VENGEANCE OF A BLACK KNIGHT
IRON DOGZ MC 4
RENÉ VAN DALEN
VENGEANCE OF A BLACK KNIGHT
Iron Dogz MC Book Four
Copyright © 2020 René Van Dalen
ISBN 978-0-620-87987-3
Cover Design Danielle Burrows Art
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Cover Copyright 2020 Danielle Burrows Art
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All rights reserved. In accordance with the U S Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. Thank you for your support of the author's rights.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead is coincidental.
Warning: This book contains graphic language, violence, abuse and sexual content. Intended for mature audiences, 18 years and older.
DEDICATION
As always to my favourite people in the world
13 1 13
When the wind dies
And the trees grow still,
I shall be thinking of you.
When the waves leave the shores
And head for home,
I shall be thinking of you.
When the sun settles into night
And the lights come on,
I shall be thinking of you.
Of you.
Always.
Always
by
Philip Ardagh
AUTHOR’S NOTE
All my books contain a warning about the content up front but I want to reiterate - this book will definitely trip your triggers regarding violence and sexual abuse.
If you still want to read it even after the warning, just skip over the scenes that make you feel icky. I don’t mind. You do what makes you feel comfortable, always.
As with the books before this one, there’s a continuing storyline woven through the series that ties them all together. You may have questions you want answered right-the-hell-now, sorry, that most probably, won’t happen.
Some of your questions will be answered, while others will have to wait until next time. I won’t leave you without hope though.
Most of the men of the Iron Dogz MC have a special woman in their future. And the bad guys will get what they deserve. It is just going to take a bit of time.
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
AUTHOR’S NOTE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
COMING UP NEXT
OTHER BOOKS BY RENÉ VAN DALEN
THE IRON DOGZ MC
PLAYLIST
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CONNECT WITH RENÉ VAN DALEN
CHAPTER ONE
Hawk
“Settle the fuck down!” Hawk shouted at his brothers who were taking their own sweet fucking time getting their asses settled in their chairs. He had bad news and the sooner they sat their asses down the sooner he could get it done.
Murmurs, shuffling and the scraping of chairs being pulled back was all that filled the room as they fell silent.
He waited until they were seated and the door was locked before he smashed the hammer down on the block of steel. The silence was heavy as if everyone knew they were going to hear something they did not want to hear. All eyes were on him. Drawing in a deep breath he filled them in on the shit that still had him shaking in fury.
“Twenty minutes ago I got a call from Sita Patel, Army’s mother. She has decided to take him off life support.” His brothers’ reactions were what he had expected because his own had been the same.
“What!”
“What the fuck!”
“That’s fucking bullshit!”
Hawk raised his hands and they slowly calmed down. He sat forward resting his forearms on the table while looking around at his brothers. Getting stuck on Army’s chair where it stood empty against the wall.
“I tried, brothers, I fucking tried to talk her out of it. I asked her to give our brother more time. I explained that two months wasn’t enough time to heal the injuries he had sustained but she refused. She claims his doctors told her there was no hope of recovery and she wasn’t going to let him suffer. According to her once they turn the machines off he will stop breathing and pass away peacefully. And it will end his suffering.” Holding his hands up his brothers, who had started to protest, settled down again. “The best I could do was persuade her to give us time to say goodbye to our brother and she very reluctantly agreed. They lifted the visitors’ restrictions for us, we have two days, starting tomorrow, and then she’s having the machines shut down. If you want to say goodbye put your name on the visitors list with Ziggy and he’ll give you your time slot.”
“We need to talk to his doctor, Boss. I want to hear this shit from him, personally.” Wolf snarled angrily.
“What about if we apply for an injunction to stop her, Prez?” Ratel asked. “I’ve seen that shit on TV and it seems to work for those fuckers.”
His question had everyone talking at the same time and Hawk slammed his hand down on the table to get their attention.
“We are already looking into it and Ice is trying to get the fucking doctors to talk to us and not give us the fucking ‘family only’ bullshit. Army is our family and I won’t fucking give up without a fight. We have two days to stop this bullshit and I give you my word we are going to give it our fucking best shot.”
“I don’t get it.” Spider shook his head in confusion. “I spoke to one of the sisters in ICU and she said he showed some positive signs. She didn’t want to say more because I’m not family, but she seemed optimistic about his chances.”
“Ja, I got the same from one of the nurses.” Wolf added to the conversation.
“What the fuck is going on here? Why would the doctors agree to shutting down the machines if he’s been showing positive signs of recovery? It doesn’t make sense. Who is lying to us?” Rider asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.
“What did Tori’s specialist guy say, Boss? Does he agree with this shit?” Bullet’s fingers tapped out an agitated fast rhythm on the arm of his chair.
“I left him a message right after I got the call, brother. He hasn’t called back yet because he’s in surgery but his assistant promised he’ll call as soon as he’s back in the office later this afternoon. I made sure she knew how fucking urgent it is. She did warn me that he won’t be able to give us anything regarding Army’s brain injuries, just about his spinal injuries.”
Leaning his thick forearms on the table Kid sighed. “Fuck. I thought we would at least get a little more ti
me to breathe before shit started raining down on us again.” He shook his head tiredly. “The last few weeks have been quiet, no sign of the fuckers outside our properties. Plus we’ve had some good news with Sam waking up and there being no lasting damage to his thick skull.” The tension dropped a little as the brothers chuckled and nodded. “We’ve had a couple of things to celebrate as well. First there was Gail and Johan’s twins, then Ice and River’s wedding and the surprise early arrival of their twin boys on the 1st of January. We’ve been celebrating those four new lives, now it’s time to save a life. Our brother’s life.”
Duma “Bullet” Baloyi stood up and crossed his arms over his wide chest his muscled legs planted wide. Fury sparked deep in his dark eyes. “I prospected with my brother, I got drunk with him, I got into shit with him, I got locked up with him and I fucked a lot of women with him. I will not let him go through this without me. He’s my brother in this life and the next. No one is taking this fight from him, and he is fucking fighting. I know it, and anyone who’s been in his fucking hospital room knows it. I feel it in my gut that he can hear me when I talk to him and he trusts me to fucking keep him safe while he’s unable to keep himself safe. No fucking old bitch that hasn’t been in his life since he was fucking born is going to step up now and turn the fucking machines off. Not on my watch.”
Hawk sat forward and pinned Bullet in place with his eyes. “What? What do you mean she hasn’t been in his life? According to her the hospital called her as his only next of kin.”
Bullet snorted in disgust. “That’s bullshit, Boss. She fucked off out of his life and left him with his dad. She hasn’t been back until the day she turned up at the hospital playing the grieving fucking mummy card. For fuck’s sake, Prez, you are listed as his primary emergency contact should anything happen to him. You should have been contacted first. Why was she contacted when she’s not even on his contact list? Why weren’t you contacted?” Bullet ended on a snarl.
“Why the fuck am I only now learning about this shit, Bullet? Why the fuck didn’t you come to me with this?” Hawk pointed a finger at Ziggy. “Get me everything you can on Sita Patel and hack into the fucking hospital’s records and find out who contacted her.”
Hawk’s focus turned back to Bullet standing next to his best friend’s empty chair.
“Explain why you didn’t come to me.”
Bullet shook his head. “Because I’m fucking stupid, Boss. She played me, just like she played you. She claimed Army and her had been meeting and they were patching things up. She’s a fucking good liar because I fucking believed her.”
Listening to Bullet’s explanation Hawk rubbed a finger over the side of the hammer as he tried to put it all together.
“Where’s his dad? Is he still alive and if he is, why the fuck didn’t we know he still had family?” Motioning to Bullet to sit down Hawk looked at Ziggy who shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Prez. All I have is his mother and the information she gave us. He claimed not to have any family and his background check showed the same.”
Bullet raised a hand and Hawk nodded at him to go ahead.
“Army didn’t want his parents’ shit impacting his future with the club. He asked me to keep his secret but said if it ever became necessary I could tell you what I know, and I don’t know much.” Bullet shrugged. “This is what I know. A buddy of his cleaned his background up before he left the US. He came to SA after he was declared medically unfit after his last tour of duty in Afghanistan with the US Marines. He was born here and both his parents are South African. His mother abandoned him when he was born. His father was married to an American and she adopted him. They all went back to the States when he was a baby. Army didn’t talk about his family much but he did mention a younger sister. I think he kept in contact with her. If he did his phone should have her contact numbers and her email or something.”
Ziggy was tapping away at the keyboard on his laptop and Hawk turned from Bullet when he started swearing.
“What?”
“Whoever cleaned his background up did a fucking amazing job, Prez. I need to work on this more because I’ve got nothing.” Ziggy growled in frustration.
Feeling Ziggy’s frustration Hawk ran two fingers over his moustache and beard before looking around the room at his men looking to him for direction. Being the fucking president was not an easy job. Especially when you kept shit from them.
“Ziggy, you carry on digging. Bullet, I’ll see you in my office once we’re done here and we’ll see if we can throw some light on this shit. Find Army’s phone and drop it off with Ziggy, even if it was trashed in the accident he should still be able to get something off it. The rest of you, put your names on the visitors list, we need to stall the bitch while Ice tries to stop her from turning off his machines.” Something suddenly occurred to him “Ziggy, check on his life insurances, investments and all that shit. Find out who stands to benefit from his death.”
Picking up the hammer he smashed it down. “We’re done here. Stay in contact and no one rides alone. Keep your eyes open and ride safe out there.”
Pushing his chair back from the table Hawk crossed his arms over his chest and watched as his men pushed up out of their chairs. The atmosphere in their chapel was subdued, no one saying a word as they filed out. Bad fucking news just seemed to keep on coming for them. He hoped to hell the latest shit had nothing to do with the old bitch down in Cape Town, because if it did it meant that she had found a way to get close to his men, and that he couldn’t allow.
Ice tapped on the table as he stood. “I’m going into the office. I’ll reach out to my contacts and see if I can find a way to stop the bitch from killing our brother. I’ll call if I have anything.”
Hawk nodded as Ice strode out. By the look in his eyes he knew his cousin was determined to find a legal way to stop the machines from being turned off.
Sin pushed himself away from the table and stood. “I’ll help Bullet search Army’s room. Maybe we find something we can use to get in contact with his family.”
Everyone left except Ziggy who slowly closed his laptop and sighed. “This one is going to be difficult, Boss. I can’t find any births registered to a Sita Patel. If I had Army’s birth name I could do an adoption records hack or find his birth certificate which will list his father. But without his name I’m left digging around in the dark. I want to ask Skelly if he has any ideas that might help and I want to reach out to the Devil’s Spawn in the States. Maybe they can help us by digging into shit on that side of the ocean.”
Hawk sighed. “Do it, brother. Don’t care if it costs us another marker, do it. We have to find something to save our brother. Fuck, I know there’s very little chance that he will ever wake up and even less that he will be the Army we know when he does. But I don’t give a fuck. When I brought him in as a prospect and gave him his patch he became mine, and I protect what belongs to me.”
Following Ziggy out Hawk walked down to his office and unlocked the door. Sinking into his chair behind his desk he lay back and stared at the painting of the bikers on the wall. One of his old lady’s paintings. And staring at the painting he added another worry to the shit load he already had, his old lady hadn’t been painting, not that he knew about anyway. She hasn’t been back to her house where she has her studio in fucking ages. Not because she didn’t want to paint, that wasn’t it. With what has been happening with the club she would be vulnerable at her studio, it wasn’t as safe as the compound, and his woman didn’t want to put anymore brothers in the line of fire.
He could do something about his old lady not painting, what he couldn’t do anything about is the fucking secret he was keeping from his brothers. He had given his word and now he wished he had negotiated a better deal.
Picking up his phone he called a number he hadn’t needed to in a while. As he waited he fought against his anger, he couldn’t lose his shit now, had to play it cool and get answers.
“Van Blerk.”
�
��I have a problem with our arrangement.” Hawk didn’t greet the cop.
“Hawk. What can I do for you?”
The bastard knew very well what he could do for him.
“Army’s fucking mother is going to shut down the machines keeping him alive. I need to know what he was working on because I’m sure that’s why she wants them shut off. It’s too shut him up, permanently.”
A heavy silence hung between them before the damned cop answered him.
“I’m sorry, Hawk. I can’t. All I can tell you is that he was working on something to bring the Harrison Syndicate to its knees. He contacted me before the accident to arrange a meet to give me what he had. He never made it to the meet.”
“Fucking hell. I never should have fucking agreed to let him work on this for you bastards. It’s most probably what got him in the situation he’s in now.”
The fucking cop didn’t say a thing, just grunted in what Hawk took to be agreement.
“Right, you can’t or won’t give me what I need. If she takes my brother’s life our agreement goes out the door. I will be taking this shit to the table and let my men in on the work their brother has been doing for the taskforce.”
“Don’t force my hand, Hawk. I will take you and your club down if you get in my way.”
“Fuck off.” Hawk had reached the end of his patience. “I only agreed to the damn loan of one of my men because he insisted he had a way in that none of us had. He wanted to help you and look what it got him. He’s lying helpless in a bed waiting for that bitch to kill him while I can’t do a fucking thing to stop it.”
“If this ever comes to light I’ll deny it. You get me?”
“I do. Give me something Van Blerk, anything that will help me save my brother.”
“Army talked about a safe location he had. You find that location and you’ll find the information he said he had for me. That’s all I can give you.”
Hawk breathed out a sigh of relief.
“We won’t leave a stone unturned until we find it. In the meantime, is there any way you can stall the bitch? She’s given us two days to say our goodbyes.”
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