Mark Of A Scarred Warrior (Iron Dogz MC Book 5)

by René Van Dalen

  We waited quietly and listened to the gun battle going on. I prayed that those poor women inside were safe, that none of them would get shot by mistake.

  The only bright spot was that they would have Jules if they were hurt. She would take care of them like she had taken care of me.

  The sounds of guns being fired suddenly stopped and it became eerily quiet. We sat there hardly breathing and I bit my lip against the sudden pain and the flood of warmth I felt between my legs. My belly cramped with pain, my entire body ached and my arm throbbed. I reached out to Jules as everything slowly started to fade from view.

  The last I heard was her voice calling for help. Then nothing.

  I woke up slowly, forcing my lethargic lids to open. The first thing I saw was a white ceiling, then white walls, an open door. I frowned in confusion. Where was I? There was a rustle at my side and I turned my head sluggishly.

  I blinked several times at what I saw. Was he real? Scar was stretched out in an uncomfortable chair beside my bed, fast asleep. My mind was all fuzzy and I couldn’t understand why he was here. Where ever here was.

  I tried to speak but all that came out was a soft gust of sound.

  “Josh.” I whispered his name.

  It was enough to wake him instantly. One minute he was asleep the next he was right next to me, his hand on top of mine.

  “Jesus, baby, you gave me such a fucking scare. I thought I had lost you.”

  Licking my lips I tried again. “Where am I?”

  “You’re in hospital, Liah.” He swallowed hard before he continued. “We lost our baby, my angel, and you’ve had surgery to your arm. The doctors say it will be good as new but you will have to have some physical therapy to help you get there.”

  He reached for the button lying on the bed and pressed it and soon after a sister walked in and smiled when she saw my eyes were open.

  “Good morning, Ms Marx. So glad to see you awake.” She became brisk as she checked me over. “Everything looks good. Your doctors will be here for rounds later this morning and will answer any questions you may have.” She squeezed my hand before she left.

  At the door she turned and smiled. “Anything you need just press the button. I’m right outside.”

  As she walked out the thing that had been sitting at the back of my mind worrying me rushed to the fore, and I remembered my loss.

  Sorrow swamped me and tears filled my eyes. Before they could fall he was there, his face against the side of mine and I felt our tears mingling.

  “I…I…didn’t even…know. I should’ve…been more…ca…careful.” I whispered through the sobs.

  “Sshh, my angel, don’t even think about blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault; nothing that happened was your fault. The ones who did this to you have paid for our loss.” He voice that had been caring and soft became cold as ice and hard as steel. “They danced with the devil and lost.”

  I sniffed loudly and he chuckled as he swiped his hands over his eyes, wiping away the tears. “Let me get you some tissues so you can blow your nose. We don’t want you to have snot on your top lip when your visitors come to see you, now do we?” He teased gently and I smiled.

  Through my tears and my heartache I smiled.

  “I haven’t got snot on my lip.” I said after another loud sniff.

  “Nope, not yet.” He teased as he carefully wiped my nose. And the reason he wiped my nose?

  I had one arm in a cast and a sling and the other had an IV plugged into it. I could move it but he didn’t give me a chance to do so.

  “I can wipe my own nose.” But he didn’t pay any attention to me and just held the tissue over my nose.

  “Blow.”

  With a sigh I blew my nose. He wiped my nose and dropped the used tissue in the bin. Raising the head of the bed and plumping my pillows he made sure I was comfortable.

  Amazingly I felt slightly better after crying. But now I needed to know about the women and girls I had seen in the warehouse.

  “The women and girls in the warehouse. Did they get out?”

  He hesitated a second before answering. “Ja, baby, the cops took care of them. They were hospitalised and their families were informed.” Drawing a breath he continued. “One of the young girls unfortunately didn’t make it. She had a heart condition and the drugs and stress killed her.”

  Tears again flooded my eyes. “How old was she?”

  “Sixteen, still a baby. And those fuckers took her future from her.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Did…did the cops arrest Isaiah and the people he worked with?”

  Scar went very still, almost statue still. Those green eyes of his focused on my face and I knew bad news was coming. I drew in a breath and let it out slowly.

  “I’m ready.” I said softly. “Tell me.”

  “Isaiah seems to have slipped the net but they arrested the rest of the group. I’m sorry, Liah. Your parents and sister were part of the trafficking ring. They were taken into custody at the scene along with the buyers.”

  But all I heard was that Isaiah was free. Free to come back for me. Fear streaked through me as I reached for Scar’s hand.

  “He’ll come for me. You have to get me out of here! It’s not safe. He’s crazy and he’ll hurt people to get to me.”

  Scar grabbed my hand and shook his head. “Calm down, Liah. You need to be calm now.”

  “You don’t understand. He’s crazy!”

  He gave me a little smile that I didn’t understand at all.

  “He’s never going to hurt you or anyone else ever again, Liah. I give you my word.” His voice was low and he spoke so quietly I had to listen very carefully to hear him.

  Watching him watching me I frowned. But not for long because then it hit me.

  Isaiah didn’t get away. He had been taken by the Iron Dogz.

  And then his words from earlier made sense. So much sense.

  He had said, they danced with the devil and lost. They were dead. All of them.

  And the fact that the Iron Dogz had delivered justice didn’t bother me at all. They got what they deserved. And then the other part of his answer exploded in my head.

  My parents and my sister. They had been part of this horror. How? How could they do something so heartless and horrific to another human being?

  How could my mother and sister be okay with selling women as sex slaves? What made them do it? Were they forced or did they do it because of greed?

  God. Knowing my family the way I did I knew it was greed. Money was everything to them. But so was their social standing. Why would they do something that would threaten it?

  What about Zach? Did he know what they were doing?

  “Zach, is he involved?”

  He immediately shook his head. “No, not at all. He’s working with Rick to take them down.” He gave me a wink and a smile. “You most probably know Rick better by his undercover name, Jasper.”

  My mouth fell open and my eyes widened. “Jasper is a cop?”

  Scar nodded. “Ja, he is. He’s been undercover for a while apparently. Not even DC knew how deep under he was, and she always seems to know everything.”

  I was confused. “DC? What does it have to do with her?”

  “Rick is her half-brother.”

  Jasper was DC’s brother and he was actually not who he had said he was. I was confused. Jasper had been married to Caroline for almost three years. How did he hide it from his family? And how did he hide it from Caroline? When she had come home from a holiday in Mauritius with a gorgeous husband in tow I had been stunned and had kept my distance. But I had quickly realised Jasper was a nice guy and he became like another brother to me. He became just as protective of me as Zach.

  Their marriage had gone from lovey dovey at first to raging fights in a matter of weeks.

  How he survived living with my sister I will never know. He must have really wanted to bust the bad guys if he went
as far as marrying her. I never understood what he saw in my sister. Now I knew. It wasn’t her, it was the case that kept him with her.

  Tipping my head to the side I narrowed my eyes at the man sitting next to my bed.

  “If he’s DC’s brother and my brother-in-law, well, my ex brother-in-law then DC and I are sort of family, aren’t we?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know and really don’t care, baby. Only thing I care about is you. The rest of the world can wait until you’re well enough to deal with it yourself.”

  I had to admit he was right. None of that mattered right now.

  Sounds were picking up outside my room and by the sudden tenseness around Scar’s shoulders he had heard it as well.

  Visitors.

  And then my room started to fill up with the women from the Iron Dogz MC.

  They hugged and kissed my cheek as I lay there and let it happen. The only ones I really wanted to see were Leo and Grietjie.

  Leo put a hand over mine and squeezed as she leant over me. “So, so sorry for you loss, sweetheart. Wolf and I are taking care of Brutus and he’s missing you but doing fine. I can’t wait for you to come home so we can hang out and relax.”

  My smile must have been a bit wobbly because she hugged me again. My eyes flipped around the room looking for Grietjie.

  “Where’s Grietjie? Didn’t she come with you?” I asked and the noise level in the room dropped and eyes turned our way.

  “She asked me to tell you that she will be here tonight. She had a class she couldn’t afford to miss otherwise she would have been here. She’s been visiting you every day.” Leo explained quickly.

  “Okay.” I frowned as I turned my head to look at Scar. “How long have I been here?”

  “Not too long. Today is day three. Your first day was mostly surgery and stuff and the doctors agreed that sleep was the best thing for you. So they helped you to sleep.”

  Giving a short nod I smiled at the people in the room. The men had now followed their women inside.

  Then Hawk strode into the room with DC by his side.

  “Everyone out.” He ordered and those predatory eyes of his glared when they didn’t immediately do what he asked.

  “I said, out.” He snapped.

  The women scattered, the men left slower. Wolf was the last out of the room and he gave Scar a look before he softly closed the door.

  The minute that door closed Hawk changed. The badass president cloak dropped from his shoulders as he bent over the bed and took my hand in both of his. His eyes were no longer those of a predator, they were soft and sad, so immeasurably sad it made my heart ache to look into them. His voice was a soft rumble when he spoke.

  “Sweetheart, the two of you have suffered an unimaginable loss. It’s a loss that will stay with you for the rest of your lives.” His eyes glittered with tears as he continued. “I know your pain, suffered through it when I lost my baby boy. The loss of a child leaves a shadow on your soul. The only comfort I can give the two of you is that the grief diminishes with time. You learn to live with it, not easily, but you do. That being said, I want you to know that anything you need, you come to me. If I can help I will. Understood?”

  I couldn’t speak because I was once again crying so I nodded.

  Bending over he pressed a kiss to my forehead then stood back. Scar was up and out of the chair and he hugged Hawk, the hug lasted longer than the hugs these hard men usually exchanged. Then it was over and both of them cleared their throats loudly as they settled back into their badass skins.

  DC’s almost black eyes glittered as she came to the bed and gently hugged me. She gave me a little cheek snuggle before she kissed my cheek. But it was what she whispered in my ear that had my eyes widen and my breath catch in my throat.

  “I have it on good authority that he suffered as he left this world. You no longer have to be afraid of him. Welcome to the family, little sis. Get better soon.”

  She left my bed and hugged Scar and whispered something to him. He nodded with a small smile curving his lips.

  I sniffled and Scar was right there with the damned tissue and both Hawk and DC laughed when he wiped my eyes and nose and I growled at him.

  It lightened the heavy air in the room.

  “I will never forget your words or your kindness.” I looked first at DC then at Hawk. “It makes the heartache a little easier to bear. I’m so happy to be able to call both of you my family. The day I walked into the Iron Dogz clubhouse with Grietjie was the day my life changed for the better. Before that day I only had Zach and Jasper on my side. Now I have all of you and you have no idea how blessed that makes me feel.” I smiled at Hawk. “Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

  Hawk gave a deep belly laugh. “Sweetheart, I can blow smoke up your ass and say I saw what a good girl you were, which I did, but that’s not the reason I allowed you in. You walked into my office with Grietjie, all sweet and innocent and like a bright shiny new penny. And I thought to myself, now this girl will make someone a great old lady. I wanted to see if one of my men would see what I saw and claim you.” He shook his head with an evil grin. “You have to have noticed that no one else got the deal you did, girl.”

  My mouth fell open and DC and Scar both looked at him in astonishment.

  “I thought it was because I had no clue how the club worked and you wanted me to learn more before…you know.”

  “No, babe, I issued an order for the men to behave themselves around you.”

  “None of the women are going to believe me when I tell them about this shit.” DC said with an evil grin.

  “You’re not going to say a word, little bird, because they don’t need to know about it. It stays here, between the four of us.”

  She gave an irritated huff. “Fine. I hate when I get good gossip and I can’t share it.”

  Hawk grinned, shook his head, pulled her into his side and kissed her on top of her head. The grin didn’t disappear.

  “Our girl is looking a bit worn out. We’re going to go. You get better soon and once you’re well we’ll have a party to celebrate Scar pulling his head out of his ass.”

  DC and I giggled while Scar just shook his head. He knew he had no leg to stand on because it was the truth.

  “Thank you for coming to see me and for caring about me. I really appreciate it and I love you guys.” My eyelids felt so damned heavy I blinked slowly. “I think someone let the flippen sandman in. I’m going to…” That was as far as I got when sleep claimed me. I didn’t hear them leave.

  I slept deep and long and every time I woke he was right there. In the chair beside my bed holding my hand. My Josh.

  He was the guy who took my heart and stomped on it before he threw it away. Only to turn around, pick it up and put it back together again.

  He was broken but then weren’t we all?

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  Hawk

  Two hours after the rescue

  Allowing his rage to grow Hawk slowly walked down the line of men strung up by their wrists, shook his head and snorted in disgust. Two of the fuckers had already pissed themselves during the beat down they had been given. Fucking pussies.

  “Welcome to my dungeon mother fuckers. You fucked up. You were given the chance to walk away. Instead you chose to work for Jacobson and put your hands on club family. Before today the only damage you would have sustained was a blacked out tat. Now everything has changed.” He stopped in front of Pesto and kicked his legs out from under him, making him swing from his wrists. The pussy screamed in pain and fright.

  Ignoring the bastards’ cries he continued to lay it out. “The rest of you chose to listen to this snivelling piece of shit and turn on the club and Scar’s old lady.”

  Turning to the men lining the walls of the dungeon he pointed at Ice. “VP, what is the punishment set out in our bylaws for harming a brother’s old lady?”

  Ice didn’t hesitate. “Anyone who lifts a h
and against a brother’s old lady will suffer a beat down delivered by the relevant chapter. He will then have all club tattoos blacked out or burned off. If the harm to the old lady isn’t life threatening he will be allowed to live. But, if the woman in question has suffered irreparable damage he will pay for said damage with his life.”

  Hawk nodded as he allowed his eyes to sweep over the now visibly scared men. “And there you have it, motherfuckers. The punishment as laid out in our bylaws for your crimes. Bylaws you should have remembered before turning traitor on the club. And I don’t have to have Ice recite the bylaws concerning traitors, now do I? We all know the punishment for that.”

  Hawk ignored their cries as he walked back to where Pesto hung motionlessly, eyes wide as he trembled in fear.

  Hawk turned to a silently seething Scar. “Brother, we all know you’d rather be at the hospital right now, but the first strike belongs to you.”

  His brother’s pale green eyes were cold and filled with hatred as he slowly stepped forward. “I’m ready, Prez.”

  Giving Scar a chin lift Hawk nodded at Beast. His enforcer and his chosen lieutenants, Wolf, Boots and Spook, very efficiently cut the clothes from the writhing men. Hawk watched emotionlessly while their prisoners begged, swore and pleaded. They had taken an old lady and colluded with human traffickers. They betrayed the club. None of them deserved to breathe easy or freely ever again.

  “Where shall we start?” He asked with an evil grin as he pulled his knife from the sheath strapped to his leg.

  “I want Pesto.” Scar bit out through clenched teeth.

  “It wasn’t us. It was Isaiah, he set it up. It’s his fault.” Pesto tried desperately to shift the blame. “I just followed orders.”

  “Bullshit. You were only too happy to help him take my woman.” Scar circled his little brother and prodded at him with the point of his knife. Leaving shallow bleeding cuts behind. Flipping the knife he smashed the haft into the bastards’ cheekbone and it was very obvious he relished the man’s cry of pain. “You forced her car off the road, shot her dog and handed her over to a sex slave trafficker.”