With a heavy sigh Beast started to talk. “I took over from Ratel just before one and set up outside the window of the ICU. The sister on duty was sympathetic and let me stay where I had a full view of Army. The bitch came in at exactly 1.30pm, went in to see him, and stayed for about ten minutes then left. At 2.00pm his machines started going crazy and he was surrounded by doctors and sisters fighting to keep him with us. At 2.45pm they shut the machines off and that was it. Our brother was gone. The staff were kind enough to let me stay with him until they came to take him away. I went with him and stayed until Ice brought in the paperwork requesting an autopsy.”
Beast paused and when their Prez was about to start talking he held up a hand and continued and what he had to say was fucking enlightening.
“Something strange happened while I waited with our brother. One of the doctors who had assisted in trying to save him came down and ordered an autopsy. He wouldn’t tell me why he wanted an autopsy but I could see he wasn’t happy about something. So in a weird way there’s some encouraging news there. He did say that the Patel bitch wanted Army cremated, immediately, but because he was ordering an autopsy she couldn’t go ahead with her plans.”
“Fucking bitch is trying to cover her tracks.” Hawk growled. “We won’t withdraw our request for an autopsy just in case she has pull with the hospital and gets them to shut down the doctors’ request. I’m not leaving anything up to chance.”
Everyone nodded their agreement.
“Boots, you and Spook okay with doing the same as you’ve done for Petey’s funeral?” Hawk’s fingers tapped the arms of his big fucking chair in an agitated rhythm.
“Ja, Prez, no problem. We’ll get our team together and we’ll get it all set up. How much time do we have to get this done?”
Hawk looked at Ice and Kid then back at Boots. “I’m thinking that with the autopsy and everything it’s not going to be soon. Let’s arrange it for about 2 weeks from today, that should give them enough time to get shit done and return our brother to us.”
Dizzy, who was a brand new lieutenant put a hand up. “Prez, sorry, but I’ve heard that there’s a massive backlog of autopsies in Gauteng. They said that there’s a fucking waitlist that’s months long. We can’t do that to our brother, we need this done asap.”
“Motherfucking bullshit.” Hawk snarled. “What the fuck else is going to go wrong? Ice, get on this, there’s no fucking way Army is going to fucking lie in a morgue waiting on their fucking asses. If we have to arrange for a private medical examiner then so be it, get it done no matter the cost.”
“I got you, Prez.” Ice nodded as he started typing on his phone.
His presidents yellow eyes landed on him and Wolf braced for what was coming.
“Wolf, when you searched Army’s room did you check the pockets of his jackets and pants and his dirty laundry?” Wolf shook his head because he knew they hadn’t thought of doing that. “Right, you and Buzz go through his clothes and see if maybe we missed something. We need to find that fucking safe location of his and fast. Maybe Bullet knows and while dealing with his best friend dying it slipped his mind. If he does, take two of the prospects and search it from top to bottom and report back.”
“I’m on it, Prez.” Wolf agreed immediately.
He hadn’t thought about Army having a place off the compound. Bullet was his best bet to find where Army might have his secret hide away.
Most of them had a place where they could go if they wanted to get away from the club for a bit. So did he, he had a flat that he used on the odd occasion. Mostly it was just a place to crash, nothing more. He hadn’t been there in a while and had been thinking of letting it go because he really didn’t need it. Since the shit had started with the club most of them had been staying at the club because of the schedules Jagger had them all on. Everyone took a turn at guard duty or patrolling the property so it just made sense to stay at the clubhouse.
“Sin, brother, you start organising the routes to bring our brother home and to his final resting place. I want it finalised so we have no worries at a later stage.”
Sin nodded in agreement without saying a word. He typed something on his phone before giving his attention back to Hawk.
“Ziggy will be doing what he does best, finding as much as he can about that fucking Sita Patel bitch. I have a shitty feeling about her.”
“I’ve already started on that, Prez. I’ll have more for you soon.”
“Good.” Hawk growled.
“Our security is tight but Jagger is going to jack it up even more. Do not give the brothers on duty at the main gates shit when they insist on the new procedures. It’s to keep all of us and the women and children who depend on us safe.” Hawk looked around the room with narrowed eyes waiting to pounce on anyone who dared to disagree. No one was stupid enough to do that shit.
The next one to get those yellow eyes on him was Spider, but that fucking crazy ass smiled at their Prez. He fucking smiled.
“Stop with the fucking smiley face, Spider.” Hawk glared at him and Spider just shrugged. “Have enough money ready to cover whatever we need done to bury our brother with full honours. Be sure to have cash available if we have to pay some fucker off to take our brother off the wait list and do the fucking autopsy as soon as possible. I don’t want any fucking delays on this one. You handle this for our brother.”
Spider no longer had the smile, he was now dead serious. “I’m on it, Prez. I’ll work with Ice to get this done as soon as possible. We all want our brother to be at peace and we’ll work together to ensure that he gets it.”
And then their president suddenly changed the subject from Army to Scar.
“Beast, brother, how is Scar doing?”
Beast gave an evil smile. “He’s doing well, Prez. He does not like my old lady very much right now but she’s on his ass daily getting his physical therapy done. He has more feeling in his legs and can stand but only if he uses a walker. Which pisses him off like you won’t believe.” Beast laughed. “His swearing is becoming very inventive and my old lady encourages him all the way. According to her swearing helps with the frustration of having to re-learn how to walk. She says he’ll be able to use a kierie (cane) soon, so there’s a lot of progress.”
At last Hawk smiled. “Thank fuck for some good news. Tell him I’ll swing by for a visit as soon as I’ve got a free moment.”
“You got it, Prez.”
Tapping his finger on his desk Hawk looked around his office making sure he met the eyes of every single man there.
“We are in the middle of a war that we didn’t start but we will fucking finish. Be very careful out there and no one rides alone. Kahn will have two brothers on him when he rides to and from home. We are working on getting him and his family on club property soon. The slab for his mobile home will be thrown this week and connections laid on so we can get them settled. At some stage that bitch is going to come after us again and I want everyone’s families safe at the club. Make sure your families understand the dangers we are facing and ensure they are protected at all times.”
Hawk tapped his desk and sat back in his big chair.
“That’s all for now brothers, get out of here and get things done so we can move forward. Be careful out there and keep your eyes fucking open.”
Wolf waited for Buzz and they walked out of the office together and went down to Army’s room. It had been left exactly the way they found it after their last search. The American flag was still proudly displayed above his bed and his Zulu fighting shield with an assegaai (short spear) and knobkierie (knobkerrie, club) and his Zulu fighting sticks were mounted on the wall next to the bed. No one would touch his room until they found his family only then they would pack his things to hand them over to them.
This time they searched his clothes, even his fucking pants pockets and the insides of his shoes. Lastly they went through the dirty clothes in the hamper in his small bathroom.
And that’s where Wolf found it,
a key ring with a set of keys and an electronic tag in the pocket of a pair of dirty jeans at the bottom of the hamper. With a single glance Wolf knew the keys didn’t unlock anything at the compound. There was a round disk on the key ring with the Harley Davidson insignia on it. It wasn’t the real thing just a knock off you could buy at the checkout at any shop, nothing special at all. The electronic tag had to open a gate or something somewhere. Now they just had to find where the fuck that gate was and what the fucking keys unlocked.
They would not give up searching because it meant they would be able to bury their brother with his true name and hopefully with his family standing around him.
Their best bet to finding the place the keys unlocked was Bullet. Right now he was dealing with the loss of his best friend but damned soon he would start remembering things and when he did Wolf was going to be right there next to him. Dragging those things out of his head.
For now he would take the keys to Ziggy to see if they could maybe find a location through the numbers on the keys and the serial number on the tag.
Maybe that serial number would lead them to the answers they needed.
The big question was why had Army not trusted his club with his real identity? Who had he been hiding from?
Or maybe what had he been hiding from was a better question.
Their brother had been fearless and Wolf couldn’t see him hiding from anyone.
So many damned questions and no answers as yet.
Maybe soon.
He fucking hoped.
Eight days later
Hawk
Looking around his office Hawk was fucking glad his officers were men he could trust to do their jobs without checking up on them constantly. Ice and Spider had shelled out a shit load of money to get Army’s autopsy moved to the top of the list and now he had the reports in front of him. One that protected the medical examiner should whoever was behind this reach out to silence him. The other was the real deal, the one that only they and the taskforce would get to see.
It was all there. The injuries caused by their brother being shunted off his bike. The spinal injuries that would have left him paralysed from the waist down if he had recovered. The head injuries, past and present, all of it, was meticulously listed.
And then there was the section that made the invasion of their dead brother’s body worth it. The medical examiners’ conclusions once the examination was done.
An unknown substance was present that was not on the list of medications administered to the patient. Thus far efforts to identify the substance have not been successful. More investigation required.
Cause of death: brain aneurism and seizures exacerbated by an unknown substance.
Hawk set the papers to one side and sighed.
“Our brother was murdered. An unknown drug was found in his blood and it caused the brain bleed and seizures.”
The heavy silence was broken by furious hisses and growls.
Hawk lifted a hand and silence descended as his men focused on him. He knew what he was going to say next wasn’t going to be what they wanted to hear.
“We’re not going to touch her. Not while the taskforce is watching. She’s not alone in this. I want to know where she got the drug that killed our brother. Who gave it to her? That’s the person we need to find, and to do that we need her alive. For now. I want her watched 24/7. I want photographs of every single person she talks to. I want a tracker and bugs on her phone and in her house. She moves, I want to know about it.”
Jagger nodded. “I’m on it, Prez. We’ll get into her place and rig it up, no problem.”
“Whatever you have to do, Jag. You get me?”
“I got you, Prez.”
Hawk nodded. “We go ahead with the arrangements for his funeral and fuck her if she complains about it. Ice, make sure we have a judge sign off on giving us the authority to bury our brother. Leave nothing to chance. Make arrangements to transfer Army’s body to the funeral home run by our people and let them know to be careful. Put two men on the place, they report any movement to Beast and Wolf.”
Sighing heavily Hawk leant back in his chair. “If Army had recovered he was never going to walk again. His spine was broken in two places. We all know he would not have wanted to live like that, and maybe this was a mercy for him. But it wasn’t his decision and that’s the fucking difference. He hadn’t been given the chance to say goodbye to those he was leaving behind and that’s fucking unacceptable. Once we find his family I want to be able to look them in the eye and say we did everything we could for him. And that means after we’re done with the funeral she’s in our dungeon. Any one got a problem with that?”
Shaking heads told him no one had a problem with his plan.
“I nominate the Crow for the job, Prez. She will get what we need very damned quick.” Spider snarled.
“This is one time I have to agree. The Crow will be called in. We need this done quick and there’s no one who will get her to spill her guts quicker.” Hawk growled unhappily. “Now, I’m done with this. Get out there and do what needs to be done. We’ll have a full church once we’ve put our brother to rest. Be careful out there brothers, our enemies are stepping the war up. Be aware and be prepared.”
Hawk watched as his officers and lieutenants left his office, no one said a word and the door silently closed behind them.
Sitting in the silence of his office he once again looked over the autopsy report and it came up the same. His brother had been murdered.
And even though he had no proof his gut told him that it was the old bitch in Cape Town letting him know she was able to kill his men with impunity.
She was going to find out the Iron Dogz MC wasn’t that easy to subdue. He wasn’t Freeze. No matter what she threw at them they would survive to fight back.
All he needed was to find her Achilles heel. Something or someone that was important to her and then remove whatever or whoever.
He had been spinning his wheels too fucking long. It was time to strike back and strike hard.
Soon, very soon.
CHAPTER FIVE
Wolf
The mood around the fire pit earlier hadn’t been good. Anger had been mixed in between the sadness as the club brothers celebrated the life of a fallen brother. No women had been allowed as they remembered their brother and said their goodbyes in private. No one from the clubhouse could see them as they were hidden by a dense wall of shrubs and trees. The fire pit was for brothers only. Always had been, always will be.
Bullet’s impassioned farewell had them all wiping wet eyes as he sang a song for his best friend. He was accompanied by Ratel and Buzz on guitars and Dollar, Terror and Crash playing traditional Zulu drums. He sang Impi, an iconic song by Johnny Clegg and Juluka. A few of them understood and spoke Zulu and for them it meant even more. Impi was a fitting song because when translated the word meant war, battle, combat, army or host. The music and their voices blended and thundered into the night sky as they sang and danced around the fire.
They celebrated and mourned their brother until the fire had burned down to red embers before returning to the clubhouse.
Everyone had long since gone to find their beds to sleep or whatever the hell else they wanted to do. The music and main lights had been turned off but Wolf still sat at the bar, sipping his drink and watching Chris clean up. His head would not shut down about the fucking keys. They had exhausted every avenue they could to find the place those keys unlocked and nothing. Absolutely nothing. The serial number on the tag was a dead end. The phone was a dead end. Every fucking thing they tried came to a dead end.
Tomorrow was their brother’s funeral and they still had no idea who he really was and therefore were unable to inform his family that he had died. The idea that Army would be buried with none of his blood, except the bitch, standing up for him worried him like a fucking sore tooth.
Wolf played with the keys, rolling them through his fingers over and over. He sat nursing a glass of wh
isky because he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Putting the keys down he picked up his glass, took a sip then set it down again, all the time staring at those fucking keys.
Suddenly a hand reached over the bar and picked them up. Wolf’s head jerked up but he relaxed when he saw it was Chris.
“These are his keys, aren’t they?”
Wolf raised an enquiring eyebrow at her and she shrugged. “I work this bar every night and I hear things, Wolf.”
“Yes, but it’s of no fucking use because we don’t know what the fuck it unlocks.” And it pissed him off that they had failed.
Chris hummed as she inspected the keys. “It looks similar to the keys and tag I have for my storage unit.”
Wolf snapped a hand out around her wrist which caused Chris to jerk in fright and the keys flew out of her hand.
“Wolf.” She whispered as she stared down at the floor. “The Harley disk, it broke and there’s something inside it.”
Wolf didn’t hesitate, jumping straight across the bar he came down in front of Chris and crouched down. He studied the keys where they had fallen on the rubber mat behind the bar then carefully picked them up. Holding the broken disc and keys in his hand he stood, carefully laid it on the bar and bent closer to take a good look. The disc had broken open and he could now see that it had been carefully cut and glued back together at some stage. Through the opening he could see something white tucked inside.
“Fuck.” He whispered as he gently cracked it open even further, fully revealing a tiny little square of paper. Very gently and carefully he extracted the little square and set it on the bar.
“I need tweezers to open this so there’s no damage.” He said softly to himself.
“I’ll get a pair.” Chris pushed past him and ran down the passage towards her room.
He had to call his Prez and Ice but it was late and they weren’t at the clubhouse, they were at home with their old ladies. But he had to call someone. Pulling his phone from his pocket he swiped it open and called Kid who he knew was in his room upstairs.
Vengeance Of A Black Knight (Iron Dogz MC, #4) Page 5
