She was strikingly beautiful with dark curly hair and very attractive almost caramel coloured skin. Her skin colour reminded me of Cherise’s skin, and she had inherited hers from her parents. My bestie was of a mixed race ancestry and she always teased that one of her ancestors had been a French duke who fell for a slave girl and sired a whole slew of beautiful brown skinned babies. Intermarrying between the races had gifted her with her beautiful skin and eyes. And according to her dad she had inherited the duke’s sharp wit and tongue. Her family was much like my own. Close and loving and over the years our parents had become friends, even though mine lived on a farm in the Free State and hers lived in Johannesburg.
My wandering mind was jerked back to the present when the woman called my name. It seems like she had called it more than once while I had been in my head.
“Sunny!”
“Sorry, yes?”
“I think it’s about time someone told you what’s going on. But first. My name is DC Michaels and Hawk is my old man. I saw you when they brought you in. You were lucky, very damned lucky. Whoever shot at you was trying to kill you.”
“Bart Pistorius, he’s the one who shot me.”
Her eyes narrowed then she nodded. “Okay, we’ve got a name. All we know about you is that your nick name is apparently Sunny. Who are you? And don’t try to bullshit me, I can spot lies a mile off.”
Dear heavens she had no idea how much she pissed me off with that comment. I had heard it too many times while growing up. Sunny was my name, not my nick name.
“My name is Sunny Wolmarans. I’m a…” She didn’t give a chance to finish.
“Right, we’ll check it out, make sure you are who you say you are. Now, let me explain what happened after you handed Jagger the message. Hawk called the number you gave us and spoke to a man named Lukas Marais who passed the call onto a Detective Roos. My man isn’t fond of the pigs so he didn’t hang around to find out any details. As far as the men here were concerned they had done what they’d been asked to do and contacted your family. The fact that your family and the pigs didn’t rescue you is not on us, we did what you asked. You need to swallow the attitude and be grateful we brought you here and helped you. Get over yourself already.”
I was fuming with rage and jumped right in when she finished her nasty little speech.
“If you had given me a chance to finish I would have told you that I am DOCTOR Sunny Wolmarans. The head veterinary surgeon at the Wild Fig Sanctuary, it’s a sanctuary for the big cat species. Jagger’s girlfriend, fuck-buddy, or what-ever-the-hell he wants to call her, killed one of my lions, they cut off his head, paws and tail as trophies. We stepped up security but we had traitors on the inside and they came back. They tried to kill my black leopard and I stopped them. My cat attacked the bitch and they snatched me, firstly to patch her up and secondly to get them back into the Sanctuary after their contacts on the inside were exposed. I have no idea why she brought me here to inoculate the dogs and I don’t give a shit either because it’s not important. All I want is to call my people and go home to ensure my animals are protected.”
While I talked she listened, nodding now and again.
“How did you end up outside our fence line?”
Lord give me strength. I wanted a phone, not to lie here and explain stuff but I would do it if it got me a phone.
“They loaded me into the back of a closed van and took me to the Sanctuary thinking I would unlock the gates for them if they threatened to kill me. I refused. Bart beat me, kicked the hell out of me and I woke up in the back of the van. Mitch, one of the traitors was in the back with me. He gave me a spanner and whispered that I had to hit him, jump out of the van and run like hell. I did. Pity I wasn’t fast enough.”
Frowning she uncrossed her arms, sat down in the chair and dragged it closer to the bed.
“Why did he help you to escape?”
“He said his job wasn’t done yet. I think he’s an undercover cop or something.”
Holding a finger up DC said as if to herself. “So, he helps them to kill one of your cats. Then he helps them snatch you and finally he lets you go. Strange that he did that right as they were driving past the Iron Dogz MC’s property. I wonder who he works for, the pigs or another faction of bad guys.”
I couldn’t help her with that. I’d told her all I knew.
“That’s everything I know. Now, may I call my people or am I a prisoner here?” I couldn’t keep the snark out of my voice if I tried.
DC grinned as she leant on the bed beside me. “I like you. You don’t show fear even though it must be clawing at your gut. You’re in a biker compound with bikers all around and you’re not giving an inch.” She nodded several times. “Yip, I definitely like you. You’ll fit in nicely.”
What the hell? It was on the tip of my tongue to say ‘so what’ but I bit it back. I was at a disadvantage here. Hurt, and with no way to contact Cherise or Loek I had to rely on these people to treat me well. Not that I thought they wouldn’t. For heaven’s sake, they had called a doctor in for me and apparently for my own safety kept me here. But I needed to go home. I needed to get back to Dayana because she wasn’t used to me being away from her for long periods at a time. Her temperament is shaky as it is, she didn’t need more stresses added to it.
“I really need a phone and I need to talk to my cat. She’s going to become extremely agitated and dangerous if I stay away any longer. I’ve trained my best friend to feed her but it’s not safe for her or anyone else the longer I stay away.”
“You’re more worried about this cat of yours than yourself. Why?” Once again she had her head tipped to the side, almost like a bird when it’s watching you.
“She’s been with me for years. I was her handler when she first came to the sanctuary as a sub adult. She was mentally unstable and it took a while before she started to trust me. Now she’s mine. And I’m hers. She attacked the bitch to save my life but she didn’t kill her, even though it would have been so easy to do. She bit her shoulder instead of behind the neck. Do you have any idea of the strength of a leopard’s bite? They have a bite force of between 300 to 310 pounds per square inch. If she wanted to, she could have snapped her neck or her shoulder bones with that bite. Instead she bit and held the bitch down, she released immediately when I ordered her to hide. That’s what saved her, she hid from them and in the dark they couldn’t find her.”
She looked a bit stunned but why I didn’t know. And then she told me.
“You’re crazy. You do this shit voluntarily? Unbelievable.” She shook her head then smiled. “I’d rather face anyone in a cage fight than climb into a lion or leopard’s cage.”
I bristled with affront. “Our cats aren’t in cages. They have big runs with enough space to be able to run, climb and play. They are happy and content. Most of them have been rescued from circuses and horrible zoos so the life they have now is vastly different from what they used to have.”
“Do you allow visitors? Like, if I want to come over and see your cats will you let me?”
I rolled my head from side to side and she frowned.
“We’re not open to the public at all. I know there are other sanctuaries who allow visitors but we’re not like that. Our cats are either being rehabilitated to be released back into the wild or they are permanent residents. A few of our permanent residents hate humans because of the abuse they suffered at the hands of owners or so-called trainers. The others are too old to be released back into the wild, they would never survive. We do allow volunteers but they are usually tasked with preparing food and cleaning the enclosures and sleeping quarters of the animals. Not a great job on the best of days.”
She looked a bit put out about not being able to visit.
“I can arrange a visit for you but there would be strict rules you will have to adhere to.”
“I can live with rules.” She grinned.
“Okay, when I’m home I’ll arrange a visit for you with Cherise. She’s in char
ge of all that stuff.” I sighed and looked her right in the eyes. “Now that we’ve talked all around the subject, I’ll ask again. Can I have a phone to call my people?”
DC opened her mouth to answer when the door opened and a guy walked in. He was slender but he had those well-defined muscles you saw on a runner or swimmer. He was handsome in a nerdy biker kind of way. His wildly curly blonde hair hung down on either side of his face and he had a pair of blue tinted John Lennon type of glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. He was also smiling as he walked right up to me and held out a phone. I reached out for it but he didn’t hand it over, instead he held on and introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Ziggy, you may use this phone to call your family and friends and reassure them that you’re okay. Unfortunately I can’t leave the phone with you. Once we’re sure you’re safe I’ll arrange a phone for you.”
I understood about being safe and that phones could be tracked so I had no qualms about agreeing. As long as I could call Loek to find out what the hell was going on. Taking the phone from him I tried to sit up and both of them rushed to plump the pillows up behind me and help me sit up.
Once I was comfy, or as comfortable as I could get, I called. He answered after two rings.
“Marais.”
So typical of Loek, barking out his surname and then not say a word.
“Loek, it’s me.”
“Sunny! Wat de fok, vroumens? (What the fuck, woman?)Where the hell are you? Detective Roos called to say they’re looking into the kidnapping allegations but so far they got nothing. What the hell is going on?”
That didn’t sound good at all and not like the cops I had met. And calling it an allegation? Didn’t they watch the footage from the cameras? And then it hit me, Mitch, he had most probably turned the cameras off. There was no proof that I had been kidnapped. They most probably thought I was involved in the poaching. Bloody hell.
“Are you alone?”
“What? Yes, yes I am. I’m not liking the sound of this, Sunny.”
I tried to explain as quickly as possible.
“I don’t blame you, I don’t either. Bart Pistorius and his partner, who happens to be a vet called Celeste Brent, along with Moses and Mitch tried to kill Dayana. I got into the enclosure and stopped them. The bitch came at me with a knife and Dayana attacked her. Don’t worry, she isn’t dead. My girl just scratched the hell out of her and held her down.”
“Fucking hell, Sunny.” Loek sounded shocked and worried but I had to tell him all I knew before I had to give the phone back to Ziggy.
“I told Dayana to hide and they then took me. I had to look after the bitch’s wounds and they tried to force me to unlock the gates at the Sanctuary. I don’t know if you saw that on the cameras. I refused and Bart beat me up. On our way back to the clinic where they are hiding out, Mitch let me escape. He told me to jump out and run. I hit him on the head with a spanner and ran. They caught up to me, Bart shot me but I was lucky. I didn’t know it at the time but I had run into the perimeter fence around the compound of the Iron Dogz MC and set off the alarm. They took me in, called in a doctor and she fixed me up. I’m cool, no problems at all, I’m safe, and for heaven’s sake don’t call my parents. They will freak. How is Dayana? Is she okay? Is she eating?”
“Hang on, hang on! You were shot? What the fuck is going on here, Sunny? Roos told us that they investigated the lead the bikers gave us about your whereabouts but found nothing suspicious. They acted like we had lied to them. How could they have missed you?”
I could hear that he was furious but then so was I.
“I don’t know. I was kept in one of those wire cages used for big dogs in a garage. I think it was at the clinic but I’m not sure because I never saw anyone besides the kidnappers. I heard dogs barking and people talking but it might have been somewhere else. And Loek, you need to be careful of Bart Pistorius, he’s very, very dangerous and I’m thinking he might have had something to do with the killing of RK’s humans. I don’t think he’s their son at all. And then there’s Mitch, he said he’s not who we think he is. I think he might be undercover, and if Roos and Tau don’t know about him then it’s an investigation they’re not a part of. So don’t say anything about him to them.”
“What the hell did we get dragged into here, Sunny?” Loek was pissed and I didn’t blame him.
“I think the poachers thought we were a sure thing. After the success they had with Rex I think they were going to use us as if we were a bloody animal parts supermarket.”
Loek gave an pissed off snort.
“Not on my fucking watch. We called in the best security advisors and they went over our system with a fine tooth comb. We’ve upgraded the system and we have hired extra security that’s been vetted by us and our advisors. Not getting taken in by traitors…”
I interrupted him.
“You haven’t said a word about Dayana. Is she okay?”
“Of course she’s okay. Your bloody cat is a pain in the ass. She’s become a big baby. Screams bloody murder when she’s alone. We’ve got Cherise, Daphne, Max and Fikile on rotation to keep her company. She’s happy as long as she can see them outside her run. So far the only one who can feed her is Cherise. She did not take to Daphne for some reason. Inus is keeping an eye on her health and the cut along her side is healing well. She’s fine but you need to come home, she misses you.”
“What? She was hurt? How did that…”
Before I could continue Ziggy took the phone from me and spoke to Loek.
“Sorry, man, we have to keep this call short. Sunny will call again soon.”
With that he hung up and leaving me with my mouth hanging open walked out the room, softly closed the door behind him.
“I’ve got to get back to work.” DC stood and stretched. “I’ll pop in for a visit later. Try and get some sleep.”
And with that she was gone too.
I was alone with nothing to do but lie there and try to fall asleep.
Sleep did not come.
And what did I lie there thinking about?
Not my parents or my cats or my friends or the poachers, no, none of that.
An arrogant, rough biker occupied my head, filling it with his pissy attitude and striking eyes.
So not what I should be thinking about.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jagger
He knew he was being an ass but he just couldn’t stop himself, the woman had pissed him off. How the hell could she believe that the club would be involved with poachers? They had rescued her from the bloody bastards. If they had been conspiring with them she would not be here. But did she think of that? No. She’d rather accuse him of working with that bitch. It turned his stomach to think that she had participated in killing and maiming a beautiful animal. What made it worse was that he hadn’t seen the evil in her, had only seen her as an available fuck.
It made him feel dirty, dirty by association.
On the other hand, could he blame Sunny for thinking he was tangled up in Celeste’s shit?
No, he couldn’t. Even though he made no bones about the fact that he wasn’t with her the day she had come to inoculate the dogs. But with what had been said that day it would have been enough to give anyone doubts. Especially someone who had no idea what the Iron Dogz MC stood for.
He shouldn’t have lost his temper with her. He should have explained, not rushed out of the room like a pissed off teenager.
Sighing Jagger’s shoulders sagged and he stretched his legs out in front of him and settled his ass on the ground next to a big tree. With his back resting against the rough bark he looked out over the tranquillity of the pool and tried to find the inner peace he needed. He loved coming here when the daily stresses became too much or when dark memories wanted to overwhelm him. The pool was like a hidden oasis in the middle of the harshness of club life. It was like a secret hidden world where none of the bad shit could intrude.
But today he had brought that shit with him and i
t wouldn’t let go.
He knew he had to go back inside and try to explain the shit with Celeste to her but right now he was still too pissed off.
The woman really got under his skin and he had no idea why that had happened. She was just another woman. Why would what she thought matter to him? But it did. He couldn’t stand the idea that she thought he would be okay with killing animals. Had she not seen him with the dogs? How could she not understand that he would never do that shit?
And then it hit him.
The day in the kennels he had hung back. Had let the others help her with the dogs while he watched her working. It was when she was about to leave that she had approached him and passed him the note.
A note that had changed her from being a possible accomplice to a victim.
Drawing his legs up he stood then slapped the grass, leaves and twigs from his jeans. He didn’t leave immediately, the sweet sounds of the water falling into the pool and the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees soothed him. It made handling the rest of his day so much easier.
Rolling his neck he listened as it cracked, he was going to have to get that seen to. He needed a massage to get the kinks worked out of his neck and back. Usually he’d have asked Sandy to sort it out for him because she was a massage therapist. But it had become apparent the last time he’d asked her for a massage that she wanted more from him. She was never going to get anything from him. He didn’t fuck the club girls or allowed them to give him blowjobs.
It hit too close to the dark memories buried deep inside his head.
Shaking his head he forced himself to focus on something else, something that wouldn’t allow the blackness inside him to rise.
“There you are. I thought I would find you here.” Crash’s voice pulled him back to the present.
“Holy shit! This is fucking amazing.” Banger walked up onto the rocks that surrounded the pool and crouched down to let his hand trail through the water.
A Touch Of Grey Page 13