“He’s demanding is he? Tell him to make a fucking appointment like every other asshole who wants to see me.”
I very rarely swore...okay, lies, but I’ve been trying to watch my mouth since I spent a lot of time around my sister’s kids and Star’s baby girl.
BP, before prison, the harshest swear word out of my mouth was damn. AP, after prison, anything and everything goes.
“Face, babe, he’s not going to go away without talking to you.” Cuba warned softly. “Let the fucker in and let’s hear what he wants. Once we say no and throw him out we can go back to business as usual.”
Tracing my fingers over the scars on my face I sighed heavily then raised my head and nodded.
“Let him in, but only him, no one else sets foot inside our gates. He can take it or leave it. Tell Pet and Mads to keep their eyes on the bastards who came with him. Damn, I wish Carla was here, she would scare the pants off those pussies.”
But Carla wouldn’t be back for another week at least. Her eldest was graduating and she was over the moon happy for her girl. I could hardly believe it had been almost five years since I walked out the prison gates and called Dominick Maingarde for help. Not for myself but for Carla. Eight months later Carla walked out those gates a free woman because he had pulled some strings. And it wouldn’t be the last time he helped me.
I turned back to Star. “Get Stella, and take her down to the safe room. Keep your eyes on the fuckers outside the gates plus watch the perimeter. Stay there until one of us gives you the signal that it’s safe to come out.”
She shook her head. “I can’t leave you here without the necessary back up.”
“What if he threatens your baby girl? Remember what got me ten years behind bars. Get your ass into the safe room. You know you can do your job from the computer station down there. We need you to watch our backs while we’re busy with the asswipe.”
“Okay, fine, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.” She muttered as she ran down the passage to the playroom where her baby girl was having a nap.
Cuba and Evvie waited until she was gone before they went back outside and I went to my fake office. The office existed for times like this when we had to guard against the bad guys getting a good look at the inside of our building.
When we bought the building and had it renovated we had the basement converted into a gym, an armoury and a big safe room set up with a control centre from where Star could do her thing. The ground floor was where we had our offices and a conference room with a small very basic kitchen and pantry. The pantry was in actual fact the entrance to a tunnel and a perfect disguise.
The first floor was where we had our communal kitchen, lounge, dining room and media room and the access to the guest apartment above the garages. My crew’s bedrooms and two guest bedrooms were on the second floor while my room was up on the roof, built into the front corner with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the roof and the distant ocean. The roof was the space where we relaxed most of the time. We had trees and shrubs in tubs and pots filled with flowers as well as a long wooden table with big umbrellas we could open up for shade. And of course we had a bar and braai area.
I had a nifty steel internal staircase that connected me with the second floor so I didn’t have to use the heavy reinforced roof door to get inside the building. For security purposes there was a heavy reinforced trapdoor that locked from the inside to seal off access to the building should someone somehow gain access to the roof. It was doubtful that we’d ever have to use it but we wanted to ensure we’d covered all our entrances and exits.
Because of our business we knew how easy it was to get in to places people believed to be secure.
I took the time to quickly dust the desk and put the photos of my sister and her family in prominent positions. Looking around the office I made sure that it was empty of anything but the desk and chairs. With Stella crawling about the place her toys showed up in the most peculiar places.
I was ready for the confrontation. And that’s what it would be, a confrontation.
He strode into the office as if he owned it. As always he was dressed in a fancy suit, his ginger hair neatly cut and styled. He exuded money and class. Money he had in spades, class...not at all. His eyes slid over the bare walls and battered furniture and the bastard smirked.
Asshole.
I sat behind the desk, arms crossed over my chest. He didn’t wait for me to invite him to sit down. He sat and fussily settled his suit jacket around him, leant back and acted as if the office belonged to him and I was the visitor.
Asshole.
He chose to open with an insult disguised with fake concern.
“You used to be a beautiful girl before the disfigurement. I offered to pay for the plastic surgery to correct the botched job those incompetent doctors did. Why did you turn me down?”
I ignored his question.
“I’m thirty four years old, old man, no longer nineteen and stupid. Why are you here?”
The fake concern dropped from his face like the mask it was. A cold predator sat in the chair across from me and tried to find a chink in my armour.
“Did you really think I spent all that time moulding you into the perfect weapon just to let you walk away? I made you what you are, you belong to me. I gave you time to get over your little temper tantrum and allowed you to live and work in my city. No more, you will give me the respect I’m owed and you will return to work for me. There’s a job I need done as soon as possible and you will do it.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Evvie snarled where she stood behind him.
Again I ignored the cold as hell predator and focused on my friend.
“Oh, believe me, he’s very serious. Sadly he’s going to go away disappointed.”
I felt his dead eyes on me the entire time and forced myself to meet them. Rage was a ravenous animal that lived deep inside me and I would have loved to kill the fucker and feed him to the sharks out at sea. But I couldn’t. Too many people would have seen his arrival at our gates and knew he was here, inside my compound, talking to me. Plus my bloody nosy neighbours had fucking cameras all over the place. Now wasn’t the time to eliminate him.
“We don’t work for the Syndicate, Murchison. Leave, and don’t come back, you’re not welcome here or in my life.”
He smiled that predators’ smile I knew so well and relaxed back in his chair.
“Oh, I wouldn’t bet on that, Noelle.” He pretended to inspect his nails before looking up. “Have you spoken to your sister lately? I understand my granddaughter is feeling a bit under the weather. Fatigue, extreme nausea and shortness of breath to name only a few of her symptoms.”
Fear raced through me but I kept my face expressionless.
“What did you do to her?” I asked softly, so very softly.
He shrugged and pulled a sad face. “Nothing much but it could become a whole lot worse if you and your prison bitches don’t do as I tell you. Her life is in your hands. What’s it going to be, Noelle? Her life or your co-operation?”
“You really are a piece of work aren’t you? You would kill your own innocent granddaughter to get what you want, but then you’ve killed family before so it shouldn’t surprise me at all.”
He got a tiny little frown line between his ginger brows. Thank fuck neither Rentia, her kids, nor I had inherited the ginger gene. “What are you talking about?”
I shook my head and snorted then waved it away, refusing to give him the satisfaction of answering his question.
“What is this job you want me to do?” I bit through clenched teeth.
His face cleared as if by magic and the affable face he showed to the world at large was looking back at me. Even his dead eyes twinkled. Jesus.
“All the information you need will be delivered to you tomorrow.” He stood and started to walk out of the office but turned around before he got to the door. “I advise that you complete the job
in the time frame required. If you do not bring me what I want your niece will sadly succumb to her illness and the deaths won’t stop there.” He looked me right in the eyes and smiled. “Don’t disappoint me again, Noelle. The last time you did I left you with those scars as a reminder not to cross me. Do it again and this time I will kill you, slowly and very painfully.”
And then he was gone with Evvie following him outside to ensure he left. I fought hard to control my rage. I had always suspected he was responsible for the damage to my face and the fucker just confirmed those suspicions. Cuba was about to start talking but I held my hand up and motioned her out of the room and down the passage to my real office where we watched him leave on the monitors against the wall.
“Jesus, Face! He’s the one who cut you. It was punishment for disappointing him. He did that to you, his own fucking daughter. The man needs to die and fucking soon.” Cuba snarled as we sat down.
“I can’t let my mind go there. I need to put it on hold and concentrate on what’s happening right now. Let’s get to work on the shit he just dropped on us. First we need to check every inch of the space he was in for bugs. He’s too cocky by far not to have planted a few.” I sat at the battered and scarred desk in my office and looked at the papers scattered across the top. “I need to call Rentia and find out why the hell they didn’t call to tell me Tersha is sick. Then I have to get hold of Dom, he might have an idea what’s happening here. And finally I have to call Bruno to ask for the loan of one of his teams to guard our perimeter while we’re busy with this shit.”
I continued without giving her a chance to answer.
“The most important thing right now is to get my sister and her family to safety and figuring out what the hell the asshole did to my niece. I think it might be poison but those people are so vile it could be anything. I need to get her to a specialist that’s not in the pay of the old bitch.”
Cuba shook her head. “They’ll be watching for us, Face. We make a move towards them and they will take your family out. We can’t take the chance.”
Rubbing a finger up and down the scar running next to my nose I weighed all my options. None of them made me happy. Making a decision I didn’t like I opened the central drawer of my desk and pulled out one of the very basic pre-paid phones I had in there.
Hi darling, I’m feeling lonely. You available for some quality time?
I left the phone lying on the desk as we waited for his answer. It came a short while later.
Busy right now. Might be able to schedule two days next week.
I sighed, shut the phone down and slipped it into my pocket. It was set, I would meet with Dom in two hours’ time. Evvie, Mads and Star rushed into the office and took the other chairs. Evvie turned her chair in order to keep an eye on the monitors.
“Two hours isn’t a hell of a lot of time to get things organised this side.” Cuba complained and I shrugged, we would manage.
“We handle it the easy way. It’s Take Away Thursday isn’t it? We’re going to do what we always do. Two of us go out to get several different take aways. I guarantee those stupid fuckers watching the building will follow Mads and Evvie all over Cape Town as they collect the food. Drag it out as much as you can. I’ll slip out with Cuba and meet up with Dom.”
Mads frowned for about two seconds before she grinned and bounced her eyebrows up and down. “They will have guys watching the back, expecting us to try and sneak out.”
I gave her a wink and returned her grin. “They can watch but they won’t see us. I’m positive they don’t know about the tunnels. We get out using the tunnels, grab the car and go to the meeting. After the meeting we come back in the same way.”
Mads shook her head and gave a sly grin. “One of these days those crazy and hot as hell bikers next door are going to find out we’ve been using their tunnel and then we are going to be in sooooo much trouble.”
I laughed softly. “I know you would like nothing better than going up against our neighbours. But not today, Mads, hopefully not today.”
She pulled a mock disappointed face but said nothing more.
Pulling my every day phone from my pocket I found my sister’s contact, dialled then waited. She answered after the fourth ring.
“Noey, I can’t talk right now. We’re at the doctor with Tershie. She’s really sick.” Her voice was whisper soft. “I’ll call you as soon as we’re done here, promise.”
“Ren, listen to me and don’t say a word, just listen. Our baby girl is sick because the sperm donor had something done to her. He was just here and threatened me if I don’t do what he wants he’ll let her die. I’m making arrangements to get her to a specialist that’s not in the pay of the Syndicate. Go through with the doctor’s visit but do not under any circumstances let them give her anything. I know, I know it hurts to see her like this but Ren, I give you my word I’ll make this right. He will pay for this, I swear it.”
“They want to admit her.” It wasn’t Ren who answered but Denver. “What do we do?”
“Tell them you’re taking her for a second opinion and go to the Children’s Hospital, but don’t go inside. I’m seeing my contact within the next two hours to arrange for a specialist to take over her care. Evvie and Mads will meet you at the hospital and escort you here. Don’t stop for anyone and be prepared to stay a while. I’ll send Pet to pack your shit and bring it over. Keep your eyes open, Denver, the sperm donor is on the war path.”
There were voices in the background and Denver swore softly before speaking to me again.
“Thanks, Noey, I’ll talk to you soon.”
I slowly put my phone down and looked up at Cuba and Mads. “They’re at the doctor and he wants to hospitalise Tershie, that’s not happening. She will be too vulnerable there. Like I told Denver, Mads and Evvie will escort them back here. We’ll put them upstairs in the guest suite and Pet will make a run to their house to pack their shit and bring it here.”
“What do you think they gave her?” Cuba asked softly.
I shook my head and shrugged because I had no idea.
“I don’t know but I’m going to find out and get her the right treatment. And then I’m going after Donald Murchison and he’d better start praying because he’s going to need whatever god he worships to intervene. He’s dead once this bullshit is done.”
They didn’t say a word, just nodded in agreement. No one touched our families and lived to tell the tale. No one.
My call to Bruno had been met with very vocal fury when I explained that Murchison was back and I needed one of his teams. He finally agreed to send a team but only after I agreed to him leading them. I didn’t tell him the real reason why we would need the team to watch our backs, he would find out soon enough.
An hour later Cuba and I were making our way through the short tunnel we had secretly cut to connect with the Sinners Sons MC’s tunnel system. It was ballsy of us to highjack their tunnel but we needed a secret way out and this one was right there, just asking for a bunch of ex-cons to appropriate it for themselves.
And how did we find out about their escape tunnel? Purely by chance.
Cuba and I had been sneaking back into the compound after a less than legal job for Dom when we got the fright of the decade. As we were slipping from one dark spot to the next we froze when a soft buzzing sound came from the supposedly empty warehouse to the right of us. Carefully creeping a bit closer we saw that the noise came from a roll up door noiselessly opening. A few seconds later two bikers slipped out into the dark and shortly after a blacked out van rolled out of the door. The two bikers we had seen earlier reappeared and got into the van, the door closed and then they drove away into the night. Once they were gone we slinked through the dark to get back into our own compound. At the time we had been lucky we hadn’t been caught on their cameras because we had been way too close to their secret back door.
We started work on a tunnel of our own shortly after that incident. We had a good idea where their tunnel was and d
ug our tunnel to meet up with theirs then drilled a tiny hole into the tunnel to take a video of the wall we had to take out. We very, very carefully copied the bricks we had to remove down to the last little speck. Then we built the door clad with those bricks that would connect the two tunnels and waited for the bikers to go on a club run. We had realised once we started watching them that the tunnel was unmanned during those times. I suppose they locked it down for the duration of the run.
We handled it like we were planning a major heist.
Starling hacked the cameras in the tunnel and looped them while we broke through the thin wall and installed the door. It was a seamless fit, and it was so perfect you would have to know where to look to see it. We cleaned every single bit of debris from the tunnel and restored the cameras to normal, and the bikers never noticed. Thank fuck.
We had a tiny spy hole in one of the bricks where we had a camera we only used to check if the tunnel was safe for us to use. We hardly ever had to use it which was why we hadn’t been discovered yet. I knew we couldn’t push our luck and that it would not end well if the Sinners found we were trespassing on their territory. They had their take no prisoners reputation for a very good reason.
We’d had enough trouble with them when Dominick acquired the property next to theirs for us. The club had wanted the property but our offer was accepted because Bruno had vouched for us. It helped to have an ex-cop as a friend and future business partner.
The club never openly threatened us or intimidated us but they weren’t friendly either. They knew we were ex-cons and that our legit company was involved in security solutions. A good reason for them to keep their eyes on us but they needn’t have worried. We had made the decision right from the start that their systems were not to be messed with, except of course the cameras they had in the tunnel. And only when we were using the tunnel.
I didn’t want War, their scary as all hell president, to look into us more than they had already done.
Cuba and I silently crept out of the empty warehouse behind the biker compound and keeping low made our way onto the empty street. It didn’t take us long to reach the parking garage where we had a car sitting in a monthly parking slot.
Neither Black Nor White (Iron Dogz MC, #6) Page 7