Crouching down he inspected the ground before he stepped into the long grass.
“I’ve got blood and a boot print.” He called over his shoulder.
“Boss, hang on, before you go out there alone. Buzz says they’re almost here and to wait for them. Prez’s orders.” Sludge stood clearly outlined by the lights of his cage and the ATV’s. All the lights were now trained on him and lit up the area, chasing the dark away.
Nodding in agreement he started searching the area next to the fence and found more prints.
“I’ve got a lot of prints here.”
He was inspecting the boot prints when the dark SUV rocked to a stop almost on top of him and Buzz, Scar and Breker jumped out. All of them had their firearms in their hands as they came to him.
As Scar was their most experienced tracker and had the training to be able to spot a trap Jagger waved him ahead.
“Lead the way, brother.” Jagger said quietly. “We’ve got your back.”
They slowly and carefully followed the trail into the long grass. Grass that was smeared with blood. It did not look good. It looked like whoever it was had been dragged through the long grass away from the fence. Most probably to stop them from investigating further once they reset the alarm. And then suddenly they came upon the place Jagger had spotted from the top of his bakkie.
The grass was trampled and smeared with a lot more blood, but the biggest surprise was the blood covered small body lying face down on the ground.
And that’s when Jagger noticed the hair. Long hair, in a lop-sided ponytail.
“Fuck! It’s a woman.” He wanted to rush forward but Scar grabbed him, restraining him.
“It could be a trap, Jag. Let me check it out first.”
While Scar slowly approached and checked whatever it was he had to check Jagger could not get his eyes to leave the woman’s small battered to shit and blood covered feet.
“She’s still alive but she’s been beaten to shit and she’s got a gunshot wound to her side. I don’t think we should move her, we need the paramedics for this shit.” Scar’s voice had him jerking his eyes away from the woman’s feet and looking at his brother.
It was what Scar said next that held him frozen in place.
“You need to brace, brother because this is fucked up, it’s the little vet who asked us to call her people.”
“What?”
Jagger was confused. They had all been under the impression that the cops had moved in and rescued her.
Why the fuck was she here if they had rescued her?
“We gave her people the message. Why the fuck wasn’t she rescued? What is going on here? I think we need to keep this under the radar, brother.” Jagger said quietly as he crouched next to her and gently moved her hair away from the side of her face.
She had been beaten since the last time he had seen her. Her face was one big bruise with a cut running through her eyebrow and her lip was split open.
“We don’t have a doc who can treat her, Jag. And she’s been shot in the side, brother. She’s going to need specialised care, maybe even surgery.” Scar had her tee up and was inspecting the wound to her side. “I can tell you the wound is nowhere near her spine but there’s other shit inside the body like her kidney and intestines. We can’t help her if the bullet hit either of those. I’m going to turn her to the side to see if the bullet exited or if it’s still lodged somewhere inside. Let’s do this slow and easy, brothers.”
Everyone jumped to help and they very slowly turned her on her side.
“Okay, that’s good news, the bullet exited above her hip. It looks like it entered her body at an angle, and is shallow enough it missed the important shit. Fuck. I need to stop the bleeding.” Scar growled. “Hold her.”
Peeling his tee over his head he bunched it up and shoved it over the wound. Holding a hand out he asked without saying a word. Jagger ripped his tee off and passed it over, so did Buzz and Breker.
Watching as his brother tore one shirt into long strips and tying the other shirts over the entry and exit wounds they crouched next to her, waiting for further orders. Scar was the one in charge here. He had been in combat and knew how to handle bullet wounds.
“Pull those blankets from the fence and bring them here. We’ll lift her onto one and use the other to cover her. I think we need to get her back to the clubhouse and to Grietjie. She’s bleeding way too much and if we sit here and wait for a fucking ambulance she could bleed out.”
“Not on my fucking watch.” Jagger raced away to the fence and grabbed the blankets. They got stuck but Sludge was standing in the bed of the bakkie and lifted them free. He nodded his gratitude before he raced back to where his little doll was lying bleeding on the ground.
He didn’t even realise he was thinking of her as his. He just did what was required.
Getting her help as quick as possible.
He sat in the middle of the back seat with her on his lap. He held her tight against his chest with his feet braced against the backs of the seats in front of him while Buzz and Breker sat on either side of him, keeping him steady as Scar raced back to the clubhouse.
Skidding to a halt at the front door of the clubhouse that had every single light blazing Jagger slid out of the cage with her still clasped in his arms. Breker kept a hand on his arm until he found his feet and then followed as they quickly made their way inside.
Grietjie was waiting for them in the exam room and Jagger gently laid his little doll on the stainless steel table.
“Agge nee. (Oh no.)” Grietjie muttered softly as she lifted the blanket, drew it off and threw it towards the wall behind her. “She needs a doctor. I can stabilise her but she needs more than what I can do for her. We have to take her to a hospital.”
“We’ve got a Doc and two paramedics on the way. Can you keep her from bleeding out until they arrive?” Hawk’s rough voice filled the silence and Jagger immediately knew that his boss didn’t trust the pigs to do the right thing. So they would help instead.
“I’m going to need help, Boss. Anyone with any medical knowledge, I need them to be here.” She motioned Jagger to help her turn a woman whose name he only knew because of the note she passed to him, on to her belly.
“I need to get her out of these clothes, so anyone who’s not needed in here needs to leave.”
Genna, who had just passed her paramedic’s exam, pushed through the men and joined Grietjie on the other side of the table.
“I can help until the doc gets here. Everyone else, out, now.” She ordered but Jagger’s feet wouldn’t move.
Until his prez clamped an arm around his shoulders.
“Come on, brother. Let’s leave them to help her, we’ll only be in the way.”
He couldn’t force them to let him stay because she wasn’t his. She was just a woman he had somehow failed to protect.
She had trusted him with the message and he had delivered it.
But he never followed up because for some fucked up reason they all thought that her people would handle it because the cops were involved.
He should have followed up.
When he called the number she had given him he should have insisted that they call to update the club after she was rescued.
So many things he should have done and didn’t.
“This is my fault.” He refused the glass of amber liquid Buzz tried to pass him.
“Bullshit, Jag. How the fuck is it your fault?” Hawk got right up into his face. “You did what she asked. You passed on the message and we were told they had it under control and to back off. How the fuck could we have known they did not have anything under any type of fucking control? How the hell were we supposed to know they left her ass hanging out there? We didn’t know. If we had known they would fuck it up we would have gone to get her.” He shook his head. “This smells like one of those bullshit plans the pigs usually come up with. They most probably convinced her people they were handling the situation. Most probably had eyes on the bastards and were w
aiting until they had enough evidence to take them down.”
Though it ate at his gut he knew his prez was right. They weren’t the ones who had dropped the ball, even though it felt as if they were.
“Are we going to contact her people?” Beast asked. “I would love to hear their excuses for leaving her when they had enough intel to go in and get her out.”
“We contact nobody until we hear from Ziggy.” Hawk decreed.
Jagger opened his mouth but before he could say a word the front door flew open and Ice came in with the doc they had rescued, Juliana Agiotti, and two Road Warriors, Slide, her brother, and Alien. Slide was a paramedic and he assumed Alien must be the same if he had come along.
The cavalry had arrived.
And he breathed a little bit easier.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sunny
I woke to pain, fierce unrelenting pain. A moan slipped past my clenched teeth and a face I didn’t know appeared above me.
“Hold on for just a little longer, Sunny. The doc is going to fix you up and once she’s done we’ll get you cleaned up and settled in bed.”
She faded before I could answer her or ask her name.
When I next woke the pain was still there but it had become a dull throb and not the searing, mind numbing ache of before.
Before opening my eyes fully I took the time to listen. I knew I was in a bed and I could smell clean linen and the faint scent of lemons. Slowly opening my eyes I stared up at the ceiling then dropped my eyes to take in white painted walls then little by little turned my head on the pillow. I had an IV plugged into the back of my hand and there were two bags hanging from an IV stand next to the bed. Dropping my eyes I took in the rest of the room.
An easy chair stood next to the bed and a book lay open but upside down on the wooden bedside table. A bedside lamp, a pitcher filled with water and covered by an old fashioned crocheted doily and an upside down glass shared the space with the book. There was a window behind the easy chair with pale blue curtains that were closed.
Someone had been in here with me but wasn’t now. Turning my head the other way I saw a half closed pale blue door through which the white edge of a wash basin was just visible.
I had no idea where I was. It wasn’t a hospital, because I wasn’t in a hospital bed, and that was all I was sure about.
Trying to sit up I immediately gave it up as a bad idea when pain surged through me, making me moan softly.
That’s when the door opposite the bed opened and a man silently walked into the room.
I knew him.
It was the ruggedly gorgeous biker I gave my note to.
I wasn’t sure but I thought Celeste had called him Jagger. Why would a man be named after a rock star? And if not the rock star then what?
He hadn’t noticed that I was awake as he walked to the chair and sat down.
It was when I moved that his head jerked towards me and our eyes met.
His eyes were what people called hazel because they weren’t green and they weren’t brown. His were a mix of green and golden brown with a very dark green ring around the outer edge.
Right now those remarkable eyes looked worried as he sat forward and put both hands on the bed next to me.
“So glad to see those pretty eyes again, sweetheart. You gave us quite a scare.”
I opened my mouth to speak but all that came out was a croak.
“Your throat must be dry as the desert. Hang on, I’ll get you some water.”
He poured the water then slipped his arm underneath the cushions behind me and gently lifted me as he placed the glass against my lips. I sipped the cool liquid, letting it run down my parched throat and wanted to sigh in relief. He removed the glass when I pulled my head away. I couldn’t drink too much, it would make me sick, and the last thing I wanted to do was throw up in front of him. Plus with all the aches I could feel it would not be a pleasant experience.
Placing the glass back on the bedside table he leant forward and rested his forearms on the bed next to my thigh. His big hands were clasped together and I couldn’t take my eyes off the prominent veins in his hands and forearms. His skin was tanned which indicated that he worked outside a lot.
Or maybe it was from being out on his bike a lot. Either would explain the colour of his skin.
“Where am I?”
He frowned before he answered.
“You’re at the Iron Dogz MC’s compound. We found you in the veldt outside our perimeter fence last night. You were in a very bad way, so we brought you here, called in a doc and had you fixed up. Do you know what happened to you?”
I shook my head slowly from side to side because it was all a blank.
“From what we gathered by the tracks that were left you were running from someone and they shot you. Luckily for you, you must have turned to look back and it saved your life. Instead of hitting you square in the back the bullet went through your side. The doc who fixed you up said it was a shallow wound and that you’re going to be stiff and sore but that’s all. Grietjie and Genna will take care of you and you shouldn’t need the doc again. You were fucking lucky, sweetheart.”
He finished in a soft voice as he took my free hand in his and gave a little squeeze.
I started to smile when the horror I had gone through suddenly made itself known. Tears flooded my eyes and through the haze I saw him jerk in shock then he was on the bed with me, holding me as I cried.
“He tried to kill me.” I whispered. “I wouldn’t open the gates and…and he tried to kill me”
“Who tried to kill you? What gates? Tell me sweetheart, I’ll make sure he never touches you again.”
“They wanted me to open the gates at the sanctuary, but I refused. They are killers. What kind of warped person are you to come after an animal in a sanctuary? Someone helped them to get in and they…they killed Rex and…and they mutilated him. They took his head, paws and tail because some bastard wanted lion parts.”
I gulped in a breath and winced when it hurt but continued telling him what had happened.
“And then they came back, they came for my baby girl. They wanted her skin but my girl was skittish and hid from them. I heard her calls and got up to investigate. They were in her enclosure and I saw their faces, saw who had let them in. I knew they wouldn’t let me leave alive. And then the bitch pulled a knife on me. I don’t know if she wanted to scare me or kill me but she didn’t get the chance to do either because Dayana attacked her, sliced up her back and bit her shoulder. Bart was going to shoot her but I interfered, telling her to hide and it was so dark they couldn’t see her. She would have been impossible to find and kill before the guards came to investigate the noise. They took me because they needed someone to fix that horrible woman’s back.”
I stiffened when I remembered that the bitch had seemed to know him. She had called him ‘baby’.
“She’s your girlfriend! Are you one of them? Is this just another trick to get me to give you the codes?”
He looked shocked and his mouth opened to answer but I didn’t give him a chance. I started shouting almost hysterically.
“Get out! Get out, get out, get out!”
Instead of leaving he got even closer. The door slammed open and two men stormed in but stopped at the end of the bed and looked at the man still leaning on the side of my bed.
He virtually shoved his face right into mine and I tried to sink into the pillows to get away from him.
“Jag, brother…” One of the men started but he waved a hand to silence him.
The expression on his face was intense and pissed off and so was his voice when he spoke.
“She’s not now, nor has she ever been my girlfriend. I fucked her, sure, but that’s all it ever was. Now, what I have a fucking huge problem with is you thinking my brothers or I would have anything to do with what sounds like a poaching ring. Never! We protect animals we don’t kill them.”
He shoved away from the bed and stood. “Someone else w
ill be here to look out for you. I’m done. I have better shit to do than hang out around here.”
With that he pushed past the two men and stormed out of the room.
To say I was stunned at his outburst wouldn’t have been exactly right. I was scared on the one hand and shocked on the other. He had been so sweet and within the blink of an eye he had changed into a raging asshole.
How was I to have known they weren’t involved with the bitch? On our drive over that day she had made sure to mention more than once that she was looking forward to seeing her boyfriend.
And what about my note?
Did he even call Loek?
I needed a phone and I needed it right the hell now.
“Can you get me a phone, please?”
One of the men silently shook his head in denial. The other looked at him in confusion then looked back at me.
“I’m sorry, it seems like you can’t have a phone right now. Is there anything else we can do for you?”
I turned my head and stared at the bathroom door.
“Yes, you can get out too.”
I listened to the heavy silence and didn’t move until I heard them leave and the door close, only then did I turn. I might be hurt and I might be weak but I would not be staying here longer than necessary. Somehow I would let Loek and Cherise know I was okay and then I would get out of here.
Angry, hurting and alone I lay there and eventually closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Horror visited me in my dreams. I dreamt they killed my baby girl and made me wear her bloody pelt. I felt her warm blood coating me, the inside of her bloody and slimy feeling pelt slid over my naked skin and I screamed in horror as I fought to get free. But they held me down and…
“No,nononono!” Gasping in horror I woke up still fighting against the hands holding me down.
“Shhh, calm down, it’s a bad dream, only a bad dream. Stop fighting or you’re going to open your stitches. It’s a dream, Sunny, nothing but a dream.” A soft voice reassured me and I forced my eyes open.
A woman with dark, almost black, exotically slanted eyes was bent over me. In actual fact she was holding me down but the moment our eyes met she let me go. Stepping back she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me with her head slightly tilted to the side.
A Touch Of Grey Page 12
