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

by René Van Dalen

  Both of us were breathing easier once we were on the way.

  “Every time we do this I think they’re going to catch us in the act.” Cuba said on a heavy sigh.

  “I know, me too.” I drove fast but stayed within the speed limit.

  My heart was beating wildly in my chest and I prayed that Dom would be able to help me.

  No, not only me, but to help us.

  What Murchison wanted impacted all of us.

  Not just my family.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Dominick

  Shutting his phone down he put it down on the table in front of him and went back to listening to the absolute waste of time board meeting. Everyone around the table knew whatever they decided would not be acted on unless Winifred gave it her support. She ruled every single one of the directors from behind the scenes. And sometimes not so behind the scenes at all.

  But not for long if he had anything to do about it.

  He was sitting on her right hand and as always was quietly enraged about the bitch sitting in the chair that was meant to be his father’s before becoming his or even his sister Pixie’s. Not that Pixie would ever want to run the Maingarde Corporation, because she didn’t give a damn about the business. And he didn’t blame her at all.

  Finally the boring meeting was over and he could get out of there. He had somewhere else to be and by the sound of the message it was urgent. She wouldn’t have reached out if it wasn’t.

  “Dominick, before you go, I’d like to have a word.” Winifred’s very cultured English upperclass voice halted him as he was about to get up and leave.

  With an internal sigh that didn’t show on his face he picked up his phone and slid it into his inside pocket. As was his habit he activated it to record the conversation. He had been doing it for years, ever since he realised he would be the one taking the heat should the cops take the Cape Town operation of the Syndicate down. Winifred made very sure her tame ape, Donald Murchison, was the one issuing the orders, but it all came from her. She made sure she was never anywhere near the unsavoury shit his family’s company was drowning in. Her opening sentence had him paying close attention.

  “With Flash and Jane Warne missing, and most probably dead, we need a way to obtain the information they promised us. We have been looking at several options to acquire said information without drawing undue attention. But we’ve come up against a blank wall. We were ready to shelve our plans when Donald came up with a plan. He had recently acquired a team who are extremely skilled in infiltration and extracting information. We urgently need the information and I can’t stress highly enough the importance of acquiring the Iron Dogz trucking company. It will solve the transport problems we are currently experiencing.” As always she never said anything really incriminating. Everyone knew companies spied on each other and she made it seem as if this was what they were discussing, the takeover of a company.

  Dominick stayed silent for several minutes because he knew it pissed Murchison off that he didn’t bow down to him.

  “And what might Donald’s plan be?”

  Murchison didn’t give Winifred a chance to answer.

  “My daughter and her team of ex-cons will get it for us. I’ve made sure she has the incentive to do as we require.” He said with an evil smile.

  “How much are you paying her?” Dominick asked in a bored voice. He wasn’t though, he was seething inside.

  Murchison and Winifred both smiled and they weren’t nice smiles, not at all. “Not a single cent. She will do it for her family. If she refuses her niece will have an extended and very unfortunate hospital stay.”

  He tilted his head to the side as he stared across the table at Murchison. The bastard would murder his own granddaughter to get Winifred what she wants. Sick bastard. And now he knew why Face had reached out to him.

  “So, blackmail.” He let it sink in with both before he slowly stood. “I disagree with your methods. You are using a child’s health to force your daughter to take on a suicide mission. You know there’s no way she will ever make it into the inner sanctum of the Iron Dogz MC in a few days. That kind of infiltration takes months if not years.”

  Murchison scowled at him and Dominick smiled as he casually righted his jacket and buttoned it.

  “We have another operative working on gaining the trust of the president of the Sinners Sons MC. They are allied to the Iron Dogz MC and we might obtain access to what we need through him. It will be a long process though and we don’t have the time to wait it out. Our operative has become close with the daughter of War Knight and she will get us what we need on both clubs as soon as he has her under his total control.”

  Dominick couldn’t believe his arrogance and stupidity.

  “I’m not getting involved in this nonsense. It’s on your heads when people start dying. The Iron Dogz and the Sinners Sons aren’t clubs you play with. By now I would have thought you were well aware of how dangerous they are, Winifred. And sending someone after War Knight’s daughter? That’s absolute madness.”

  Winifred just stared up at him with her cold blue eyes and Dominick shrugged as if he didn’t care one way or the other.

  “It will be interesting to see if you succeed, Donald.” He threw over his shoulder as he left and softly pulled the door closed behind him.

  Making his way to his own office he pretended to be relaxed and without a care in the world.

  Lies. He had an hour before he had to meet with Face. Just enough time to put some things in motion, especially now that he knew why she had reached out to him.

  The call he made was short and to the point.

  “Have a listen, we’ll talk later.”

  Ending the call he sent the voice recording to his contact. As a safety precaution he sent it to another phone as well, a phone he had hidden somewhere he hardly ever went, his sister Pixie’s house. He felt guilty for a nanosecond but shook it off; he was doing this for both of them. After sending the file he deleted all evidence of it from his phone.

  As if it was a normal Thursday night he left his office after alerting his security that he was on his way down. Gideon, his bodyguard and best friend, silently followed him into the lift and they stood in silence as they descended. They both knew they were being watched and listened to.

  Just before they reached the ground floor Gideon spoke. “You going out tonight, Boss?”

  Dominick pulled a face. “No, I was invited to dinner by some husband hunting socialite but she’s so damned boring I turned her down. I’m staying in tonight. I want to try out that new whisky I found and maybe read a few chapters of my book before I go to bed.”

  Gideon, like the good bodyguard he was, just nodded and stayed silent.

  They silently exited the lift and Gideon was joined by three more men as they surrounded him on the walk to his waiting car. As usual he waited while the car was checked before he got in.

  One couldn’t be too careful around Winifred Harrison and the bottom feeders she employed.

  No bloody way would he ever refer to her by the surname she had stolen. His surname.

  His family’s good name, a name she had besmirched with her and her family’s filth. After she had seduced and married his grandfather his health had gone downhill fast, too damned fast. On his grandfather’s death his dad had inherited the family business and ran it with the help of his mum. They had been loving and involved parents to him and his little sister.

  He shuddered as he remembered the night his parents were killed. Then quickly shoved it to the back of his mind, he didn’t have time to get lost in his memories right now.

  Face was going to need him to be at the top of his game.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Face

  I was wearing a blonde wig and Cuba a brunette one as I drove the unremarkable silver sedan into the parking garage close to the Waterfront. We knew there were cameras everywhere and disguised ourselves using the stash we kept in the boot. We wore big heavy black framed glasses. My lens
es were tinted blue and Cuba’s were tinted a deep amber. Chunky scarves were wrapped around our necks and loosely covered the bottoms of our faces. To finish off our disguises we both wore big puffy jackets.

  Thanks for the cold, rainy and very windy evening Cape Town.

  Between the scarves and glasses you could barely make out our faces. And we didn’t draw any attention because there were plenty other people dressed exactly the same. I parked in the dark back corner on the third floor where there were solid walls instead of the open sides like the rest of the parking garage. We were safe because we couldn’t be seen by anyone watching from the surrounding buildings. Dominick’s people made sure the cameras were disabled on this floor before we arrived. Once I parked we waited.

  We didn’t have long to wait before a car pulled in next to ours. Dom and Gideon, his bodyguard got out and so did we.

  “How are you ladies?” Dom asked as he walked over and shook hands with both Cuba and I. Gideon stayed back, keeping his eyes moving over the almost empty parking deck.

  “We could be better.” Cuba groused.

  Dominick watched us with narrowed eyes then got straight to business.

  “Why did you ask to meet?”

  I didn’t hesitate to explain. He listened while I told him everything, not leaving anything out. He nodded a couple of times then stood silently after I had finished.

  “You’re right.” He said suddenly. “We have to get Tersha to a specialist and into a facility were your father won’t be able to get to her, that’s our first priority. Getting her out of your compound unseen is going to be a problem though. I can’t send the helicopter for her, it’s too obvious and we can’t just drive her out. Gideon and I will find a way in though.”

  I looked at Cuba then drew in a deep, deep breath. I was going to reveal a biker club’s secret and if they ever found out they were going to kill me. But my niece was way more important than anything they could do to me.

  “We have a secret way in and out. We won’t be seen.”

  And now Dom and Gideon were very interested indeed.

  “Explain.” Gideon growled and Cuba snarled at him. Really snarled, like lifted her top lip and everything.

  “We might have found something we shouldn’t have and then sort of broke into it.”

  “Stop speaking in riddles woman. Give it to me straight.” Dom snapped.

  “I need your word that neither of you will breathe a word of this to anyone because we will be dead if you talk. Plus I need your word you’ll never ever use what I’m about to tell you.” I insisted.

  “Fine, even though you sound a bit crazy right now, you have my word nothing you say will go further than the four of us, and we will never use whatever it is you’re going to reveal.” Dom said with a frown. He obviously didn’t like making such a blanket promise.

  “If this gets out we are going to be in so much shit, but it’s an emergency. So, here goes.” I drew in a deep breath. “We have a tunnel, a tunnel that connects with one that was already there when we moved in. It connects with the Sinners Sons MC’s secret tunnel. We only use it in dire emergencies, like today.” I finished on a quick inhale because I had spoken without breathing.

  “Holy fucking shit.” Gideon swore softly. “You girls are dead the minute War finds out about this.”

  Cuba rolled her eyes at him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

  I narrowed my eyes angrily. “Duh! That’s why I wanted your word this doesn’t go any further.”

  “Actually, this is good news.” Dom smiled. “Murchison wouldn’t dare get too close to their compound. The Sinners will be very aware of the fact that he has men watching your place. They will be watching those men in turn. It gives us the perfect opportunity to sneak your niece out without being noticed. We can’t bring doctors through your front gate, which would have been the easiest option, because he will have them eliminated as fast as you find them. By sneaking her out he stays under the impression that the girl and her parents are in your compound when in actual fact they are not.”

  I nodded because it made sense. The Sinners would be keeping an eye on Murchison’s men and those bastards will be only too aware that they were being watched. A case of the watchers becoming the watched.

  “Okay, it sounds like a plan. She needs medical attention as soon as possible, Dom. I don’t think she will last long without it. When can you have things set up to move her?”

  Dom leant against his car and I would have to be blind not to notice how hot the man was. His wavy black hair was brushed back from a high forehead and a late afternoon scruff covered his lower face. He wore dark jeans that clung to heavy thighs and a dark blue shirt under his open and pushed back calf length black coat. The blue of his shirt was echoed by his gorgeous dark blue eyes. Those eyes were narrowed and shaded by long as hell dark eyelashes, and his full lips pulled tight as he plotted. Then he nodded to himself and straightened and I quickly jerked my eyes away before I succumbed to the lure to check out a friend’s package.

  Okay, so shoot me, I checked, and damn what a package the man had. Beside me Cuba sniggered softly and I wanted to kick her in the shins. I knew for a fact I hadn’t been the only one checking out packages. I knew my friend too well.

  “Right.” Dom said. “I need to arrange to have a specialist standing ready to treat her the minute we bring her out. We’ll bring in an unmarked ambulance to transport her to a private facility where the Syndicate has no foothold. What is the longest period of time we can be in the tunnel without the Sinners becoming suspicious?”

  Both Cuba and I groaned. “That’s the problem. We never stay longer than five max seven minutes in their tunnel and we never use it more than maybe once or twice a year. Star is worried that if we use it too often their tech guy will become suspicious of the glitch she created to disguise our use of the tunnel. It’s already going to be on his radar because of tonight.”

  Gideon looked at Dom with a frown but he just shrugged.

  “Can she get us in and out tomorrow night without the Sinners starting to shoot at us?”

  “Yes, but it will be the last time we can use the tunnel for a very, very long time. Hopefully we won’t need it for anything else.” I assured Dom even though I wasn’t sure at all. I had to get my niece to a specialist and if that meant dealing with War Knight and his men then so be it.

  Dom nodded and held out his hand, we shook and he moved away and opened his door then turned back to me.

  “I’ll contact you later tonight with the details. Be ready to move when I tell you to. Be safe getting back in, we don’t need them smelling a rat right now.”

  I nodded. “We’ll be ready.”

  Dom slammed his door and Gideon moved around the car to the drivers’ side and opened the door but before he got in he looked across the roof of the car at Cuba.

  “Next time you check out my dick like that, Cuba baby, I’m going to take you up on the offer. Be warned.” He winked then slid into the car, closed the door, and backed the car out. Both of the bastards were laughing as they drove away.

  “Bloody asshole.” Cuba mumbled as she leant against the car next to me. I snorted out a laugh and she couldn’t keep her pissed off face in place, she laughed as well. “It’s a very nice package and what’s the harm in looking? And anyway, he checked my tits out first. So it was totally tit for tat.”

  We both burst out laughing but the laughter suddenly dropped from her face and she became deadly serious.

  “You know they’re going to catch us in the tunnel, right? Either on our way out or on our way back in. That tech guy of theirs will be watching like a hawk after tonight.”

  All I could do was nod. Cuba sighed, patted my shoulder then moved back around the car to get in.

  We drove back to the parking garage in silence, only stopping once so I could dispose of the broken pieces of the pre-paid phone I had used to text Dom. Parking the car, we threw our disguises back in the boot, wiped the outside down and pulle
d the car cover over it. The cover was covered in dust to disguise the fact that the car was used fairly regularly. When our back wall wasn’t being watched we had our own secret way in and out. A small door was hidden in the right hand corner of our back wall behind ivy we had allowed to grow wild, climbing over both sides of the wall in a thick almost impenetrable curtain. If not for the damned watchers we would have used that door to get in and out without being seen.

  Star had reservations about that door though. She was sure the Sinners knew more about our compound and our secret way in and out than we would like them to. According to her their tech guy had a reputation on the dark web for getting into heavily secured systems and she suspected he had attempted to get into ours several times over the years.

  I couldn’t worry about that right now because we were once again about to step onto Sinners property.

  We stuck to the shadows as we silently made our way back to the compound. We had no problems finding the two gorillas watching our back wall. Their car was parked in the shadows cast by the big trees in the empty plot behind our property . They stood out there large as life smoking and talking as if they couldn’t give a damn who saw them. They were parked just off the road behind our property. I wondered idly if they had been spotted by the bikers. I gave a silent snort. Obviously they had, those bikers noticed everything.

  Cuba and I stood in the shadows waiting and watching for an opportunity to cross the road to the warehouse. I waited until the very last moment before letting Star know we were on our way back in. And then our opportunity came, both the assholes turned towards the car as a phone rang and we sprinted across and into the deep shadows next to the warehouse. Again we waited and waited and waited for the signal from Star that it was safe to enter the warehouse.

  It came soon after and we snuck inside and waited for the buzz that told us she had opened the concealed door. And then we ran. As fast as our legs could carry us we ran to where our door was slowly opening. We were scarcely inside when Star closed it remotely and we sank down on the cement floor out of breath, our hearts racing we started giggling in relief only to almost immediately smack our hands over our mouths. Star had warned all of us not to ever make a noise that would draw the attention of the guys who patrolled the tunnel.