The Princess of Chaos

by Candice M. Wright

  “You fucking prick,” I sneer at him just as my phone rings. I pull it out and see that it’s Delta, one of the prospects sent over to Wanda’s place, and answer it before it can ring again.

  “She there?” I bark, the room going quiet once more, all except for Rock screaming obscenities from the floor.

  “Fuck!” I hear yelled into the phone and a scuffle of some kind before words are yelled that make my blood run cold. “She’s not breathing!”

  I don't hear anything else. I hand Conner to Kaz and run. I hear footsteps behind me but I don't stop until I come upon a scene that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

  I thought nothing could be worse than losing my sister but watching Delta do chest compressions on the woman I love is more than I can bear. I rush over and crumble to the floor beside her. Orion, Diesel, and Zero following suit.

  I stare at her as tears flood my eyes, willing her to hold on, to fight.

  Orion takes over for Delta and I watch on helplessly as he tries to restart his sister’s heart. Zero strokes her hair and I’m dimly aware of Diesel muttering some kind of prayer but I’m frozen solid staring down at the woman I can't live without. No. I refuse to live without.

  I lie down beside her, careful not to get in Orion’s way, even as I hear the sound of sirens in the distance. I place my lips against the shell of her ear and whisper words I know she couldn’t hear even if she were to magically wake up.

  “Hold on, Raven. Don’t you dare give up on us now. I love you, we love you, and we need you here with us, dammit. Conner needs you, your brothers and Luna need you.” I feel the tears fall then as I plead with her to stay with us. “Please baby, please. You promised us a lifetime together.”

  Orion's movements stop as his head bows, grief stark on his face. “She’s gone,” he whispers but it sounds in the air like a gunshot.

  “No.” I sit up, refusing to believe him.

  “Fight, Megan. Goddamn you, Megan, fight,” I scream, collapsing back down beside her, my head on her fragile shoulder. I suck in a ragged breath that feels like I’m inhaling broken glass when I realize I can feel something.

  I look up at her face and see tear tracks running down her cheeks.

  “Baby?” I slide my hand around her neck and feel a flutter under my fingers.

  “Fuck. She has a pulse,” I tell the guys looking down at her in disbelief.

  Everything after that is a shock of activity as the paramedics get there. I don't take any of it in, not their words, not the guys around me, nothing. All I focus on is my girl and how she fought like a fucking champion.

  “Thank you, baby,” I whisper as I watch the lights of the ambulance disappear before running for my bike.

  I find myself back in the waiting room of Mercy for the second time today, waiting for news about someone I care about. It’s filled with people who care about both Megan and Viper but all this waiting has me feeling like I’m about to come out of my skin.

  When we all took off running, Halo and Gage locked Rock down tight in the basement and posted a couple of their own guys to watch over him. They have zero loyalty to the guy so we don't have to worry about someone busting him lose. In fairness, once the treachery was revealed, most of Chaos was—well, in chaos. People were left reeling that yet again, Megan had suffered at our hands.

  I don’t know what’s going on back at the club. Fuck, I don’t even know if there will be a club to go back to after this and right now I don’t give a flying fuck. Megan has suffered enough. No fucking more.

  “Hey, man. Here.” I look up and see Rebel, a brother from Carnage, holding out a cup of coffee to me. “You okay?”

  “Not even close. I guess this is karma, huh, for all the shitty things I’ve done.” I shake my head and take a sip, watching Luna lean her head on Diesel’s shoulder as she sits between him and Orion, her hands clasped firmly in each of theirs.

  Oz and Zig are in the corner with Wyatt, who is, believe it or not, even bigger than them. Curled into his side is Jenna, her eyes red and puffy from her tears.

  “Nah, I don’t believe that,” Rebel tells me, dragging my attention back to him. He takes a sip of his drink and winces. He’s quiet for a moment before he speaks. “I don’t agree with what you did, sneaking into Carnage and pretending to be something you weren't, but I get why you did it. Family is…” He trails off, looking around the room, an odd mix of Carnage and Chaos united together in their grief.

  “Family is everything,” I finish for him, watching Zero talk to Gage and Halo as Honey walks over to them and hands out coffees. Her old man, Trip, is on the floor in the corner reading a story to Conner, who has fallen asleep in his lap.

  Thankfully, Conner was checked over and given the all-clear. He had traces of chloroform in his blood, which explained the headache he complained of to the doctor, but otherwise, he escaped relatively unscathed—at least physically. Mentally, well that's something else entirely.

  After naming Rock as the one who hurt Megan, Conner shut down and hasn't spoken a word since.

  “Family of Megan Cooper,” a young-looking doctor calls from the other side of the room. She takes a step back when the mass of us descend on her like she’s prey, almost losing her footing in her sensible brown suede heels.

  “We’re her family,” Orion tells her. She looks over at us all and swallows.

  “I meant immediate family,” she answers.

  “As I said, we are her family. We are all her brothers, sisters—” he catches my eye as he continues— “and husbands.”

  “Right, okay.” She gives in, which is just as well because Orion can be a stubborn fucker when he wants to be.

  “She has multiple cuts and contusions across her body and feet, a dislocated shoulder and elbow from, if I had to guess, being dragged, and a couple of fractured ribs from the chest compressions. They will all heal in time. Our biggest concern is the head injuries she sustained. She has a fractured skull and swelling on her brain. We have put her in a medically-induced coma while we try to bring the swelling down. She is being taken to the ICU now. I’m sorry, but the next forty-eight hours will be critical.

  “Fuck!” I hear curses and crying around me and gasps of despair. It isn't until I hear my name called, I look up and see Eight Ball coming towards me.

  “It’s Viper. He’s awake”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Viper

  Sitting beside Megan’s bed, I watch the rise and fall of her chest and listen to the rhythmic beating of the machine next to the bed. I reach over with a wince as the movement pulls on my chest and slide my fingers through hers, careful to avoid all the wires and tubes.

  I know I’m not supposed to be here. Christ knows nurse Rachet will have a shit fit if she finds me out of bed and back in here again, but I don’t give a rat’s ass.

  My girl’s here because of me. Because I have a big fucking mouth and don’t think before I speak. If I had just gone after her sooner. Or told her I loved her too, things might have turned out differently. I shake my head in frustration, shutting down that train of thought before I smash something and get myself kicked out once again.

  The guys filled me in on what they knew, but with Megan still in a coma and Conner refusing to speak, we still had way more questions than answers.

  I keep replaying our last moments together over and over in my head on a loop. Picking apart each word and action that I missed. I hurt her, then this fucking club that is supposed to have my back, and worse still, my uncle hurt her. My own flesh and goddamn blood.

  I stand up and walk gingerly over to the window and look out at the city lights illuminating the night sky. People are at home now going about their normal lives completely unaware that mine has ground to a halt as my heart beats outside my body on a hospital bed in a cold sterile room.

  The doc reluctantly says I can leave and as much as I’m ready to get out of here and deal out Rock’s retribution, I’m loathed to leave her here alone.

  I clim
b onto the bed beside her, ensuring I don't pull on any of the wires and tuck myself as close to her as I can without hurting her. Resting my hand over the top of her breast, I feel the cadence of her heart—thump thump, thump, thump—and let it lull me into a dreamless sleep.

  Leaving Megan was the hardest thing I’ve had to do but Luna and her brothers are with her, swearing they will call if there is any change. Honey hands me my new cut. I slip it on and give her a nod of thanks.

  “I’m getting the other one cleaned for you. I’m a whiz at getting out blood stains but you are on your own with bullet holes,” she frowns, making me smile.

  “Thank you. Go on home. I’ll send Trip back when we’ve finished.”

  She nods before turning tail and heading back to the apartment she shares with Trip.

  “You ready?” Zero asks from beside me. I look from him to Grim, who is waiting with his hand on the door.

  “Yeah. I want this shit sorted today. There will never be another day where Megan isn’t safe here even if I have to strip everyone except us three and the prospects of their colors.

  “I’m with you brother, you know that,” Grim states.

  I turn and face Zero. “I don’t think I would have made the call you did. And I would have been wrong. You stepped up and kept a level head while making an impossible decision. I couldn’t ask for a better VP. Thank you.” I hold my fist out for him to bump, which he does without hesitation.

  “Jesus, do you two need a little longer? Perhaps you want to braid each other’s hair or something?” Grim bitches, making me flip him off.

  He pulls the door open wide and steps inside, Zero and me following behind him.

  All the club members are here apart from Rock, who is chained up downstairs. I look over at the two Carnage prospects guarding the door and signal for them to approach, which they do without complaint. The rest of the room is quiet, watching me avidly to see what my next move will be. Or maybe just to see if I’ll keel over. The day is still young so I guess time will tell.

  “Thank you. You guys can go now. Orion said to head back to the Carnage compound. He and Diesel are at the hospital.”

  They don’t speak but incline their heads in a show of respect before heading out.

  I turn to face the room, ignoring the nausea that swells as I forget myself for a moment and move too soon. The doctor was not happy for me to be leaving just yet but I managed to talk him around in the end. I refused to let this shit fester a minute longer.

  “Demons,” I drawl, addressing the room.

  “Good to have you back, boss man,” Trip calls out. A few of the other brothers call out with shouts, happy for my return too.

  “I wish I could say the same thing, Trip.” The room quiets again, the moment of joviality gone. “When a man gets shot, it would have been nice to have been able to lean on my family. Imagine my surprise to find out it was family who pulled the trigger.”

  I stand still, looking over them as Zero and Grim flank my sides.

  “I always wanted to be the president, you know. Not because of the notoriety or for the power trip but because I believed in this brotherhood and what it stood for. Shame the rest of you didn’t feel the same way.”

  “We didn’t know half the shit that was going on here, Pres, or we would have stepped up,” Cougar protests.

  “There was a lot of shit going on here that nobody seemed to know anything about. Now, Grim, Zero, and I had an excuse. We’d been gone for over a decade but when we came back, I knew straight away that something wasn’t right. I brought on my unit as prospects and before you bitch about that, they weren’t given any preferential treatment, much to their disgust. I brought them on because I needed men at my back I could trust and I knew two minutes after stepping in that door that I wouldn’t be able to trust all of you.

  “I thought it was the fact that you had now had a succession of three presidents in a relatively small time frame.

  “I thought you might just need an adjustment period. I mean, I get it. You devote your loyalty to one man, then you’re expected to switch loyalties at the drop of a hat again and again.” I stop talking to pull out my phone when it beeps and glance at the screen. Halo and Gage have arrived. I text back to let them in and to direct them over here.

  “It’s on me that I underestimated you. I have to live with the fact that the woman I love,” I gesture to the guys next to me, “that we love, is in a fucking coma because I failed to act on the rot within this club from the beginning. That ends today.”

  The door behind us opens and Halo and Gage step through. I walk over to them and offer each a handshake before turning back to the men in the room who look uncomfortable once more.

  “I’m going to head downstairs and deal with Rock. You are to stay here.” I nod to Kaz behind the bar, who picks up the remote from the counter he is leaning on and flicks on the huge television screen above the pool table.

  The screen lights up, showing a naked and visibly bleeding Rock hanging from a hook in the ceiling in the basement below us.

  “You are all going to get a front-row seat to what happens to traitors and of what happens when you hurt one of mine.”

  “So we’re prisoners in our own club now?” Flow calls out, sounding pissed off.

  “This is my club and I will do what I fucking want with it. To answer your question though, no, you are not prisoners. I want men who choose to have my back and each other’s instead of someone willing to shove a knife in it when that back is turned. When I’ve dealt with that piece of shit below, you’ll be given a choice to stay or to go. Choose fucking wisely because if any of you even think to cross me and mine again I’ll make what I’m about to do to Rock look like an episode of Sesame Street.”

  I walk off and leave them to stew on what I said, knowing the place is surrounded and the prospects, who have more than earned their cuts to make them fully-fledged brothers, will keep them contained.

  I open the door to the room holding Rock and scrunch my nose up at the smell. “Smells like the dude shit himself. Some fucking president he must have been,” Halo mutters from behind me.

  I make my way down the steps, moving aside for Gage and Halo to pass. They stand against the far wall, watching on behalf of Carnage as vengeance is met for the woman who is loved by both MCs.

  “You sure you’re up for this?” Grim asks quietly from beside me so only I can hear him.

  I glare at him until he holds his hands up in capitulation. “Just try and stop me,” I grit out.

  “Fair enough. Mind if I take first shot?” he asks. I shake my head and indicate for him to go for it, moving to stand by Zero so we can all watch him work.

  “Hmm… where to start?” Grim muses to himself, walking towards the table where all of our favorite tools are laid out.

  He picks a scalpel and a bottle of water off the table before walking over to the swinging man. Uncapping the water he takes a sip before spitting it in Rock’s face. Rock’s eyes snap open in shock for a moment and widen even further when he sees all of us.

  “Hello, Uncle. Surprised to see me?” I call out to him.

  “Viper. You guys have made a mistake. This has all been a misunderstanding,” he tells me, the begging note in his voice grating against my skin.

  “Is that right?” I mock.

  “You’re taking the word of a traumatized kid over your own flesh and blood?” he stammers in disbelief.

  “Well that little kid didn’t drag Megan to the fucking house of horrors by herself now did he?” Grim points out. “Want to know what I find interesting? In a room full of hostile bikers all pointing guns and half of them wearing different club colors—big scary strangers to Conner—the only person who terrified him that night was you,” Grim finishes before dragging the scalpel down the sole of Rock’s foot. Rock screams as blood drips on the floor beneath him.

  “What the fuck?” he screams again as Grim slices into his other foot.

  Rock tries to swing himself away
but hanging a couple of inches off the ground makes it virtually impossible.

  “Megan’s feet are shredded to pieces. I’m Ietting you know what that feels like. For every second of pain you caused her I’m going to return it to you.”

  “But that wasn’t me!” he yells as Grim makes another cut and another. I watch the blood pool on the floor below him, finding sick satisfaction in watching it puddle there.

  “Really, then who was it?” Grim asks with a creepy as fuck smile on his face.

  “That was Wanda. I didn’t know anything about it until she texted me to say she was in the woods with Megan and the kid,” he pants as Grim takes a break from his slicing and walks back over to the table of tools.

  “And why did she take her?” I ask, wondering how Wanda played into all this.

  “Megan told her that John had left the deed to this place in his will, which Megan had buried in some secret hiding spot. It was utter bullshit, of course, but Wanda wasn’t replying to my messages. I fucking tried to tell her not to go there, that it was a lie, but she didn’t pick up her fucking phone,” he grunts out, agitated.

  “How do you know it was a lie?” Zero speaks up. “He could have left a will leaving it to Wanda. Stranger things have happened,” he goads him.

  “I know it was a fucking lie because I was there when he made his will out. I told him it was a stupid fucking idea and that he should have left it to me as I would be president if he croaked but the paranoid bastard thought that would give me an incentive to kill him myself.”

  “It’s not paranoia if it’s true though, is it? My guess is John recognized something in you that the rest of us missed. A coldhearted fucking killer,” I tell him. He stares at me but doesn’t answer.

  “If he didn’t leave it to Wanda or you, who did he leave it to?”

  Rock glares at me as Grim picks up the blowtorch, his face going white before rushing out his next words. “He left it to Melly,” he answers. “Which was fine because she was none the wiser and would never get the option to leave here and start asking questions.”