Chapter 67: Something Like Pillow Talk

Layla's Bedroom, The Quinn Residence, Backwoods, Temperance, South Dakota...

With a deep exhalation, Brick found himself resting against one of the few pillows he hadn't discarded from Layla's bed as she smiled weakly and curled up next to him, resting her weary messy head against his bare sweat blasted chest. She had liked that his tattoos showed and often ran her fingers along them tracing them softly as he watched seemingly amused. There was always an easy peace that seemed to come over them whenever they were together and as a result of it, he'd been more than pleased to be in her company whenever he could. This night had been no exception as he sat back and enjoyed the feel of her body beside his own. Layla seemed content to lay there for a while without a word as well for a moment or two before breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

"Brick?" she said softly still trailing her finger along his visible tattoos.

"Huh?" he replied shaking himself from his brief daydream in a bid to answer her question.

"Do you think my mother had anything to do with it?" asked Layla slowly sitting up as she pulled the bed sheet up to her chest and leaned back against a pillow she reached down to the floor to retrieve. "Your case with Sherrif Tillman, I mean, do you think she had anything to do with a kidnapping?"

Brick took a moment to process what she'd been asking him as he had no real leads outside of her mother quite possibly being involved with the man they were looking for.

"Well, we don't know anything for sure, just that a bunch of people saw your Momma around or dealing with the man that happened to kidnap a little girl a while back," replied Brick leaning back against the wall.

"She might have done it," said Layla evenly. "I wouldn't rule out anything my mother would be capable of."

Brick got the impression that she had not cared much for her mother, about as much as her father hadn't.

"Don't like her much do you?" he asked watching Layla's expression for some time.

"No," she said honestly. "I can't say that I do, she did walk out on us after all."

"You and your old man?" asked Brick looking for clarification.

Layla nodded.

"I don't remember much about her, as I've told you before, she left when I was still really little and it wasn't as if she'd been home much of the time beforehand." she continued. "I mostly remember her wearing a lot of makeup and her fights with Daddy, and oddly enough given what we'd just done I even remember all the noise from when she had Daddy were going at it in the bedroom."

Layla's cheeks turned red once she realized what all the commotion had been that disturbed her so often back then.

Brick chuckled at this.

He'd been more than accustomed to the goings-on of his own parents since he'd been a boy and he had not been able to help it being wereborn and all.

"The things we learn when we get older," remarked Brick with a smirk.

Layla shook her head wishing she could have done without knowing what her parents were up to most of the time when their bedroom door had been closed. She had more than enough carnal knowledge to understand how her parents were in fact quite passionate people despite their mutual temperaments.

"I suppose I had to get it from somewhere," she said conceding Brick's point.

He smirked and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

"Works for me all things considered," he remarked. "You just gotta remember that nobody's perfect little girl, plenty of people make mistakes and make good in life afterward, it's just a crying shame that your Momma didn't get to do the same."

Layla sighed as she turned and leaned back against Brick's chest with the back of her head resting on his shoulder.

"It's a crying shame alright," she replied in agreement. "But she made her choice when she walked out the door for another man leaving me and Daddy behind to pick up the pieces because we were too much of a burden for her and her dreams of stardom."

Brick sighed as he noted Layla's sadness as if it had been his own. In the hopes of easing her mind, he had opted to let her in on a few things about his latest case that she wasn't privy to before their questions.

"It's a cold case you know." he started breaking the silence once more. "About a missing girl whose family was killed some odd number of years back, she wasn't among her family members whose bodies were found at a local carnival, and as a result, her remaining relatives had been hiring all sorts to look for her or at the very least her remains."

"How horrible," said Layla with a bewildered expression on her face. "How old was the girl when she went missing?"

"Six I guess from all the reports and so forth," replied Brick with a sigh. "The law was desperate to put this case to bed one way or another so they came to me and the boys for assistance."

"Pardon my asking but what makes you rabble-rouser so special?" asked Layla looking Brick over and knowing at least in part that he and his crew were far from the law-abiding types. "You lot never really like sticking around in any town for long, let alone long enough to solve a case like this."

"Perks of being licensed bounty hunters," replied Brick noting the shocked expression on Layla's lovely young face.

"You're a bounty hunter?" she asked with an arched brow.

"Indeed, or a scalp collector, gun for hire, take your pick," replied Brick seemingly smug about it. "Not quite the fantasy biker you dreamed up am I?"

"Not quite," replied Layla with a smile. "But you've turned out to be even better than I dreamed you'd be."

"So you're dreaming of me now, mind if I get that in writing?" remarked Brick with a grin.

"Shut up jerk," replied Layla grabbing her pillow and smacking him with it.

Brick wrestled her onto the bed dropping the sheet from her chest as he leaned down and began suckling her exposed breasts one by one.

Layla let out a low moan and before she knew it Brick had her thighs parted and was raring to go once again as he thrust his way past her already slick folds.

A brief gasp and a grunt later they were at it again, seemingly unable to keep their respective hands off each other in the wake of their first encounter. At the very least, Brick had provided an ample amount of distraction from Layla's thoughts about her wayward mother and the kidnapping he'd been investigating where her name and likeness had turned up.