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

by René Van Dalen

  “How could they have known?” Dive demanded.

  “They knew because a week before the party I was ordered to help Ghost install night vision cameras along with the regular cameras at the back of the property facing the river. I wasn’t told why. Maniac wanted it done ASAP and quietly. I was ordered to keep my fuckin’ mouth shut and bein’ a prospect I did as I was told.” Magic explained quietly. “Y’all know why they had those cameras installed and it wasn’t because Reid and Leo’s party was comin’ up.”

  “We have to destroy the photo.” Breaker pointed at the paused video. “You can bet your ass this is all that remains of that night. Prez and VP got rid of evidence to keep her safe. They put her safety in our hands so now it’s our job. No one back home can ever fuckin’ find out about this shit. That dead fucker’s slut still hangs out at the club fuckin’ the old patches and if this shit surfaces she’s gonna call for Leo’s head. And that’s not happenin’ on my watch.”

  “So, we destroy the fuckin’ photo and it all dies right here? Is that what you’re sayin’?”

  His brothers nodded as Dive stood with his fingers over his lips, his eyes still on the image on the screen. Nothing disturbed the silence until he turned and faced the men from the Devil’s Spawn MC.

  “You gonna let this die here, Reaper?”

  Reaper leant back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. “She was a kid and took care of the blight on your club, brother. It’s done. But even sayin’ that, and knowin’ it’s the truth, I will still have to report this to my Prez because of our club ties to fuckin’ Scraggs.” He held his hands up as Dive growled angrily. “No, Dive, I can’t hide this shit, you know I have to talk to him about this.” He grinned. “Fuck, we’re most probably gonna find he already knows. My Prez and Maniac go way back. Maniac would have made sure none of this shit ever came back on Leo and that’s why he would have clued my prez in on it. Our clubs have been connected for a long fuckin’ time brother.”

  Bulldog cleared his throat as he tapped on the table to get their attention.

  “As a father of girls I know exactly how crazy that shit would have made Grave and Maniac. There’s no doubt in my mind that they fixed it so their girl could breathe easy for the rest of her life. That photo has opened up old wounds in your girl that will need careful handling. It comes on top of losing what to her is her twin brother and it’s most certainly going to fuck with her peace of mind.” Bulldog met Dive’s eyes and held them. “You’re going to have to let your dad and your prez know about this, son. You’re going to need them when this shit sinks in and the ghosts of the past start fucking with her. And believe me, she might be strong, but she will struggle with this, as we have all done at some time or another.”

  Hawk tapped his fingers on the table but he didn’t wait for the attention to come to him as he started speaking.

  “I can see by your expressions that all of you think you have revealed too much of your club’s business to fucking strangers, but let me reassure you right now. Army was our brother and you’re not among strangers, you’re among family. Everyone in this room is an officer or lieutenant of my club and their word, and my own, is fucking gold. Nothing of what went down in here will ever be discussed outside of this room. My advice is to get your Prez and VP up to speed on everything we’ve learned today.”

  He looked around the room, meeting eyes as his circled the room then nodded.

  “Let’s get back to it and get it done. Ziggy, the more recent files Army had on that USB, what do they contain?”

  Ziggy went back to clicking through the files then sucked in a breath and started typing furiously. All eyes were on him as he clicked and clicked for several minutes. He was frowning heavily when he eventually looked up.

  “I hate to say this but it seems shit is about to hit the fucking fan. Army found evidence linking both of our clubs to the fucking Harrison Syndicate. The Shadow Wraiths has been infiltrated, and unfortunately Leo has been targeted specifically.”

  Wolf’s heart felt like it was going to fucking jump right out of his chest as the implications of the news sank in. He spoke before he could think twice or maybe even three times.

  “Who the fuck do they have on her?” He snarled and he felt rather than saw the attention shift to him. He got hot, angry and intense stares from the Wraiths.

  “Why do you think they have someone on her?” Hawk asked quietly.

  Wolf snorted in disgust. “It stands to reason, Prez. Those fuckers had Jane in your bed and Flash at our table. They will do the same to the Wraiths, so I ask again. Who do they have on her?”

  There was a short stunned silence.

  “Fuckin’ hell!” Lure snarled as he jumped up and started pacing. “It’s Gear, it has to be him. He’s been after her since he transferred in from New York. Chased her relentlessly and thought he had it made when they hooked up. But she ended it when she found him fuckin’ those whores. Now he’s claimin’ she’s gonna be his ol’ lady. One of the club bitches told me he was sayin’ crazy shit, that he was claimin’ her even if she says no. I fuckin’ laughed it off.” He swung around. “Dive, we gotta call Prez and warn him about the fucker. Now, while he doesn’t know we’re on to him. The bastard will use whatever he can to force her to take his patch. He’ll go for her weaknesses and everyone knows it’s her family. The fucker is gonna snatch Lori to force her back to the States.”

  “Jeezuz fuckin’ Keeryst!” Dive shouted as he jumped up.

  “I had him, I fuckin’ had him and I let him go. Should have fuckin’ beat him to death no matter the fuckin’ orders not to.” He raved as he started pacing and patting his pockets looking for his phone then realised where he was and slowly calmed.

  “Sorry Hawk, but I have to call home, right the fuck now.” He started for the door but Hawk’s hard voice halted him.

  “We’ll call him from here, Dive. Sit down and calm down, brother. Believe me, we all know exactly how you feel. And don’t worry about Leo, she’s safe. My old lady is with her and we have eyes on both of them.”

  “Ziggy, put the call in to Savannah.” Hawk ordered.

  Dive kept on pacing as they waited for the call to go through. Wolf watched the man fighting to keep control of his worry.

  “Yeah.” A rough voice answered the call.

  Dive immediately started speaking. “Prez, we found some shit this side. You need to get the women in my family locked down as soon as fuckin’ possible. Reid left us some info. Gear is a traitor planted in our club by the fuckin’ Harrison Syndicate. I should have killed the fucker when I had him in my hands. We think his plan is to force Leo in to a claimin’ by snatching Lori. Fuck, Prez, he might even take Mama, Sherri or Evie if he can’t get to Lori.”

  The sound of arguing voices suddenly filled the line. “Shut the fuck up you fuckers! I’m tryin’ to hear what Dive’s got to say.” Mumbles and then silence. “Dive, brother, Grave has got it under control. The family is safe. I’ve been in contact with Demon, Prez of the Devil’s Spawn in Portland, and he let me know they have brothers down there. We’re workin’ together on the threat to our clubs. Do what you have to do, brother, we’ve got your back this side.”

  A heavy relieved sigh left the man as he nodded. “I hear you, Prez. I’ll call when we know more.”

  “Stay shiny side up, brother.”

  Dive returned to his seat and sank down, tension slowly draining from his frame.

  Wolf had an idea and he knew he had to speak before other plans were made. He felt sure his plan would be better than just having her watched. Taking a deep breath he went for it.

  “What if she’s been claimed by someone else? He can’t push his claim if another is already in place and it takes the heat off her family. Even better if she’s been claimed by someone outside of her club. It means she has more than one club looking out for her plus it gives the Wraiths time to take care of him and his accomplices.” Silence met his plan and he pushed it further. “You can select one of t
he single brothers with no family to be intimidated to back him off. Some of us don’t have the best reputation with the club whores but that shouldn’t be a problem as it wouldn’t be a real claim anyway. And there’s a very slim chance of her being embarrassed by the whores.” Wolf gave Sin a wide grin. “Except our brother Sin of course, he’s completely slut free but I don’t think he would put his name forward. He likes the variety of his civvie pussy too much to go without for too long.”

  “That’s true, brother.” Sin smirked.

  Hawk stared at Wolf for such a long time he was about to start fucking squirming in his chair.

  He forced himself to impassively wait for the reaction to his suggestion. Apparently his suggestion had stunned his brothers to silence. The answer came not from his prez or Leo’s brother but from the man who always had his fucking hands on her. And the bastard supported the plan and then threw a fucking big spanner in the works. Chucking Wolf right in the middle of a situation he wasn’t sure he could walk away from unscathed.

  “That’s a fuckin’ brilliant idea. I vote for Wolf to claim our girl as it was his idea. She’s gonna be fuckin’ pissed but if we explain I’m sure she will see reason.” Lure grinned at Wolf then winked.

  What? First the bastard threw him under the fucking bus and then the wink. What the fuck was with the wink?

  “I’ll fuckin’ do it.” Reaper snarled. “She’s our business to take care of. Not the business of the Dogz.”

  Ziggy cleared his throat gently. “Uhm, I don’t think you want to do that, Reaper. You have a little girl to protect and you don’t want the attention of these bastards on your family. Believe me, you just don’t.”

  “You investigating my family now, motherfucker?” The big man growled at Ziggy who shrugged and kept on clicking away on his laptop while he calmly answered him.

  “I investigate every-fucking-body who comes within spitting distance of my family, Reaper. And you bastards have been around ever since we laid Petey to rest. You really think I wasn’t going to check into you and your brothers and your background or why you’re still hanging around? Hell, you know better than that. And I repeat, you can’t step up on this one, you have too much to lose. And your brothers can’t step up either because they don’t sit at your table while Wolf over here does. The woman is club royalty and deserves to be claimed by someone who’s an officer.”

  “I like this plan.” Dive suddenly said. “But how the hell are we going to explain the fuckin’ instant claiming? It can’t be because they’ve been chatting to each other or some such shit because then we would have been here sooner. It has to be somethin’ believable but I don’t fuckin’ know what. We’ll have to think of somethin’. Maybe they’ve been brought together by the loss of our brother and Wolf claimed her ass the minute he got the chance.”

  Spider, the fucker, suddenly piped up. “Brother, are you sure you want to give up your freedom for a woman who is going to kick your ass for coming up with this plan? Plus, have you given a thought to the fact that she might not like you hulky types but is into a more, shall we say, sporty type like me?”

  The fucker was enjoying fucking with him.

  “Fuck off, Spider. I’m no fucking hulk.”

  “I beg to differ, brother.” He continued. “You and Beast are definitely of the hulk variety compared to the rest of us, Reaper excluded of course.” He gave a smiling nod at the unsmiling man sitting with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Spider, shut the fuck up. If you can’t contribute something worthwhile to the discussion on the table don’t say another fucking word.” Ice suddenly snapped at his brother.

  Spider wasn’t put out at all, he just grinned made as if he was zipping his lips, crossed his arms and leant back in his chair.

  Hawk tapped on the table and Wolf went solid. He knew it was up to his prez to decide if he was going to allow this shit to get even closer to the club. But they had no other damned options at this time.

  “Wolf’s plan is actually fucking brilliant. It will definitely draw the bastards out when they realise their plans to take over the Wraiths has been compromised. And believe me, that’s exactly what they are planning to do. These bastards play a long game, a very fucking long game.” Hawk tilted his head to the side as he sat there stroking his beard. A sign that he was plotting something.

  “Ziggy, what else did Army uncover?”

  “He has surveillance of Leo’s home and the office she works from. There’s footage of the outside of businesses that I assume belongs to the club plus two more family homes. There’s a lot of footage of a little girl and her mother. Just general stuff like going to school and shopping and playing outside. Most of the time it’s just the two of them but sometimes a brother is with them. He looks a lot like Dive.”

  Dive nodded. “Yeah, that’s my brother, Renegade. Ren stepped up when Reid disappeared.”

  “Seems to me that even though he left he still watched over them.” Wolf said very mildly because he didn’t want to start shit with the brother of the woman he was about to claim.

  With a sigh he nodded. “Yeah, it looks like he did but he should have done more.”

  “Brother, you know Reid was completely fucked up when he came home after that cluster fuck of a deployment. He wasn’t the man we knew. We were like strangers to him, even Leo. He had to leave to survive the shit in his head. Not even his kid could have saved him.” Lure said very quietly.

  Dive shook his head as if shaking thoughts out of his head. “Okay, let’s get to what we need to do to get Leo claimed.”

  Wolf had already thought it through and had a plan.

  “I’ll go out there and bring her back in here. I’ll make sure she knows to play along with whatever I do to ensure the cover story holds.”

  Hawk nodded and waved at the door. “Go, but take it easy with her, Wolf. By now she would have read Army’s letter.”

  Wolf knew it was more than just a possibility that she might not be in a good place right now. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy but he didn’t hesitate. He was out of his chair and had the door unlocked and stalked down the passage and into the common room. She was sitting next to DC sipping from a bottle of water. The letter wasn’t on the bar or in her hand. Her red rimmed and tear swollen eyes were on him as he walked up to her and curved his body around hers.

  Sliding his arms around her body that had gone stiff as a board, he gave a reassuring little squeeze and whispered against her ear.

  “Play along, Leo, for your own safety you have to play along.”

  She relaxed and Wolf breathed easier as he slid his arm down and beneath her knees, lifting her from the chair and up against his chest. Her arms came around his neck and he stood there with a very sweet smelling woman against his chest and almost got lost in those stunning eyes of hers.

  “What the hell are you doing, Wolf?” DC asked sharply jerking him back to reality.

  “Collecting my old lady, DC. Prez asked me to bring her in. I’m sure he won’t mind if you tag along.”

  “Your what?” Leo hissed angrily while Chris looked on with wide shocked eyes. Wolf tightened his arms around her in warning, turned and walked back down the passage to their chapel with the woman he was about to claim in his arms.

  DC followed close behind them and by the way she was stomping her feet he knew his prez’s old lady was pissed. The jingling of the dogs’ tags let him know the monsters they called dogs were right on her heels.

  Right before he walked through the doors into the chapel he dropped his head and whispered against the side of her head.

  “Listen to what they have to say and give our plan a chance, Leo.”

  Then it was too late to say more.

  They were inside and he retook his seat and settled her on his lap.

  She was not fucking pleased and the pinch to his bicep let him know it.

  But he didn’t give a shit.

  She wasn’t going to sit anywhere but on his lap because right here in
this room was where she was going to have to accept the change in her status.

  She was no longer a single woman, she was claimed.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Leo

  I sat at the bar, Reid’s letter clutched in one hand, his dog tags loosely held in the other. Staring at the letter and the crinkles I’ve put in the envelope. I studied the way his handwriting sloped across the envelope. Lifting it to my nose I sniffed but all I smelt was paper and maybe a little whiff of iron from the lockbox. Not a hint of Reid.

  I had hoped for just a little whiff of his scent. He had always smelt so good, of his favourite body wash and that little whiff of gun oil because he was always cleaning his guns. And he had a lot of those. He collected them like others collected stamps or cars.

  DC sat silently sipping her coffee and watched me in the mirror behind the bar.

  “Are you going to read it?” Chris asked in a voice so soft it barely carried to me.

  I set the letter down in front of me and sighed as I looked up.

  “I’m goin’ to need a shot of Jack to get through this.” I said just as softly.

  “You got it.”

  After pouring she set the shot down in front of me and wiped the already clean bar top, not leaving but hovering. I rubbed my thumb over the dog tags for a few seconds, and then let them fall back against my chest with a sigh. Picked up the shot and downed it.

  I welcomed the fiery burn as it slid down my throat and warmed my belly. It didn’t dispel the dread or the sorrow I felt as I reached for my knife in the sheath on my hip.

  Taking a deep breath I inserted the tip of the knife under the sealed flap of the envelope and slit it open. Sliding my knife back into its sheath I reached in with two fingers and slid the single sheet of paper out, dropping the envelope on the bar top.

  Holding the measly single page in both hands I carefully unfolded it, closing my eyes I drew in a deep breath before opening them.