Thank fuck he could update her on that part of the operation.
“I have two of my best men on them. They have been updating me on all movements around the compound and at some of the homes. The bikers have stepped up security and there are more patrols along the perimeter fences than before, Ms Harrison.”
He kept his eyes on the old woman because she was the biggest threat in the room. She would have them eliminated if she no longer needed them, and if they failed to carry out their jobs? That was something he would rather not contemplate.
Walking into the room she sat down in an armchair in the corner of the lounge, away from the windows. Once she had arranged herself to her satisfaction she clasped her hands in her lap and looked up at him.
“I’m changing the directive of your mission. If you have any men watching the sanctuary, pull them out immediately. You and your men will move from this location to the one that will be forwarded to you once you complete your next mission. Celestine, you will stay on at the veterinary clinic. It will be your cover and alibi.”
Winifred Harrison slid those dead eyes of hers over both of them before she focused on Bart. His fucking gut ached with tension. She was the only person on this earth that he feared.
“I’ve been thinking about how to bring the bikers to their knees. Those men are arrogant and full of themselves as they ride around on their motorcycles acting like they are gods. They are not. They have a vulnerability they work hard to protect. I have tried to destroy them through that vulnerability before but haven’t been successful. You, Bart, will succeed where others have failed. You will exploit that vulnerability and give me what I need. The start of their destruction.”
A slow evil smile curled her lips and only now did her eyes appear to have any life in them. They were filled with anticipation and glee. She lifted a hand and beckoned one of the men at the door forward. Bart glanced at him and saw what he was carrying.
He knew exactly what was in that very distinctive case. A sniper rifle.
The kind of weapon he was most comfortable with. He liked killing, but he liked killing from a distance even more. He enjoyed watching his targets going about their lives without any idea they were about to die. After killing a target he always had the best sex of his life and his cock twitched in anticipation.
“Who do you want me to kill, Ms Harrison?”
She smiled coldly. “You will kill their women. I want two dead in the next week and a half. We will reconvene to discuss more specific targets at a later date, for now I leave the targets up to you.”
Bart dipped his head in deference, keeping his hands clasped behind his back.
“It will be done, ma’am. May I eliminate Sunny Wolmarans at the same time?”
Winifred thought about it for a few seconds then gave a short decisive nod. “If you see her with the bikers you may eliminate her. It serves our plans with the animals to have her removed, permanently.”
Again he dipped his head. “Thank you ma’am.”
She gave a regal nod then turned to Celeste. Bart worked hard to hide his elation that the bitch was shaking in her shoes.
“You, Celestine, will carry on as if nothing is wrong. You will ensure no one suspects that you’re involved in our business dealings and if possible find another way into the biker clubhouse.”
Only now Celeste perked up.
“I actually did. I sent someone in on Friday night. There was a party at the clubhouse and she got in without any difficulty. She reported that it was a party for new members to the club.”
The old woman gave her a piercing look.
“Why am I only hearing about this now?”
“I’m waiting on her to confirm whether she’s been able to engineer another invitation. One of the men was very interested in seeing her again.”
“Call her. Tell her to cultivate a relationship with the man even if it’s outside of their gates. We need any information she can get us.”
Celeste gave a quick nod.
“Good. Bart, you will not discuss your mission with any of your men. You will go in solo. Celestine, I’ll wait to hear from your informant. I will be in touch soon.”
With that she stood, fastidiously righted her clothes and walked out as silently as she had come into the room.
Neither Bart nor Celeste said a single word.
There was nothing to say.
They each had their orders.
Bart couldn’t fucking wait to kill a few of those biker bitches. It made him hard just thinking about it.
And Sunny. His spoilt bitch of a little sister.
He couldn’t wait to have her in the crosshairs of his rifle.
She would not survive the experience. Neither would the whore who had birthed them both.
A cruel grin curved his thin lips as he walked out with the rifle case.
He had work to do before he could watch his bullets rip through their bodies.
Sunny
It’s been a week since the big party at the clubhouse and Jagger and the other guys were tense as hell. He and Hawk had told me about Raindrop trying to get into the party with a couple of strange men and it really hadn’t surprised me at all. She always had men hanging around ready to do anything she wanted. But that wasn’t what was worrying the men around me. Something was going on but no one was talking to me about it. It ever so slightly pissed me off.
Hah! Lies.
It pissed me off in a big way and tonight I was going to pin Jagger to the bed and make him tell me what the hell was going on. I had a right to know because it was my life they were protecting. And they were putting their lives in jeopardy for me.
I know I should be grateful, and I am, but all the alpha male bullshit also pissed me off. I’m no little woman who needs her man to make all her decisions for her.
No, I’m a strong independent woman who wants to stand next to her man and not hide behind his broad back. I’d massage that broad back of his, lick it and kiss it, but hide behind it? No, not my style at all.
Just thinking about his muscled back and broad shoulders had my mind wandering to other parts of him, parts I really, really liked.
I was sinking into my fantasy when Penny tapped on my partly open door and leant around it.
“It’s still drizzling outside so I’m taking the girls up to Tori’s studio where they can work off all that pent up energy. You need to get out too, come with us. I spoke to Rider and he spoke to Jagger, and he said as long as we stay on Iron Dogz property it will be okay.” She grinned and winked when I made a growly frown. “You know that frown doesn’t do a thing for me, so get dressed. We’ll be leaving in about twenty minutes. Get that pretty ass up and out of bed and let’s go and jump around with the girls.”
Before I could give her any sort of answer she was gone.
After two days of rain all of us needed to get out of the house and honestly, I was curious about the classes Tori gave to some of the club’s strippers. It had come up in conversation and I’ve been very curious to see how the two very different groups of women interacted.
Penny and Tori had explained about the hierarchy of the women at the club when I asked. All I knew about it was what I saw in TV shows and at the movies. Apparently it wasn’t that straightforward.
At the top were the women who had been claimed by the men, the old ladies. Some of them were even married to the men. Next came the family members, like Aunt Beryl and Genna, who worked at the club and in the club’s businesses, followed by the rest of the family members. Then came the top echelon of the club girls, the girls known as the ABG’s, or Aunt Beryl’s Girls. Below them where the rest of the club girls who didn’t live at the club like the ABG’s and they included some of the strippers. After them came the hangarounds, the party girls, who came to the club on party nights. Most of them thought they would be able to snag a biker but apparently it wasn’t that easy.
According to the two of them the men liked the easy pussy but wouldn’t put a patch on it. Th
ey wanted their old ladies to be untouched by their brothers. Most of them anyway.
Such bullshit. Typical male chauvinism. They can have all the easy koekie (pussy) they want but a girl got a bad reputation if her dick count was higher than two or three. Even just thinking about the double standards pissed me off.
I shook the thoughts off and got ready. I was wearing the workout clothes Penny had loaned me as we were almost exactly the same size. I gently twisted my torso and breathed through the pinch of pain. I’ve been exercising daily to try and get some mobility back but I still had a way to go before I would be back to normal. My wounds were newly healed and Jagger had removed the stitches for me yesterday. Penny had brought me some vitamin e oil that I rubbed on with Jagger’s help to minimise scarring.
I liked Tori a lot, she was funny and witty but it was Penny that I had clicked with. Not because we had things in common, because we didn’t, but there was something about the younger woman. She was a peaceful presence in a life that right now was filled with uncertainty.
Plus she baked the best muffins, cookies and cakes. And that’s why I needed to go and jump around in the studio with the girls. I’d been eating way too many cakes.
When I walked into the studio I realised that it was in actual fact a ballet studio. And judging by the photos up on the walls Tori had been one of the world’s best before her accident.
While the little girls were getting a dancing lesson with Tori I had been given the short version of what had happened to her by Penny. I admired her even more as I watched her dancing with the girls. She hadn’t let her career ending injuries stop her, she just changed the way she danced.
“I admire her so much.” Penny said as she watched Tori holding on to Delene’s hands and guiding the baby girl along with the older ones. “And she’s so good with the girls. She was shattered at first because Beast had had children with someone else. Who wouldn’t be if the love of your life did something like that? The girls helped her to overcome her grief at not being their mother. They fell in mutual love and now look at them. You’d never know she wasn’t their biological mother.”
“Wow. I never suspected they weren’t hers. They are as lucky as I am. My stepmother raised me like I was her own, she’s my mother in all the ways that count.”
“You should tell Tori that, she worries about that shit some days.” Penny patted my thigh as we sat next to each other watching Tori and the girls.
We watched silently for a few minutes and then Penny suddenly bent down and started fiddling with her tekkies.
“How are your feet?” She looked up at me from where she was bent down to undo her laces.
“They’re fine, almost as good as new actually.”
“Great. Get those shoes off because we’re not allowed on the floor while wearing shoes.”
I did as she asked and took off my tekkies, leaving me in my socks. I was ready to hop around the floor and expend some energy.
As Tori taught us a dance routine I started having more fun than I expected I would. I didn’t have dancing lessons as a little girl because I was more interested in the animals on the farm. I followed my Pappa (Daddy) around taking care of the cows and horses while the other little girls in my class went to ballet lessons. My mum did try but I wasn’t interested. I found animals way more interesting than dancing.
Dancing around with my new friends and their girls I realised that it’s never too late to try something new. And dancing would be my something new. I was definitely going to make space in my hectic schedule for some dancing.
We were pulling our shoes back on when a group of women walked in and it was obvious by what they were wearing and the way they moved that they were dancers.
These must be the strippers Penny was telling me about. There were five of them and they were bloody gorgeous and as they warmed up I envied their long legs and slender but curvy bodies.
We didn’t stay to watch as the girls were hungry and Delene was starting to fuss. She needed a nap so we went home, leaving Tori to teach the class.
“Those girls are gorgeous.” I said quietly as we drove home.
She threw me a quick grin. “Did you really think these guys would hire anyone that’s not gorgeous?”
I shook my head and laughed. “Judging by the women I have seen so far they obviously don’t. And I’ve yet to see an ugly guy around here. What do they do? Line them up and pick only the good looking ones to join the club?”
Penny snorted with laughter as she pulled into the garage. “I have to remember to ask Rider if he had lined up with the other hopefuls when he was chosen as a prospect. I don’t remember it happening that way.”
Grinning we walked into the house where two very happy dogs were waiting for us. The girls went straight to the kitchen and we followed.
Giving them lunch we settled them in the family room to watch a cartoon while Penny set Delene in her camp cot that was set up at the side of the room. Before long all three were fast asleep.
Penny and I retreated to the covered deck with our coffee and sat watching the soft rain while chatting about the club. She had been around longer than Tori apparently and had been through some tough situations with the club girls before Hawk had taken DC as his old lady. According to Penny the arrival of DC at the club had thrown the club girls in to a frenzy of hate. They even tried to kill her. That shocked the hell out of me.
My mouth was hanging open as I listened to how the club had changed once the guys claimed their old ladies and kicked out the toxic bitches. We were still sitting there when Tori came home and she joined us, sinking into a chair with a tired groan.
“Remind me not to schedule a day with the kids on the same day the dancers come in ever again. My leg aches like hell and Beast’s going to lose his shit when he sees me limping.”
Penny hopped up and patted her shoulder. “Put your feet up while I get you a nice cup of tea and your pain killers.”
Tori gave her a grateful smile as she dragged a footstool over and rested her legs on it with a groan.
“At least it’s only drizzling now which means the girls might be able to play outside tomorrow, fingers crossed.” Tori sighed.
That made me think of something I’ve wanted to ask since moving in.
“What about school? Don’t they go to school?”
Rolling her head to look at me Tori grinned. “They do. All the kids have joined an online school and at the moment it is being overseen by Gail and Suzy and any of the parents who are available. We all chip in as I did with dance class this morning. We do have plans to employ a teacher and to have a classroom built where they can do projects and so on. We are all rather paranoid about our kids going to school where we can’t keep an eye on them. There are very real threats against all the women and children at the club.”
I actually understood their wariness after what had happened to me.
“Here you go.” Penny set a steaming cup of tea on the little side table next to Tori along with a bottle of water and a small bottle of pills. She had a fleecy blanket under her arm that she dropped on Tori’s lap. “Keep those legs warm and take one of your pills so by the time Beast comes home you’re in better shape. He’s going to know you overdid it today anyway. That man has spies everywhere where you are concerned.”
Both of them laughed and I wondered what it would feel like to be that loved and cherished. It looked nice, more than nice actually.
We hung out on the veranda chatting about their lives in the club, what it meant to both of them to be part of a big family. Tori had family but she was only close to her brother, he lived in the US and she didn’t see him very often. Penny didn’t have any family she wanted to claim. As far as she was concerned her family was Rider, Delene and the new baby she was baking in her belly. According to her, Suzy, who I hadn’t met yet, was more of a mother to her than her own mother had ever been.
I had been lucky when my dad married my mum. For some reason I wondered how Raindrop would have fare
d as a mother if she had stayed with him. Giving an internal snort I immediately corrected myself. She would have been a damned nightmare. She was much too self-involved to be a good mother. I had only realised that fact as I became older and wiser.
When it became a bit too chilly for Tori out on the veranda we moved inside and I helped Penny prepare dinner for the family. Because that’s what these people were, they were a family.
Not your run of the mill family but still a family.
And I envied them. So much.
Sure I had my parents and my brothers and we were close but I didn’t see them very often. Between my job and the farm we didn’t spend a lot of time together. I spent more time with Cherise and Loek and the big cats than with my family.
That sounded wrong. Cherise and Loek were my family as well. Unfortunately I spent more time with one part of my family than the other because we worked together. I really had to change that, had to make more time for my parents and my brothers. I missed them.
And I still haven’t called to tell them that I had been shot.
My Pappa (Daddy) was going to lose his mind…I don’t even want to think about what my Mamma (Mummy) was going to do.
I was still in my head when Jagger walked in and dragged me off to our room. He looked serious as hell and my tummy rolled. I didn’t want any more bad news.
“What is it? What happened?”
He tipped his head to the side and gave me a strange look.
“What’s going on, Sunny? Why do you think something has happened?”
“Your face is all serious and you only look like that when you have news I’m not going to like.” I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.
The answer I got wasn’t verbal. Not at all.
Dragging me towards him he sat down on the bed and settled me on his lap, tipped my head up and covered my lips with his.
The kiss was soft at first but as always neither one of us was satisfied with soft for very long. Jagger fell back onto the bed, taking me with him, and carefully rolled until I was under him. His mouth never left mine as our tongues explored each other.
I whimpered as his hand slipped into my pants, cupped my pussy and pressed in. Lifting his head slightly his eyes were on fire as he looked at me.
A Touch Of Grey Page 22
