Chaos (11 page)

Torch

I wake up in the morning knowing that today is the day. It’s bittersweet. With the Hellions alliance, we are guaranteed to win, but then again I can’t help but think in life there are no guarantees. I feel like all of this has been really easy. Something tells me that I need to be on my guard today.

Tracie’s arms snake around me and I turn to face her. She is so beautiful. After waiting for her to be ready for me for years, it feels almost surreal that I have her now. The best part is that I don’t have to worry about keeping her in line; Tracie is this life. She knows the club rules, and an old lady’s role in the MC. Granted that because she was involved with the club before, so even though she’ll have somewhat different rules than the other women she still gets it. There are brothers who take normal girls, claim them, and then basically need to train them. The constant arguing and shutting them down because you can’t explain where you’ve been, where you’re going, or when you’ll be back. I don’t need to worry about any of that with her and it’s amazing.

Her hands wrap around my neck. “I know what’s happening today. Nikki heard Twisted on the phone.”

Shit.

“Before you start lecturing me about this or that, all I want to say is please be careful. I just found you and I don’t want to lose you.” Her eyes are filled with worry. This is why we don’t tell our women what we do because watching your girl look at you like she’ll never see you again hurts really fucking bad.

“You’ll never get rid of me. That’s a promise.” I pull her to me trying to ease her mind but knowing that once I walk out the door she will be a mess. At least they will all be together. Everyone is coming over here like they did yesterday.

“Call me once everything is safe?” Her hands tangle in the hair at the back of my neck.

“As soon as I can.” I place a kiss on her lips.

The door opens, and a pissed off Lucy walks in. Whip follows behind her looking as if he is ready to lose his mind. “Luce, will you just calm down and try to listen to reason?”

“No, you can leave now. I’m safely delivered to my holding cell, master.” She turns away from him before stomping down the hall.

Well, shit.

“Holding cell?” I look over at Whip.

He shakes his head in frustration. “She wants to be at the hospital but Twisted said we can’t spare extra guys. I don’t want her unprotected while this shit is going down.”

“Gotcha.” I turn back to Tracie. “I have to get out of here. Love you. Call you once it’s clear.” Placing a kiss on her lips I head out with Whip following behind me.

Whip brought one of the trucks because last night we decided that none of us would be riding bikes.  We don’t want the fuckers to hear us coming and we want to be able to get away quick. “How you feeling today?” I look over at him.

“Okay. We haven’t had any serious shit like this happen since I patched in. Sure we had to put people to ground here and there, but nothing like this.” His hand rubs the back of his neck.

He’s worried about the blowback from the cops and frankly so am I. We bought all the guns brand new on the black market and once we are done, one of the prospects is taking a truck to the shipyard and filling empty oil barrels with them. They’ll be on their way to China by tomorrow morning. No murder weapon, no crime.

“You ever wonder what the hell made them come after us in the first place?” Whip looks over at me.

“Honestly, it’s the one piece of the puzzle that I can’t figure out. Maybe it’s just a territory thing. We’re the only club for about fifty miles in each direction so they might have just not wanted competition. It’s obvious that whoever is running the show is a damn idiot so I don’t know that I should try to put that much thought into their motives.” From the first time we heard of that club they have been making idiotic decision after dumbass decision.

Pulling into the lot of the warehouse, I see seven black SUVs waiting. Good, everyone is already here. Twisted and Roundman are off to the side talking while everyone else seems to be sticking with their own club.

I nod at him as we get out of the car. Twisted walks over and for the first time since all this started I can sense some nervousness coming off of him. “You good?”

“Yeah. Just want this shit to be over.” He takes a deep breath. Whistling with his fingers, he waves everyone together. All of us are sporting red bandanas at Twisted’s request so that when we get inside we can easily identify each other.

“Today is the day that we avenge the lives that were taken too soon. Those bastards will learn what it means to be a real MC. They will see what real brotherhood is today. To the Hellions, thank you for standing beside us. You all have your car assignments. There are eight trucks, two parked on each side of the building. We will hit them from every angle and within minutes their pathetic excuse for a takeover will be flattened.” He nods as a thank you to the army of men standing before him.

I climb into my truck with some of my brothers and a few from the Hellions. Each truck has an officer and brothers from each MC. The ride to their meeting place this week is only about twenty minutes, but it is the longest twenty minutes of my life. We park the trucks a little bit away from the building, which is basically all brick with high windows. Once again, they’re idiots. They can’t see an attack coming because there is no window low enough.

We walk up to our assigned door carefully. It’s metal, but Wrench is going to demolish it with the crowbar he’s tightly grasping. I keep watch on my phone waiting for the clock to hit the hour. Once it turns, I give him a nod and with one huge pull, the door flies open. I immediately hear the distinct sound of gunfire. We start firing at bodies that are coming out of rooms to see what the commotion is.

Any movement detected is observed and without a red bandana they are put to ground. Ghosts are dropping like flies completely overwhelmed by the numbers we showed up with.

“Do a sweep of the building. Check every fucking hiding spot. Make sure no one is left breathing!” I hear Twisted yell. His eyes are black. I’ve only seen him like this once before and it took a lot to get him back. The darkness and need for blood has completely consumed him.

I start to check the main room, kicking bodies with my boots as I pass to make sure they are down and not just pretending. A few shots sound off now and then but for the most part it’s already over.

We won.

Tracie

Nikki, Lucy and I have paced the house so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a dent in the carpet. I can’t sit down. I can’t relax. I can’t do anything until I hear that he’s okay, that it’s over. Nikki and the prospect got here a few minutes after the boys left.

None of us have really said a word. We all know what today is. We know that anytime the boys go into a battle that there’s a chance they won’t come back. The only difference is that we usually have no idea when that battle is taking place. Being oblivious to their stuff usually drives me crazy, but now I wish I had no idea what was going on. It’s so much better to be kept in the dark than to be treading holes in the carpet.

My phone rings and the vibration in my pocket makes me yelp and the other girls jump. Before I can answer, their phones start going off.

They’re okay.

Thank God.

“Hey,” I answer with relief.

“Hey, babe, we are all good. Everyone is in one piece. Tell the prospect to bring you girls to the clubhouse, okay?” His voice is even. I try to listen for labored breathing or anything telling me that he might not be okay, but he seems normal.

“Can’t wait. I’ll see you soon, babe.” I hang up. We all look at each other letting out a collective sigh of relief. “Thank God they are done with that. I am much happier not knowing shit.”

“Amen to that,” Nikki says as she grabs her bag.

We open the door and the prospect is standing with his back to us. “All right, Tommy, the boys got them all. Time to go to the warehouse.” I stand there waiting for him to move but he doesn’t; he just standing there. That’s when I see it. The puddle of blood on the steps. I grab for the door trying to swing it closed, but a large hand reaches out to stop it. Looking up at the man wearing Tommy’s jacket, my entire body seizes with fear.

Viper.

It can’t be.

He’s dead.

He smiles at me, as he looks me up and down. “Long time no see, baby.” Lucy turns to run but he lifts a gun and she freezes. “Don’t think so.” He takes a step into the house, and is now almost pressed against me. My body is screaming at me to take a step back, but I can’t move. I’m frozen in place.

“If it isn’t the little prude,” he says as he moves away from me and circles Lucy. He walks over to where Nikki is. “We haven’t been introduced but . . .” His eyes trace her body, “I’d be willing to change that.”

Lucy’s shaky voice breaks the eerie silence. “What are you doing here? I thought you were—”

“Dead?” He laughs. The same laugh I hear in my nightmares. “Unfortunately, your men all think they’re a lot smarter than they are. Of course I’d want them to think I was dead. Then when shit started to happen, no one would ever suspect a ghost. Convincing those Mexican idiots to start a new MC and that we would rule the territory was a lot easier than you’d think too.”

I can feel him behind me again. My muscles are so tense that they are burning.

“Feeding the almighty president some convenient information about where their meeting might be this week was really too simple. You would think he might have questioned it, thought about how if something seems too good to be true it is. See that’s the thing about revenge, it blinds you.” The gun he holds traces my neckline and moves down my arm. “Don’t worry though, my revenge is still fresh, I’m just not blinded by it.” He growls in my ear.

“Now, while I wish we could all have one big happy party, unfortunately that’s just not how I planned it.” He walks closer to Nikki. “If I wasn’t as smart as I am I’d waiver from my plan and take you too. Thing is that when you change the plan you lose. Happens all the time.”

Viper pulls a bunch of rope from under the jacket he has on. “Turn around.” Nikki does as she is told and he ties her wrists together before knocking her to the ground and doing the same with her ankles. “Your turn.” He looks over at Lucy. Her bottom lip trembles as she walks over to the man with his gun trained on her. She knows firsthand how dangerous Viper is. He repeats the same process leaving her on the floor next to Nikki.

Turning to me he smiles. “Now you get the rope too, but you get to come have fun with me.” He twirls his finger in a circle letting me know he wants me to turn around. I slowly do as he says while every inch of me is screaming at me to fight. I know that he won’t hesitate to shoot me though. At least if I cooperate with him then maybe it will give the guys time to find us.

He opens the door, the entire time his gun is trained on me making sure that I don’t try to do anything. With one hand he pulls something into view.

Oh God.

It’s Tommy.

His throat is slashed and there is blood everywhere. Viper picks him up almost tossing him inside. He reaches for something else and when I see it I immediately feel sick.

Gasoline.

“Don’t do this.” It’s the first time I’ve spoken since I saw him. “Just take me and leave them alone, please.”

He smiles at me and strokes my cheek with his finger. My skin crawls in his wake.

He walks around the living room, lining the walls with the gas. When he walks back over to Lucy and Nikki I scream, “No!”

Luckily as he turns the can over there is almost nothing left.

I breathe a sigh of relief that maybe by some miracle when we leave they can find a way out of this.

Viper grips my arm. “Well, ladies, it’s too bad that things had to end this way.” He pulls a match out of his pocket and strikes it against the doorframe.

He pulls me down the few steps with him before tossing the match into the house. I collapse onto the ground as the flames ignite.

The girls are crying.

I can hear them as Viper drags me to his car.

***

Torch

We are the last car to get to the warehouse and when I notice that the girls still aren’t here I get a bad feeling. After everyone gets out, I pull out of the lot and speed toward my house. Maybe they are just doing their hair or some shit and I’m overreacting. I didn’t even notice that the battery on my cell was so low and it’s dead so I can’t call them. My heart races faster with each minute that passes.

As I turn onto the road that leads to my house, it is my worst fear all over again. The house is in flames. It’s just like all those years ago. I jump out of my car, seeing flames coming from the entrance of the house. I can hear the girls yelling for help from inside the house. I will not let people I love down again. This time I will save them.

I look around in the car finding a black hoodie that one of the guys had left. Wrapping it around me I take a deep breath and run as fast as I can through the doorway immediately dropping to the floor and rolling to put out any flames that might have caught onto the fabric.  Standing up, I immediately see Lucy and Nikki tied up on the floor.

“Shit!” I look around for a way to get them out. “Where is Tracie?”

Lucy coughs before her eyes meet mine. Then she utters the words I never thought I would hear. “Viper took her.”

No.

It’s not possible.

I need to get these girls out of here and then find Tracie. I see one window where the flames aren’t as high. “Where are your cell phones?”

“My bag is on the couch,” Nikki sputters out. I see it and as I take a few steps I notice Tommy’s body on the floor. Shit.

I cough a few times, the smoke starting to get to me. I grab Nikki’s bag and also pick up one of the kitchen stools. The rest of the kitchen is full of flames or I would grab something to cut their ropes with.

Using every ounce of strength I have, I toss the stool through the window. I run back grabbing another one and quickly using it to clear some of the jagged glass. “Okay. I can’t carry you guys through the front door. Both of us won’t make it through those flames like I did. Unfortunately, my best bet is to toss you. It’s only about a ten-foot drop so I’m hoping it won’t be too bad.”

Their eyes grow wide as I tell them I’m about to toss them out a window. I grab Lucy first hoping that I can do this the way I’m envisioning it. “When you land I need you to roll away so that I can toss Nikki after you.” She nods as she coughs in my arms.

“All right, Luce, one, two, three.” I thrust my arms forward watching her sail through the window breathing a sigh of relief.

“Your turn, baby girl.” I pick up Nikki needing to get her out of here so I can find Tracie. “All right, ready? One, two, three.” I toss her and she clears the window the same way Lucy did.

I grab the jacket I originally used, leaving the same way I charged in, as I jump through the doorway and land on the damp grass outside, I hear the fire truck sirens in the background.

Shit, I need to get the fuck out of here.

I run to the side of the house. “I gotta go before they get here and try to keep me for questioning. He say anything about where they were going?”

“No, he’s seriously lost it though, Torch. He fed you guys that information. He was behind the other MC.” Lucy’s voice is hoarse.

Fuck.

The sirens are getting closer. I run to the truck, speeding away before I get caught here.

My head is spinning as what Lucy told me sinks in.

I’m going to kill that motherfucker.