Black Heart And Red Redemption (Iron Dogz MC)

by René Van Dalen

  “We’re going to go through the fucking guardrail.” Sam shouted. “I can’t keep this heavy piece of shit on the road.”

  “Just do the best you can, brother. We’ll try to make a hole so you can get us through.” Scar reassured him as he fired almost continuously at the huge monster of a truck shoving us into the guardrail. “Shoot out the fucking tyres, don’t waste your ammo on trying to get the fuckers inside.”

  My phone started ringing in my hand and I swiped furiously to answer it. “Tori, sweetheart, we’ve got men on the way to you. Tell the brothers to keep it together until they get to you. Five minutes, if they can hang on for five fucking minutes help will be there.”

  “Ziggy says five minutes, help will be here in five minutes.” I shouted over the noise.

  “We don’t have fucking five minutes!” Scar shouted back. “Bikes are down, don’t know how many we lost but it’s bad. This piece of shit is too heavy and slow to pull away from these fuckers, they are going to push us through the guard rail and down the embankment. We’ll try to hold them off as long as we can but as far as I can see we’re fucked. Get your fucking asses here, Zig.”

  I lifted slightly and peeked out the window at the truck ramming into us over and over and over. Sam had blood running the side of his face and he was furiously trying to steer the damaged SUV but by the screeching noises of tyres against metal I knew we had taken an enormous amount of damage to both sides of the vehicle.

  The next minute there was a loud snapping and screeching sound and we went hurtling down the embankment while Sam tried to steer us away from the rocks waiting for us at the bottom. But it was a wasted effort. We hit and went airborne. I screamed as the heavy vehicle turned in mid-air then listed to the side before it crashed onto the rocks.

  That listing to the side is what saved us. Had we hit roof side down we would all have died instantly. Instead the heavy vehicle hit on the side then miraculously rolled back onto its wheels. We were battered, broken and bleeding. Sam was unconscious and trapped behind the wheel. Dollar had a broken arm and leg and Dizzy had cuts all along the side of his face and he groaned when he moved his leg. No matter that they were injured they were cutting their seatbelts and ripping at the hopelessly bent side panels.

  “We need the fucking guns and vests in the back but I can’t get in there, the roof is fucking bent down almost to the top of the seat.” Dollar swore and tried to push against the roof with his good arm.

  “How much ammo do you have left?” Scar called out to everyone.

  “I have one clip but there’s fucking lots in the back plus I know for a fact there’s an AK in there. Fuck! I need to get in there!” Dollar shouted angrily.

  I eyed the gap, unsnapped my belt and slid up onto the seat. Both my legs ached and my back felt as if it was on fire but I ignored it. To stay alive and keep my new family alive I had to get into the back.

  “Direct me, I’ll get it.” I said as I slid over the seat into the back.

  “Lift the mat near the wheel well, you’ll see a keypad. The number is 140649.” Dizzy said in a faint voice. I didn’t like the sound of his voice, not at all.

  I found the keypad, entered the number and ripped it open. I didn’t wait for further orders, I just started handing the guns and the four Kevlar vests to the front.

  “Sweetheart, pass me those boxes of bullets, we’re going to need a lot of them and then come back here and stay on the floorboards by our feet.” Dollar called out to me and I did as he requested. I emptied that hidden space and crawled back over the seat but before I sat down on the floorboards I checked on Dizzy. He had a slash through his bicep that was bleeding furiously and I knew I had to do something about it or he was going to bleed to death before help arrived.

  Ripping my shirt over my head I reached across him, pushed the edges of the slash closed and wrapped my stretchy t-shirt tight around his arm. He looked at his arm then down at my boobs covered in a thin see-through camisole.

  “Your old man is going to kill me.” He teased before he looked out of the broken window.

  “You have to get her into the rocks, you’ll have a better chance to hold them off from there.” Scar said as he pushed at the metal squashed against his legs and side.

  “I’m not leaving you or Sammy.” I snarled. “They will kill you before they come for us.”

  “Baby, we can’t get them out, they’re both fucking stuck in here.” Dollar said softly.

  I narrowed my eyes as I thought about it and suddenly I had an idea and slithered back over the back of the seat. I got what I was looking for and handed it forward. Dollar laughed.

  “Fuck, babe, you are one determined woman.”

  I shook my head. “I spent five hours trapped in a tour bus with my best friend bleeding out next to me, unable to move or help him. Not ever going to leave another friend to die if I can help it.” I snarled as I slid back over the seat.

  “Babe, that space is too fucking tiny to set up the jack. It’s not going to work.” Scar said as he kept watching for movement outside the truck.

  “I’ll do it.” I slid through the divide of the seats and squirmed myself down into the too small little space. “Hand me the jack.”

  Concentrating on getting the jack into the small space I let the other sounds go away. As soon as I had the jack wedged into place I started pumping the lever and grinned when the dash moved a tiny little bit with a loud squeal.

  “It’s moving. I’ll get Scar loose first then move the jack to Sam’s side.”

  “They’re coming. You fucking stay down there, Tori, and work as fast as you can. We’ll do what we have to do to keep them off you.” Scar bit out through clenched teeth.

  Bullets started punching into the side of the vehicle closest to the road and unfortunately that was the side Sam was trapped on. I reached up and dragged his body sideways trying to shield him from the bullets hitting the vehicle and flying through the broken windows. I heard a heavy moan and started crying, my friends were dying and it was my fault. I wanted a gun, no, not just one gun, I wanted a fucking tank with a big cannon.

  And then I heard the best sound in the world. The rolling thunder of a lot of bikes racing towards us. The gunfire ceased immediately but there was someone outside the truck reaching in towards me. Why wasn’t Scar shooting at him? Reaching back I felt the handle of the jack and ripped it out. I knew whoever it was outside the SUV wasn’t going to give up so I was going to make sure he did. The next time that ugly hand came through the window and over Sammy’s body I smashed it with the heavy steel bar. A scream of pain assured me that I had done some damage and I took a quick look around the interior. Scar was down, he had a gash on the side of his head and blood running over his vest from a wound high on his shoulder. Dollar I think had passed out from the pain in his arm and leg and Dizzy I didn’t even want to think about. He was in the seat behind Sam and therefore closest to the bastards shooting at us.

  Reaching over I grabbed the rifle hanging loose in Dollar’s good hand and peeked out of the broken window. Two men were crawling towards the SUV and made some hand signals to people I couldn’t see. Closing my eyes and holding on with both hands I pushed the rifle barrel over the edge of the window and pulled the trigger while moving the thing from side to side like I had seen them do in the movies.

  Holy shit.

  It was nothing like the movies. Nothing. Like. The. Movies.

  Just before I was going to do it again I saw men in kuttes streaming down the embankment, firing at our attackers and within seconds it was over.

  Ignoring the men outside I started checking the men inside the vehicle with me. They were way more important than anything else right now.

  There was blood everywhere. All over the inside of the SUV and all over us. I had blood smeared down my arms from what seemed to be a million little cuts and there were several splashes down my front. There was a rip in my jeans and I saw blood welling out of the cut but I felt nothing so it couldn’t be too ba
d. Dizzy suddenly groaned and moved and I pushed up to look at him. His eyes were fluttering open and then he looked at me and smiled before he sighed and his eyes closed again.

  I shouted at him but he didn’t move or answer.

  Men were suddenly there trying to rip the doors open to get to us.

  “Be careful!” I shouted. “Sammy and Scar are trapped, we need to jack up the dash to get them out. And Dollar has a broken arm and leg. Scar’s been shot and I think Dizzy has been as well plus he has a nasty slash over his bicep and there’s something wrong with his leg.”

  I didn’t know the man looking at me through the broken window but by his uniform I knew he was a paramedic.

  “How are you doing, Ma’am?” He asked as he manoeuvred a collar around Dizzy’s neck to keep it stable then checked his arm and body.

  “I’m sore and aching and pissed the hell off.” I said with a hitch in my voice, I knew tears were coming.

  But the next minute the tears disappeared because I heard Kid loudly arguing with someone. Jagger shoved past him to the wreck and reached in for Sam.

  “Ah, fuck no, Sammy, Sammy, come on little brother, come on.” He entreated. “Don’t you fucking leave me, Sammy. You stay with us, you hear me?”

  A paramedic and the emergency doctor firmly removed him from the door as they started to take care of Sam who still hadn’t regained consciousness. The fire department had to cut the damned car open like a sardine can to allow the emergency personnel to get to my guys. I refused to get out and sat there watching as my guys were stabilised and one by one taken out of the vehicle.

  Kid appeared at the broken window behind me and reached in towards me. “Baby, hand me that rifle and the extra guns and ammo.” He ordered softly and I quickly did as he asked. Reaching back and snagging the guns on the back seat while the paramedics continued working on my guys as if nothing untoward was happening inside the vehicle.

  “We need to get this done before the pigs get here, baby, so find every single one and hand them to me.” Kid whispered.

  I did as he asked and searched the floorboards and handed the still full and empty boxes to him. As I did I listened to him talking to someone called Rick and asking for help at the scene. As I handed the last gun to him a look of relief came over his face.

  “Thanks, brother. I’m taking care of the extra guns in the vehicle but there’s going to be a lot of unexplained spent shells in here. Our girl used an AK on the attackers when her security was down.”

  He listened quietly then nodded. “I can do that. We’ll wait until you get here. We’ve got seriously injured brothers out here, so no one is leaving until they’ve been stabilised and on their way to the hospital.”

  I watched as he slipped his phone into his kutte then reached into the plastic bag and threw the empty boxes into the back of the SUV.

  And still the emergency personnel carried on as if nothing strange was happening. They were obviously friends of the club.

  I was lying on the grass when the first JMPD and SAPS officers arrived and started asking questions none of us were answering.

  Looking over to where I heard a commotion I saw men in black tactical gear climbing out the back of one of those big military type vehicles. They wore strange helmet-things that covered their faces, except the guy in charge and it was very obvious he had taken over the investigation. The JMPD and SAPS officers were pissed but it seemed like this guy had seniority and they backed off to secure the perimeter as he ordered them to do.

  Ignoring the black clad men I kept my eyes on Sam, he was on a backboard with a neck brace around his neck and IV’s in both hands as he was loaded into the back of an ambulance with the doctor and paramedic riding along in the back with him. Jagger ran for his bike to follow the ambulance and several of the brothers left with him.

  I was loaded in an ambulance with Scar, and I was so scared because he was on a backboard and wore a neck brace as well. I watched as the paramedic worked on him. He came to as we raced into the hospital grounds and he gave a sigh of relief when he saw me on the other bunk watching him.

  “Thank fucking God, ballerina girl. Beast would have cut my nuts off if we had lost you today, sweetheart.”

  I smiled at him then winced, my freaking cheek hurt. Lifting a hand I was about to touch my face when the paramedic grabbed my hand and shook his head. “Don’t touch, Ma’am, you’ve got cuts all over your face. We don’t want any more dirt getting in there.”

  Madness ensued as we were wheeled into the emergency room. There were men in leather kuttes everywhere and the paramedics had to push our gurneys through a wall of leather clad men. To say they weren’t happy was putting it mildly.

  They were pissed the hell off.

  I lay on the bed in my panties and filthy camisole while the doctor worked on the cuts on my leg. Yes, more than one cut and on my damned good leg. At least they weren’t too deep and didn’t require too many stitches. DC sat silently next to the bed and held my hand while I was being sewed up.

  When I asked where Beast was she shook her head and glanced at the hospital staff. That look shut me up immediately and I didn’t say another word.

  Eventually my face and arms were cleaned and treated and I learned that I would be staying overnight for observation because of the concussion and because they had me scheduled for an MRI first thing in the morning, the only time they could slot me in, to check my leg, back and neck. I had tried to ignore the ache in my back because I was scared shitless that my old injuries had been worsened.

  It was hours later and still no Beast. And no one would tell me why he hadn’t come to at least check on me. I was going through the worst case scenarios possible in my head and I was slowly but surely driving myself crazy. And it wasn’t doing the pain in my head and back any good.

  My head was screaming with pain and every single part of my body throbbed right along with my head. So when a sister came in and shot me up with the good stuff I closed my eyes in relief.

  The drugs knocked me out and I didn’t wake until very early the next morning.

  I was alone.

  But not for long. The sister and two orderlies bustled in and I was whipped off to have the MRI done. Time slowed as the machine did its work and I lay there reliving the horror that was yesterday.

  DC had refused to tell me what had happened to the guys on their bikes and I knew that meant it wasn’t good. Not good at all. I was determined to find out if they made it or not. They would have been horribly exposed on their bikes and I feared that because of my shit they were dead.

  While I was fine. Yes, I had several cuts and my back was throbbing in pain and my leg didn’t feel so good, but generally I was fine.

  It was about two hours later, I think, I still had no idea of the time, when they took me back up to my room. The nurses helped me in the shower and it was such a relief to wash the previous day from my skin and out of my hair. I was dressed in my own sleep shorts and cami and back on the bed when my specialist walked through the door, his trusty tablet clasped in his hand.

  “Morning, Tori, I would say it’s good to see you again but definitely not under these circumstances.”

  I had to agree with him. Greetings out of the way I waited for the bomb I could see he was going to be dropping on my life.

  “I’ve gone over the x-rays taken when you were admitted and I’ve just received the MRI results. Your leg will be painful and swollen for a few days but there’s been no further damage, which is good. There’s significant bruising and swelling at the site of the back injury but I feel rest and physical therapy is what’s needed. Besides the physical therapy avoid anything physically strenuous. You need to give your back time to heal. We’ll re-evaluate when I see you in three weeks from today.” He looked at me and smiled. “I want to reassure you that your prognosis is very good. As long as you do as prescribed I expect a full recovery, but be aware it will take time.”

  “Thanks, Doctor, I know it will take time. I’ve been
here before. I won’t let it get me down and I have a great support system.”

  It was as I was saying I had a great support system that I heard it. The thump of a lot of heavy boots and Beast’s angry rumble before he burst through my door.

  It seems my man had arrived at last.

  I breathed a sigh of relief then frowned as I saw the state he was in. As he came closer I wrinkled my nose because he stank. He was dressed in the same clothes as when I had last seen him, only now they were stained with blood, sweat and dirt. The miasma of sweat, blood and something dank hung around him.

  What the hell?

  Beast

  Wednesday/Thursday

  We arrived at the Spur in Kyalami and were greeted by Gino, the owner, and escorted to our seats. The area where he seated us was empty and he had signage up indicating that it was reserved. I made a mental note to ensure Spider sorted him out for the loss of revenue.

  His girls immediately wanted to play in the kiddies play area but Beast headed that off by ordering them ice cream and juice. That kept them busy while they waited. Ellie made a spectacular mess on her shirt and Beast grinned as he used the wet wipes supplied by the restaurant to clean her off. His baby girl smiled through the entire clean up.

  That was until she saw someone come up behind him. His baby cringed and crawled in tight against him and her little body shook with fear. Jossy slid underneath the table and came and sat next to Ellie. Beast slung his arm around both of them and pulled them in tight. Fuck. He wished he had never fucking agreed to this shit but his lawyer had advised that he do as the court ordered. It pissed him off but he had to be seen to be sticking to the law, not breaking it.