Among the Chaos: Book 2 of the Soldiers of Chaos MC Series (17 page)

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.

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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 he 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.

Trace was very antsy to get out of there. Black would be up here any second now and if he spotted Trace with his woman all hell would break loose.

“You’re very welcome,” he said, “I’m sorry to say that I’m going to have to run. I was supposed to be meeting a friend and I can tell by the insistent vibrating of my phone that I am already quite late.”

She smiled warmly at him, “Of course if you want to just leave the bag right down there by the door I’ll come back and get it in a minute.”

He did as she asked.

“Enjoy the rest of your night Daisy. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime,” he said.

He had the feeling they would definitely be meeting again only next time she wouldn’t be smiling. He walked back towards the elevators. As she entered her apartment he ducked past them and around the corner just as he heard the ting of the elevators and the slide of the doors opening. He waited a breath or two before peaking around the corner.

Black scooped up the busted grocery bag just as Daisy reached the door. She threw her arms around him and smiled up at him so lovingly that Trace wanted to vomit. But it was Black’s response that really got his attention. His body relaxed instantly and his face softened so notably you’d swear the man wasn’t the hardened right hand man of a mob style gangster. Every man had a weakness and sadly for Daisy she was Black’s.

Chapter 12

Nikki had been sitting on the roof of this building every night for nearly a week. The ridiculous amount of trouble she’d gone to, to orchestrate her frequent disappearances was beginning to become tiresome. Although it hadn’t been for nothing, there had been frequent movement around the house for the last few days. The same guy seemed to be there every night always taking and making phone calls in between games of cards.

He’d had some visitors too. Niners mostly, until last night when Black’s goons had shown up. They spent a lot of time talking and Nikki spent a lot of time wishing she could read lips. They were organizing something, something big and she was sure Reaper knew more than he was letting on. She had a feeling he was keeping her in the dark as a last little protest against her being there with him.

Tonight all of a sudden the house had additional occupants. Two men armed and patrolling the outside of the house. It wasn’t much but it was enough to tell her that something different was happening tonight. Her thoughts were confirmed when a familiar black BMW rolled past the house and into the driveway. Jason Black. This time Nikki had to hear what was going on.

“I’m going to take a closer look,” she told Reaper as she laid down the scope she’d been using.

“You think you can get in close enough to hear anything kid?” he asked her.

She nodded at him and even in the dark he seemed to sense her determination.