Perfect Chaos

by Nashoda Rose

I waited another two minutes and then slid along the hallway wall again, peering around the corner into the living room. I noticed the front door wide open and …

  I felt him behind me a second too late and by then he had the cold, sharp edge of his knife on my throat.

  “And you’re supposed to be the best.”

  Fuck. I dropped my hand to my side and took my finger off the trigger as he took the knife from my throat. Jesus, I was too focused on Georgie and not on what the fuck I’d been trained to do. “You owe me a new lock.”

  “What lock? All I did was click and turn. Ever hear of security? My girl is a rather valuable asset—”

  I swung around and punched him in the face, although I was rather disappointed he didn’t go down. I would’ve punched him again if Tyler hadn’t come running in the door and grabbed me. I think I would’ve actually killed him and the bastard knew it.

  My finger, however, was back on the trigger of my gun and pointed at him.

  “Easy.” He lowered his knife, leaned over and put it in a holster strapped to his leg. Kai stood up straight and nodded. “Guess I deserved it—once.”

  “Deck, man, we need him.” Suddenly I wished I hadn’t called Tyler to come by this morning. Bad timing. Another two minutes and I’d have a dead body to help get rid of.

  All I could think about were the cuts on Georgie. Her words, ‘I asked him to’, ravaged through me, eating up my control like termites. I knew why she’d done it, as a way to deal with her past. To feel the pain and walk away strong, not weak like she used to feel when she was sixteen. It was a classic way to cope with shit fucking with your head. Feel the physical pain in order to deal with the emotional.

  Fuck. I should’ve been there. I should’ve been the one to help her and fuckin’ Kai was there instead. I was filled with fury, but I did lower my gun.

  As soon as Tyler stepped away from me, I swung again, this time catching Kai unaware and landing him flat on his ass. He shook his head as if to clear it then came to his feet and our gazes clashed. “You done now?”

  The guy had no fear. I was the one with the fuckin’ gun. Christ, even worse than dangerous was not caring whether you lived or died.

  Kai was a lethal weapon in the sheep’s clothing of a rich gentleman. Pretending to be someone he wasn’t, just like he made Georgie do. His slight English accent was the final touch to his bullshit persona.

  Kai strode across the room and opened the sliding glass door as if he owned the place and was a welcomed guest. Cocky son of a bitch. When we talked last night, I’d told him we’d meet today, although I hadn’t intended it to be here or with Georgie around. Kai obviously had other plans.

  The bastard headed out onto the terrace, completely at ease. I followed. “Where’s Chaos?”

  I raised my gun and pointed it at him, my hand steady as a rock as I tried to stop myself from killing the asshole.

  She was sixteen when Kai met her. Sixteen when he pressured her, a vulnerable girl who was being abused by a boy at school and had just lost her brother. The fucker deserved a bullet between the eyes. My finger twitched on the trigger.

  “Deck.” Her voice came up behind me and her hand settled on my waist. I lowered the gun. I tried to keep her safe from shit like this all her life, and the irony was she was around it the entire time anyway. “Hey, Tyler.” She paused, her gaze on Kai and she raised her brows, cocking her hip. “Ever think of knocking, asshole?”

  I felt the pull at the corners of my lips. I wasn’t sure how Georgie would be with Kai, whether she’d fear him or sass him. The latter was a point for me.

  “I like the dramatic,” Kai said, pulling out a chair from the patio table and sat, stretching his legs out. He grabbed Georgie’s coffee mug from earlier, sniffed it then took a sip and set it down.

  She huffed. “That’s bullshit.”

  “More like traumatic,” Tyler said and yanked a chair out across from Kai and sat.

  I kept my hand on my gun resting at my side. Kai glanced at it and a mild smirk emerged. “Not very trusting, are you?”

  “I find out my girl has cuts on her caused by you. No, I want to blow you to pieces at the moment.” But that was too clean; first, I’d torture him and make him suffer for oh, about ten years. I felt Georgie’s hand leave my waist. Okay, she had her reasons for letting him do it, but I didn’t have to fuckin’ like it. It sure as hell wasn’t happening again. I had demons, too, except I beat them out by killing the scum of the Earth. Well, I’d fuck her demons out of her.

  “Why?” I knew Kai would know exactly what I was asking. Regardless of how much I hated him at that moment, we thought alike.

  “If you’d stuck around, you’d know.”

  I went for him and Georgie’s grab on my arm did nothing, nor did Tyler’s attempt to pull me away. Kai fought back; the table was pushed over and slipped into the pool as Kai charged me, and we both landed hard on the patio stones. We rolled and I felt the hard clip to the side of my face and elbowed him in the chin before I managed to plow my fist into his nose. I heard the crunch and a satisfied grunt emerged. It didn’t last as his fist slammed me in the lower back and I arched in pain just as he kicked me in the back of the legs. I went flying forward, grabbing out at his shirt and taking him with me as we both crashed into the pool.

  It was the cold water and Georgie’s shouting which finally got me to stop. She stood on the edge of the pool, her hands on her hips and her face furious. Tyler was on his phone and I was guessing it was to Vic who was more than likely in the car waiting for Tyler, having no idea Kai was here.

  I slapped the water with my hand while looking at Kai. “She no longer works for you.” I climbed out of the pool. “Kill him if he goes near her,” I said to Tyler and went inside to change.

  I WATCHED KAI get out of the water, looking cocky and confident even with a bleeding nose and soaking wet jeans hanging off his hips. His white t-shirt was what caught my attention though as I stared at his chest, mouth agape.

  Scars crisscrossed his flesh. There wasn’t one inch that didn’t have a scar, and they were obvious even with the tatts he’d had inked over the top of them. He must have known Tyler and I could see them, but he remained stoic as he righted the chair he’d previously occupied and sat.

  “You done staring?”

  I nodded. Shit, I didn’t know what to say. I knew he had something dark in his past, but the scars were … even through the wet t-shirt they looked painful.

  He smiled, flashing his pearly-white teeth. “So, he finally fucked you.”

  “Hey, man, you see we’re on the thirtieth floor here,” Tyler said. “Might want to cool it before you’re on the ground floor real fast.”

  Kai laughed then kicked out at a chair beside him. “Sit, Chaos. You’re making me nervous standing there.” It was my turn to laugh because the idea of Kai ever being nervous was hilarious. “Need a favor.”

  Tyler snorted.

  Shit. Kai’s favors usually involved me flirting with some guy and getting info out of him. If I ever had to go back to his place, I was fake-drunk enough to pass out before he took off his pants and he wouldn’t get suspicious. Once he crashed, I could search his place and be gone before he woke. The only one I had considered sleeping with was Lionel and that was purely because I had been tired of saving it for Deck.

  There was a guy I’d taken to my friend, Kat’s, art gallery showing who I’d actually been interested in … well, interested in having sex with. Hottie turned into a meatloaf with lots of money and no charm past the public eye.

  I heard Deck come up behind me then he rested his hands on my shoulders. Vic arrived and nodded to me and there wasn’t the usual glare of what I took as hatred. Now, he actually smiled at me and his sexy, milk-chocolate skin against his white teeth made him look super-hot. Then he looked at Kai and the smile dropped, all business again. Deck obviously told his boys about my extracurricular activities.

  “I was just telling Chaos about a … favor I require.”
>
  Shit. Deck’s hands tightened on my shoulders and he moved in closer so his body was leaning into the chair.

  “Chaos?” Vic said.

  “Nickname,” I clarified.

  Vic grunted.

  Kai looked rather relaxed, considering he was outnumbered and didn’t even carry a gun.

  “Lionel—”

  “She isn’t going near that guy again,” Deck shouted. He actually shouted. Deck rarely shouted.

  Vic leaned up against the glass window and crossed his ankles. Tyler looked from Kai to Deck and then to Deck’s grip on the gun.

  I raised my hand like in school to which Kai laughed. Deck slipped his hand in mine and lowered my arm. “Kai, bad timing,” I said. “You should’ve knocked or called, not showed up here.” I tilted my head and looked up at Deck. “And Lionel’s harmless.”

  “No.” Deck was unwavering and I would’ve stomped my foot if I was standing, but since I wasn’t it would’ve looked silly.

  “Sugar, it’s not happening.” Tyler winked at me and I sneered. “Give it up.”

  Kai sighed while tapping his fingers on the table. “You fucked that scenario up.” His words were to Deck and he was probably right. Lionel nearly pissed his pants when Deck broke into his place. “Have you told her what you’ve been doing overseas for the last few months?”

  It was Vic who lost it and came at Kai, but Deck stopped him, blocking him with his hand on his chest. “Not now.”

  “What’s overseas?” The men were quiet and Tyler wouldn’t even look at me.

  “Get her out of here,” Deck ordered Vic.

  “What?” I shouted as Vic hooked my arm. “What the hell? What is it? Kai? Deck?” Vic effortlessly swung me off my feet and carried me inside. I yelled the entire way into the bedroom.

  I WAITED UNTIL Georgie was out of earshot before I spoke. “I want her out.”

  “You said that already.”

  I had on the phone last night after I gave him a detailed report on how I was going to torture him.

  Kai wasn’t easily shaken, if at all. I suspected he had no family, nothing to give him a weakness and by the look of the scars under his shirt, the man knew pain and was numb to it. “Who do you work for, Kai?”

  There it was. The slight shift in weight, not actually moving, but like an inner jerk that only someone as advanced as my men and me could read. It was all I needed. Kai worked for someone and that meant they were way more powerful than him.

  “And I think it’s not up to her or you … is it? It’s up to whoever you work for.” Kai met my eyes and didn’t say anything. That cocky smirk was gone, and all I saw were blank, numb, dead eyes. It was the look we hated to see when trying to extract info from a person because you knew no matter what you did, you’d never get him to talk.

  “Why did you really come here, Kai?” I kept my voice steady and calm, watching every shift in Kai’s movements, which were barely any.

  “Lionel’s dead.”

  “Fuck.” I knew what that meant and so did Tyler. We looked at one another.

  “Place was ransacked. Police say it’s a burglary gone wrong.”

  I didn’t believe in coincidences. Not a chance in hell it was a burglary gone wrong. More like a murder gone right.

  I felt the tension rippling in my muscles and my heart pumping so hard it felt like there was a riot inside me. Lionel was dead. Georgie had been at Lionel’s. They’d been seen at Avalanche together according to Matt.

  “You fuckin’ put Georgie right in the middle of this?” I had my gun at his temple in half a second and Kai never moved. Even the rhythmic turning of the empty mug remained steady. I cocked the hammer and still Kai did nothing. I hated men like this. He had no qualms if I pulled the trigger. I even wondered if he wanted me to. Men like him had nothing to live for and everything to die for.

  “Boss,” Tyler slowly put his hand over top of the barrel of the gun.

  I knew damn well Kai had a knife drawn under the table ready to slit the femoral artery in my inner thigh the second it looked like I’d pull the trigger. Tyler saw it, too.

  “She needs to finish an assignment.”

  “For you or for whomever you work for?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “You really are a cold-hearted son of a bitch,” Tyler said. He snorted and kicked at the empty chair beside him. “Shoot him, Boss. I have no problems cleaning up the mess.”

  Kai uncrossed his ankles and leaned forward in his chair, lowering his voice. “The consequences of her telling you about me—your life. She knew that. Those I work for won’t be as … understanding as I am.”

  I snorted. “You’re not understanding, Kai. That is fuckin’ bullshit. Let’s make this simple for you, Kai. If you or any of your little friends even breathe on her, I’m coming for all of you. Every single one of you.”

  Kai gave a single nod as if with respect. I didn’t like it. Shit, I didn’t like any of this because I had no control over it. I researched. I planned. I got in and out of a situation before they even knew my men or me were there. Suddenly, I was in the dark and I fuckin’ hated it. What was worse was that Kai was a fuckin’ mystery. I didn’t know whether he was good, bad or indifferent.

  “Why do you think I was given the task to gain Georgie’s trust? You’re not the type of man to believe in coincidences. Nor am I.”

  What the fuck? Suddenly, my brain began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

  Connor dying, or so we were made to believe.

  A few months later, Kai showing up in Toronto right after.

  Kai bumping into Georgie at Robbie’s place.

  Kai taking a menial job to kill a couple drug dealers who stole money from a MC club.

  But where did this all start … My jaw tightened as I said, “Connor.”

  Tyler groaned. “Shit storm.”

  Kai said, “Yes. They have him. The people I work for.”

  “Who are they, Kai?” I asked.

  He ignored me. “Everything you thought you knew about Connor is dead. He will even kill her if he has to.” I saw the scars on Kai and I knew without a doubt Connor now wore similar ones. Who the hell was Kai affiliated with? “Georgie won’t be free of them now that they have Connor. I give her minor assignments so she’ll stay safe. She’s just lucky they haven’t taken her in, too.” Kai chuckled. “My guess is they didn’t want to have to deal with you if Georgie disappeared.” He sobered again. “Or a tactic to help Connor … see things their way. My guess is that is why they let you live instead of killing you right from the beginning. Despite how this looks, killing is not how they generally go about things. Coercion—yes. Torture—definitely. Death is too final.”

  Who the fuck were these people? How did they get to Connor? Why him? Most of all, how the hell could I keep Georgie clear of this?

  “And Robbie?”

  “Dead. I killed him the second he walked out of jail,” Kai said.

  “Jesus Christ. She thinks he’s alive. That you’re trying to find him. You’ve been lying to her.”

  “And you’re not?” Kai huffed. “Come on, Deck. You’ve known Connor is alive for months and yet you haven’t told her.”

  “You’re keeping her on a leash by telling her Robbie is alive. You’re using her.” I’d have to tell her about Robbie and Connor. Fuck, neither was going to be a good conversation.

  Kai shrugged. “You can look at it whatever way you want. Bottom line—I’m saving her from them.” Then his voice lowered and lost that slight accent. “I was there when she was sixteen and damaged by that fucker. You weren’t.” Now, that was a fuckin’ stab right in the gut. “I saw what he did to her, what it still does to her, and I wasn’t letting him walk free after that.”

  “The cuts.” I closed my eyes, a wave of sickness breaking through my usual steady calm. Then in a sudden abrupt movement, I hauled off and landed Kai on his ass with one punch. This time, Tyler stood back and watched. “I don’t care if she begs you. And fuck
whoever you work for and fuck Connor. Georgie doesn’t get involved in this.”

  Kai lay on the ground a second then reached out his hand. Cocky bastard. I yanked him to his feet and he smiled. “Too late for that. She’s been involved for ten years.”

  “Get her uninvolved.”

  Kai shook his head back and forth. “Lionel is dead. Who do you think is responsible? Don’t know for sure yet, but I’m thinking it’s who I work for.” Shit. “Georgie stops doing assignments, they’ll know and they’ll send someone after her. My guess will be Connor. You can imagine what that will be like for her, having her dead brother showing up to kill her.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Tyler got up and walked away, his hands in his hair as if he was pulling it.

  I didn’t say anything. I fuckin’ couldn’t; my throat was locked up tight.

  Kai stood and the scrape of the chair against the stone echoed. “And just so you know how serious these people are.” I noticed his jaw clench and his hands curl into fists at his sides, not gestures Kai usually displayed. “The girl, London, who I asked you to find in New York … is now theirs. They didn’t like it that I hired you guys to find her.”

  Fuck. That was why Kai wouldn’t try to find her himself. Why he brought us to New York and asked us to look quietly for London and then, if we found her, to hide her until he contacted us. He didn’t want whoever he worked for to know he was looking for London. Shit, was that why he’d left her in Mexico when he could’ve easily gotten her out himself? “Why do they want her?”

  Kai shrugged.

  But I knew why. I knew how people like this worked. Kai showed a weakness for the girl, and that wouldn’t be taken lightly. Weakness led to failure.

  There wasn’t much of a choice here. Whoever he worked for was more powerful and had more contacts than I did. There was no chance I could begin to put a dent in some organization that faked the death of a JTF2 officer.

  “I won’t keep this from her, Kai.”

  “And I won’t kill you.”

  I snorted and shook my head. “Why tell me this? Georgie seemed to think if she told me anything, you’d try to kill me. Was that a lie to keep her in line?”