A Touch Of Grey

by René Van Dalen

  The fucker on the table laughed. He fucking laughed!

  “I’m glad they’re dead. They were so easy to kill. Sunny, the biker’s bitch and the guard dog. All dead and it makes me fucking happy. Don’t care if I die. Sunny is dead and that makes it all worth it.”

  A weird tinny laugh came from the Crow.

  “Fail! Epic fail motherfucker. Sunny isn’t dead, your bullet missed her and hit someone else instead.”

  “No! I saw the bullet hit her chest. I saw the bloom of blood on her skin. She’s dead.”

  “Nope.” The p in nope popped as the Crow leant ever so slightly over the now very agitated bastard.

  “She’s dead! I know she’s dead. She has to be dead.” He repeated it over and over as if to convince himself.

  No one paid any attention to him.

  “Rider, watch closely now.” Crow bent and dragged two thin bladed knives from the sides of his boots and twirled them so that light flashed off the glittering blades.

  The Crow did a sort of dance as he quick stepped around the table and cuts appeared on their prisoner’s torso and thighs. Thin lines of blood ran down his sides and dripped onto the table. All it did was awaken the bloodlust in Rider that had been waiting to emerge ever since he had held his dying wife in his arms.

  Held her in his arms and helplessly watched the beautiful light he adored fade from her eyes.

  He couldn’t have controlled the growl even if he tried. It ripped free of his throat and Crow’s head lifted and turned towards him.

  “Want to have a go?” He whispered invitingly.

  Rider could only nod, his voice wasn’t working.

  Crow bent over the bleeding man. “This is the man whose wife and child you killed.”

  The bastard shook his head violently, his eyes rolling towards Rider. “I don’t kill kids. I didn’t kill his kid.”

  Rider took the Crow’s place over his head and met the bastard’s pain filled green eyes.

  “My wife was pregnant with my son. You took them both from me and for that you have to pay, in blood.”

  Again he shook his head. “It wasn’t personal. Business, it was business. I was following orders.”

  Rider slid the tip of the knife Crow had handed him underneath the skin at the outer corner of his right eye and slowly drew a shallow line towards his nose but stopped before reaching it. He watched as blood pooled and ran down his cheek. But some of it ran into his tearing eye. The fucker blinked and a dark pink tear ran down the side of his face. It gave him an idea and he walked to the other side of the table.

  “I don’t give a damn about your business dealings. What you did was personal, very fucking personal. You killed my wife and unborn child and you need to pay. You will be crying tears of blood for what you’ve done.”

  He did the same to the left eye and watched the dark pink tear as it ran out of the corner of his eye.

  Grabbing hold of the bastard’s chin he fitted the tip of the knife to the inner corner of his eye and slowly drew a line to connect with the first line. The next three lines formed a fan of lines that joined up. The final line ran from the fan down to his jaw. Once he was done he stood back to look at his handiwork then went back and did the same to the opposite eye.

  The bastard whimpered with pain but he refused to scream. Rider knew it wasn’t screaming time yet. That time was still to come.

  “Good work, Rider, very good work.” The Crow praised and held a hand out for the knife.

  Rider gave it to him.

  “Who gave the order to kill the women?”

  The man whose name he refused to say shook his head violently and blood flew from his cheeks.

  “I can’t tell you. If I talk I’m dead.”

  Crow gave a humourless little laugh.

  “You’re dead anyway so you might as well tell me.”

  Rolling his head he looked around in disbelief. “You can’t kill me. You need me. I know what they are planning. You need me.”

  With his head tipped to the side, just like the fucking bird he was named after, the Crow stared at the pleading man on the table. Then gave a couple of quick nods as if coming to a decision.

  “Have any of you ever watched the movie where the girl gets her legs and arms cut off so she fits in a box?” His head tipped from side to side as he watched fear and horror race across the face of the killer on the table.

  “I heard how you removed a lion’s paws, his tail and his head, Bartholomew. Unfortunately the only tail you have is your dick, and we can all see it’s a sadly inadequate little tail. You do have all the other appendages though, and unlike Rex, we’ll keep you alive until such time as I think you’ve given me all the information you’ve got in that head of yours. Only then will I take your head.”

  “NO! Please, please don’t.” He begged. “He was stuck in a cage! I saved him from living his life in a cage never knowing the freedom of the bush. It was a mercy killing.”

  “Mercy my fucking ass.” Rider swore at him. “That animal had been rescued from an abusive situation and given a place to live out his life in peace. And you killed him so that some fucker can have the stuffed head of a lion hanging on his wall. It was murder, plain and simple.”

  His head jerked back towards him and the fucker smiled at him through the blood covering his face.

  “I’m glad the bitch is dead and those cats of hers will be dead soon as well. I’m not the only one they hired. Others are coming and they’re not going to care who they kill to get what they want.”

  Stepping closer to the table Rider was ready to take the bastard out. But Crow got there first.

  “Oh, look at that. I didn’t even have to persuade him for that little titbit of information.” The Crow laughed and tapped one of her knives on his naked thigh and the bastard flinched trying to get away from the knife that was very, very close to his dick. “And she isn’t dead, Bart. Your sister is alive and well and will be alive long after you’re nothing but a bad memory.”

  Rider had enough of fucking around.

  “I need a saw. I’m taking the hand that killed my wife and child.”

  Silence hung for a second before the bastard started screaming and begging. He ignored his pleas, his screams. He ignored everything.

  All he could see, all he could feel, was his Penny and the stuttering thump of her heart as it pumped the last of her blood through the hole in her chest. All he could hear was the soft sigh of her breath against his ear, as she whispered her love for him and their baby girl. Her voice had become softer and softer as she whispered her request for his promise but she was gone before he could give it to her.

  While holding her still and forever silent body in his arms he had given her his promise, swearing to keep it, no matter what.

  What he was about to do had nothing whatsoever to do with his promise. It was all about avenging his wife and child.

  “Strap his arm down.”

  Standing next to the Crow he waited as his brothers strapped the arm down. Crash was the one who stepped up and placed a tourniquet around his forearm and pulled it tight to restrict the blood flow.

  “We don’t want the fucker bleeding out before we’re ready to send him on his way.” His voice was rough and tight coming through his gritted teeth.

  Crow bent over the table and for the first time the piece of meat looked right into his eyes. And what he saw there must have scared the hell out of him because he started talking. Fast, while his eyes continuously flickered towards Rider.

  “Please, don’t cut of my hand! I work for Winifred Harrison. She ordered the hit on your women. She’s the one choosing the targets. The only one I chose was Sunny, no one else. She ordered the deaths of the others.”

  “Why kill their guard?”

  “He had to die because he knew too much. She told him she had his mother but she lied. The old woman is dead. She had her killed the minute he agreed to send her information on the movement of the club’s women. He was under the impression s
he wanted to kidnap them, not kill them. He died for his stupidity and to keep his mouth shut.”

  “You’re right, he was stupid.” Hawk bit out angrily. “He should have come to me, his President, and told me he was being blackmailed. If he had things would have turned out differently. He should have trusted his brothers and his club, he didn’t. And because of it precious lives were lost.”

  Turning towards him his Prez pinned him down with those yellow predatory eyes. “Take his hands, both of them.”

  “NO! Don’t, please don’t!” The bastard pleaded but no one listened.

  Rider gave his president an almost imperceptible nod, and took the small bone saw and face shield Beast handed him. Slipping the shield down over his face he turned to the table, ignoring the pleading and crying coming from the waste of space.

  The big forearm was rigid under his hand as the bastard strained against the straps holding him down. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Gently, ever so gently, he set the blade of the saw against tanned skin with dark arm hair. The tourniquet had cut off blood flow to the hand and the veins in the back of his hand was raised and swollen. Taking a deep breath he flipped the switch.

  Pain filled screams battered his ears along with the hum of the saw.

  Blood and pieces of meat and bone flew as he cut through the forearm. Picking the severed hand up by the middle finger he dropped the dripping appendage on the bastards’ chest. The screaming had stopped while he was cutting because the man had passed out. Moving to the other side of the table he did the same there, cutting and dropping the severed hand on his bloody chest. When he was finally done he realised the smell in the room was partly from the saw cutting through flesh and bone and partly from Scar cauterising the wounds. He had expertly bandaged the stump and was now at work on the other arm.

  There was blood and tiny pieces everywhere. It was on him, on the floor, walls and the man on the table. It was a mess. But the entire room was covered in plastic and clean up wouldn’t take too long.

  He was thankful Hawk had ordered them to remove their kuttes before coming down here. His would have been ruined.

  Rider stepped back from the table taking in what he had done, unable to move further away or say a word. He didn’t know how he felt about cutting off the man’s hands. It wouldn’t bring his Penny back, nothing he did would ever bring her back.

  She was gone. Forever. And so was the son he would never get to hold.

  Suppressing the moan that wanted to force its way up his throat he focused on the Crow when he gave Beast a strange order.

  “Beasty, fetch me one of my toys.”

  Did he want a new implement from the table? But it sounded like it was a person he was asking for. What else were they keeping down here?

  “I need to instruct her on how to take care of her new patient. He still has a lot to give us. And now he knows we’re not playing around anymore. He will talk or I will start cutting pieces off him until all that is left is his torso and his head.”

  Beast threw a quick glance at his prez then walked out to fetch whoever this toy was.

  A few minutes later he wasn’t the only one to gasp in shock.

  Beast pushed a woman into the room ahead of him, a woman they all knew very well. She only wore a pair of panties, nothing else and had a wide leather collar around her neck. A dog collar. There was a loop on the collar where the leash in Beast’s hand was clipped onto.

  It was Jane Warne.

  She looked nothing like the woman they used to know. Her eyes were dead, her skin pale and filled with scars and weird tattoos. The minute her eyes landed on the Crow they came alive. Not with hate but with a horrifying adoration.

  It made his skin crawl but it didn’t take long to remember what she had done to the club. To his Penny. He had almost lost his Penny and his baby girl because of the bitch.

  She was a traitor to her family and to the club and had tried to kill DC. She deserved everything the Crow did to her.

  “Number three, come over here. I have a little job for you.”

  The zombie that used to be Jane Warne shuffled over to the Crow and sank to her knees next to him. Looking up with wide and adoring eyes.

  “You will take care of this one. Keep him clean, keep his wounds clean. If you need help you may ask Number two to help you. Understood?”

  “Yes, Master.” Rider was surprised the bitch didn’t try to kiss the Crow’s fucking boots.

  “Move to your corner and wait.” The Crow ordered and the woman crawled on her hands and knees to the corner then crouched there. Her eyes never left the Crow. It was as if the rest of them didn’t exist.

  Hard hands extricated the bone saw that was gripped tight in his bloody hand and others pulled the faceguard off. Looking down he noticed the blood and other crap covering him. His arms and chest was covered in blood and bits of stuff.

  “Beast, take our brother to get cleaned up. We’ll meet once I have everything settled down here.” Hawk looked at him then gave a slow nod as if he agreed with something only he heard.

  “Rider, my brother, go with Beast, your time here is done for now.”

  Rider could only nod because he could no longer articulate any words. His throat wouldn’t work.

  Nothing in his life worked anymore.

  But he had to be strong. Had to be strong to keep his promise to the only woman he would ever love. His wife, his old lady, the mother of his baby girl and unborn son.

  A woman who was forever lost to him now.

  With a heavy sigh he allowed Beast, Scar and Crash to lead him from the room.

  Hawk

  His heart ached for the broken man his brothers escorted out of the room. But even as he ached for his brother he had a job to do.

  “Zig, I want everything you can find on Bakkies and his family. He was a good man. How did they get him to turn? I don’t believe it was just his mother they held over his head. They had more on him, something so big he didn’t think we would be able to help him. Find it.”

  Ziggy gave a quick chin lift before he walked out already typing on his phone.

  “Boots, Spook, Bullet, Bones and NikNak, get the piece of shit to his cell with his nurse then get back here and help the others clean up.”

  His Crow was already meticulously cleaning the equipment that had been used. When she was satisfied that everything was shiny again he would escort her from the room.

  He couldn’t wait to have DC back because he had questions he knew the Crow wouldn’t answer.

  But DC would.

  He wanted to know why she had allowed the bastard to live.

  Even if it was just for now.

  The next minute he was violently shoved out of the way by a furiously mumbling Rider. He had a crazed look on his face and an emptiness in his eyes that did not mean good things.

  Snatching a big knife from the collection on the table he flew at Bart Pistorius and slammed the knife into his throat, over and over.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE!” He screamed in a broken voice as blood spurted from the wound and covered his hands, face and chest.

  They were all too stunned and slow to stop him.

  Hawk and Sin jumped on him wrestling the knife from his hand. Beast grabbed hold of him and dragged him out of the room. He went without protest, tears streaming through the blood on his face as he sobbed brokenly.

  Hawk was pissed that he hadn’t warned the others to watch Rider closely.

  He should have waited, should have kept the fucker on ice and done the interrogation without Rider present.

  Or better yet, he should have done it few days from today, given Rider some time.

  Now Bart Pistorius, their link to finding Winifred Harrison, was dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Crash

  They had fucked up. Thinking they could leave their brother in the bathroom to clean up they had stepped away for maybe two minutes. Those minutes had been enough time for Rider to have a complete meltdown and run
back down the passage.

  Bart Pistorius was dead by the time Beast got to Rider.

  Their brother was broken and they had not taken enough care with him. He should not have been left on his own. And if Crash was completely honest with himself, and he always tried to be because that’s the way his brother had raised him, he should never have been allowed inside that room. Should never have been allowed to face the man who had killed his woman. At least not a few hours after it had happened.

  Maybe a couple of days from today he would have been able to control the rage, grief and wild despair they had seen in his eyes. But not today.

  His brother had controlled his despair while cutting into Bart Pistorius but when it finally clawed its way free all he wanted was the death of the man who had brutally ripped the heart from his home.

  They had fucked up. They should have left Rider with Bulldog and Suzy.

  Beast and Scar stripped the almost catatonic man and shoved him into the big shower. He stood there, shoulders slumped and uncaring as the water ran over him, not making a move to wash the blood and gore from his body.

  “One of us will have to get in there with him.” Beast grumbled.

  Crash started pulling his boots off. He didn’t have a problem climbing into the shower with his naked brother because he wasn’t bothered about being that close to another man. Stepping in behind Rider he gently moved him fully under the water and started rinsing the blood out of his hair and face. Pouring shower gel into his cupped hand he gently washed his brother’s hair and short beard, rinsed it off then did the same with his upper body. By the time he finished washing his chest Rider was slowly coming back to himself and looked at Crash in confusion.

  “Why are you in the shower with me, Sammy?”

  “You had a bit of a meltdown, Ride. Are you okay on your own now? I really don’t want to have to wash your dick for you.” He tried a weak joke.

  “And I do not want to watch that shit.” Beast gave an exaggerated shudder where he leant against the entrance to the shower. His eyes watchful and alert.