. I see how it is.”
Without giving any more guff, Tyler walked over and stood on his tiptoes, feeling the wires that rode the top of the frame. “You’ve got two here, they’re both the same color.”
“One’s real, one’s fake. Can’t cut both or it’ll trip another part of the alarm,” Steele muttered.
“Here, maybe this’ll be better,” Tyler said as he bent down and picked up the other man. “Fuck, you’re heavy,” he groaned as he lifted Steele up high enough so that their communications expert could see just what he had seen.
“Alright, put me down. I need something else.”
“Gonna get a fuckin’ hernia,” Tyler mumbled.
“Quit your bitchin’,” Liam smacked him on the shoulder, laughter in his voice. “He’s not that big.”
“Hey, I’m solid,” Steele argued as he fumbled around in his bag for what he needed.
When he extracted another kit, he looked up at Tyler. “Get me up there again?”
“Make it quick.”
The big man lifted him again, gritting his teeth as Steele made quick work of the wires there. “Okay, put me back down. We’re good.”
“Layne, get us in,” Liam told his newest member, pushing the rest of them back, giving him room to work.
Layne had his own set of tools, but they were much smaller than Steele’s. “I ain’t gonna get arrested am I?”
Rooster rolled his eyes. “I already told you, I’m not here in that capacity…so move your ass and get us in there.”
“I only take orders from my pres now that I’m not a soldier, don’t tell me to move my ass.” The tone of voice Rooster had used pissed him off, and he wanted him to know that. Turning back towards the lock on the door, he got busy, and within seconds, the latch popped and the door swung open. “After you.” He stepped out of the way, letting Liam in first.
Going into a house where they knew someone waited on them wasn’t Layne’s favorite thing to do. He’d done many things like this in Iraq. Sometimes they got out unscathed; sometimes they had a firefight on their hands. His heart kicked up a beat, and sweat coated his forehead and palms. Even he could hear the panting of his breathe. He had to get this under control before he gave them away. Pushing himself flat against a wall, he closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut, trying to transport himself to another time, another place. He immediately flashed to earlier on his bike with Jessica. It was enough to calm the beating of his heart and make the sweat on his brow not so heavy.
“You okay?” Jagger asked, concern etched on his face.
“I’m good,” he nodded.
“You two head down that way, we’re going upstairs,” Liam told his two newest members.
They nodded and headed towards the living area. It was as dark as the rest of the house, but it put Layne on high alert. “You feel that?” he whispered to Jagger.
Jagger nodded and grabbed his gun from the waistband of his pants. Layne did the same, wanting to be prepared in case they had to fight. They cautiously inched into the living area, both being slower than they normally would. As Layne rounded the corner, he felt arms come around his neck from behind. He made a sound to alert Jagger before using the back of his head to butt the other person in the face.
“Fucker,” Layne grunted when the person behind punched him in the kidney’s. Using the heel of his boot, he stomped on the foot of the other person, who howled in pain. That gave him enough time to turn around and face the person who had grasped him from behind. The person, obviously a man because of how solidly he was built, wore a black mask over his face, and Layne could see nothing but his eyes. “You want some?” he taunted. It had pissed him off that this person got the upper hand on him, and he was juiced already from his encounter with Jessica, and the anger was overflowing in his body. He didn’t wait for the person to answer, he started punching. The crack of bone against bone felt good in his hand, he decided after the third punch. He could feel blood pouring from his opponent’s nose, and he could hear the panting breathes of a man who was out of shape. “Fight back,” he goaded him, picking him up by his shirt and slamming him against the wall. “Fight back, motherfucker.”
That’s what he wanted, someone to hit him, to know that he was still alive. When he felt that pain, like when he boxed with Tyler, he knew that he was still alive. Without it, sometimes he questioned it. Most of the time he didn’t feel anything. He needed the pain and hurt to know that he was still real. For how long he beat on the other man, he didn’t know, but at some point, he realized that he held him up just to hit him. If he let go, he knew the other man would fall at his feet.
“I think you’re done,” Jagger told him, pulling his hands away from the lifeless body in front of him.
He had entered that black hole again, where he couldn’t remember anything that he had done, only knew he caused pain to another person. Glancing behind him, he saw the rest of the members of Heaven Hill gazing at him. None of their eyes held the look of pity; however, they all held the look of worry. This time it wasn’t just Liam. He’d shown everyone exactly what he was capable of. He’d done the one thing he really hadn’t wanted to do.
Liam stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “We got this. You go on out back for a minute and get yourself together.”
He had broken trust. His pres had sent him to a therapist to get his shit together, and the first time he was g
iven a chance to show that he could hold his own, he’d snapped. “Sorry,” he choked out.
“No, don’t be sorry. You did what we asked you to do.”
“But you didn’t ask me to fly off the handle; I could have stopped a long time ago.”
“You’re making progress if you realize that. No judgment here, my man. Just go out there and get yourself together. You look a little raw.”
That was the truth because he felt very raw. Every time something like this happened—he opened up a wound that he thought had closed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Get himself together? Who the fuck was he kidding? They had come here to figure out just how in the hell someone knew that Jessica was in town. Layne allowed himself five minutes. Five long minutes of pacing, muttering, breathing heavily, playing with his cell phone, and then running his fingers through his hair. Five minutes was all he could make himself stay outside when he knew that the rest of his brothers were questioning someone—who might hold the key as to why Jessica had been targeted.
Squaring his shoulders, he went back in.
“I want to know what you know and why this guy was slinking around your house, trying to take my boys out,” Liam was saying as he stood over two men.
They must have found their contact, and it was easy to figure out which one was the one he’d almost completely decimated. Blood still poured from the guy’s nose, and one eye was swollen shut. He kept quiet as he took a post at the back of the room in between Jagger and Steele.
“He hasn’t talked yet,” Jagger whispered, leaning over.
“Fuck you,” the attacker spit in Liam’s direction.
That didn’t sit well with the pres. He may have leveled out since the birth of Tatum and the settling down of his household, but he was not a pushover. Even Layne flinched when he heard the crack of Liam’s fist against the jawbone of the talker. “Fuck me, huh?” He jerked the collar of the hoodie that the guy wore, exposing a necklace. “You know Dino?” Liam asked suddenly.
“Shit,” Jagger breathed.
“What if I do?”
“Wrong answer, asshole,” Liam said, clocking him in the head with the butt of his gun.
It was lights out for him. He had already been through a lot; they would just have to get back to him later.
“Now, you.” He turned to the other man.
Layne took his first good look at the man and realized that he wore a suit and tie. He looked to be on the other side of 40, but he had thick hair that was devoid of any gray. This must be the banker, the one that fed Meredith information.
“You tell me why the fuck you called us here, and why do you think Jessica Shea is in town?”
The guy had the gall to look back to where Layne stood and locked eyes with him, the corner of his mouth tilting up. “I know she’s in town, and I know she’s in town for him.”
“How?” Liam demanded. “And I’m gettin’ real fuckin’ impatient with this whole situation, so the faster you talk, the better it’s gonna be for you.”
“No, I don’t talk until I get something from you,” he shook his head.
Liam frowned. This guy thought he was going to get something from them? Who did this asshole think he was? “You don’t get to make demands here.”
“You don’t understand. That guy you just cold-cocked, he was here for me.”
“Talk, now,” Liam sighed, running his hand through his hair and blowing out a deep breath. He had a good idea he wasn’t going to like whatever this man had to say to him.
“Dino’s after me, you guys were just collateral damage. That’s why I reached out to Meredith.”
“Which, I might add, really pisses me off, man. If you put her in any kind of danger, these guys are gonna be the least of your problems,” Tyler threatened from where he stood.
Sweat poured from the banker’s face as he sat under the scrutiny of the Native American. “That’s why I reached out. I need protection.”
“From who?” Tyler asked, all up in this guy’s business. “You start talking and you start talking now, otherwise I start throwing punches and then ask questions later.”
“Dino, the Vojnik. They’re holding it over my head that I’m the one who gave the information to them for the bank robberies. I just want out of this,” he breathed heavily.
“What do they want you to do?” Liam asked. Dino would not be holding something over someone’s head unless he wanted them to do something to benefit him.
“I don’t know, I refused to take the meeting.”
“Why can’t anything ever be easy?” Liam breathed. “Here’s the deal, you’re gonna take that damn meeting. First though, you’re going to tell us how and why you know that Jessica Shea’s here and how that has anything to do with one of my guys.”
“Will you offer me protection?” he asked again.
“You tell me what you have to do with Jessica Shea.”
The other man sighed. “She and I have a mutual friend in common.”
That hit Layne the wrong way. “What kind of friend?”
“Ask her who Jackson Wright is.”
His answer was cryptic, and it was obvious by the way he clamped his mouth shut that he wasn’t going to offer any more information. Layne silently fumed; he longed to knock this guy out too but was afraid that if he went too far one more time tonight, he wouldn’t make it back.
“You got nothin’ else to tell us?” Liam asked.
“It’s not my place to tell about her.” He ran a hand over his face. “All I’m asking for is protection.”
“Tell you what,” Liam relented. “You take that meeting, and you tell us exactly what they want. Then we’ll tell you what we can do for you.”
“That’s not what I’m wanting to hear, Liam.”
“I didn’t tell you it was okay to call me by my name, and right now, you need our help, not the other way around. You want us to help you, treat us with some respect.”
“Okay.” The man held up his hands in front of his face. “I’ll take the meeting with Dino.”
“Damn right you will.” Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “You get the meeting set up, and we’ll see what we can do about offering you protection at the meeting. It depends on what kind of information you bring from it if we decide to take a chance.”
“That’s not going to work,” he argued.
Liam pulled the hammer back on the gun he held in his hand. “Do you want me to end it now, or do you at least want to try to figure out what these guys want? It makes absolutely no difference to me.”
“I want to figure out what they want,” he spat out between gritted teeth.
He yanked the phone out of Liam’s hand and dialed a number. He waited mere seconds before he began speaking. “Dino? This is Thomas, I wanna set up that meeting.”
In seconds it was over, and Thomas threw the phone down. “Tomorrow evening.”
Liam disengaged the gun and put it away. “Then we’ll be in touch. Do you feel safe here tonight on your own?”
“No way in hell.” He shook his head.
“I’ll stay with him,” Rooster said from where he stood off to the side. “I’m quite interested in the secrets that are hiding in this house.”
“Aren’t you the sheriff?” Thomas asked, his brows coming together in question.
“Sheriff’s deputy, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m gonna keep you safe tonight.”
Layne didn’t understand any of this, why was Rooster here, what did he have to do with all this? He wanted to ask so many questions, but he didn’t want to disrespect his pres either. He’d already disappointed and pissed off enough people for the night; he didn’t want to do any more.
“Alright, let’s get out of here. Ty—you gonna take care of this guy?” Liam asked as he kicked the prone, beat-up man on the floor.
“Will do, I’ll see y’all back at the clubhouse.”
That made Layne feel like shit. Someone else was going to have
to clean up his mess. He was moody, irritable, and just wanted to be away from the whole group, away from Jessica, away from his feelings. This was another part of the PTSD he hated, he hated feeling one minute like he was on top of the world and the next like he was the dog shit on someone’s shoe. The pills they had originally given him at the VA had helped with this part of it, but they made him feel like such a damn zombie that he knew he couldn’t continue to take them. It was in times like this that he admitted to himself that all he wanted was his life back, the life that he had before he’d gone to war. This was the time he admitted that the worst thing he had ever done was join the military.
“You okay?” Jagger asked. He had watched quietly as the look in Layne’s eyes became wilder, it was obvious he was drifting into a part of his memories that he didn’t like.
“Yeah, just need to get out of here. It’s making me nervous,” Layne blew it off with a small tilt of his lips.
The rest of the group had already started to walk out, yet he stood there, his back to the wall.
“We can leave, you know.”
“I know,” Layne cleared his throat. “I just can’t make my legs move.” What had happened here? Why was he literally paralyzed with anxiety all of a sudden?
Jagger could see the panic rising in his friend. Cautiously, he reached over and clasped his hand around Layne’s wrist. “This good?”
Layne nodded, not saying another word.
Very slowly, Jagger pulled him away from the wall and walked him towards the back of the house and out the back door. Once they broke the doorway, he felt Layne’s body physically relax and heard a deep breath flow through his system.
“Were you holding your breath?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Layne ran his hands down his cut and then back up over his head, wiping away the sweat that had gathered there. “That’s never happened before.”
“What do you think caused it?”
“No fuckin’ idea, man. We did some house raids in Iraq, though. One or two of them turned hairy, and I felt a little weird going in, but I thought I was fine up until I couldn’t move. It flips on like a switch and that’s what I fuckin’ hate.”
Worth The Battle (Heaven Hill Series) Page 16