Chapter 5
-:- CHAOS -:-
Walking into what we class as our shed, I make sure I have the shoe coverings on and the coveralls. They are all able to be burned afterwards, as a no evidence left, kind of thing.
Wings, Drag, Buzz, BS, and Stitch are all in here.
Buzz has blood on his coveralls already.
When I look at the man, I notice that although he is only in his boxers and tied to the chair, he is missing two toes, then I look at Buzz who shrugs.
“Thought I'd do toes for a change. I was a bit fed up with fingers. You know it gets boring doing the same thing all the time.”
“Any idea as yet what is going on? What he had in the syringe?” I ask, leaning against the wall.
“Nope, as yet he’s being a brave little man, aren’t you?” Drag drawls, then looks at me. “Where’s Meat? I thought he’d be here for this shit.”
Now I don’t get to answer as the door flies open and Meat storms in. Oh, my, oh, my, we all burst out laughing because here comes, wait for it… Freddy Krueger of Nightmare on Elm Street fame, but the sidekick of course is Star dressed as none other than Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th.
The asshole tied to the chair is gaping with shock, but we all continue waiting to see what happens next.
Star skips around the idiot swinging a fucking machete.
Just like the character used, but it is real and it’s here in front of all of us.
Swinging the damn thing, it whizzes past the fucker's shoulder, missing him by centimeters. Now, to hear a grown man scream like a little girl isn’t a great thing, but when he pisses his boxers, it’s even worse.
Freddie wiggles his fingers, which I have to inform you have some kind of spikes attached to them. It looks fucking lethal I have to tell you that, and when Freddie steps forward the fucking asshole faints. Yeah, you got it. He passes out like a pussy.
BS shakes his head as he speaks, “They send these assholes and at the first sign of trouble they show how weak they are. If we’d been like that during, you know our service, we’d have been well and truly fucked or laughed out.”
We all know Meat had it bad, and he’s told none of us what happened, but we will all support each other to the full. Meat may be odd, but we don’t give a single fuck. He’s one of us. Good thing he found Star because I reckon she’s as cracked in the head as he is.
“You reckon this is all to do with the job Victoria has? You know computer wizardry?” Drag asks.
“Wizardry! Wow, that’s an excellent description for her, hey Chaos?” Stitch laughs.
I chuckle because he could be right. “I’m going to see if Specs and Delta from BaronsSecure can find out what she’s been up to, and if they can help her.”
“That’s a good idea,” BS agrees, and when he winces, I turn to see Meat has an ear in his hand, and the fucker is awake and shaking in shock.
“You gonna tell us now?” Star asks in a gruff voice that I’m not sure is supposed to be Axel!
“You taking the piss, Star?” We all hear and turn to see Axel stepping inside and closing the door behind him.
“No, Boss,” Star quickly replies, but continues skipping around the asshole which looks ridiculous considering what she’s wearing.
“Freddy and Jason, get over there,” Axel snarls and points to a corner of the room. I snicker because he’s got the characters down. “Right, this is going to end in a minute, asshole. Nod yes or no.” Axel bends, so he’s looking in the asshole’s face and closely. “Were you trying to murder Victoria?”
The idiot nods yes, and more piss drips down his legs and between the chair legs. Axel moves back with a scrunched up disgusted look on his face. “Be a man. You took and tried to do the job, so at least be man enough to die for it. Now, is someone else going to come for her?”
Again, the idiot nods yes.
“Hmm, so this is because of her computer savvy?” Axel continues, again getting a nod. “Do you know who is after her?” This time he nods no. Turning to look at us all, Axel shrugs. “He’s no good to us. Just get rid of him. Take him to Nell’s she may want to play with him a while.”
With that Axel gives Meat and Star a shake of his head, but I can see his lip twitch so he is amused.
He’s just trying not to show it. Drag follows Axel out of the room, and I hear them open the dumpster outside where they’ll throw their coveralls and shoe coverings.
Once we’ve all done here, the last one will set it alight and watch it until it’s burned out.
Meat and Star are quietly arguing about who wants to go with this idiot to Nell’s and join in any fun.
“Why don’t you two take him and we’ll clean up in here?
” I ask, which gets me a nod from both of them.
I’m not sure what Nell will think when Freddy and Jason arrive.
Should I warn them? Nah, it’ll be fun for them to find out for themselves.
****
Morning comes far too early, and I grab an amount of gear from my room at the shooting range. I walk into the living room, and Winter is sitting with a heap of paperwork in front of her. “What is all that?” I ask as I plop into a seat.
“Month end reports, but I’m checking orders because one of the suppliers has upped his prices for the third month running. It’s not what I would expect from them either. I may look for another supplier.”
“Do you think something is wrong?” I ask because this supplier has been with us since the range opened.
“It may just be the economy right now, but I’m going to do my research to be sure. I don’t want to wade in and accuse him of ripping us off to find out it really is just prices soaring.”
Winter is always careful, and she makes sure she has all the facts before she speaks on anything. Especially concerning the range and the running of the business. Target walks into the apartment and gives me a serious look.
“Have you heard any more on the Victoria mess?” Target sits next to Winter, but I notice he is very careful he doesn’t disturb her paperwork. Pussy!
“No, as yet I’m waiting for Forest to get to me with anything he finds.
I spoke to Aaron, and he’s going to do some digging, as is Specs of course.
I am going over to BaronsSecure and speak with Delta.
I reckon she may get more out of Victoria than I will.
They can do the web talk, you know, like they do! ” I chuckle.
“What’s the Weekender for?” Winter asks as she looks up for more than a moment.
“I’m taking some gear to Victoria’s. When she gets released I’m going to stay with her, you know, make sure she’s okay.”
Winter frowns and gives me a penetrating look. Now, if I wasn’t trained to withstand torture I’d squirm, but I hold myself and I see Target smirking out of my visual periphery.
“You trying to tie her down, Chaos?” Winter asks, and I turn my attention to her fully.
“I don’t even know her, Winter. But I know something about the whole situation is wrong.
She saved that kid, yet the parents haven’t even checked if she lived or died.
She is running from something, and she’s a computer whiz.
I’m not walking away from her to leave her fighting whatever is chasing her,” I state with such fierceness that I surprise even myself.
Winter nudges Target with her elbow, and he gives her a nod. I give them both a frown before grabbing my bag and walking to the door. “See you later,” I snap before closing the door as I leave.
Opening Victoria’s apartment, I step inside and notice how stuffy it is.
I open the window in the kitchen before walking through to the bedroom and opening that one too.
Looking around I check that nobody has been in here since I was here with Mia, and it's all the same.
I run my eyes slowly over every inch of the bedroom, living room and kitchen, but see nothing out of place.
A knock on the door has me tensing up, but I relax when I hear Amelia’s voice. “Chaos, I know you are in there, open the darn door.”
Quickly walking to the door, I open it and see Amelia, Bitty and Sybil. Now, they each have bags in their hands, and I grab as many as I can from them while they push past me and into the apartment.
From that moment I may as well not be in the place. Taking over is a light way of saying they set to cleaning everywhere. I mean the fridge, freezer, stove, counters, and then delegate jobs to cover the rest of the apartment.
The bags had groceries, and more than enough frozen meals. Some I recognize as Meat’s meals and I reckon I’m going to be eating well while I’m here.
Amelia walks over to me where I’m pushing the living room chairs back into place now Bitty has finished dry mopping the wood block flooring. “Chaos, are you going to the hospital?”
“Not yet, I have to see Forest or Aaron before I check on Victoria. Jack spoke to me this morning, and he said to do what I have to as he’s slept enough to stay with Victoria until I get there.”
“He’s a good one. Going to make a good brother. He has found family in the club, and it’s what he desperately needed. I heard he is going to be working with you and Target soon?” Amelia questions, and I know she’s going to miss him being around.
“Yeah. We are going to train him up on weaponry and get him fully trained. I don’t think he’ll want to join the military, but we can teach him more than enough to hold his own with the brothers, and any fucker that comes along causing issues.”
Amelia pats my forearm. “That’s a good thing, Chaos. He feels like a grandson after all the time we’ve spent with him. We’ll miss him, and playing pranks on him, but we know it is what he needs. Who wants to follow old women around until they die…”
“Hey, none of that. We all love you. You are family to us, and we don’t see you as old women. You are who you are, and that’s all that we know and need to know. Your age has nothing to do with that, Amelia. Now, I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask you?”
“What’s that?” Amelia’s interest perks.
“Are you keeping up your training with your cane? I know you’ve taught Bitty and Sybil how to use it as a weapon.” I wink at her, and she gives me a sweet smile, but she’s not fooling me. She is wicked when she wants to be even though she’s a tiny thing compared to most of us.
“I add the cane into our training once a month. Don’t you worry I can knock someone’s head if need be.
” Patting my arm again, she stops smiling.
“Okay, get off and do what you have to do. We’ll make sure this place is spotless and you have all the food you need.
When you bring Victoria home, you won’t have to worry about anything. ”
I hand the key over to Amelia so she can lock up when she leaves, but as I head out I turn. “Call Specs and ask him for a better lock. If you ask nicely, maybe Wings, Buzz or BS will fit it?”
“Go on, I’ll sort that out,” Bitty laughs, and I head out to speak with Forest before I go to the hospital.
****
Walking into the Sheriff’s Office, I give Gemmy a huge smile. “Hi, Gemmy, how are you this fine morning?”
“Hi, Chaos. I’m good. Are you here to see Forest?” As usual, Gemmy gets right to the point.
“I am, or Aaron. Either know what’s going on, or I hope they do.”
“Go through. Forest is in his office.”
“Thanks, Gemmy.” I give Zack a small wave as he enters the reception area from the deputies’ office, but don’t stop to speak as I head right for Forest’s office.
Lightly knocking on the office door, although it is open and Forest, Aaron, JP, and Sober are all sitting in some form of meeting. “Come in, Chaos. Take a seat.”
“Morning, all,” I quickly say as I take a seat.
“I know you are here about Victoria Meadows. We’ve been looking into the kid and his parents.
Something is wrong there, but we are getting nothing from speaking to neighbors, and no reports have been logged.
We have found that the parents took out an insurance policy on all of them.
Not just the kid, which would have been suspicious.
They took policies out on all three of them.
That doesn’t make me feel easier about any of this.
” Forest is looking at his notepad in front of him. The others are watching him closely.
“Do you think the fuckers are going to kill the kid for the insurance payout?” I ask because I don’t care about being diplomatic.
“It wouldn’t surprise me. Aaron, speak to all the deputies and have them patrol the area where they live.
Be friendly towards the kid. Speak to his school, dig and let it be seen you are digging.
Don’t hide because I want these pieces of shit parents to know we are fucking watching them.
” Forest has a scowl on his face that I’ve not seen since he first came to us.
Heather has softened Forest a lot, and she has given him a reason to make a home here and become one of us fully.
After leaving the FBI, he was lost, and we were all worried about him, but now he’s stable and obviously very in love with Heather.
Sober speaks and gains my attention. “We’ve been looking into your woman and so far have found nothing that would cause us to check her background.
She’s a good person from what we’ve seen.
She has a friend Beth Forester-Collins. Her brother is unsavory and has gotten her into trouble a few times.
The problem with that is Victoria is close to Beth and it could have overflowed to her.
Beth’s brother, Art, and yes that’s his name, is friendly with up-and-coming senator Joe Tizwald. ”
Now I sit up straight because I’ve heard a few rumors about that asshole, and if this is all a trickle-down to Victoria, then we could have a slight problem on our hands. Or I could get Meat to help me bury the fucker somewhere!
“What are your suggestions at this point, Forest?”
Forest looks at me and gives a slight shrug. “I don’t know for sure, but I think you should get Specs and Delta to befriend Victoria. They have things in common and may get more out of her by being friendly than we would by questioning.”
“I’ve already thought that so leave that with me and I’ll speak to them both.
I’ve got to get to the hospital and check out what’s happening.
Let Jack go get some rest. He’s been with Victoria for hours throughout the night.
He said he’s good as he slept some, but it’s never good sleeping in a chair. ”
“No, it’s not. If you find anything let me know, and we’ll inform you if we find anything. I have a feeling this is to do with her being into computers,” Forest states, and I have a feeling he could be right.