This had to be the weirdest thing she had ever received. She moved into her bedroom and grabbed her phone typing in the address. It took her to an audio file and asked for a password to access the file. Nikki checked the card again for a password. There was nothing on the back but the web address. The front of the card had the insignia for the florist and that was it. Maybe if she typed in the name of the florist.
Nikki entered the name into the password request and the audio file booted up.
“Hello Angel.”
Nikki froze. The phone slipped from her hand and hit the carpet with a soft thud. God, that voice. It reached right down inside her and threatened to unlock the monster from its prison.
“I wanted to do this face to face but I haven’t been able to get near you. What I did," Cole's voice cracked and then his speech paused, "God, I hurt you Angel. I hurt you so badly and I will never forgive myself for that. I wanted a chance to show you how sorry I am, to beg your forgiveness. Please Nikki I need to see you."
He wanted to see her? The darkness inside her rattled its cage furiously and growled ferociously a demand to be let out and taken to its master.
"Ace are you ok?" Tex asked from her doorway.
His voice broke Nikki from her trance and she dropped to the floor scrambling for her phone.
"This whole time I thought it was I that owned you but in truth it is you who owns me. I love you Angel," Cole admitted through the speaker as Nikki fumbled with her phone.
“Please meet me at,” Nikki cut the audio file off there and stared at the floor in front of her.
A battle began to rage inside her between the darkness and her will. She could not let it out. Damn Cole. Damn him and that vulnerable boy quality to his voice, because she knew if she looked closer she'd find that not only had his call tugged at the monster it had tugged at her heart too.
Tex growled audibly forcing her to look up. His eyes held something like pure fire and the darkness inside her paid some very unwanted attention to it.
"He called you?" Tex's growled question brought Trace to her door.
"That sick bastard had the audacity to call you and tell you how much he loved you?" Tex's voice was filled with dark hatred and unconsciously a shiver of the good kind slid through her as the monster inside her tested the walls of its prison. Nikki quickly tore her eyes away from him and looked back at the floor. Her heart beat faster and her breaths came quicker. A pulse began to throb between her legs. God, what was she doing?
All three of their phones beeped in the pause after his question. Nikki knew what that was. It was King calling them in and just in the nick of time too. She screwed her eyes shut and took several deep breaths to calm herself. It was enough of a reminder to drag her back to reality. She couldn’t risk Cole sneaking back into her life and turning it upside down again. Nikki closed off the audio file and deleted it from her browser history. Then she collected the card and stood up pushing past the boys and into the kitchen.
Tex could feel his anger threatening to boil over. Why couldn’t that prick just leave her alone? He’d done enough damage already and if Tex could only get his hands on the guy he’d return the favour and then some. He watched in silence as Nikki walked out into the kitchen. She scooped up the flowers from the kitchen table and walked out the back door. Where the hell was she going?
Both he and Trace followed her outside and watched as Nikki unceremoniously dumped the flowers into one of the fire drums in the back yard and doused the lot with fire starter. As she picked up a lighter from the nearby table Tex couldn’t help but feel a little better. She held a little florists card up to the flame and once it caught she tossed that into the drum also. As the flames took off with a woosh Nikki turned back towards them.
“Let’s go. We got shit to do,” she told them as she pushed back passed them into the house.
Tex felt a wave of relief wash over him. Nikki wasn’t curled up in a ball on the floor crying and she wasn’t running out to meet up with the guy. Maybe their plan would work. He didn’t have time to contemplate that right now. They had church and then they had a long list of places to search for Black.
It was the first time she’d been in that room for a couple of months. She was nervous about facing them all in there but she wasn’t going to let it show. She walked into that room with her head held high and went straight to her normal seat behind the boys. She felt the eyes on her.
“Move over you two let Ace in to the table,” King commanded.
Just like that she was back in. No one questioned the Pres.
“We got a number of things going on here. These tails on the shipments, the drugs hitting our streets and this morning I got a call from Lacey.”
Nikki knew what that meant.
“One of the girls got worked over bad. She’s in the hospital. New girl, she took an off the books call so we got no info on the John and she won’t talk to anyone,” King paused, “Nikki I want you to head down there after this see if you can get anything out of her. She’s really bad so I don’t know if she can tell us anything.”
Nikki nodded her head in acknowledgement.
“The shipment situation is a ticking time bomb. We need to do something about this shit before it becomes a battle on the streets. Tex and Trace are taking control of the shipments. Next one is tomorrow night. We need to lock this shit down. No more bikes and no more cuts on that job. We gotta figure out how these guys are picking us up. I’m leaving it to you two to figure this shit out.”
The boys acknowledged him with a lift of their chins.
“This drug thing is not good. We exist here without issue because we keep these streets clean. We can’t keep them clean we are going to start have issues with the people. The promise we made to this community was that we invest in them and that none of this shit touches them, and in return they turn a blind eye to our endeavours. I intend on keeping that promise,” King looked each and every one of them in the eye as he made the statement.
“Reaper & I are on this. We need to find these guys. We know where they’re coming from,” he paused, “Bull has been dealing with this on his side. He says this is Bridges coming back at him. The minute he takes out a guy there’s another one back there working the same strip and now Bridges is pushing over into our territory and I won’t have this shit. We get hold of these guys and we send them back with a clear message. The Soldiers are not to be messed with.”
Nikki felt the rumble of agreement move through the group. They were not to be messed with and it was about time they started showing Bridges and his men exactly that. Fuck with the Soldiers and the Soldiers will fuck back twice as hard.
“Last but not least, Beard’s stepping down from his position as Road Captain. Trace got put forward and we need to vote this shit now. All in favour of Trace for Road Captain?” King asked.
Nikki raised her eyebrows at Trace. She couldn’t believe he didn’t tell her he’d been nominated for the position. Every hand in the room went up. Nikki wasn’t surprised about that, as far as she was concerned it was a no-brainer.
“The aye’s have it. Here you go son,” King handed him his Road Captain badge.
“Any questions?”
The room remained silent.
“Right. Everyone out.”
The room started to clear and Nikki rose from her chair to follow.
“Not you Ace. I want a word,” King’s demand had a few heads turning in her direction.
Both Tex and Trace halted alongside her.
“Alone,” King demanded.
The boys looked at her and she warned them off with her eyes. No point in them getting busted alongside her. She turned back toward King and regarded his face. He was serious as all hell as he stared at her. She heard the door close behind her and they were alone again.
“You got you’re shit sorted?” a hard glare accompanied his question, “Cause if you don’t I need t
o know now Ace.”
“I’m sorted,” her answer was confident.
“Good ‘cause right now we need everyone on board. Beard’s gonna take over the shop floor and we’ve hired a bird to do the office work.”
He was kicking her out of the shop? That was her thing.
“Like I said we need everyone on board and Beard’s getting too old for this shit. It’s high time you became a full-fledged member of this club. Now I’m giving you a chance. You want the vote? You want to be an equal member? This is your opportunity to earn it.”
Nikki couldn’t believe her ears. After everything that happened he was offering her an equal place.
“You knew heading into this you’d never be on the same level as the guys. Well now I’m giving you that chance. Prove it to me and to them that you are not a liability, that you can hold your own just as much as they can.”
This was not what she’d expected at all. She’d expected King to give her a massive dressing down for her recklessness, to grill her about Cole until she cracked and then bench her for eternity. Instead he was offering her what she’d always wanted. He was offering it to her right when she needed it most.
“Consider it done,’ she stated.
He acknowledged her with a nod of his head then gestured towards the door, dismissing her. As she reached for the handle he spoke once more.
“Be careful what you wish for Ace,” his voice was tired and held the slightest hint of regret.
If anyone knew the meaning of those words it was her. She walked into this life with eyes wide open but still things could happen that made you question everything about yourself.
“I can handle it Pres.,” she reassured him then turned and left the room.
Trace knew King was in there laying down the offer of full membership to Nikki. He and Tex had known it would be irresistible to her. A couple of the old boys had been resistant to the idea, just as they were resistant to her being patched in in the first place. It was with the same brothers who’d requested the partial status of her patch as if they were threatened by a woman having an equal spot to them. The boys had always thought it was bullshit. Trace thought King had been secretly happy to approve their conditions. He hadn’t wanted to see his pseudo-daughter shot at or beaten up or dead.
Now though things were different. The club was under siege and the reality was they needed every body they could get. She had proven herself more than capable before the shit with her mother. And after? Well they all strayed from the path at one point or another. And these days she seemed to be holding her shit together. So King would give her something to work for and he and Tex would give her something to hold on to. Maybe between them they could keep her from disappearing into that self-destructive world again.
“So have you thought any more about our discussion yesterday?” he asked Tex.
“Yeah I’ve thought about it Brother. You sure you wanna go down that road?” Tex eyed him seriously.
He thought about the woman behind those closed doors and he knew there was no other answer than yes. She’d never choose between them so they’d take the choice out of it and hopefully it would work.
“Yeah I’m sure,” he answered.
“Well I guess we need to figure out how we’re going to get our girl. But right now we probably need to ring Alex. We need to be working this Jason Black, Lenny angle,” Tex suggested.
“Yeah but you better let me make that call. Neither of us are his favourite people right now but you are at the top of his shit list,” he replied.
“I can’t help it if the man finds me intimidating,” Tex replied with a smirk.
Trace had to laugh at that. Alex wasn’t intimidated by either of them, he was just a sore loser when it came to Nikki.
The pair of them moved outside away from the other brothers and Trace dialled Alex’s number.
“Shit. What do you want Trace?”
“Wow Alex your phone manner really needs work, you know that?” he replied with a smile.
“I haven’t got time for your jokes Deveraux. Now what do you want?”
“That tracker you have on Black?” Trace prompted.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Are you serious right now? Does that girl tell you two everything?” Alex growled down the phone at him.
The man was pissed.
“Yeah, everything,” Trace emphasised the word just to annoy Alex even more.
“I need to know where he’s been Alex.”
“Look I helped you out with the info for Nikki’s sake and now that she’s safe I’m done.”
If Alex thought he was gonna get off that easy he was wrong.
“Now that she’s safe? We don’t know that she’s safe. Lenny might be dead Alex, but Jason Black is still alive and we think he was involved in Lenny’s little plot to kill Nikki,” Tex informed him.
“Why because Lenny lived in a place owned by Black? That’s a bit of a stretch. What reason would he have to want Nikki dead anyway?”
Alex didn’t have the whole picture like they did. He had no idea that Black’s brother had killed Sheila and Nikki had killed him. He was working on limited info.
“You don’t have the whole picture Alex but I’m telling you now there’s more to this than you know. Now are you gonna tell me what I want to know?”
“I’ll tell you what you want to know Deveraux but first you need to give me the whole picture.”
Trace should’ve known that was coming. This is what happens when you piss off a cop.
Trace glanced over at Tex who had been listening to the conversation. Tex nodded his head in acknowledgement, even though he looked about as happy with giving Alex that info as Trace felt about it.
“Fine. But I’m telling you now if you go digging you will find nothing.”
He did not want Alex poking around and investigating this shit. It was the last thing any of them needed especially Nikki.
“Understood,” his reply sounded like it came out between gritted teeth.
“Nikki killed Black’s brother.”
The silence on the other end of the phone communicated Alex’s shock.
“How the hell did,” Alex stopped abruptly, “Actually don’t answer that. Does Black know it was her?”
“We’re not sure. It’s just speculation at the moment but if he does she’s far from safe.”
“That’s an understatement,” Alex agreed, “I’ll get you a list but I’m warning you, you make a move without informing me first and I will not hesitate to make your life such a living hell that neither you nor Tex will be able to spit in public without copping time. You get me?”
“Yeah Detective. I get you,” he answered.
Chapter 6
Nikki walked through the double doors of the hospital and headed straight for the elevators. Lacey’s girl was on the third floor in a private room. The MC had her switched there after they’d gotten wind of her situation. They looked after the girls in any way that they could. They provided them with a safe and organised system for taking clients. If they were off site clients they sent a driver with the girls to lay down the rules to the client and to take the cash. But if the girls took a john off the books there was little the MC could control about that. Now it was about retribution and unfortunately this girl learned that the hard way.
Nikki crammed herself into a car full of visitors carrying balloons, flowers and other gifts. The awkward silence that filled the space once the doors closed had always amused her. Now though it made her feel off. Maybe it was because of the reasons she was here. She stepped off on the third floor and turned left searching for room 308.
She came upon the door partially open and a southern drawl drifting out through the gap.
“You need to talk to me girl,” Lacey begged, “We want to get the deviate son of a bitch who did this to you and make sure he never does this again, to anyone. We can’t do that if you won’t talk to us.”
So the girl was k
eeping quiet. She was probably frightened of the asshole who did this coming back to get her. Nikki knocked gently on the door.
“Come in,” Lacey invited.
Nikki opened the door and entered the room glancing at the girl in the bed. Jesus fucking Christ. If she’d been anyone else Nikki might’ve tripped over her own feet in shock. She’d received the low down from Lacey on the girl’s injuries. She had several broken ribs on both sides of her body, a broken leg, a broken arm and wrist, a broken nose and a shattered eye socket. But that didn’t really prepare her for the horrific visual before her.
Both the girl’s eyes were black and swollen shut. She had stitches down one cheek and the other was a shade of purple that Nikki had never seen before. Her mouth was also terribly swollen and while Nikki didn’t think the girls jaw was broken she was sure that was probably part of the reason why she didn’t want to talk. The arm that Nikki could see was also a mottled variety of scratches, cuts and bruises. Nikki could only imagine the sort of pain a beating like that brought on.
Lacey sighed and vacated her chair stopping as she neared Nikki.
“Her name’s Chrissy. I don’t know that you’ll have much luck with her. She hasn’t said a word to anyone. Not the doctors, not the police and not me,” she explained then left the room.
Nikki moved slowly towards the girl.
“Hi Chrissy, my name is Ace,” she said softly, “King sent me to talk to you about what happened.”
The girl stirred and turned her head slightly in Nikki’s direction.
“I’m sorry that this happened to you. No one deserves to have this happen to them. No one.”
Among the Chaos: Book 2 of the Soldiers of Chaos MC Series Page 5
