Dive cleared his throat loudly as the sound of the phone ringing echoed loudly in the quiet room.
His president’s voice was sleep rough.
“Maniac.”
Dive didn’t hesitate. He gave his president the facts in a very controlled voice and his accent had lessened considerably.
“Prez, you’re on speaker with Hawk and his officers. Thirty minutes ago Leo was kidnapped at a roadblock. One of Hawk’s prospects was shot while tryin’ to protect her. The local pigs held us at gunpoint and kept us from followin’ the fuckin’ bastards.” As Dive took a breath to say more his president started swearing viciously.
“Fuckin’ hell. This is a fuckin’ disaster. For fuck’s sake how the fuck did you fuckers lose her in the first fuckin’ place? Do y’all have any idea how fuckin’ valuable she is? Any fuckin’ idea at all? Do ye wanna have me come over there and fuckin’ show all y’all how to do y’all’s fuckin’ jobs?”
Hawk sat forward and interrupted his tirade. “Maniac, as Dive said, she was taken at a roadblock manned by the local pigs which means they were paid off to look the other way. Someone at that roadblock ignored those orders and called in a helicopter search but it was too late. The kidnapping is all over fucking social media and the local news. You have to call Grave and his old lady in and give them the news before the media reach out to them. You need to put your women and children on lockdown until we find out what they want. I’m sure they will be contacting either one of us very soon.”
There was the sound of a woman talking softly in the background and Maniac’s rough grunt before he came back online.
“I have a question for you, Hawk. How the fuck did they know Leo would be on the road today? Do you have a rat or were those boys of ours too stupid to spot a fuckin’ tail?” He didn’t wait for an answer, he gave it to them. “No. don’t answer that, I know they weren’t stupid at all. I would start a search for a rat if I was you.” Maniac snarled. “I have to get goin’. Grave is home with the girls and I need to get more protection out there. We’ll call you. Soon.”
With that he was gone.
Dive grabbed his phone and was about the throw it at the wall when Wolf snatched it out of his hand.
“Don’t Dive, you’re going to need this when they call back.”
He turned to Hawk. “Do you think what he said is true, Prez? Do you think we have another fucking rat? We’ve cleaned house more than once after the Laney bullshit went down. Do you really think they would have gotten another one in here? We’ve been fucking careful with background checks on the hangarounds and the sluts and nothing came up on any of them.”
Hawk shook his head decisively. “We definitely don’t have a rat, but I do think somewhere out there they have a surveillance post we haven’t found. That ends right the fuck now. Jagger, get the patrols out. I want every inch of the property searched, and when I say every inch I mean every fucking inch. All our properties. Bulldog, ask Suzy to call Iona to find out if she’s seen anything suspicious on her side of the fence in the last few days. Spider, get some cash ready in case we need to pay off some pigs. Beast, Wolf and Dive, I want the three of you to work together on finding us a final resolution once we have a location. I need some ideas we can throw around.”
Jagger and Bulldog immediately started typing on their phones and doing as their president directed.
Hawk’s yellow eyes held Wolf’s as he gave him the next. “I’ve made some calls. Rick and his team are working the case from their side and Dominick is following up on some leads in Cape Town. They will get back to us as soon as they’ve got something.”
Wolf didn’t know how long he could sit in that fucking chair and not explode. He needed to get out of there to find his old lady before those fuckers laid their fucking hands on her.
Kahn’s words kept repeating over and over in his head and he just couldn’t shake it.
If they broke his girl was he strong enough to lead her back to herself?
Was he strong enough not to break as they broke her?
And if he broke what would it mean for the both of them?
Ziggy interrupted his spiralling thoughts.
“I’ve tracked her phone, it moved a few km’s from the point where they abandoned the vehicle before it went dark. I think they missed it when they first searched her. Skelly tracked the cage they abandoned and now he’s checking through the cams in the area where it was found. They were heading north when the signal disappeared. It means they left the built up areas and headed into the agricultural holdings. I won’t be surprised if they have her on a smallholding. I’m going to set up a search grid from the point where we lost her phone. It’s a huge fucking area but lucky for us we have the manpower. The Warriors and the Sinners will help with the search and I’ll reach out to the support clubs.”
Hawk immediately nodded his agreement.
“Good. Set up search teams, each headed by an officer or senior member.” Turning towards Wolf and Dive he gave them orders they did not want to fucking follow. “Wolf, Bullet, Dive and the brothers from the US will stay here. We’ll need them when we hear back from Maniac.”
All he could do was agree with his president. But he needed to get out of the fucking office before he lost his shit.
Pushing up out of the chair shook his head. “I need to get out of here, walk around or some shit before I fucking do something I’m going to regret.”
Hawk immediately gave a nod. “Go, brother, I’ll send someone to fetch you if we get something.”
Wolf wasn’t the only one walking out of the office. Beast followed and stayed with him as he stalked through the common room and outside. He kept walking not knowing where the fuck he was going, he just knew he had to keep moving or he’ll go fucking crazy.
Jesus. They had her in their dirty fucking hands. They’ve had her for almost three hours now.
Were they hurting her? Touching her?
Throwing his head back he screamed his rage at the heavens before dropping his head into his hands breathing as if he had run a fucking marathon.
“Brother, we’ll get her back. I fucking swear to you, we’ll get her back.” Beast’s heavy hand settled on his shoulder. Rubbing his hands over his face and burning eyes Wolf shook his head.
“But in what condition will she be when we find her, Beast? Will she even be anything like the girl I’m falling for once they’re finished with her? I can’t fucking breathe thinking about what they’re doing to her, brother.” Wolf confessed.
“Then don’t think about it. Instead start thinking about what we’re going to do to them once we get them. And brother, you know we’re going to get those fuckers. We’ll be taking them down into the deepest pits of hell for putting their hands on her.”
A small hand rubbed his back and he looked down to see DC standing next to him. But it wasn’t DC who was standing with them. It was the Crow.
“Listen to Beast. We will be bathing in their blood soon, Wolf. They can’t hide from us, not for long anyway. Your woman is strong. She was raised in a one percenter club, a VP’s daughter, and they would have prepared her for something like this. Believe in her. She will survive.”
Looking down into those dead black eyes Wolf couldn’t disagree. She was right. His old lady was strong and very clever. If there was a way to get out of this she would find it.
If she was able to.
What if she wasn’t? What if they had already started her on the drugs?
Fuck! He had to stop these fucked up thoughts.
“Wolf, Beast! We found something on the bikes!” An excited voice shook him out of the dark shit in his head. Swinging around he saw a prospect waving at them from the washing bay.
The three of them didn’t say a word as they jogged over.
“What have you got for us, prospect?” Beast growled.
The prospect pointed at the Shadow Wraiths’ bikes. “At first we thought it was the rental company’s shit but then we saw theirs weren’t hidden. I
t’s right there next to their little sticker on the bottom of the licence plate. These are different. Have a look over here.” He pointed to the third party disc.
Wolf, Beast and DC bent to take a closer look.
Wolf frowned as his brain tried to deal with what they were seeing. A tracker had been planted inside the covering of the third party disc, making it look like it was supposed to be there. But also making it almost impossible to spot unless you were actively looking for it.
“How did you spot this, prospect?” Beast asked.
His voice was hard and cold as he explained. “This was our dad’s chapter. These bastards killed our dad and we’ve kept our eyes open. Helping anyway we can. We wash all the bikes regularly and we’re proud of the work we do. We polish every single bit of chrome. Today is the first time we’re washing these bikes and when we started polishing Devon spotted it. He called me over and we checked all the bikes. Theirs and ours. Theirs are the only ones with that shit.”
“Well spotted, guys. Thank you.” Wolf said quietly. “Get those disks off the bikes and bring them to the prez’s office.”
Beast and DC were right with him as he stalked back inside.
They now knew how they had been tracked. Fuck. The bastards had most probably been tracking the Wraiths from the moment they had set foot in the country.
And that meant they had planned to take her right from the start.
If Wolf hadn’t claimed her the Wraiths would have had no back up or allies to call when she was grabbed. He wondered if whoever had her knew she was the old lady and property of an enforcer with the Iron Dogz MC. He didn’t think they did.
Would that save her or would it make her more of a liability?
“Whoever this is, I don’t think they know she’s mine.” Wolf said softly as they hurried through the common room and to the office.
When they rushed in everyone’s eyes turned to them and Hawk raised an eyebrow when his old lady followed them in. Wolf ignored it all. The news he had was too valuable.
“We know how they did it. The Wraiths’ bikes had trackers on them. Every single fucking bike. The twins found them while washing the bikes. They’re busy taking them off and will bring them in.”
Ziggy clapped his hands and grinned wide. “Depending on the type of tracker there’s a small chance I’ll be able to track the tracker, so to speak.”
Fuck, anything that might lead them to his old lady was welcome right now.
Dive’s phone started ringing as the prospects walked in with their hands full of the disks they had removed from the bikes.
Dive answered as Ziggy waved the boys over. Wolf’s attention was divided between the two but then Dive’s expression changed and he focused on him.
“Okay, prez, I’ll let them know.” He frowned. “Yeah, they have a guy and he’s good with this shit.” He shook his head as he bit his lip. “Fine. We’ll wait to hear from you.”
He closed his phone and looked up and right at Wolf.
“They reached out. Video call at 12 noon US time. Not sure what time it will be here. Maniac will call as soon as they have shit organised on their side. He wants Ziggy to connect with Byte so we can watch the call on our screens this side. He wants to know if Ziggy can handle it.”
Ziggy nodded immediately. “There’s a six hour time difference, so 6pm our time. It can be done but we’re going to need the big guns on this one. Rick has the right connections to make this happen. Prez?”
“Do it. A woman’s life is at stake and we’ll handle the fucking taskforce’s questions when they come with them.”
“Prez, they’re going to dig into our connections with the Wraiths if we...” Ice tried to speak but DC’s voice silenced them.
“No, they won’t. Rick will do this because I will ask him to. He’s my brother first and a cop second.”
“Okay, do it.” Their president grinned when his old lady pulled out her phone as she left the office.
“Right. Now that has been sorted. Ziggy, get Kobus to check out those trackers and if he needs help with it reach out to Skelly to give him a hand.” He looked around his office meeting the eyes of every single man there.
“Jagger, keep the patrols going. I don’t want us caught with our fucking pants down. Bulldog, if Iona reports suspicious movements on her property persuade her to come in for her own protection. She’s alone with two little girls and knowing those fuckers are out there makes me itchy. Fuck, have her come in anyway. They can stay at my house. Spider, stay on the cash. Kahn, you stay with Spider on this. Sin, when we get a location I want you to get us moving as soon as possible. In the meantime work with Ziggy on the search grid. Kid, do the usual and call in the elders to help you control the situation on the property.” He rolled his neck and rubbed the back of his neck.
Dive growled angrily. “There’s one more thing. Apparently my sister had trackers on her but they’ve gone dark. If the fuckers back home had let me in on that shit we might have been able to get to her before this fuckin’ phone call bullshit.”
Wolf was halfway out of his chair when Hawk’s voice had him sitting his ass back down.
“Sit the fuck down. There’s nothing we can do about it now and both of you know it. We concentrate on what we can do. Beast, Wolf, Dive and the Wraiths, you will be with me when the call comes in. We might be seeing fucked up shit, we know this and expect it. All of you, I need you to keep your shit together, brothers. We need to study that fucking video for anything that might give us a clue as to where they’re holding her. You hear me, Wolf?”
“Yes, Prez, I hear you.”
There was nothing else he could say.
But could he stay silent as they hurt his girl?
He didn’t know if he would be able to do that.
No, scrap that, he fucking knew he wouldn’t be able to stay silent.
His brothers were going to have to duct tape his fucking mouth shut.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Leo
Pain, cold and voices were the first things that registered.
Forcing my eyes open I almost immediately slammed them shut again as bright light had the hammers in my head stepping up their beat. Taking a few deep breaths I tried again, slowly this time. Carefully opening my eyes I immediately wanted to slam them shut again when I realised the position I was in.
I was naked.
Opening my eyes carefully I took in the state of my body.
I was strapped to a wide and cold stainless steel table. My arms and legs were stretched out as if I was doing a freaking star jump. Checking over my body’s aches and pains I was relieved to find that the only things hurting were my head and the old bruise on my side.
But I didn’t shut my eyes. I did as I had been trained to do.
First job if you get taken. Take stock of your injuries. Scope out your surroundings. Familiarise yourself with your enemy if you can. If possible find a way to escape.
My head ached but it felt more like a hangover type of pain than the result of the hit against the head I had received. The ropes around my wrists and ankles were tight and uncomfortable but not painful, yet. I tested them, doing it carefully and quietly not to draw any attention. They didn’t budge.
Damn, no escaping just yet then. Being tied to a table naked kinda made that rather difficult.
My surroundings, where the hell was I?
Slowly turning my head I took in the room. The tiled floors were dirty with deep scratches in places. The walls had holes in them and had been tagged with names and crap. There was a rusty and smelly fireplace in one corner filled with old ashes the tiles surrounding it were chipped and scarred. The ceiling sagged in places and had a large watermark along one wall. Judging by the size of the room and what I saw around me I was being held in an abandoned house. Large dirt and dust covered picture windows gave me a partly obscured view of an overgrown garden with trees and nothing else. I couldn’t see any other houses. There were no sounds of traffic either. I wasn’t in the c
ity but in the country somewhere. That would make it more difficult to disappear if I got the opportunity to escape. By the light coming through the windows I judged it to be late afternoonish.
My eyes locked on a couple of pieces of equipment set up beside the table. There was a camera on a tripod with a monitor and laptop on the table next to it. Fuck.
Turning my head as much as I could I strained to see behind me but all I could see were some cables snaking across the floor before disappearing to where ever. Not good, not good at all.
Closing my eyes I focused on my inner strength because I knew what was going to happen. The motherfuckers were going to torture me on camera until Maniac and my dad, or Hawk, gave them what they wanted.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Not good, not good at all.
The voices echoed through the empty house and made it difficult to pinpoint. They were so sure I wouldn’t be able to escape they didn’t even have a guard on me.
Lying helpless on that cold table I swallowed hard. I knew what was coming would be horrific but I had to do my part. I had to get a message to my family, give them what I knew even though it wasn’t much. But like Maniac had hammered into my head during my training, every little bit helps and you never knew which little bit would be the final piece of the puzzle for those who were searching for you.
The question was how to do it without rousing my kidnapper’s suspicions.
As I lay there, pain hammering in my head, I began making my own plans.
I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. No matter what they did to me I would survive.
I had to survive.
For my family and strangely for Wolf. He would be blaming himself for this shit just like Dive and the boys would. But in all honesty, there was nothing they could have done. They had been too far away to get to me before these fuckers took me.
And then I had a little flash of an idea.
The bastards didn’t know me and wouldn’t be aware that I didn’t have a noticeable American accent. They were going to want me to talk to whoever was on the other side of that damned camera. My only hope was to put on one hell of an accent that would be difficult to understand. Especially if I used an exaggerated Southern drawl with shortened words and slang.
Vengeance Of A Black Knight (Iron Dogz MC, #4) Page 25
