Chaos Conquers All (15 page)

“Yeah? What were they after then?” she asked him absentmindedly.

“They were after you,” he stated quietly as he stepped up behind her, “everyone is always after you.”

Nikki felt the heat of Mace’s body at her back and she immediately knew where this was going. The man always made a play for her every time he came around. He only ever did it to stir up Trace and Tex. She honestly couldn’t be bothered playing along.

"You planning on staking a claim too?" she asked him sarcastically.

“Nah, I’m not into confrontation. I figured I’d just stand back and let them kill each other. Then I can sweep you off to my bed without any resistance,” he replied in his raspy sexy voice.

Mace growled into her ear for effect and she shoved an elbow back into his guts.

“Ugh. Hey!” Mace exclaimed as he grabbed his stomach.

He sniggered at her and Nikki shook her head at him. She knew he was trying to distract her momentarily from everything that was going down. He shifted to stand next to her and threw an arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t worry babe, we’ll get him back,” he said as he squeezed her shoulders and placed a light kiss on top of her head, “And as for that bullshit in there. They won’t vote you out but if they did, you got a place beside me any day.”

While she appreciated Mace’s words they both knew if they voted her out she wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near another chapter or club member. She didn’t have time to contemplate her fate. She had a plan in mind and she needed Mace to help her.

“Listen, I have an idea as to how to get him back but I’m gonna need your help and you can’t tell the club. You up for it?” she asked Mace.

“Run it by me, Ace. If I think it’ll work I’ll back you,” he replied.

Her phone beeped in her pocket. She checked the screen to find a video message. Even before she opened it she knew who it was from. The video rolled on her screen. Trace was tied to a wooden pole under a light. His head hung down toward his lap and she couldn’t tell if he was unconscious or tired. A woman’s cry of pain echoed in the background and she watched Trace visibly flinch. She frowned at the sound. There was something familiar about it.

Then she heard Cole’s voice, “You will fucking love me.”

While she didn’t understand the how of it, she immediately knew it was her screaming.

Then Black spoke, “Recognise those sounds, bitch? I thought your boyfriend might enjoy a little light entertainment before I put him out of his misery. What? Did you think Cole only taped his early work?”

Nikki felt the bile rise to the back of her throat.

“You have taken from me two people that I love. One you can return and one you can’t. So I propose an even trade. Your love for mine and your life for the life you took from me,” he paused to let that sink in and as if on cue, another one of her screams echoed in the background. “You know I quite enjoyed watching him whip you bloody and that scream? Well I can only hope to hear it in person,” Black quipped.

Mace growled low and deep behind her.

“You have one hour to respond to me on this number,” Black stated before the screen went dark.

“I would be more than happy to help you get that bastard,” he growled.

Nikki gave him a single nod then set about telling him her plan.



Tex threw open the clubhouse door. He didn’t even want to think about what had gone on in that room. He couldn’t think about it. The only thing he could think about was getting his brother back. Once they had Trace back safe and sound he was taking his woman and he was getting the fuck out of Dodge. Trace could come with them or he could stay, either way they were going. God he needed her so bad right now. Even if she hated him for losing Trace, he had to touch her. He had to hold her in his arms and kiss that luscious mouth of hers. They didn’t have time for much else and right now he would take what he could get.

He searched the forecourt with his gaze. Mace’s men were sitting at the picnic table but he couldn’t see Mace or Nikki. Alarm bells started going off inside him.

“Where’s Nikki?” he asked one of the brothers.

“Went somewhere with Mace,” came the reply, “Ask Dog. Mace spoke to him before they left.”

He looked in the direction the guy had nodded to see Dog leaning against the fence. As soon as Dog spotted Tex storming toward him, he grimaced. That couldn’t be good. He knew that Mace was as much of a rogue as what Nikki was. Given that fact he just knew the two of them had gone off half-cocked trying to get Trace back. His anger rose as he considered their stupidity. By the time his feet ate up the distance between him and Dog he was fuming.

“Where are they?” he demanded as he grabbed a fist full of Dog’s shirt.

Dog put his hands up in a gesture of surrender, “Whoa there, Tex. I’m just the messenger. You know, following orders and all that.”

God if that didn’t make Tex angrier. The messenger? Well he was gonna shoot the damn messenger if he didn’t cop to right this second.

“Where the fuck are they?” he asked again through gritted teeth.

“They went to get Trace,” Dog replied.

Tex’s anger peaked. So fucking stupid but so god damn typical. He shoved Dog hard into the fence releasing his grip on Dog’s shirt.

He turned away from the man and let out an angry and exasperated yell, “Fuuuuuuck.”

“What the fuck is going on here?” King asked as he approached.

“Mace has decided to let Ace live out her little martyr fantasy. They’ve gone to get Trace,” Tex told him.

“Damn that girl and Mace. He always was a fucking rogue,” King replied.

“Rogue or not, he’s not stupid. Ace wanted to go without involving the club and Mace, he was happy to indulge her but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a backup plan. He told me what the plan was and where they were going to meet Black,” Dog told them.

“Then tell us,” Tex demanded.

“They took Black’s woman and they are exchanging her and Ace for Trace,” Dog explained.

“Jesus fucking Christ that girl’s got balls,” King exclaimed, “Giant hairy fucking balls.”

Tex looked at his father like the man was insane. Was he actually complimenting her on her act of complete stupidity?

“Don’t look at me like that boy, I didn’t say she had brains,” King admonished, “Now where are they Dog?”

“They went to the old mill,” Dog informed them.

“Then that’s where we’re going,” King stated firmly.

Nikki looked down at Daisy’s shaking body. Her clothes were dishevelled and her face was smeared with tears and mucus. Bull said she’d woken out of her drug induced stupor and completely freaked out. Not that Nikki didn’t understand that. She was sure if she woke up in a strange place bound, gagged and blindfolded with heavy metal playing on repeat and no recollection of how she got there, she’d be pretty damn frightened too. The cut on her cheek was still open and the skin around it was red and swollen. She reached down and shifted Daisy’s shirt aside. Daisy flinched away and Nikki just ignored her. Grabbing Daisy’s shirt more firmly, she checked on the cut to her collar bone. It didn’t look much better. They should’ve had Doc take a look at them. Too late now.

Nikki turned away from Daisy and glanced at the mask in her hand. She had donned the half angel half skull face before entering the house to collect Daisy. That girl had taken one look at the damn thing and just about crumpled under the weight of her fear. The ketamine may have stuffed with the woman’s memory but Nikki was sure she knew unconsciously what the mask meant. They’d dragged a barely moving, blindfolded and bound Daisy from the building and thrown her into the back of the van they’d borrowed from one of Bull’s guys. If Nikki had any energy to spare she would’ve used it to feel sorry for the young naive blonde shivering on the dirty floor of the van. All her energy was focused on getting Trace clear and killing Black.

The darkness inside her had been rattling its cage begging to be let out. She reassured it with the promise that soon she would let it loose to do its worse on Black. Mace slowed the van as they neared the turn off for the mill. Nikki couldn’t help but raise her head to look at the spot where she’d shot Reaper. In the light from the lamp she could still see the dark patch where the blood had pooled under his dead body. She could picture at as vividly as if she were in that moment but it wasn’t him that she pictured.

She pictured Cole begging her to come with him. She tried to remember the conversation she’d had with him and the things she heard. She couldn’t get a clear memory of it. It was like trying to tune in a television station that was just out of range. The pictures flickered through a filter of white noise giving her glimpses of the scene and snippets of sound. She didn’t know if that was because she was so overwhelmed her brain hadn’t taken it in or if it was because Cole had gotten inside her head and twisted it all up. Either way she couldn’t be sure what she knew and what was just the white noise.

Mace stopped just short of the entrance to the mill.

“The gate’s down. Been down for a long time. Lots of holes in the fence too from the look of it. Can’t see any guys anywhere. Not exactly secure,” he told her.

“Good that’ll make it easier for you to get out,” she replied.

Mace crawled forward into the huge clearing where the mill sat. He turned the van around to face the exit and parked it about twenty metres from the door of the main building. They both set their gazes to searching the area.

The mill building was a steel and tin structure that stretched nearly three stories high at one point. The windows had been boarded up and the tin had rusted to a deep reddish brown. It sat in the middle of a clearing with the tree-lined mountain rising up behind it. The moonlight and the whistling wind gave an eerie quality to the abandoned building. She located the large tin double doors that marked the entry and eyeballed them, waiting for something to happen. There was nothing. No movement. No signs of life. Not one single man in sight.

“Maybe we’re the first to arrive at the party,” Mace commented.

“Doubtful. They’re in there somewhere,” she said as she grasped Daisy’s upper arm.

“Time to get up Daisy,” she told the girl as she hoisted her to her feet.

Mace opened the back doors for them and Nikki dragged Daisy out into the cold. As soon as Daisy’s feet hit the floor she started to struggle. Nikki tightened her grip on the girl’s arm and slammed her against the cold metal of the car.

“Don’t pull this bullshit now, Daisy. You’re nearly home and I would hate for this to end when you’re so close to freedom,” she warned her.

She didn’t need anything stuffing up this exchange. Daisy gave a single dip of her chin in acknowledgement of Nikki’s threat. She escorted Daisy a few steps away from the van and into the clearing. With Mace at her back and her Glock pointed at Daisy’s temple, she waited.



The sound of metal scraping barely scratched the surface of Trace’s stupor. The constant sound of Nikki’s screaming had sent him into a trance of sorts. His ears felt like they were bleeding. The image of Nikki’s split and bleeding skin was permanently etched on his retinas. His brain had turned to mush from constantly going over the hundreds of things he could’ve said and done to save her from that bastards clutches. He knew at some point tears had spilled over onto his cheeks. Or was that sweat? Or maybe blood?

Dress shoes kicked their way across the floor and stopped in front of him. The sound on the laptop next to him quietened down. Black crouched down into his view.

“Hope you enjoyed the show,” Black said with a sneer plastered across his face.

Trace couldn’t even muster the energy to respond.

“It would appear your girlfriend has decided to join our little party,” Black told him.

That got his attention. Nikki was coming here. She couldn’t come here. He shook his head.

“What? Not in the mood for company?” Black quipped, “That’s too bad because she’s here right now. Not that you’ll be staying. You see, we’ve agreed on a little swap. Her for you.”

No. He was not going to let her do that. He searched the room frantically looking for her but couldn’t see anything but darkness.

“I’m going to enjoy making her scream just like Cole did,” Black stated with a sneer.

Trace opened his mouth to yell out to her, to tell her to leave him here, only to have Black stuff a gag into it.

Black gestured to someone behind him and his two goons stepped forward. The pair of them cut him loose from the pole. They hauled him to his feet and he nearly passed out from the quick movement. He could barely keep his feet under him and there was no way he was going to get out of this one under his own steam. They rebound his hands and escorted him across the work floor and out into the small front room. They stopped just inside the door of the building.

“Remember what I said, no one makes a move until after we have Daisy and that bitch,” Black reminded his men as he pulled open the door.

As the door drew back, Trace searched for Nikki. His eyes found her nearly immediately. She was less than twenty metres away from him and there was nothing he could do about it. She stood next to a blindfolded Daisy holding a gun to the young woman’s temple. He looked at the man standing behind her, expecting to see Tex and for a moment was confused. It was Mace. Which could only mean one thing. Southern River had joined the fight and that meant somewhere in the trees beyond the building the brothers were lurking just waiting for their opportunity to strike.

A cold wind swept across Trace’s body as they stepped out of the old mill and into the clearing. It chilled him right down to his bones and filled him with a sense of foreboding. Something bad was going to happen here tonight. Something that was going to change everything.



Nikki looked at Trace and the monster inside her roared with fury. That beautiful face of his was all bloody and swollen, like he’d taken one hell of a beating. His clothes were dishevelled, scuffed up and ripped. His hair was matted to his head and his skin was pale and shiny with sweat. His body leaned heavily on one of Black’s goons, like he couldn’t stand of his own volition. For a moment she was almost glad they hadn’t had Doc check Daisy out. An eye for an eye and all that.

She turned her gaze to Black and as she looked at his face she felt the urge to smile. Tex had told her Trace had given Black a beating and the results were phenomenal. Black looked like he’d been used as a punching bag by a heavyweight boxing champ. Black’s gaze was firmly fixed on Daisy and she didn’t miss the murderous intention that worked its way into his eyes.

“Aaahhh, Miss Jones. What a welcome sight you are,” Black quipped with his wall of bravado back in place.

“Mister Black, can’t say the feelings mutual but here we are. Now, how do you wanna do this?” she asked him.

“Well, first of all you won’t be needing that gun. Secondly, you will bring Daisy to me and once I have the two of you, my men will let Deveraux go,” Black replied.

Nikki laughed and Black raised his eyebrows at her.

“Do you honestly think I’m that stupid?” she asked him.

“Well you are a bikie whore, right?” Black replied sarcastically.

Nikki heard Mace’s growl and saw Trace attempt to lunge at Black. She ignored the man’s insult. There would be plenty of time to exact her revenge on this man later. Right now she needed to remain calm for Trace’s sake.

“How ‘bout one of your men, unarmed, brings Trace to the van, while Daisy and I make our way to you? I’ll even get rid of my gun,” she said moving the Glock slowly away from Daisy’s head and handing it to Mace behind her.

Black nodded and gestured for his man to divest himself of his weapons and move forward.

Nikki walked that twenty metres slowly. She knew Mace had his gun pointed at the man supporting Trace. That was Mace’s priority. Hers was keeping her shit together until Trace was clear. As they begun the walk Trace tried urgently to make eye contact with her. His words were garbled by the gag in his mouth but the desperation in his voice spoke loud and clear straight to her heart. Trace worked on the gag dislodging it from his mouth. As she neared he lunged for her arm and gripped it tight.

“Please Baby girl. I love you. Don’t do this,” he pleaded with her between wheezy breaths. “He’ll kill you and I can’t...” a wheezing hacking cough broke through his words, “I need you.”

His words ripped her heart out of her chest and as Black’s goon ripped Trace away from her, her heart went with him. It stung like a bitch to know that she was leaving him behind. That she was leaving them all behind. A single tear slid down her cheek and she saw Trace slump against Black’s man as he accepted their fate.

Black’s smile grew as he watched the interaction pass. In that moment Nikki knew when it came time to kill that man she would let the monster reign free and enjoy it. She stopped in front of him but was too afraid to turn around and check on Trace. Black reached for Daisy, pulling her into his arms. Nikki watched as he pulled down her blindfold and whispered reassuring words into her ears while Black’s man frisked her.

“Now, go straight round the back of the building. My car is waiting there. Don’t look back and don’t stop. You get in the car and lock it. Ray will be there soon and he will take you somewhere safe,” Black told Daisy firmly nodding to one of his men.

The girl obeyed without question not once looking back.

Black’s goon grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back securing her wrist together with cable ties. Black’s gaze came back to her and his smile grew wider still.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to enjoy more. Actually torturing you? Or knowing that while I’m torturing you, you sacrificed yourself for nothing?” Black stated his gaze going up to the roof of the building.

She followed his gaze. A man with a rifle shuffled into view and put his eye to the scope. Fear rushed through her cold and brutal.

“Trace!” She screamed his name as she whipped her head around.

A single shot cut through the howling wind as her eyes found Trace. He was slumped against the back of the van less than a metre from Mace. His head shot up at the sound but he didn’t fall to the ground. Instead it was Mace who hit the ground hard, his head smacking the side of the van on the way down. The panic in Nikki’s chest eased as Trace fell to his knees next to Mace trying in vain to check him. She thought that Black might pull something like this. She’d made Mace were a vest. Black’s goon reefed Trace away dragging him back to the group while he defiantly struggled.

“Thought it was going to be Deveraux did you?” Black asked. “Unfortunately you’re not that lucky. I have plans for the two of you.”

The monster rolled through her like a dark cloud. That was the last person that bastard would take from her. Nikki turned back toward Black and glared at him her eyes filled with the promise of death.

“When I kill you, it will not be quick like that. It will be slow and brutal. You will beg for mercy and you will find none,” she said with all the venom she had in her.

Black smiled, “You think I’m scared of you little girl?”

“You should be,” she told him with a smile that cold freeze molten lava.