Chaos Conquers All (3 page)

One man made it through the barrage of bullets and ran behind the bar.

The shotgun. Nikki knew if these guys got their hands on that, bodies were gonna start happening on their side. Nikki vaulted the tables without a second thought, firing left and right as she ran across the space. Using a chair for footing she stepped onto a nearby table top. She glimpsed the guy behind the bar going for the barman’s shotgun and knew she had seconds left before the guy had that thing pointed in her direction. She brought both her weapons in front of her and leapt onto the bar just as the guy raised the gun. She fired without hesitation popping several rounds into the man’s body.

Silence fell around them for a moment and as Nikki turned she caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of her vision. A man in the back corner of the space was standing from his table. She had seen him when they entered the bar buried in the bottom of a bottle and drowning his sorrows or so she thought. As he brought his weapon up he levelled his gaze on the Chairman behind her. She brought the aim of her weapon around and squeezed the trigger.

The lone shot echoed through the sudden silence and brought all the other men’s heads around. All except the Chairman’s who’d been staring down the barrel of his death until Nikki intervened. The bullet struck the man straight between the eyes. His body fell back into the wall behind him and slid to the floor.

Nikki turned to find the Chairman’s attention on her.

“Nice shootin’ Ace,” he drawled as he gave her a wink trying to fake a sense of calm.

The man was beyond pathetic and disgusting. She responded with no more than a simple nod of her head before she jumped down from the bar.

Nikki surveyed the group of men standing before her. Any underestimations they may have had about her were clearly wiped from their minds. When her gaze hit Trace, however, her silent and steely resolve faltered slightly. His eyes spelled a million things and none of them were good. He was still on that rollercoaster of emotions that had been playing out since he’d seen her with Cole. Her insides churned with a mountain of emotions. Anger, betrayal and regret were one hell of a devastating cocktail. Nikki knew she could no longer get off this ride. She had to see it through to the end and maybe then they could sort out the shit between them. She glanced over at Tex. The shit between the three of them.

“Is this your problems come to plague us too?” the Chairman asked as he looked at the bodies around.

He was not blaming this one on them. That man had clearly been aiming at the Chairman.

“The aim of that man in the corner would suggest this problem was all about you, Sir,” She stated clearly and without apology.

The Chairman once again looked put out by her speaking out of turn.

“Well whatever the case, it would seem that you can indeed handle any issues that may arise,” he replied, “Now clean this shit up.”

Of course, the fat man couldn’t clean up his own mess.

Trace pulled into the driveway of their house. He was seething inside. He would’ve thought a good shoot out and hefting a heap of dead bodies into a freezer container would’ve done wonders to ease some of that fury but it didn’t. Instead it had left him more fired up than ever. He had watched Nikki fearlessly and swiftly move through that hail of bullets to bring down the guy going for the shotgun behind the bar and it had done so many things to his insides he didn’t know where he was at.

He thought he was going to die of a heart attack when she leapt over those downed tables but as he watched her move, his fear became pride. She was beautiful, graceful and deadly, and damned if a part of him didn’t receive a big thrill from that. But as he’d been picking up the men they’d killed the fear and anger came back. What if she’d ended up dead on the floor of that bar he just couldn’t bear the thought of that and the fact that she was now the club’s man-at-arms meant he powerless to do anything about it. That feeling drove the anger inside him higher.

He didn’t understand why the club would put her in harm’s way like that, why Tex would put Nikki in harm’s way like that. He wanted her to have the vote and he wanted her wound up tight in the club. Most of all he wanted her wound up in him and Tex. This was not how he wanted it to happen. His plan was falling apart. He fucked things up with her so badly and Tex, that moron, had basically put the gun to her head and placed her finger on the trigger. If Tex hadn’t given his third for her nomination. He felt another wave of anger roll through him. He’d watched Reaper slowly get eaten away by the things that he did and he didn’t want that for Nikki. Now there was no changing that. He was going to kill Tex for confirming that motion. He parked his bike and waited for Tex his anger building by the second.

He heard Tex’s bike approaching and revved himself up for the confrontation. Tex had absolutely no forethought. He operated on gut instinct and this time his instincts were way wrong. His mind kept sending him back to the vision of Nikki moving through that shoot out like the angel of death, graceful and deadly. He shook it off. Nikki couldn’t be that. He wouldn’t let her be that. He didn’t know how any of them could put her in that spot. Tex pulled in and dismounted and Trace wasted no time in confronting him.

“Listen Trace, I know what you’re going to say,” Tex started to defend himself as Trace crossed the front yard toward him.

Trace couldn’t listen to that shit. He didn’t want to hear how Tex understood her better or how this was the right thing. He couldn’t listen to his brother explain that Nikki was meant for this, that she needed it, that he couldn’t give her what she needed, that he drove her to it. He was sick of talking about it and thinking about it. He was done and once a man’s done talking and thinking there’s only one thing left. He threw a fist right into Tex’s face. It wasn’t as satisfying as he hoped.

Tex turned back toward him slowly stretching his now reddened jaw.

“Really Brother? This is how you wanna handle this shit?”

In answer to Tex’s question he threw another punch into Tex’s guts causing him to double over. Tex was not that easily beaten though. Tex ducked low driving his shoulder into Trace’s stomach and tackling him to the floor. Trace hit the ground hard and was winded momentarily as Tex threw a quick jab that landed in his ribs.

Trace began throwing jabs of his own into Tex’s unprotected side. Tex reared back slightly and landed a punch to Trace’s face.

“Don’t take your bullshit out on me, Trace. You know the same as I do… she needs this shit,” Tex yelled at him.

The pain spread through his skull at a blistering speed but he wasn’t giving up that easy. He swung wildly from the ground and felt the connection between his fist and Tex’s head. Tex’s weight shifted with the force of the blow giving him just enough leeway to shake Tex off. Trace scrambled to his feet but didn’t make it. Tex tripped him over and he went face first into the dirt.

“Don’t do this to me and don’t do this to yourself, Brother. You want to keep her? This is the only way that is going to happen,” Tex yelled at him.

As he lay in the dirt he began to recognise that Tex was right. In truth he’d known it all along but he still didn’t want to accept the reality of it. The whole thing just churned him up inside.

“Are you done yet?” Tex asked him as he got to his feet.

Not yet. He had to work off this bullshit and he still had plenty of fight left in him.

This time he launched himself at Tex. He took him down hard and the scrambling began again. He copped as many rib shots as he gave. He got a head butt in at one point which hurt him just as much as it hurt Tex. Gun shots sounded loudly nearby causing them to freeze.

“What the hell is going on here?” Nikki yelled at them both.

He turned to look at her. She was standing next to their elderly neighbour with a large shot gun in her hands.

“It’s obvious isn’t it, love? They are fighting over you. You should’ve just let them carry on. It was getting rather exciting to watch,” the old lady exclaimed.

“Thanks Mrs T,” Nikki said handing her the shotgun and dismissing her.

“My pleasure Darlin’, but a little advice. I’ve had a threeway or two in my time and if I were you I’d doing them both. Mmmmm,” Mrs T said as she hungrily eyeballed the two of them.

They all stared at her in open-mouthed shock.

“I’m too old for that stuff these days but if you manage that, you make sure you send me the video. An old lady can still fantasise,” with that the old lady crossed her lawn and went back inside her house.

The minute the door closed behind her Nikki burst out laughing and that beautiful sound warmed his heart more than anything ever could. A smile spread across his face and that smile turned into laughter and soon all three of them were howling hysterically. God, it felt good to laugh. He hadn’t managed that in a long time. He didn’t think any of them had managed that in a long time.

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You can never really judge a book by its cover, Nikki thought as she laughed along with the boys. Mrs T’s comments had broken the anger and tension inside her. As she watched the boys, who were now, like her wiping tears of laughter from their face, she began to spot their slowly appearing injuries. She knew what the fight had been about. Trace turning his anger at her and himself on Tex. They were falling apart right when they needed to be coming together. They couldn’t keep going like this. They’d end up tearing each other apart before Cole even got the chance.

“C’mon you two, let’s get inside and get you cleaned up. King is gonna have a fit when you rock up tomorrow with cuts and bruises,” she said as she ushered them inside.

Nikki grabbed a couple of ice packs from the fridge throwing them at the boys then grabbed the first aid kit from the cupboard. Tex and Trace sat on the barstools at the breakfast bar. She stepped in between them and silently inspected both their wounds. Trace had a slowly darkening bruise on his cheek, a graze on his forehead and several grazes on his arms. Tex was not much better. He had a graze on one elbow, his lip was split on one side and he had a bruise on the opposite side of his jaw. She was sure if they lifted their shirts she’d find a number of bruises on their ribs.

“At least no one needs stitches,” she said as she wiped the blood from Tex’s lip.

“Sorry Brother,” Trace mumbled to Tex from behind her.

Tex nodded but his gaze was focused on Nikki. His eyes pleaded with her to do something.

“Keep the ice pack on your jaw while I take a look at him,” she ordered.

Nikki turned to fix up Trace. She cleaned the scrapes on his arms first so she could work up the courage to look him in the eye. As she reached for the graze on his forehead his hand grabbed her wrist stilling her.

“I fucked up, Baby Girl. I fucked up big time and I don’t know how I’m supposed to fix it,” his ocean blue eyes shone with emotion as he spoke.

He was torturing himself over the whole Melanie thing and the whole time she'd been no better. After all, she went back to Cole. That was certainly never going to happen again now she knew the truth. She had to put aside all her own bullshit and do something for them.

"Sssshhhhh," she said as she placed a finger over his lips, "We all make mistakes, Trace. God knows I've made many, too many."

Mistakes that ended the lives of two of her club's prospects. She had no idea how she was going to come back from that. How do you forget killing two innocent men? How do you get right with people when you can't even tell them what you did wrong? God, if they knew? If they knew what she did she'd lose everything.

"Well maybe it's time we all stopped rehashing those mistakes and started fixing this shit," Tex replied as his hand came to rest on her hip giving it a quick squeeze.

She wanted to make everything right again. Things were just so far gone she had no idea where to begin.

"Well we aren't gonna do that by beating the shit out of each other," Nikki stated as she went back to cleaning up Trace's graze.

"Probably not, but I can think of a far better way to do it," Tex's voice dropped low and his other hand came up to her hip.

Both Tex and Trace inched closer to her. Trace moved her arm out of the way again and leaned in for the kiss.

"Wait," Nikki commanded placing her hand on Trace's chest and giving Tex a nudge back.

Her head was all over the place and she had no idea what the blender inside her brain was gonna spit out next. She knew exactly what she was getting into with them. She knew where their heads were at. For them though? They didn’t fully know what they were getting themselves into.

"We can't do this. You have no idea what you're letting yourself in for. I'm," she didn't get to finish her sentence as Tex spun her round to face him.

"Who the fuck are you kidding, Ace?" Tex asked angrily, "You think we don't know what we're getting ourselves into? You think we don't know what's going on up in that pretty little head of yours? That you’re all kinds of messed up and we aren't? This whole time you've been trying to avoid hurting us, dragging us down the path with you and not at any point has it been successful. We have been riding this rollercoaster with you since we were four years old and we haven't gotten off the god damn ride yet. We are not bailing now."

He was right. Even when she tried not to, she ended up dragging them along because they just would not give up on her.

"Whatever you think you're trying to hide from everyone, it makes no difference to us. We all have that darkness inside us. Do you think we would've survived this life for this long if we hadn't?" Tex paused momentarily.

For the millionth time in her life she wondered how these two knew exactly what she was thinking all the time.

"Now I need you to shut up, turn that fucking brain of yours off and let this shit happen," he demanded.

His lips hit hers with fierce determination despite the split lip he was sporting. His tongue slipped into her mouth as she gasped in surprise. Nikki had been going around in circles with the two of them since she was sixteen and Tex was right. It was time it stopped.

Nikki countered the demanding nature of his kiss with a slightly slower dance of her tongue. Tex always wanted to do things at break neck speed, he was an all or nothing kind of guy. She felt Trace lean in again, his heat warming her back. She broke off Tex's kiss and watched as the hunger in his eyes burned red hot. She felt her body begin to react. Trace's hand slid up her neck to cup her chin turning her face toward him. He looked into her eyes as if trying to find the answer to some perplexing problem. She wished she could take back all the hurt she’d caused him.

Nikki reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. The darkness still clung to her and she needed to sweep it aside if she was going to do this. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she reopened them to focus on Trace, she saw his face change. His eyes softened and slight smile crept onto his face.

“There you are, Baby Girl,” he said quietly, “I thought I might have lost you.”

He was gonna make her cry if he kept that shit up.

“Never gonna happen, Trace,” she assured him then leaned forward to seal their lips together.

Trace’s kiss was soft and tender, the complete opposite of Tex’s.

Tex’s hands moved under her shirt and made its way straight to her breast. His hot breath hit her neck and she felt the ache begin. Nikki’s hand slid down from Trace’s face and over his torso in search of warm flesh. Her other hand was already making its way towards the crotch of his Tex’s jeans. Trace sighed into her open mouth as her fingers came into contact with his skin. Nikki dragged her nails across the bulge behind Tex's fly causing him to growl and pinch her nipple in response. She knew what each man liked, what each one wanted. She couldn't believe she was going to do this.