“Hey Nikki,” Alex’s voice shocked her out of her frozen state.
“Is there anything at all you wanna tell me about this, about anything?” His eyes pleaded with her for some sign of hope that she still needed him, that she would still confide in him.
“No. Nothing,” she replied her voice devoid of emotion.
He sighed and nodded his head.
“I am really sorry Nikki,” his eyes flicked to where Rat had been as he spoke.
“So am I Alex. More than you’ll ever know,” with that quiet admission from her he walked away.
As she watched his retreating form she hoped that he found something good to replace all this bad she’d brought into his life.
The high that had been running around the clubhouse on their return had been contagious. Brodie and Jay had been the heroes of the day. They earned their patches and everyone had been revelling in the celebrations that followed. He and Trace had been loaded on a high and they were going to get their girl tonight. How quickly things could go from one extreme to the other?
Tex’s insides were a mash of wild feelings from blood boiling anger to gut wrenching sadness. He’d lost a brother tonight and he’d lost him in the worst way. Rat had nicked off to his sister’s house to drop off some cash to her. He promised he’d be back within the hour. He’d come back alright just not in the way Tex had expected. As the image of his brother’s mutilated body came to mind he realised that this thing with Bridges was beyond business. It was personal now, personal and brutal. This was the tipping point for him, for all of them. Bridges was now priority numero uno. What happened tonight was a declaration of war and if anyone questioned that fact he would personally have them admitted to the nearest psyche ward for assessment.
The cops were long gone and Rat’s body had been carted off to the morgue. The women were out in the main room of the clubhouse except for Nikki of course. She sat beside him in silence her blue-grey eyes slowly moving into dark and stormy territory. He could feel her slowly disappearing into herself as her anger grew. They needed to get her out of here as soon as possible.
“We can’t cool our heels on this shit any longer. We know who’s behind this shit and we need to hit back,” Rock was throwing his opinion out there for everyone to hear.
Tex didn't need to hear it he was well past being on board with that shit. In fact he was so far passed that shit he was already planning his next move. They needed to get a bead on Jason Black and hope to god he would lead them to Bridges. Speaking of which, the piece of paper that held his most recent locations was burning a massive hole in his pocket. Alex had come through as promised delivering them a list of all the places Jason Black had showed up in the last few weeks. As soon as they were done here he was starting on the list.
"Before we go hitting anything we need intel. We don’t know shit about this dude and he seems to know a shit load about us," Case added.
"This guy has got to be on someone's radar. What about the PD? Ace you get anything out of Winter?" King asked.
"Not a lot. The PD knows about as much as we do. Bridges has links to the Niners and Jason Black is his right hand man. They’ve had trouble getting anything on Black and getting him to lead them to Bridges is near on impossible.”
“He’s given us a couple of starting points to work from,” Tex interrupted causing Nikki to frown at him.
“Well start now and keep me informed.”
“Just in case he’s not being as helpful as he could you work that skirt Rock. Seems to me that access to her info is directly related to access to her panties. You get in there man and good,” King’s comment got a couple of sniggers.
“You two,” he gestured towards Brodie and Jay, “stay here in case that asshole comes back and the rest of you take your women home get them sorted. We got shit to deal with tomorrow.”
Everyone piled out of the room and off in their respective directions.
King pulled him and Trace aside.
“Black is to be your one and only focus starting tonight and I do not want Nikki anywhere near this. If this guy has even an inkling that she killed his brother,” King’s words broke off but Tex knew exactly what he was saying, “That man has gotta have a weakness. Find it and use it. We need to find Bridges and end this before anymore Soldiers end up lying dead in the dirt.”
Tex couldn’t argue with that plan. Cut off the head and the body will fall. The sooner they removed Bridges the better.
“Now take that girl home and get on it,” King said as he gestured to Nikki.
She was standing in the middle of the open gates staring at the patch of dirt where Rat had lain. The more distance they put between her and this place right now the better.
Nikki woke to the sound of someone in the house. It was still dark outside. Something about the noise told her it wasn’t Tex and Trace. It wasn’t the sound of someone moving confidently through their home. It was softer, more hesitant. She reached under mattress searching for her gun. A creak sounded in the hallway close to her door. Nikki slipped out of bed and tiptoed across her bedroom to the door. As she reached for the handle it turned. She took several quick steps back and raised her weapon.
The door opened slowly and a dark menacing shape filled the doorway. A monster. Its eyes glowed like flickering flames in the dark and she felt herself drawn towards it.
"Come," it called to her beckoning her forward.
That dark part of her told her to go but she resisted it. A low growl emanated from the dark mass and Nikki's finger went straight for the trigger of her gun.
"You know this is what you want. Stop fighting it and come to me," the monsters arms went out as if offering her an embrace.
Her body leaned toward the darkness and unconsciously she stepped forward.
"You can’t resist me," it told her.
Nikki dragged her eyes away from the monster momentarily looking down at her moving feet. The sight knocked her out of her trance and dragged her back to reality. She could resist it and she would. Her gaze came back up and she squeezed the trigger of her Glock firing a single round into the monster's chest.
The shape flickered like a faulty television picture then suddenly took the shape of a man. She recognised the silhouette immediately. Cole. He fell backwards onto the floor and Nikki felt a surge of panic.
"Cole," she cried out to him as she ran to his fallen body.
She stared down at his face as he lay there black blood flowing from the wound.
"I'm so sorry Cole," she sobbed over him.
She watched as the darkness disappeared from his eyes and those beautiful otherworldly green eyes became unburdened.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he croaked as he reached up to touch her face.
The moment his fingertips touched her skin something happened. It was like a jump in time and suddenly she was on the floor in his place with him crouching over her. She couldn’t move her limbs and as she looked down at the gaping hole in her chest and the inky blood pooling on the floor around her, she knew this was how it would end.
He smiled softly down at her, "this is the only way it can be, for now. But don’t worry we'll be together again soon."
He leant down and kissed her gently on her mouth.
"My Angel," the words whispered reverently from his lips.
Nikki woke with a start. The lingering feeling of lips on hers and Cole’s words echoing in her ears had her on edge. She glimpsed movement to her right and rolled from the bed grabbing her gun from the bedside table. She landed on the floor in kneeling position her gun trained on her curtains shifting in the breeze. She took a deep breath and shook her head. Bloody dreams had her jumping at shadows or in this case moving curtains.
Wait, moving curtains? She hadn’t left her window open last night. As she frowned at the open window she lifted her fingers to her tingling lips. Surely not? He wouldn't? The clink of the side
gate latch had her moving again. She raced to the front of the house, skidding down the hallway and crashing into the front door. The sound of a car door slamming and an engine turning over reached her ears as she wrenched open the front door. Nikki launched herself into the front yard the screen door slamming against the wall. Her eyes went straight to the blacked out Range Rover idling at the curb. There was a pause, a small moment in time when, even though she couldn’t see Cole, she felt his eyes on her. Then the Range Rover took off flooring it down the street and away from her.
He was in her house, in her room. Why? She raced back inside to her room and the first thing she noticed was her cupboard door wide open. Hanging inside was the lace Bien Savvy dress she'd warn for him, an envelope taped to the hanger. She approached it cautiously as if it might suddenly grow teeth and bite her. His pet name for her was inscribed across the envelope, Angel, in beautiful script. She turned the envelope over in her hands. There was paper inside and what felt like a card.
Nikki hesitated. Did she really want to open up that can of worms? The monster was already out of its cage. She could feel it rumbling around inside her as she thought about its master. She couldn’t afford to tempt it by dangling Cole in front of it. The roar of bikes broke through the quiet cutting Nikki's contemplation short. The boys were back.
Nikki threw the envelope back into the cupboard and quickly shut the door. She went for the window next closing and locking it. She did a quick inspection of her room. As her gaze swept around the space she noticed the top draw of her dresser was not quite closed. The memory stick. Nikki reefed open the draw and rifled through her underwear. Nothing. The little black and red memory stick was gone. How the hell had he known she had it?
The sound of the garage door opening signalled the boy’s entrance. Nikki didn’t want to deal with the third degree from them. She quickly shoved everything back into her draw and closed it then slipped back into bed. With everything swirling around in her head she doubted she'd sleep anymore tonight.
Chapter 11
"You can stop skulking around waiting for something to happen kid," Reaper's voice drifted back towards her.
Nikki stepped out of the nearby shadows. She hadn't tried really hard to disguise her presence. She wanted him to know she was watching him, that he couldn't make a move without her knowing.
"You planning on giving my keys back any time soon?" Reaper asked her.
"Just making sure you keep to your end of the deal old man," she responded.
"Well I guess that means you better saddle up kid ‘cause we got shit to do," he told her gruffly.
Nikki had known something was going to happen. A brother was dead and they could no longer ignore the threat hanging over them. As she’d left last night she’d seen King call Reaper aside and she knew that now the real war would begin. Tex and Trace had planned on chasing down Jason Black and as much as Nikki wanted to do that, she couldn’t let Reaper go out by himself. Luckily for her they’d been instructed to keep her out of it. She was pissed at King for making that call but it worked in her favour.
"Where are we going?" she responded.
"Back to Main Street. Apparently our little confrontation the other night stirred up a Hornet's nest and it would appear that maybe Rat was the result."
God, Rat.
"Where are your shadows? Aren’t they going to wonder where you are if you keep disappearing on them?" He asked her as he threw his leg over his bike.
"They’ve got their own stuff to worry about. Now let's go," she said as she mounted her bike.
They roared out of the compound following the same route as last time. Reaper took them in through the bottom end of Main Street. He pulled around the back of the old bike shop and parked up in the deepening shadows of the building.
“What are we doing here?” she asked him.
“Recon kid,” he replied reaching into one of the saddlebags on his bike.
When his hand came back out a Colt M4 Commando followed. Nikki’s eyes went wide. He was gonna wake up the whole neighbourhood and then some with that thing.
"Relax kid. We're just watching for now," he explained as he tapped the scope with his finger.
Reaper reached into the saddle bag and brought out a spare scope. The man had been prepared for company. Maybe he wasn’t as resistant to the idea of her accompanying him as she thought. He handed it to her then headed for the shop door. He tried the handle and when it wouldn’t budge he stepped back preparing to kick it in.
"Hold up. You'll alert the whole neighbourhood to our presence," she hissed at him.
Nikki pulled her lock picking gear from her pocket and stepped in front of him. Brute force wasn’t always the best method. She popped the lock in a matter of seconds and stood up pushing the door open.
"After you old man," she said as she smirked at him.
"Maybe you will be useful after all kid," he said as he pushed passed her into the building.
Nikki followed him through the gloomy interior up a ladder in the back corner of the building and onto the roof. Staying low she moved to where her father was crouched behind the small wall surrounding the roof.
Reaper settled into position and scanned the street focusing his attention on one area in particular. He gestured to a familiar pale blue coloured house down the street. It was the same house she’d seen Black approaching when they encountered him during their shipment. She looked through the scope and into the front room of the house. There was a lone occupant sitting in the lounge area.
“Ok and now?” She queried.
“Now, we wait,” he replied.
Of course.
On paper Jason Black was a legitimate businessman but in real life his hands were as bloody as his twisted brothers were. Supposedly he was a real estate mogul, some kind of rich property developer. The man owned a whole portfolio of investment properties which just meant he had a lot of closets to hide his skeletons in. The man visited his investments here and there but there was one building in particular that he frequented on Mondays and Thursdays at the same time without fail. It was the one place they were guaranteed to find him.
They waited in the park across from the luxury apartment complex lingering in the shadows of the trees. Trace knew there was only one reason a man would come to the same place at the same time on the same day every week. Either it was family or it was a woman and with Black he’d bet it was the latter of the two. Trace checked his watch. They had five minutes before Black would show up. He signaled to Tex that he was heading in and crossed the road to the apartment building.
They’d scoped out the place earlier and had known that jeans, t-shirt and their cut was not gonna cut it around here. Trace being the pretty boy of the two had been lumped with the pretend to be a rich prick role. So dressed up in his designer jeans and sweater he approached the apartment building. He noticed a young blonde women hurrying along the footpath. That was his in.
He stepped in front of her so she bumped into him her grocery bags dropping to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” he said at the same time she did scrambling to pick up the items that had spilled out onto the side walk.
They scooped all the things into the bags one of which was split.
“I am so sorry. I was off in my own little world. Please allow me to help with your bags?” he requested as he threw her his most dazzling smile.
He could see the easy trust in her eyes and felt a little twinge of guilt about using her.
“That’s very nice of you to offer but it’s fine really,” she tried to politely dismiss him.
“I insist it’s the least I can do. Plus this bag is split and it’ll be very difficult to carry with only one hand,” he insisted.
“Um ok thank you,” she said and blushed a little.
Women, always a sucker for a dazzling set of pearly whites and innocent baby blues.
They made their way down the footpath and into the building while h
e made small talk with her. As they reached the bank of elevators Trace’s phone buzzed. That had to be Tex telling him that Black had arrived. He’d cut it too fine and now he was going to either ditch this girl at the elevator to look for Black or go with her and hope he could spot him when he returned to the lobby. He glanced over at his new friend. Nope he couldn’t leave a damsel in distress.
The elevator doors opened and he stepped inside. As he turned he caught sight of Black entering the building.
“Daisy?” Black’s voice echoed across the lobby towards them.
The girl’s head came up and a smile lit up her face as the elevator doors closed. She reached for the open doors button but it was too late they were already moving.
“Was that your boyfriend?” Trace enquired gently.
“Yes,” she replied.
The smile on her face was one he knew all too well, as he wore it whenever he thought about being with Nikki. It was one of admiration and love.
Trace had to wonder about the way the universe worked. It put this poor sweet girl in the clutches of the deadly criminal. It put her right in his path and made her a pawn in the deadly game of cat and mouse they were embarking upon. But love was blind as they say and this poor girl would learn the hard way that love could be deceptive and it could hurt like hell.
They exited the elevator on the twenty first floor and stopped in front of apartment two ‘o four. His pocket vibrated again.
“This is me. Thank you very much for your help,” Daisy said with a genuine smile.
Among the Chaos: Book 2 of the Soldiers of Chaos MC Series Page 12
