Vengeance Of A Black Knight (Iron Dogz MC, #4)

by René Van Dalen

  Van Blerk snorted. “Damn bitch. I’ll do what I can, Hawk, but don’t hold back on trying a legal stay from your side.”

  “We’re already on it. I refuse to let him go out like this, Van Blerk. He deserves a fuckload more than to fucking die in a hospital bed with that bitch pulling the plug on him.”

  Van Blerk sighed.

  “Get your men on the search for the location and I’ll get started on finding a way to stall the bitch.” Van Blerk said and ended the call.

  Hawk sat in his office with the silent phone in his hand wishing like hell he had been able to talk Army out of getting involved in this fucking shit show.

  But he had talked Hawk into it and look at the results.

  Certain death for his brother in two days’ time, unless they found his safe house.

  Sometimes he hated being the man at the top.

  Like right now.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Leo

  Rubbing my hands over my tired eyes I leant back in my chair and slowly pushed away from my desk. I had been working on the books for the three strip clubs and the two bars I managed for the club for the last few hours and it was very fucking obvious someone was stealing from us. The total booze bill, the amount we have sold and the recent stock takes did not tie up. I was spending way too much money on booze. It only meant one thing. Someone was stealing from us. Making me look like an ignorant stupid twat.

  Not getting away with it on my watch, asshole.

  I had a good idea who it was but I needed proof before I started throwing accusations around. Accusing the wrong person would get them dead so I needed to find the true culprit. All I had to do was follow the money trail to find him or her or them. And when I did there would be hell to pay.

  Picking up my phone I checked it for what felt like the millionth time today, hoping for a message. But there was still nothing from Reid. Shit. I was worried about him. I had a niggling in my gut that got worse the longer he stayed silent. The only time he had gone this long without contacting me was when he had been reported as MIA. Thankfully he was rescued but was declared medically unfit for duty. He left the country and for all intents and purposes disappeared. Recently I had caught some whispers that something was going down with some of the South African MC’s, but dad and my brothers refused to tell me more. I was going to have to find out for myself, but unfortunately it would have to wait while I tried to unravel the damn mess in front of me.

  I was still sitting staring down at my phone when Lure, a club brother and one of my brother Dive’s best friends, knocked on the door jamb of my open door as he walked in.

  “Hey, Lure. What can I do for you?” I smiled tiredly as I dropped the phone on my desk.

  “Hey, Leo, sorry sweetheart, it’s slice and dice time. I’m here for the phone.” He handed me my new burner phone and scooped up the old one and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans.

  “Renegade set the new one up for you, and it’s ready to go. He asked that you swing by the clubhouse on your way home tonight, he needs a word.”

  I frowned. “Do you know why?”

  He shrugged and shook his head. “Sorry, babe, I’m not in the loop on that one.”

  I sighed. This was going to turn into a late night. “Okay, tell him I’ll come by after I finish up here. I still have a shit ton of work to do.”

  “No sweat, darlin’. See you later.” With a wave over his shoulder he was gone.

  Turning my new burner on and checking the contact numbers I shook my head. My oldest brother was a control freak. The only numbers were those of the club and my family. My brothers, Renegade and Dive, Dad and Mama and of course Sherri and Evie, my besties. He hadn’t added Reid’s because they haven’t spoken since the day he had refused to prospect with the club for the second time. Instead he had left the US, disappearing for almost a year before he reached out to me. Only to inform me he was prospecting and patching into a club in South Africa of all places. He had refused to tell me which club, only said that they weren’t very dirty, whatever the hell that means. Dad hadn’t said anything but Reid ending up in South Africa had worried him and still did today. As I added Reid’s number I hoped like hell it was still valid because he was using burners as well. I was about to text him when my phone rang. Smiling when I saw the name I answered.

  “Hi, Mama.”

  “Hi, baby. Ren just gave me your new number. I’m callin’ to remind you about the family barbeque on Saturday. I need you there baby girl.” My Mama twisted my arm with a smile in her voice.

  “Ugh. Mama, you know how I hate those things. All those nosy bitches wanting to know my business.” I groaned.

  “They’re just concerned about you gettin’ older and about you not takin’ one of the boys as your man. Everyone thought Gear was gonna give you his patch for sure.”

  Jesus. The same old story. Gear and I had a thing until I caught him in a threesome with two club whores. I was so freaking relieved to find a quick and easy way out of the biggest mistake I had ever made. I had gladly kicked him to the curb. He might be good looking and quite competent in bed but the bastard had very quickly showed his true colours. He had become super controlling and insisted that I leave my job at the club. According to him it was demeaning to his future position with the club that his woman worked at the strip clubs. The asshole. He was a patched member, not an officer. He suffered from the delusion that he would be elected to a position of power if he became my old man because I was Grave’s daughter, and my dad was the club’s VP. According to his cracked reasoning I was a club princess and that would ensure his promotion. What a dumb dick.

  I could kick my own ass for ever hooking up with him. Because that’s all it was as far as I was concerned. A month long hook up that I now regret. The final nail in his coffin was finding out he’d been screwing the club whores the entire time we had been together. And that was a total turn off for me, not only did he make me look weak but there was no way I was sharing my life with a man who had side pieces. There had been enough of that drama in my own family, thank you very much.

  If the old ladies were flapping their jaws about Gear and I it meant he still hadn’t gotten the message that I was no longer interested in him. I had to nip this shit in the bud. Holding on to my temper I calmly laid it out for my Mama.

  “I’m not interested in Gear, Mama. I was stupid to start something with him because he’s a cheating bastard and a controlling dick. I made a mistake and now he thinks he owns me. I assure you he doesn’t. I will never wear his patch and I don’t want anyone else’s either, so you can pass that on to those nosy bitches.”

  “Damn, baby girl. Ella called to tell me her old man had heard that Gear had warned the single brothers away from you. Told ‘em he was gonna claim you in front of the club, and you were gonna be wearin’ his patch real soon.” My Mama’s voice had become soft and worried. Her southern accent becoming even more evident.

  Shit. Shit. Shit. This wasn’t good, not good at all.

  “Shit, Mama, do you think he’s going to try and force his patch on me?” I asked with worry streaking through me. I was worried because unfortunately that shit happened in some clubs, so far not in ours, but you never knew when some crazy dick would try his luck.

  She snorted angrily. “Your Daddy won’t allow that shit to fly, baby, and neither will I. You’re free to choose the man you want to tie your life to. No one is goin’ to force you into a relationship. Not on our watch.”

  “Good, I don’t want anything to do with his controlling ass.” Mama hummed, agreeing with me but not putting it into words. The perfect old lady.

  My mama was the best Mama and old lady ever. I love my dad but he had been a total dog when he was young and stupid. My brother and I were proof of his stupidity. Our parents had gone through a very rough patch after our brother Raigan was born and had split up for about a year. Dad apparently went crazy when she left him, he drank and partied indiscriminately. Reid and I are the result of that time
. After Mama took his cheating ass back she adopted and raised us, along with her own two boys, treating us as if we were her very own babies. My half-brother, Reid, and I were born five days apart to a club girl and to a hangaround. Reid’s biological mother, a club hangaround, abandoned him at the hospital and he was given to Daddy and Mama as a new born. My club girl mother hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant. She went home to have me but died due to complications during my birth. My grandmother took me in but seven months later she suffered a massive stroke and that’s when my dad found out about me. His name was on my birth certificate and Child Welfare called him. Mama said she took one look at me and fell in love. She raised Reid and I as if we were a set of twins. She was our Mama and we had known no other mother but her.

  Mama wanted to come home to get away from all the bad memories that surrounded them. Dad immediately agreed and brought his family to the States to give the two of them a fresh start. Once we got here he patched over to the Shadow Wraiths MC in Savannah, Georgia, and has been happy as a clam ever since. Their fresh start had worked. Our parents were still totally and very publicly in love with each other.

  Our Mama had very nearly lost her mind when instead of prospecting with the club Reid had enlisted in the Marines. She was shattered when he was reported missing in action but she never lost hope, and when he was rescued she was right there beside him throughout his recovery and while he was going through rehab. When he eventually came home she looked after him and drove him to his therapy appointments until he was well enough to take care of himself.

  And then he suddenly disappeared.

  Reid’s disappearing act had hurt her deeply but she had given him the space he needed. She had known that at some stage he would contact me, all she asked was to let them know if he was okay. When he eventually contacted me I had bitched him out and then convinced him to call Mama. Now he called her once or twice a month for a chat but it wasn’t enough. She was his Mama and needed more from him. Hell, we all needed more from him. And it worried me that neither one of us had heard from him in the last two months. The bastard had refused to tell me where he was in South Africa or which club he was with so it made it a little difficult to trace him. Believe me I tried, but I hit a brick wall on that one.

  Sitting there looking at my silent phone I decided that when he called I would insist on him coming home for a visit. He’d been away far too long, almost four years too long. We were his family and I wasn’t going to allow him to ignore us any longer. All that stupid shit he had in his head needed to be cleared out. He always thought dad loved our brothers, Rhys and Raigan, more because Vivienne, our Mama, was their biological mother. But he didn’t. He loved us all exactly the same. We were his kids and that was that as far as he was concerned.

  Reid needed to come home and sort out the stupid shit between him and our eldest brother, Rhys. Better known around here by his road name, Renegade. Their shit had gone unresolved for far too long now. If he wasn’t going to come home I was going to go see him, beat the shit out of him for worrying our Mama, and then drag him home.

  With my mind on other things I had lost track of what Mama was saying but she was still going on about the barbeque.

  “I just wanted to remind you of the barbeque and let you know what the ol’ ladies were yakkin’ about. Dive and Ren are comin’ to dinner tomorrow night and I’m expectin’ to see you here too.”

  “Okay, Mama, I’ll be there.”

  “Good. Have a good day, darlin’.”

  Then she was gone.

  Setting my phone down I pushed it away and pulled my laptop back in front of me and started working on finding the proof I needed to nail the asshole who was stealing from the club. I had scanned every single receipt and invoice into my laptop and had been checking every single one against the stock takes. It was brain numbing work.

  Who the thief was to the club wouldn’t lessen the punishment for stealing from them. They were going to lose their shit when I brought this to their attention. Especially Maniac, our Prez.

  Shit. I just hoped it wasn’t going to blow back on me because I had missed it.

  I ate my dinner at my desk and kept working, ignoring the muffled thumping of the bass as my girls worked their asses off in the club at the front of the building. I was so used to the noise I could work without it bothering me at all. It was close to twelve when I finally had all the proof I needed to, maybe, nail Lucy to the cross it seemed she had built for herself. Stretching the ache out of my shoulders and back I sighed. Now I had to take this to the club. Maniac wasn’t going to be pleased that close to 150k had gone missing over the last eighteen months. And none of us had noticed.

  And that was the kicker. I hadn’t noticed and it was my damned job to notice, but neither had anyone else. And that was what worried me. Why hadn’t we noticed the discrepancies? They weren’t glaringly obvious but they were there.

  Sighing I slipped my laptop into its protective sleeve and slipped it into the big bag I carried around with me every day. My back did not thank me for lugging it around.

  Bruiser, one of the brothers on duty, followed me out to my car and waited until I had it started and pulled out of the employee parking lot behind the club. I didn’t waste any time driving to the clubhouse. The sooner I delivered the bad news the better.

  I slowly drove through the gates under the watchful eyes of the brothers on duty and up the long curving drive towards the clubhouse. It was completely hidden from view by big trees that overhung the narrow road and cut off the moon’s silver rays. I had my window down and drew the lush smell of vegetation into my lungs. I loved the smell of cool night air. It reminded me of long ago nights playing out here with my brothers and the other club kids. Good times.

  The clubhouse was brightly lit as I drove up to the front door and parked my car in the spot reserved for family. Glancing at the bikes parked in a line I grabbed my bag, got out of my car and looked up at the white painted building. It was an imposing building with pillars and shit to make it look like a plantation house, but it wasn’t real. There were no windows in sight, only the huge front doors with the Shadow Wraiths MC proudly displayed above it.

  Blowing out a breath I walked up the stairs and pushed the right hand door open and was slightly shocked that there wasn’t a party in progress. Yes, the music was thumping and there were men drinking and laughing scattered around the room, but noticeably absent were the club whores. Not a single one in sight.

  Oh shit. That wasn’t good.

  Stepping inside I let the door swing closed behind me. I was thankful I had cleaned up a bit before leaving my office. My hair was pulled back in a thick braid down my back and I wore faded blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt, and my favourite boots, nothing dressy or sexy what so ever but I was put together enough to talk to the prez. I ignored all the eyes that swung my way and searched the room for my brother, Renegade, or Ren as we all called him. I reported directly to him and I had to inform him about the shit show first. Not that he didn’t know what was going on, he did. I just hadn’t had any proof to give him before. Now I did.

  Meeting his eyes across the room I nodded then made straight for where he was sitting at the end of the bar. Unfortunately I had to pass right by Gear. And typical of the bastard he grabbed my arm and tried to pull me into his lap as if I was a club whore. I resisted and tried to yank my wrist out of his grasp. But the bastard tightened his grip and it freaking hurt.

  “Let me go, Gear.” I snapped at him as I pulled against his hold.

  “Never, you are fuckin’ mine and I’m never lettin’ you go. And I thought I told you not to wear your hair like that, I don’t like it.” He snarled as he tried to jerk me to him but I had planted my legs wide and dug my boots into the floor. Over his head I saw Ren virtually catapult himself away from the bar and storm our way.

  I yanked my arm to try and get away before Ren reached us and Gear’s stupid friends laughed like it was a huge joke. They instantly shut up when the c
rack of a coldly furious voice froze all sound and movement in the common room.

  “Gear! Hands off. Right. The. Fuck. Now.” Maniac’s voice boomed through the watchful stillness and the asshole had no option but to let me go. But he did it slowly, too slow for our president’s liking apparently.

  “Fucker, did I not just give you an order? Are you goin’ up against me, Gear? You testin’ me, motherfucker?” Maniac was suddenly right next to me slinging a heavy arm around my waist and jerking me away from Gear to put me behind him.

  Oh fuck. Oh shit.

  Gear shook his head as he jumped up and his little group consisting of new patches and hangarounds did as well.

  “No, Prez. I was just teasin’ my woman.” He tried to play it off as Ren, Dive, Lure, Breaker and Magic formed a half circle behind them, ready for anything. Dad stood beside Maniac, his arms crossed over his chest, his face expressionless but his eyes were burning with rage. He stood silent as his president handled the situation.

  “I’m fuckin’ tired of havin’ to tell you that when a woman in this club says no then it is no and you walk the fuck away. She’s not your fuckin’ woman and Grave warned you that she’s off limits to you and your pussy friends but you don’t fuckin’ listen. Now you get to learn that lesson the hard way.” Maniac glanced at Dive, my brother and the club’s enforcer. “Dive, take care of this shit while I talk to Leo. And throw those hangaround fuckers out the gate while you’re at it, they’re no longer welcome here.”

  What the hell was going on here? I asked myself silently. Maniac had never stepped up and taken my back against Gear before. I hadn’t even known that my dad had warned him to stay away from me. This was new and huge.

  Slinging his arm around my waist he led me to his office with my dad and Ren following us. Once inside he let me go, waved me to a chair and sat down behind his desk. Dad sat down next to me while Ren made himself at home leaning against the wall next to the door.