Neither Black Nor White (Iron Dogz MC, #6)

by René Van Dalen

  Face interrupted. “Oh he’ll definitely fall for it. He believes everyone is as amoral as he is. Fidelity isn’t something he understands and he will be overjoyed if he can walk up to Dom and tell him his fiancée is fucking someone else. It would totally make his day. He hates Dom for some reason.”

  Dom smiled as he turned and winked at her.

  “Baby, he hates me because I’m standing in the way of him reaching the top spot in the Syndicate. The Harrisons will never promote him unless he marries one of theirs and no way would Winifred allow that. She knows he’s only with her because he wants her position in the Syndicate. One thing you need to remember, Winifred absolutely believes in the saying ‘keep your friends close, your enemies closer’. That’s why she has me tied to her so closely. She knows I’m the enemy.”

  He looked around the room with cold eyes, focused on Brick for a second, then looked back at War before he continued.

  “What I’m about to tell you stays in this room and goes no further. Are we agreed?” He waited until he got their nods before he continued. “My family has money the Syndicate has been unable to touch but, if I marry, the money releases to me and my subsequent heirs. They are trying to set me up with Juliana Kolinic Harrison, Alexander’s younger sister. The witch is hoping for a Maingarde-Harrison heir but I’ve made sure there will be no heirs. What none of them know is that if anything happens to me before or even after I marry, every single cent of my money and the family trust goes into another trust for Pixie’s children. If she has no children the money goes into yet another trust to be used by a charity for victims of human trafficking and sex slavery. That trust will be overseen by a board of directors that will only be revealed should it become necessary. The Harrisons will never get their filthy hands on my family’s money, not in my lifetime or the lifetimes of my heirs.”

  There was a heavy silence before Face broke it.

  “Babe, just saying, if you took care of the having babies problem how are you going to have heirs without active sperm?”

  Dom shook his head and laughed.

  “Don’t you worry about it, Noelle. If I make it through what’s coming I’ll have the baby problem taken care of.”

  Kid ignored the money and baby making talk and focused on what was important.

  “What do you mean ‘If you make it through what’s coming’? What’s coming for us, Dom?”

  “All I can say is to be ready for anything, Kid.” Dom said. “I’m expecting the Syndicate to lose their shit over my engagement and they’re going to try and take Face out to clear the way for their own candidate. And that’s why I want you, personally, to look out for her. My plan is as follows. Face and her crew will head to Johannesburg tomorrow to set up a base of operations, ostensibly to do a job for Bruno. They will start hanging out at The Thirsty Dog where Face will meet you. It’s well known that you don’t trust anyone. She will gain your trust and you will very publicly start an affair. I suggest you move her into your room at the clubhouse as soon as you can. She will break up with you very publicly right before she has to meet the deadline. It should be enough time to convince Murchison that Face broke into your safe and got the information he needs to ensure his position in the Syndicate.”

  Face held up a hand and interrupted.

  “Hang on there. I think Cuba would be a better fit for him. I’m much too tall to draw his attention, he likes his women petite, fun sized you might say.”

  But Dom shook his head.

  “It has to be you, Face. You’re the expert, not Cuba. We need to keep the plan as believable as possible.” Dom looked at her stubbornly clenched lips before he grinned and continued.

  “Once Face has what Murchison wants they will return to Cape Town where they will be under the protection of Bruno and his teams. Once here I need you, War, to keep your eyes on them at all times. I’m expecting a hit soon after she gets back or when she delivers the information. Winifred needs her gone for the next part of her plan. Murchison will make it happen.”

  Rock was looking as stunned as the rest of them when he spoke. “What the fuck? What kind of monster is he to agree to kill his own child?”

  Face spat out several curses but Dom grabbed both of her hands turned her to look at him before he spoke. He looked right at her as he explained. “He will do it because she’s expendable, has always been expendable as far as he’s concerned.” He drew in a breath and let it out then continued. “She’s expendable because she’s not his daughter. Rentia is but Face isn’t. Murchison’s men and Winifred believes that her father was one of the men Murchison shared his wife with. He shared her with several of his men and business associates. It’s a lie. A lie manufactured by him to explain why she looks nothing like Rentia or him.”

  Face stared at Dom with big eyes, her mouth opening as if to ask questions but he put a finger to her lips and silenced her.

  “Not yet, Noelle. I can’t tell you yet, but I will, soon. I promise. There are some things to be cleared up and some plans to be set in motion before I can safely disclose what I know. Trust me.”

  “Shit.” Face whispered. “You know I trust you. Somehow in the back of my brain I knew he wasn’t my father. I look nothing like my family.”

  “And thank fuck for that.” Dom teased with a grin.

  “Oh, piss off.” She swore at him without any heat, dropped his hands and shuffled her ass back into her chair.

  “Oh look at that.” Spider teased. “We have another ‘who’s your daddy’ situation on hand.”

  The damned tease tilted his head to the side as he looked at Face, his eyes very intent as he looked her over.

  “You know, you have very distinctive eyes.” He mused as he rested his elbow on the arm of his chair, tilted his head and put his cheek on the palm of his hand as he stared at her. Kid knew his brother was looking relaxed and shit but deep down he wasn’t at all. What the fuck had he noticed?

  “I’ve only seen one set of eyes close to your colour and he’s standing right there next to the door. What are the chances of you being related?” He asked in a lazy voice.

  Dom jerked around and looked at Scar who was frowning in confusion. He didn’t look at him for very long before he turned and smiled at Spider.

  “Well played, Spider, but no cigar. Scar’s eyes are green, and a light green at that, but they are not the familial marker you thought it was. They aren’t family.”

  “Thank fuck for that, I don’t need any more family problems.” Scar muttered.

  Kid had heard enough and had to get the conversation back to the plan they needed to get in place.

  “What information do you need us to put on the USB? I can tell you now Hawk won’t agree to anything that might endanger the club or our families.”

  Dom smiled like the killer shark that he was. “You don’t need to worry about that. My people have already prepared the information that Face will hand over. It will be sent to Hawk to ensure your club knows exactly what we’re giving to Murchison. It’s been twisted enough that not a single part of it will impact your club. We’re going to make it look like Flash intended to scam the Syndicate right from the start.”

  “You’re going to throw all of us into the deep end, aren’t you?” Face growled at Dom and he just shrugged.

  “It’s sink or swim time, sweetheart. The outcome of this operation will pave the way forward for all of us.”

  Fucking hell. They were in deeper shit than Kid liked but he had to go along with it for the sake of his club.

  And starting something with Face? That was going to be difficult. Her scars didn’t dim her beauty or the allure of her amazing body. Those startling eyes of hers snagged his attention constantly and that’s where he might run into a problem. To not even talk about who she was as a person. Her strength was like a fucking beacon shining in the night calling to him.

  Fuck.

  He had a feeling in his gut that he was going to be totally fucked once this operation was over.

  CHAPT
ER SIXTEEN

  Face

  We had scarcely been back over the wall when Dom started making excuses that he had to go. Something had come up but he would see me tomorrow or at least tomorrow afternoon to talk to me before we left on Monday morning.

  I didn’t believe him. I knew he was about to do something so stupid I wanted to grab him and lock him in the basement until we got back from Joburg.

  But I couldn’t. We both knew what had to happen next was necessary for the success of the final plan. We wanted to ensure the end of the Syndicate as we knew it, at least in Southern Africa. We would move on the rest of them once we had control of the operations down here.

  And to top off everything that’s happening we were worried about the new player on the block.

  We had been monitoring reports coming through of an Afghani cartel moving crystal meth into SA from Moçambique with the help of an unknown partner. Our intel pointed to the Syndicate being that partner. If that was the case the meth came in and the women and children went out along the same pipeline.

  What it meant for us was that Dom and I would be up against the Syndicate and the cartel when we made our move.

  The Syndicate was bad enough but the cartel, the cartel was worse. They were fucking terrorists who thought nothing of murdering women and children to get what they wanted.

  If we destroyed the Syndicate the cartel would be without a distributor in Southern Africa. They would have to find another partner. And while they’re looking for a partner the authorities will have an opportunity to take them down. Hopefully.

  So many damned problems cropping up at the same time. It was enough to drive me nuts.

  When Dom left I retreated to my office and the girls left me alone because they saw I wasn’t in a good place. And it was true. I wasn’t in a good place at all.

  I felt the responsibility for the success of the operation resting on my shoulders and it was damned heavy. So heavy I wondered if I would be able to carry it to the end. But I had to because Dom and I needed to win this war. We both had too much invested to even think of losing.

  All through the meeting with the Sinners I had felt Kid’s eyes on me. Those grey-blue eyes were cold and dead until it came to threats to his club, only then did they come alive. They were so damned pretty when they shot out those blue flames.

  Shitballs. This job was going to be the death of me if the attraction I felt for the cold bastard grew. I could not allow my control to slip.

  And anyway, Star had done her homework on the man and like I said in the meeting, he liked petite women. She found enough photographic evidence of his preference for petite women on their facebook page. My original plan had been to set him up with Cuba, seeing that she was his prefect type, but Dom trashed the plan. He wanted me with Kid and everyone agreed with him. I had no idea how we were going to pull it off because anyone who knew him even a little wouldn’t be fooled at all.

  Unless it didn’t matter because they would be aware I was working a job.

  Shitballs. Again.

  I bloody well hated it when I felt insecure because of my appearance. And after looking at the photos of the women he hung out with at their clubhouse? Let’s just say it made me feel like a scarred fucking giant lumbering around Lilliput.

  I was five foot eleven inches in my socks, not tiny at all, and I had muscles. My friends liked to say I was statuesque or some shit. I used to be quite lanky with a runners build, but not anymore. There was nowhere to run when I was in prison so I started working out. I worked on my body, building my strength and stamina and became someone others feared. I liked that. I wasn’t going to be a victim ever again.

  I was going to be the one directing my life, no one else.

  At least, that was the plan, until fucking Murchison once again up ended the fucking applecart.

  Dropping my head back against the backrest of my chair I slowly breathed in and out. I knew the swearing was an indication of my control slowly unravelling and I couldn’t allow it to happen.

  And some of the anger was because of one man. A man I had no hope in hell of having a real connection with. For one, my face was fucked up, and two, I was definitely not his type. The sooner I dealt with my stupid attraction the better.

  This was a job like any of the others I’ve taken over the years and I would see it through to the end. Despite my unwelcome attraction to my soon to be partner.

  My fingers found their way to the scars on my face without a conscious thought and I softly dragged them over the silvery trails and grooves. Before Murchison changed the way I looked I had drawn men’s eyes all the time. Now they looked at my body with interest but the minute they saw my face it changed to shock, then pity and then their interest vanished.

  Fuck them.

  I was Noelle “Face” Whatever-the-hell my surname was.

  I had gone from being a thief in the pay of the Syndicate to a hard as nails warrior working against them. Everything I did for Dom was aimed at weakening the hold of the Syndicate in Southern Africa. I wouldn’t stop until the job was done or I was dead.

  Whichever came first.

  A knock on my office door jerked me back to the present.

  “Come in!”

  I almost didn’t suppress the sigh when Bruno walked in and quietly closed the door behind him. Neither of us said a word as he sat down opposite me.

  “I don’t like this, Noelle. I don’t like it at all.” He gritted his teeth and shook his head before he continued. “I’ve got this fucking feeling in my gut that you’re going to get hurt. If anything happens to you heads are going to roll. You know this, right?”

  I nodded. “I know. But I also know that this has to be done to ensure my family’s safety. Dom and I have weighed all our options and this came out as the best one. I go in, retrieve the information the Syndicate wants, and deliver it to Murchison.” I bit my lip then leant across the desk and finished in a whisper. “I’m not supposed to tell you this but you need to be prepared when shit hits the fan. Everyone I love is in your hands.”

  I took a deep breath then let him in on something only Dom and I, and of course the creator of the sting knew about.

  “There’s a worm embedded deep inside the information I’ll be handing over. It is absolutely undetectable. The minute they slot the USB into a laptop or a desktop connected to their server the worm will immediately make its way inside. Once in the server it will overwrite a part of the coding and open a back door for a person who will be waiting for access. Once all of their files have been downloaded the worm will start on the second part of its directive. It will infect every single piece of data held by the Syndicate. The beauty of the worm is this; it will be attached to any emails sent by Winifred or Murchison to the Syndicate and their affiliates in other parts of the world. It will immediately start its work again. We’re not sure if it will work again but it’s a possibility we can’t dismiss.”

  “Jesus, Face. When they find out what you’ve done they’re going to come for you with everything they have. You and the crew won’t be safe anywhere.” Bruno’s shocked whisper had me shrugging.

  “We know. We’re not doing this blindly, we have thought about this long and hard. We have to do this because we can’t allow Murchison and his granny-fuck to continue with what they are doing.” I watched his eyes as he came to a decision, but I had something to ask him before he said another word.

  “Dom is up to something, and I need you to get eyes on him. I don’t know how you’re going to do it but I have a feeling in my gut that he’s going to land himself in a situation he’s not going to get out of on his own. He refuses to tell me what’s going to happen and with us in Joburg there’s no one here to keep an eye on him.” I met his eyes. “Except you.”

  Bruno nodded and then shook his head in frustration.

  “I got the same impression from what he was saying during the meeting with War. I think he’s going to walk into the viper’s nest to serve as a distraction while your guy is fuc
king with their computers. She will be so focused on him and what she wants from him that she’ll be blind to everything else. That’s his plan but I can’t see how he’s going to get out of her clutches once she’s got him. He’s going to be tortured, Face, that’s a given. Do you have an idea as to when he’ll put his plan into action?”

  I had some idea and it actually pissed me off. Dom was so damned stubborn.

  “If I know him, and I do, he’s going to wait until I’ve supposedly made my move on the Iron Dogz. He’ll put his plan into action right before, or right after we get back to Cape Town. I have this feeling he’s working with someone, Bruno. I don’t know who it is but I suspect it might be some sort of law enforcement agency. I think he’s using both of us as the cover they need to gain access to the Syndicate’s servers. When Winifred snatches him he will end up in one of two places.”

  Dragging the notepad on my desk closer I quickly drew a rough sketch of the Maingarde building and next to it the Maingarde Estate.

  “I know from bloody experience that they have torture chambers at the company building and the family estate. Both are heavily guarded and very difficult to get into but it is do-able. The Maingarde building is in the older part of Cape Town and there are sewer systems and old water tunnels underneath it. They’ve been blocked off with steel grates you’ll have to get through, but again, it’s do-able. I’ve tried to get blue prints for the lower levels of the building but for some reason there’s none available at City Planning. If, no, not if, when Dom disappears get Gideon to help you bust Dom out. Tell him I sent you. I’m sure the bastard has blueprints to both buildings in a safe place somewhere and Gideon will be your best bet to find them.”

  Bruno nodded. “What about the estate? That one isn’t going to be easy. Do you have an idea how we can get in without being detected?”

  I winked and saw him flinch. He knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. “You para-glide in. At night.”