Soldiers of Chaos- Chaos Abounds: Book 1 in the Soldiers of Chaos series (34 page)

*If and when I know something you'll know it.*

He must've sent it when they were going over the wall because Trace sure as shit hadn't felt his phone vibrate. Slick had better stick to his word on that. As they drove back to the compound Trace's mind turned to the dark shadow guy that was in Lenny's house. "Who do you think the wannabe ninja was?" "No idea brother. The guy had to be a pro. He moved like a fucking ghost. I wouldn't have noticed him if it hadn't been for this sliver of light from the neighbours garden lights." Trace's mind kept going back to the moment when the guy's head swung their way. There was no indication of surprise, like he knew they would be there. How the hell would anyone have known that?

He still hadn't come up with an answer by the time they'd reached the compound. Brothers were still rolling in as they parked Nikki's car and wandered across the courtyard. "Everyone here?" Tex's question was directed towards Brodie. "Waitin’ on a couple." Tex nodded and climbed up onto the picnic table parking his ass on the wooden surface. Trace paced back and forth in front of Tex. They were wasting valuable time waiting around here. They should just report in to King then go. "Let's just go give King the info and go back out?" Tex shook his head "Nah. The info we know needs to go to the table. I don't want any of this hidden half-truth bullshit Reaper and King are pulling." Trace understood Tex's reasoning. There were already too many secrets, too much withheld information. He just couldn't stand the thought of that bastard out there somewhere waiting for a chance to get his hands on Nikki. Trace glanced at Tex’s silent brooding inaction, how the tables had turned normally that would be him and Tex would be standing or pacing where Trace was. Rock began talking to Tex and Trace couldn't listen to his bullshit. He wandered over to his bike away from the groups of brothers milling around near the front of the clubhouse. The shrill ringing of Trace's phone echoed across the courtyard. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the screen. Slick. "What?" "It's Nikki. She's disappeared." No shit Sherlock. "What the fuck are you talking about?" "She was here at the Mint. Not with me with a contact of hers. She disappeared." Trace's blood roared in his ears "What the fuck do you mean she disappeared?" "Her contact was checking a lead and he told her to stay in the room. When he got back she was gone." "What contact? What lead?" "Some white car he thought it was Lenny but it was a decoy and he lured her out of the room and grabbed her." The white car from the fight and the warehouse. "He's trying to get a lock on Nikki's and Lenny's phones now." The warehouse with the bed and the box of stuff. Shit! "I know where he's taking her." "You do? Where?" Trace didn't bother to reply just pressed the end button and straddled his bike. He flicked up the stand and started the engine. Tex called out to him over the noise but his mind was now locked on the only thing that mattered, Nikki. He tore out of the compound headed straight for that warehouse his holstered pistol a reassuring weight at his side and his trigger finger itching for vengeance.

Nikki's head was pounding and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton wool. She'd never been this hung over in her life and she couldn't even remember getting drunk. A noise in the room had her wincing and wanting to turn over but she couldn't move. She pulled on her arm again. No not moving. Her foot wouldn't move either. Maybe she was still drunk, too drunk for her muscles to function. There was that noise again. What the hell was that? She tried to drag open her heavy eyelids but they weren't cooperating with her. That noise just continued on and on. Was that metal? Metal dragging on something. What the fuck? She gave the old eyelid lift another go and this time she managed to crack one open. She was peering at a corrugated metal surface. Last time she checked the roof in Cole’s room was white not metal. She was drunker than she thought. She opened her eye further and turned her head slightly causing the throbbing to worsen. The walls were dark red brick. Yep, definitely not Cole’s room. Her insides churned. She turned her head further catching a glimpse of her bound wrist and the surface of the bed. Wait! What? Both her eyes flew open and her head pounded as she stared at the rope securing her wrist to the head of the bed she was lying on. Fuck! She swung her head to the other side checking her other wrist. Big mistake! The searing pain caused by the quick movement nearly had her sinking back into oblivion. She screwed her eyes shut and tried to breathe through the pain but this was difficult given the cloth gag in her mouth. As it subsided she opened her eyes again. Yep the other wrist was tied too. She shifted her head slowly this time to look at her feet both secured to the corners of the bed. This was not fucking happening. She closed her eyes and focused her fuzzy brain. How'd she get here? She remembered being at the penthouse. Cole was there. They argued. Her head began to pound from the effort. Did he? No of course he didn't. They had sex and he left. Then the door. Carla had come to the door she was taking her to Cole. They were in the elevator and Carla smiled at her and then....... that voice, Hello Bitch......... Lenny.

It came flooding back to her in one long stream of images. Cole threatening to kill someone and refusing to let her leave the penthouse. Carla coming to get her under the guise of bringing her to Cole. Then Carla turning nasty in the elevator and telling Lenny to 'have fun'. She remembered the bright searing pain in her skull before the world went black. This was not good; in fact this was totally fucked. She opened her eyes again to take stock of her situation. She knew she was bound to a bed but she still had her clothes and boots on. So he didn't plan on raping her or the useless prick just forgot to remove them before he tied her up. Speaking of which where was he? She searched the shadowy space, the one weak light overhead made it difficult to come up with a concrete picture of her surroundings but she couldn't see any great hulking silhouettes. So he wasn't there right now. The space was open, a small warehouse of some sort, the walls were covered in dust, cobwebs and dark oil looking stains. Maybe an old mechanic's workshop. She could still here the sound of scraping metal but other noises started to filter in, banging and whirring of machines. So she was still in a built up area, definitely somewhere industrial. There was no natural light coming in through the small windows high on the roof above just the stark orange of streetlights. It was still night time so obviously somewhere that ran a night shift. She wished she had more clues. She strained to hear something, anything. Then she heard a faint throaty growl in the distance. She knew that noise, the sweet sound of a chopper, of a group of choppers? Hope briefly lit inside her then she squashed it back down quickly, surely he wouldn't be stupid enough to hold her that close to home. False hope was not what she needed, what she needed was an exit strategy. She tested the bindings on her wrists. They were tight, probably too tight to get her hands out. Next option. She looked down at her feet. The ropes were looped around her boots if she could slide her feet out of them maybe she could somehow get out of there. Then she'd need a weapon. Shit! Her gun. She pressed the small of her back into the mattress but there was no familiar metal digging into her spine. She should've known that would be too much to ask.

She began working on sliding her foot free from her boot. Something pressed awkwardly into the skin of her ankle as she struggled to slide her foot free. Her knife! Thank fuck that useless prick had missed it; she might just have a chance now. Her foot popped free of the boot and using her toes she grasped the knife. She stretched her leg up and realised she wasn't that much of a pretzel, there was no way she was gonna get that foot near her hand without getting the other leg free. She put the knife down and used her free foot to push the other one out of her boot. Then she picked up the knife with her toes and bent at the waist swinging her legs up over her head. She dropped the knife next to her hand and made quick work of picking it up and pressing the button to release the blade. She bent her wrist back and began sawing at the rope. She was nearly free when she heard the unmistakable crunch of footsteps on gravel. Shit! There was no way she'd get her other hand free in time. She sliced the last threads and quickly used her free hand to push her feet back into her boots. She lay back down hiding her knife under her head. The door to the warehouse creaked and whined as it opened. Grasping the two ends of the severed rope she prayed he'd be too stupid or preoccupied to notice them hiding in the palm of her hand. She glared hard at the doorway as Lenny stepped into the room. "You're awake. Good. I was getting rather bored waiting for you to come around." The sickly smile plastered across his face made her want to rip free and throw the knife at his black little heart. No. She had to wait for the right moment. She was still tethered to the bed by one limb and that would be enough to keep her from winning this fight. Lenny's eyes crawled over her body "Now you're present I think we'll pick up where we left off last time shall we." Bile rose in the back of her throat and she swallowed it down quickly. He was gonna have a hard time raping her with her clothes on. The glint of defiance must've shown in her eyes.  "Aaaahhh you think those clothes are gonna stop me" he produced a large knife from behind his back "I came prepared sweetheart."

Her stomach twisted with ugly black hate. Before this was over she was going to kill him and she was going to enjoy it. He stalked toward her and crawled onto the bed. She made a show of struggling in her restraints being careful not to dislodge the rope in her right hand. Then he sat on her abdomen pinning her to the bed. "Let's get rid of this shall we" he pulled on the material of her shirt slicing it open with his knife. "And this too I think" sliding the knife under the centre material of her bra. She wanted to slide that knife right under his dick and slice it off. He flicked the two pieces aside revealing her breasts. His free hand grasped her tit and squeezed hard then he pulled back and slapped it. She jerked with the sting. Fucking bastard! She wanted to kill him right now. "Don't give me that look. You like this sort of shit right. This is what Cole does to you isn't it? Smacks you around and you get off on it." The mention of their bedroom antics sent her mind reeling. How the hell did he know about that? His bedroom proclivities weren't exactly common knowledge. "I can see those little wheels working away inside that head of yours. How does he know these things? Shall we ask Cole how I know these things?" He pulled a phone from his pocket, her phone and pressed some buttons. "Angel?" that deep growly voice of the man she'd become addicted to echoed through the space. "Not quite." Lenny's self-satisfied smirk made her insides burn.

"Lenny" Cole spat his name down the phone "if you've touched one hair on her head I swear to god I will take you apart piece by tiny fucking piece until you can't remember your life before the pain began." She shivered at the ice in Cole's tone. It was a statement, a promise not a threat. "Her hair's just fine and so are these beautifully perky, full breasts." He slapped her breast hard again. She screamed several profanities at him through the gag but it just came out garbled. "I can see why you enjoy this one so much. Her skin does colour remarkably well." "I swear to god I'm going to kill you slow and fucking brutal" Cole roared down the phone. Lenny just laughed "Not before I fuck your little bitch in every one of her pretty little holes then slice her open and leave her to bleed out slowly. And just like old times you get a front row seat so you just hold the line there Boss and you can listen to her scream and beg for mercy before I kill her." He placed the phone down on a chair next to the bed. Old times? What the hell did that mean? Lenny smiled at the confusion on her face "This is neither mine nor your man's first rodeo sweetheart." What the hell was he trying to say Cole had somehow done this shit before? Lenny's hand came up to her face "I'd say you'll work it out eventually but there won't be an eventually where your concerned." She shied away from his hand straining as far as she could but it wasn't far enough. He grasped her chin and placed a kiss on her gagged mouth making her stomach churn then he slid the gag free.

"You fucking sick bastard. Untie me we'll see how you really fare with me fighting back." Lenny laughed at her it was edgy and twitching bordering on unbalanced. She tried unsuccessfully to buck him off the dude was just too big. The faint but undeniable rumble of a twin cam stilled her. "Not likely bitch. Last time I let your limbs loose you broke my fucking nose. Speaking of which." Nikki wasn't listening to him she was straining to detect how far away that noise was. His fist reared back and she was too slow to react glimpsing his fist as it came down on her face. The blistering pain that radiated out from her face told her he may have just returned the favour and broken her nose. She cried out with the shock and pain of it. Her eyes screwed tightly shut as her brain exploded inside her skull. Blood flowed quickly down her face and the back of her throat. Her body jerked. Was that Lenny climbing off her? Nikki could hear Cole's thunderous voice booming through the space threatening all manner of extreme retribution. She choked and spluttered as she tried to drag in a shaky breath. She had to focus, to keep her head if she was gonna get out of here alive. She took another shaky breath. "Hhhhmmmmm well ain't that pretty." She felt cold steel brush the bare skin of her mound and her eyes flew open. Her jeans were undone and slid down to her thighs.

He knelt between her legs smiling sickly at her "What a pretty little pussy you have." Cole continued his murderous rant in between what sounded like heaving cracking sobs or were those her sobs? She couldn't fucking tell. Then he reached for his own fly "Can't wait to get inside that." It was then that the ugly black hate inside her erupted. The cavalry wasn't coming she was gonna have to do this shit herself. She spat a mouthful of blood into his face. He wiped at his eyes "You fucking bitch." Nikki released the rope and reached under her head and whipped out her switch blade. She reared up plunging the blade into his cheek. The wail that came out of him was almost non-human. Nikki pulled the knife free and lay back ripping one foot free from her boot she kicked him in the chest sending Lenny backwards off the bed onto the floor. She quickly pulled her other foot free and leaned over sawing and pulling at the rope on her still bound wrist. Nikki glanced frantically at Lenny he was getting up. Shit. She gave one last heave on the fraying rope and it snapped. She reefed up her jeans and got to her feet bracing herself for the oncoming attack her knife at the ready.