Soldiers of Chaos- Chaos Abounds: Book 1 in the Soldiers of Chaos series (33 page)

As the light outside was beginning to fade they'd snuck in through the front door which led into an old office area. Trace caught a glimpse of K-Dog as he disappeared through the interior door into the dark main space of the unit. For once luck was on their side, whoever owned this business had left the ratty office furniture behind when they cleared out. Trace ducked behind a tower of filing draws as Tex slid to the left behind the office desk. They waited in the dimly lit office area for him to resurface from the warehouse interior. As soon as he passed them Tex reached out and snagged the guy's ankle bringing him to the floor. Trace launched himself onto his back gun to his temple. "Surprise motherfucker" he turned the gun around and pistol whipped the guy knocking him out. They quickly hauled him into a cheap old metal chair that sat in the far corner of the space. Tex pulled out some cable ties and they secured the niner scum to the chair quickly as he began to come around. A piece of tape over his mouth to keep him from screaming and they were ready. "Wakey, wakey asshole" Trace gave the guy a shake. The guy's eyes had bugged out when he realised the predicament he was in but he didn't try to cry out. Trace raised his pistol and pointed at K-Dog's head "There are two ways this can go Klarence. I remove that tape and you answer some questions about your friend Lenny" he paused to let that sink in while K-Dog feigned confusion "and we might let you walk free with your shit intact. Or you can play dumb shit in which case I let my associate over there carve you like a Christmas turkey." Trace moved aside to give the guy a glimpse of Tex leaning on the old office desk, a six foot four solid wall of muscle  weighing his Kabar in his hand and holding it up to glint in the limited light shining in through the high windows. There was a small glimmer of hesitation in the guy's face before he went back to his earlier bravado. Trace moved back into the guy's line of vision "I'm gonna pull this tape off now and you're gonna start talking."

He pulled back the tape and the first thing outta the guy's mouth was bullshit "I don't know no Lenny." Trace didn't let him get any further than that before he replaced the tape. He turned away from the guy then whirled on him quickly punching the guy full in the face hard enough to break his cheek bone. Klarence moaned in pain behind his tape. "That was your one and only warning K-Daug. Any more bullshit comes out that mouth and I'm handing you over to him." He paused waiting for his words to register. "Now let's try this shit again shall we?" He pulled back the tape for the second time. "You fucking dumb ass white boys are all the same. You think me telling you shit is gonna save that bitch of yours. It ain't. One way or another her ass is dead." Trace just wanted to fucking kill him, now. Just take his fists and pummel the guy to death. "So that's how it's gonna be hey Klarence?" Trace smoothed the tape back into place and stepped aside offering the guy to Tex with a wave of his hand. Tex had stepped forward his eyes full of hatred. This was not going to be pretty. And it hadn't been. Tex drew his knife across the guy's shin peeling it open. Klarence screamed behind his mask and then he pissed himself. "Did you just fucking piss yourself you disgusting piece of shit?" Home boy began mumbling behind the tape. "You ready to talk now Klarence? Where is Lenny?" Trace pulled back the tape and the guy sucked in a heaving breath "I don't know where he is." "Wrong answer." Trace let Tex go to work again. This time he sliced down the front of Klarence's forearm. His muffled scream was one of pain and mounting fear. Trace stepped in again "We're gonna try this again asshole and this is your last chance to tell me where he is." Trace peeled the tape back once again "He's got two spots. One cross town. Don't think he's there. Being watched. Other one. Waterfront. Nineteen." Klarence had begun to fade out at the point sweat and blood dripping from him. Trace slapped the guy trying to keep him awake. He opened his eyes and they went straight to Tex and the guy flipped out. He began throw himself around in the chair trying to get away but there was only one place to go and that was the floor. The exertion and the bump to the head when he hit the ground meant he was fading again quickly. In a last ditch effort for info Trace shook the guy hard "The girl. You know where she is?" Klarence's eyes came open briefly but without focus "Hiding. Casino." After that he was out.

So she was hiding out at a Casino. Only one place that was likely to be. "Fucking Slick" Tex growled behind him and he couldn't argue with that. “I knew that bastard was hiding something." Trace wanted to roll straight down there guns blazing knock Slick the fuck out and take his girl back home. But she was safe there, all that security and all those witnesses. "Leave it. She'll be safe there while we sort out this prick. After it's done then we can go down there and kick the fucking shit out of him for lying." "So we go the waterfront find his place and hope he's there?" "Either that or he turns up." Tex nodded at him. "What do you wanna do with him?" he asked gesturing towards the niner. He knew the answer before Tex even opened his mouth. The guy had been dead the minute they laid eyes on him. "End it." "And the body?" "Leave it here. When those assholes come back and find it it'll make a nice warning." Trace pulled out his pistol and stepping back gave the guy two in the chest. Peering out into the dark interior of the warehouse he could just make out the bed sitting alone in the darkened space. "What the fuck do you suppose they were gonna do with that shit?" Tex shrugged "A niner orgy maybe. How the fuck am I supposed to know? Let's go." Tex was reaching boiling point and Trace didn't need the hassle of copping the dude's flack if he lost his shit. "You drive. I'm gonna send our friend Slick a message." They slipped out of the warehouse into the burgeoning dark.

Once inside Nikki's car Trace flicked off a quick text to Slick letting him know they had information that put Nikki at the Mint and if he knew something he better tell them ASAP. He also hit up King with an update on their progress. Alex was next on his list. Maybe he or Rachael could chase up Nikki's whereabouts if they were getting nowhere. "Hey Alex. It's Trace. We got a lead that puts him at the waterfront." "Which number?" "Nineteen." A string if profanities left Alex's mouth. "What?" "Could be nothing but that's in the group of properties that Jason Black owns." Fuck. That was one hell of a coincidence. Didn't this shit just keep going round and round in circles. "You need to move quickly something's about to go down tonight." "With Nikki?" "Not sure haven't been able to get that far into it." "We got some info that she was hiding out at the Mint. Can you check on that?" "I'll send Rachael down there. Be careful you could be walking into anything." "Thanks man." Trace hung up and relayed the info to Tex. "That is way too much of a coincidence. Lenny has to be hooked up with Black somehow." Trace nodded in agreement with Tex's assessment "Lenny, Niners, Black and Bridges. There is a much bigger thing going on here." They travelled in silence while both of them contemplated the possibilities. This shit all started with Sheila or at least for the Soldiers it did. That fact just did not fit right. The message motivation was weak at best. She had to have been involved in something else, something more serious. Question was what? The woman barely had time for anything but booze, drugs and cock. The possibility that that was exactly where the answer lay dawned on Trace. Maybe one of Sheila's conquests was involved with Bridges and blabbed shit he shouldn't. Trace certainly wouldn't put it past Sheila to sleep with an enemy of the club and pillow talk could be a dangerous thing. It was an angle they'd have to explore although with the house burned to the ground there wouldn't be any evidence left there to go on. "What's up?" Tex's question broke through Trace's silent wonderings. "When we're done with Lenny I'm thinking we need to go back to the beginning with all this shit." "Sheila?" "Yeah. There is no way payback was the motive for killing her." Tex glanced at him quickly the returned his eyes to the road "I've been thinking the same thing. It was a message ain't no doubt about that but not for the reason Reaper reckons. She had to have been involved in something or known something cos that shit was personal, to let someone carve her up like that. Very personal."

They turned into the street that rang alongside the waterfront complex and fell silent. The task at hand was far more important. There were thirty houses in the complex. All of them were three story blocks of concrete, glass and tropical gardens. Your typical rich man’s beach getaway. All of them sat along the waterfront giving every resident amazing views. Number nineteen was no exception. That same boxy angular shape painted in shades of cream, all glass to the front and a few small privacy windows to the back and protected by a high wall with a security gate at the rear. This was flash. Way too flash for a bouncer at nightclub. Someone was paying this guy's bills and it wasn't him. "This shit just gets weirder and weirder." Wasn't that the truth? Trace had no idea how this guy was tied to black and consequently Bridges but it had to have been some serious shit. "No lights on and no movement. Maybe nobody's home." Oh well that'd just make it easier for them to take a decent look and just their luck a little footpath between number nineteen and it's neighbour would give them a pretty well unseen entry. "Shall we have a little look around?" Trace turned to Tex who was sporting a grin at the suggestion. "I think we shall brother, I think we shall." They drove round the corner and parked the Mustang in a little alleyway between two businesses and walked back towards the row of mini mansions keeping to the shadows across the street. As they drew level with the alleyway they both paused and checked the area. There were lights on in a few of the houses. One further down appeared to be holding a raging party which would hopefully keep everyone busy and cover any noise they might make. They slid across the street and into the heavily shadowed alleyway.

"How do you wanna do this?" Trace looked up at the eight foot high concrete wall then down to the other end of the alleyway. "Let's go down to the end and check out the front first. See if this place is really empty." They jogged quickly to the end of the alleyway which opened up onto a narrow board walk running the length of the houses. All was dark inside the glass tower suggesting it was empty of human occupants. Trace searched the outside of the building with his eyes. No security cameras but he didn't doubt there'd be an alarm of some sort. "We go up over the wall at the side. Place has gotta have an alarm. Search for the power box we'll see if we can cut the power to it." They moved back into the dark alleyway. Trace stretched up grabbing hold of the top of the wall and using the toe of his boot on the wall to push himself up on to the top. A quick glance left and right told him the coast was clear and he dropped down into the garden below. He could make out the silhouettes of trees and bushes dotted through the yard. The gate and driveway were to his left, the front of the house to the right. Tex dropped down beside him with a thud "Jesus man could you make any more noise?" "Hey this much muscle can't help but make a hard impact." Trace rolled his eyes and snorted at Tex's reply. The guy certainly didn't lack self-confidence. Trace found the wall of the house and went left toward the rear while Tex went right to the front of the house.

He came across the power box hidden behind some plants at the back corner of the building. It was already open. Using his cut as buffer between his fingers and the metal door of the power box he pushed it open further and used the light from his phone to take a look. The wires were already cut. "There's someone in there." Tex's urgent whisper made Trace's heart skip a beat. "And they don't look they live here unless running around in the dark all dressed in black is the norm for rich cunts." Fuck. Someone had beat them to it question was who? The sound of a car engine had both of them turning towards the rear fence. The gate began to slide open. If this was Lenny it might be there only chance to grab him but the guy pulling stealth ninja inside was an unknown factor and that made Trace hesitate. He glanced to the front of the house then back to the gate which was slowly revealing a black BMW. They retreated further into the garden beds sheltering among the bushes. A familiar looking goon got out of the front seat of the car and opened the rear door. Jason Black slid his slimy ass out of the back seat and into the courtyard as the gate closed behind them. "Shit." His other goon got out of the car and that was it. No Lenny. They all moved up the back steps towards the rear door of the house. They waited till all three were out of their line of sight before moving swiftly towards the fence and hauling themselves up and over. Soon as his boots hit the pavement Trace headed for the street end of alleyway in the hopes that perhaps Lenny was simply running late for some meeting and he'd roll up any second. Tex stood close behind him as he glanced back and forth between each end of the street.

A quick nudge from Tex brought Trace's head around. He gestured behind him where a dark figure slipped around the corner of Lenny's wall into the mouth of the alleyway. The physique suggested a guy, lean and light on his feet. A quick glance their way and the figure moved like a stealthy black shadow across the alleyway and back out onto the boardwalk. Shit just got weirder and weirder. They waited several minutes with no further movement in the street. Tex removed his phone from his pocket. "He's not showing brother and we gotta go. King's calling everyone in for Church." For fucks sake. He wanted to say fuck King, fuck church, fuck everyone and wait there till that bastard showed his face then pummel it until he was entirely unrecognisable. But he couldn't "Fuck." "I know brother, I know." Tex clapped him on the shoulder and the pair of the drifted back the way they came sliding into Nikki's mustang. Trace took out his phone and checked it as he sank into the passenger seat. A little one beside his text icon told him he had a message waiting. It was Slick.