Soldiers of Chaos- Chaos Abounds: Book 1 in the Soldiers of Chaos series (9 page)

He threw his leg over his sleek black Breakout and glanced around as he brought his baby to life. There was nothing more comforting than the rumble of his machine and the feel of the road stretching out ahead of him, nothing besides the feel of Nikki wrapped around him that is. Tonight it bought him no comfort. An uneasy feeling settled inside him as they pulled out of the yard and into the night. They sped away from the warehouse yard taking the fastest route out of the city then worked their way to a lonely stretch of bitumen that skirted around the far edges of the suburban limits. They're hold stretched from the suburbs nearby out east to the rural properties that edged their home town. The MC had their own land among those farms and that was where they were headed with the shipment. The black night enveloped them as they cruised further away from the lights of suburbia. They slid through the night not silently but quickly and efficiently. Tex spotted the turn off for their first gravel road and slowed it down rolling onto the loose surface.  This was the home stretch, another ten clicks and they'd be there. A loud bang sounded behind him, then another. Gun shots? He turned to see the vans hanging out to the side of the truck. The truck was slowing down and in the light provided by the van's headlights he could see the truck spitting out rubber. Shit. He hoped the tires that were shredding weren't essential to the truck moving forward. He gave the guys a signal to slow it down and they all rolled to a stop in the dark.

He swung off his bike and jogged back to the truck as the driver was climbing out of the cab. "Kill the lights" he commanded. Everyone shut of their headlights plunging them into darkness. Tex knew this made them less visible and allowed them to see into the darkness more clearly. The vans pulled round one side of the truck to form a kind of guard and the brothers watched for any sign of movement. The driver jumped down from the cab flashlight in hand. They wandered to the back of the truck shining the light at the tires. The inside two tires on the driver's side were destroyed. "You still drive it like that?" Tex turned to the driver. "Yeah I'll have to limp it there though." The driver moved back to the cab. He'd known something was gonna go wrong tonight he just hoped that this was it. Tex turned to find Trace standing right near him. He could see the tension in Trace's stance. "What is it?" "I can't get hold of Nikki or Brodie." For fucks sake. A couple of the other brothers approached them. "How many times did you try?" "About five times each. I rang Rat asked him to go over and check it out." The uneasy feeling he'd carried all night got worse. This was all he fucking needed. "You need to skip out?" Rock flicked his head back and forth between the two of them. Jesus that woman was gonna be the death of him. "Nah we'll wait to hear from Rat. It'll give me time to think up a way to punish the both of them for not answering their fucking phones." Rock laughed and then all hell broke loose. Shots rang out through the still night and gravel began flicking up from the ground. How the hell did someone find them? They all dove for cover behind the vans and began firing out into the dark. Tex yelled out to Trace over the noise "Those Sig 556's have night scopes on them yeah?" Trace turned to him with a grin "Yes, yes they do."

"Cover us" Tex commanded as they moved to the back of the truck. A few stray bullets ricocheted off the metal doors as they swung one side open and quickly hauled ass inside. They made quick work of the wall of boxes at the back of the truck making a hole big enough for them to get to the crates of weapons. Trace opened the nearest crate grabbing out the Sigs while Tex retrieved the ammo. They packed the mags as quickly as they could then slid out of the truck brandishing their new acquisitions. Oh this was gonna be fun. Tex hit the van next to Rock and he could see the dude smile ear to ear when he saw what Tex held in his hands. "Take it away VP" Rock ducked out of the way. Tex took a quick glance at Trace behind the other van before he shouldered the weapon and put his eye to the scope. The night lit up in shades of green and there before him dotted among the trees in the dark were at least ten guys. He figured he'd take the left and Trace could take care of the right. He took aim at the guy furthest to the left and pulled the trigger. The Sig gave the slightest jerk and the guy went down like a ton of bricks. He could hear Trace firing over the sound of the other weapons. He took the next two guys down in quick succession. And that's when the other two began to withdraw, staying behind the cover of their trees and shooting out blindly. One of them made a quick dash to a tree further back while the other laid down covering fire then they swapped roles. I don't think so. Tex focused on the guy closest. The nearest tree to him was off to the left and Tex would have a small window to get in the shot. He trained the gun on the gap in the middle of those trees roughly where he thought the guy’s chest would be and he waited. The guy’s image flitted into view and Tex fired. The guy fell forward momentum carrying him almost to his target. Tex looked back for the fifth man but could not spot him in his previous location. Shit.

The returning gunfire had quieted as they brought down their assailants and now the night was silent again. "Wait here" Tex commanded as he dashed across the open space between the vans. He stopped in a crouch next to Trace "How'd you go?" "Got at least three of them, might've injured a fourth, the fifth one was long gone." The growl of dirt bikes being fired up brought them all to their feet. A stream of light heading left through the dense trees far back from the road told them the escape was under way. There was no way they could follow them through the copse of trees or over the terrain beyond. The collection of Harley's they had and the vans were not made for off-roading of that sort. They had all the luck lately, not. They watched as two bikes appeared out of the tree line in the distance. Tex shouldered the Sig again to get a better look through the scope. "You won't hit them from here that's a good two clicks out" Trace commented. "Not trying to shoot them. There's only one guy on each of those bikes that means your wounded man might still be in there somewhere" Tex lowered the weapon as the bikes disappeared over the rocky ridge of someone's paddock. "Right let's go sort this shit out shall we. You two stay with the truck the rest of you behind Trace and me." Tex shoulder his weapon and looking through the scope edged toward the trees alongside Trace.

They scanned the area as they went stopping to determine whether the bodies on the ground were in fact dead. As they worked their way further back they found their wounded man a short distance from eight dirt bikes hidden in the thick trees. He was bleeding badly and his breath was very shallow. He made a weak attempt to raise a pistol he held in his hand but Trace quickly disarmed him. "Who do you work for?" Trace held the front of the guy's shirt in his fist and shook him for good measure as he asked the question. The ends of the guy’s mouth turned up "Someone. No one." The guys eyes closed again and he started to fade out. Trace shook him and his eyes came open slowly "How did you know we were gonna be here?" The guys smile creaked up some more "Et tu, Brutus?" What the hell is he talking about? Trace shook him again. A gurgling cough escaped him as blood seeped out of his mouth and down his face. Then he stopped breathing. Fuck. Trace released the guy's shirt and stood. "What the hell was that guy talking about? Someone and no one? And what the hell was that last thing?" The words rattled around in his head. Someone and no one? Someone and no one? That description fitted one suspect very well. Bridges. He was someone but at the same time he was no one, a ghost. That other shit, et tu Brutus, no idea. "Worry about it later. Right now we gotta get the guns stashed. It's gonna take another hour with the truck like that. Then we're gonna have to come back here and sort this shit out." They moved back through the trees less cautiously this time. As they hit the gravel Tex issued the order to mount up and get going.

"Shit. Just got a reply from Rat. He couldn't get hold of them either. Clubhouse was empty, Nikki's car is missing and Brodie's phone was on the bar." For fucks sake. That boy was gonna get reaming when he got hold of him. "Go" Rock commanded "we can take care of this. We'll get the guns stored and come back clean this mess up." Tex knew they shouldn't be leaving the guys two men down but he couldn't risk something happening to Nikki. He hesitated. "We got this brother. You need to go sort out Ace." Rock was right Nikki needed sorting out big time. He just didn't know how he was going to do it. "Right. You bury those bastards deep and take those dirt bikes back to the farm they could come in handy." Rock nodded his ascent. Tex watched as Rock took control of the convoy. The brother was solid and Tex appreciated it. Trace rolled up alongside him and he started his bike. They tore out of there headed straight for the clubhouse.

They wound their way along the roads and into town as quickly as they could. The club house was less than five minutes away when they pulled up at some lights and Trace yelled across to him "Rat found Brodie." Good he was gonna wring his neck when he got hold of him. They roared into the compound with Tex dreaming up ways to kick Brodie's ass. Rat stood at the door waiting as they parked up and headed across the forecourt. The smile on Rat's face confused him. "What are you so fucking happy about?" "You'll see." Rat moved ahead of them across the main room and down the hall towards Nikki's room. Tex's stomach dropped. An image of Nikki's naked form wound around Brodie's popped into his head. Then his blood boiled, he was going to kill Brodie for touching what was his. She belonged to him. He felt Trace tense next to him with probably the same thoughts going through his head. She'd never touched any of the other brothers before. It was only ever them, always them. Rat stopped outside Nikki's door and turned to look at both of them his smile so wide Tex wanted to knock it right off his face. Rat pushed the door open. "For fucks sake Rat just let me out?" Tex and Trace both stood in the doorway and the grins that spread across their faces outshone Rat's. Brodie was naked sitting on the edge of Nikki's bed one hand cuffed to the bed post the other supporting his drooping head as he stared at the floor. Trace burst out laughing and Brodie's eyes shot up. "Rat you fucking bastard." Brodie looked ready to murder someone. "How the fuck did she manage to do this?" Trace's question stopped his internal laughter. As he considered the answer his anger began to resurface. "You really wanna know?" Tex really didn't, especially if it meant he'd fucked her but still he ground out an answer between his clenched teeth "Yes." Brodie looked at him and he could see the hesitation in the guy's face. "We were having a few drinks and dancing, things got a little hot and heavy so we moved it to the bedroom." Tex's fists clenched at his sides. He was going to kill him. "We got naked and." Tex didn't need to hear anymore. He snapped.

Tex lunged at Brodie wrapping one hand round his neck. They toppled onto the bed Tex trying to hold Brodie's head still so he could pummel him into oblivion. Brodie wasn't a pushover he struggled like a mad man rolling and twisting trying to shake Tex off. Tex's fist connected with Brodie's jaw and satisfaction spread through him. Then two sets of hands were pulling him off Brodie "Cool it Tex." "For fucks sake Tex nothing fucking happened. She cuffed me to the fucking bed before it got anywhere." He was sitting up again rubbing his jaw. Tex wanted to belt him again. "Not the point. You put your hands on my
girl’s naked body." Brodie shook his head "Look she came on to me, made it pretty clear she was available and more than willing. She doesn't have a fucking property patch and forget all that the girl is perfection anyone would risk an ass whooping for a piece of that." Ass whooping? Ass whooping was an understatement for what Tex had in mind for Brodie. "Makes no difference man. She wasn't really interested anyway she just wanted to get me in here so she could cuff me and skip out." "What did I tell you dude? Don't let her lead you around by your dick" Trace shook his head at Brodie. "Yeah, yeah you warned me but being confronted with the reality of Nikki wanting you is a bloody difficult thing to resist." Tex bristled "Did you honestly think she would be interested?" Brodie looked him right in the eye when he answered "Yes." He looked incredibly sure of himself and he knew Brodie wasn't overly cocky. Maybe she had been interested. The thought of her with anyone else but especially another brother, or in this case prospect, twisted his gut. Everyone except Trace that is and he had no idea why that didn't bother him. Trace threw the keys to Rat "Let this stupid bastard out we've gotta find Ace." As they left the room Tex’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket. It was Bull. Good, this had to be about Bridges.

An hour later she was outside the mint leaning against the Mustang staring up at the penthouse level. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing here again. She hadn’t intended on coming here specifically but before she realized
it here she was. She slid her keys into the tiny bag she had slung across your body and headed straight through main doors into the casino. The line for the club was longer than it had been last week and Nikki did not have time for that shit. She made a beeline for the entry and the bouncer didn’t blink an eye as she stepped up to him. He waved her through before she'd even opened her mouth or greased his palm "Have a good night Ma'am." Majorly weird but she was a woman on a mission so she spent 30 seconds on that before her mind went back to the mission at hand. She breezed through the VIP entry just like at the door then was sitting her ass at the bar drink in hand quicker than she'd ever been before. She downed enough goose on the rocks to give her more than a buzz then she set her eye to the room. It was pumping. The booths were packed, most of the high tables were reserved and the dance floor was wall to wall bodies. As she scanned the space awareness crawled over her skin. Someone had eyes on her. She swept her eyes back across the space but couldn't pin it down. Then she caught sight of someone she knew. Ethan Drake, better known as Slick. He was working the VIP crowd peddling his wares. She'd gone to school with him. He'd been smart, popular, good looking, bright future then life happened. His father went bankrupt and owed some bad people a lot of money. The guy had sunk himself into a mountain of coke and then killed himself. His mother buried herself in the bottom of a bottle and left him fresh out of high school to provide for her, himself, his two little brothers and his little sister. There are very few ways to make that sorta money and given his father’s connections drugs was the easiest option. If someone wanted to really get out of their head he was the go to guy and she really wanted to get out of her head.