Ice shrugged. “Oh? I don’t keep track of what the old ladies do. Not my problem.”
Emma smiled and Ice saw the calculation in her eyes. She was throwing out bait.
“I thought the Sinner’s Sons and the Iron Dogz weren’t friends. How could Hawk allow his old lady to fraternise with one of the Sinner’s Sons bitches?”
Ice frowned at her as if he was confused. “What are you on about? Why would it matter if they were friends? They’re bitches, not important.”
“And what if she’s friends with DC to get information on your club? DC is the presidents’ woman and surely she knows things.”
Ice laughed. “I don’t think so.” He frowned as he pretended concern. “What are you trying to say, Emma?”
She leant closer as if she was about to share a huge secret with him. “I think DC is passing information about the Iron Dogz to River and she’s passing it onto the Sinner’s Sons. I’ve heard whispers that Dagger is about to take her as his old lady. Something about a promise he made to his brother.”
What the hell was the bitch aiming for with this shit? And what the fuck did she know about Dagger and Sparrow?
She looked at him through her lashes. “What do you think DC might be telling her?”
“I don’t give a fuck because there’s nothing to pass on.” Ice said harshly and at last he seemed to get under her skin. But she very quickly hid it and pretended to be hurt.
“When are you ever going to trust me again, Gray? We used to share everything with each other and now you’re keeping me miles away from you. I can help. You know I can. I always helped you to get clarity when club stuff got your head all confused.”
What the fuck was the bitch talking about? Never in his life had he discussed club business with a bitch. And certainly never with her. He had considered her too young and innocent.
“Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Emma. I don’t talk about club business. I never have and I never will.”
She pulled a face and Ice waited for her next move. He didn’t have to wait long. “I bet Dagger talks to River and I bet her and DC hear a lot of things you think they don’t and I bet they share it with each other.”
“What the fuck do I care if Dagger shares his club’s shit with some bitch? It has nothing to do with me. Not my business.” Ice pushed a little harder. It was obvious Emma was trying to make him suspicious of DC’s friendship with River. Why?
Emma shrugged as if she didn’t care one way or the other. “I just thought I should tell you what I had heard. The doctors where I work were talking about how River abuses her poor little boy and how the Welfare got involved. So sad. If she could do that to a child I was just wondering what else she would do.”
It took everything he had to keep his face impassive as the bitch pushed and lied to get some type of reaction from him. Why? What was she looking for?
“Not interested, Emma. Sad for the kid but it’s not my problem.” Ice twisted his beer on the table in front of him glanced at Kid and when he got the okay took a sip.
Her eyes flashed with anger and then a sly look slid through them and Ice braced for the fucked up shit she was going to come up with next. Her voice when she spoke was soft and fearful. It was so damned fake it made his gut ache.
“I have something to confess and you are going to be so angry with me. I’m actually glad we’re here and not at home. I was scared of telling you when we were alone.” She glanced up through her lashes to gauge his reaction to her once again calling her monstrosity of a house their home, and to her having something to confess. He gave her nothing.
“Spit it out, Emma.” Ice growled. He had a suspicion she was about to play what she thought was her trump card.
And then she did.
“I lied.” She said softly. “I’ve been trying to tell you for some time but I was so scared you would hate me. I didn’t lose our baby, Gray. I had her and gave her up to a good family to take care of her.”
Jesus. Thank fuck for the DNA test. If not for the test he would have been a fucking wreck right now. He used the rage at her trying to manipulate him to fuel his reaction.
“What? You did what?” Ice grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard, enjoying her grimace of pain.
“You’re hurting me, Gray. Please.” She begged softly.
“Where is she? Where is my daughter, Emma? You better tell me right now or you are going to regret ever walking back into my life.”
“Please just listen, Gray.” Again the soft pleading voice. “I was alone and my mum called my dad and he knew people who could help. We had broken up and I didn’t know what to do. He contacted people who wanted to have a baby and couldn’t. She’s happy with them. They take good care of her.”
Did she let it slip on purpose or was it a crumb she threw out to pull him further into her net?
“How could your dad have helped you? He wasn’t ever in your life, Emma. Who is he? How did he organise an adoption without my signature?”
Again she gave him the sad and guilty face.
“I…I didn’t put your name on her birth certificate. I’m so sorry, Gray. My dad called people he knew, important people, and they fixed it. At the time I didn’t know he was my dad. He was just a man who sometimes visited my mum.”
This was information they hadn’t had before and there must be a reason why she so freely gave it to him. He had to be careful but not about how he felt right now. She was expecting his reaction.
Ice didn’t have to pretend as he glared down at the bitch. He hated her and it showed in his eyes. And he told her as much.
“I hate you right now, Emma. You stole my child from me and gave her away as if she was a bag of old clothes. You and your family, your dad, you owe me. I want their names. Everyone who had a hand in this fucking adoption. Give me their names. If you don’t I will make you regret the day you decided to take what was mine.”
She shook her head sadly but he saw right through it. It was fake.
“It won’t help. It was a closed adoption. My dad and her new parents insisted on it. She’s gone and it’s my fault.” Fake tears stood in her eyes as she gave him some names and strangely included the names of the Howards. He would bet his last cent most of the names were as fake as her tears. But maybe not, maybe he was being set up for something else. The kid’s kidnapping maybe?
“I can’t be around you right now.” Ice said as he got up and walked away.
And the tiny bug he left on the table had no trouble picking up her phone conversation after he had left. And with luck Ziggy would be able to trace the call to its origin.
Emma Coetzee was evil, right down to the bottom of her filthy soul. Using her own child to further her dark agenda proved it beyond a shadow of doubt.
Ice stormed back into the clubhouse and straight to the bar where Chris was already pouring him a shot of whiskey and Sam stood ready to take his kutte to get the bitch’s smell out of it.
“Stop throwing your tees across the bar.” Chris griped as she threw his smelly tee at Sam. “Ask Aunt Beryl to show you how to soak it, and then put it in the machine. It will be good as new after it has been washed.”
Kid and Sin joined him at the bar and both signalled for shots as well.
“The bitch is some piece of work.” Sin snarled as he threw his shot back and set the glass slowly back on to the bar.
“You had a fucking lucky escape, brother.” Kid shook his head. “Her soul is dark, very fucking dark.”
Ice tapped his shot glass on the bar and Chris refilled it but as he lifted the glass to his mouth he stopped and turned to Kid. “I’m worried about the Howards. She’s put that poor kid right in the middle of her fucking game. We have to get them to a safe place until this shit is over. Emma is going to use the kid to get what she wants and once she’s done with her the kid will disappear. We can’t let that happen.”
Hawk sat down next to him and patted the bar and Chris poured him a shot. Ice waited as his prez threw i
t back. “Already on it, brother. Just had a call from Rick, the taskforce took care of the Howards this morning. They’ve gone on an extended vacation. I have his word they won’t be found and they will stay gone until this shit has been sorted.”
Ice nodded and threw back his shot, feeling the alcohol burn down into his gut. But it didn’t burn as much as the knowledge he had been in love with a fucking lie for years. Years he wasted yearning for something that never existed.
“You should have seen her, Hawk. Crying all soft and ladylike while she slyly watched for his reaction. The bitch is seriously fucked up.” Sin shuddered and motioned for another shot. “The sooner we get our brother shot of her the better.”
“We’re working on it, Sin. Ziggy is busy with it right now and he said if he has to call in Skel to help he would. And that alone should tell you how serious he is about finding what we need.”
Hawk had his elbow on the bar, his hand stroking over his beard, his eyes were sharp as he looked at Ice.
“How the hell did we miss the craziness inside her, Ice? She and Genna grew up right in front of us and we never noticed there was something really wrong with her. Have you talked to your sister about her?”
Ice sighed and rubbed his hands over his tired eyes. He had not been sleeping well lately.
“I was too caught up in wanting to fuck her to notice there was something off about her, and no, I haven’t spoken to Genna. She’s pissed at me after the shit Emma pulled with my folks and then the news that I’m ‘dating’ the bitch again has her about ready to kick me in the nuts. So I’ve been avoiding her and Gail, both those bitches are fucking dangerous when they’re pissed. We need to end this shit before they cut my nuts off in my sleep.”
Hawk laughed and clapped a hand on his back and Ice had to laugh as well. They were still laughing when Hawk’s phone chimed. He checked it then showed it to Ice and the brothers.
It was from Ziggy.
I’ve got a lead on Jane
They followed Hawk down the passage to Ziggy’s office. He had several things going at the same time on the monitors in front of him but it was the grainy photo of Jane that drew their attention.
“I set up a programme to track Jane by facial recognition in all the big cities, which was a very long shot, and I just got a hit. I downloaded the photo from a traffic cam in Port Elizabeth. She’s somewhere near the harbour. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to track her because she’s very good at avoiding cameras. This was the only image I got and it was a total fluke. The camera that caught her was moved during a traffic accident and it was pointing the wrong way.”
Ziggy looked at Hawk. “Do you want me to contact Greyhound in PE? They could start looking, see if they find anything.”
“No, I’ll call him. Book four tickets on the first available flight to PE for Ice, Beast, Sin and Wolf. I’ll arrange for them to be picked up at the airport.” Hawk frowned as he turned to leave then turned back again. “Get me some answers, Ice. And if you can get your hands on her bring the bitch in.”
“You got it, Boss.”
Ziggy got them on the late night flight out of Lanseria Airport and the brothers from the PE chapter picked them up and took them to their clubhouse. After a short meeting they decided to start their search on the docks and work outwards from there. The PE brothers were already talking to their contacts to see what they could find. So far they had very little.
Early the next morning they each paired up with a brother from the local chapter and started to turn over rocks. Somewhere someone knew something. They just had to ‘ask’ the right questions. It was very slow going but they started to pick up crumbs of information by their second day in town.
By their third day they still had nothing concrete, and then one of the club’s contacts reported hearing whispers of a tall blonde woman who was seen at a small outlaw club called Satan’s Savages MC. The club was known to be part of a pipeline running drugs from the port. The PE chapter of the Iron Dogz had never had any problems with them because they weren’t in the drug trade. They kept an eye on them but they hadn’t had any trouble between the clubs, now it seemed things were about to change.
As a courtesy Greyhound called the president of the club. The call did not go as expected. The Satan’s Savages wanted a meeting, but not with Greyhound, they demanded a meeting with Hawk. Ice told Greyhound to go ahead and arrange the meeting. He would be the one attending the meeting with this asshole. The Satan’s Savages insisted the meeting had to take place in a very public place, on the beachfront. It meant safety for both of the clubs. But it was absolute bullshit.
Greyhound had reached out to his contact at the SAPS and he had advised against meeting with the Satan’s Savages. The club was presently under surveillance by the drug squad and there were rumblings they were about to make several arrests. If the Iron Dogz were seen meeting with them they would be implicated by association.
Everything about this meeting pointed to a set up.
Ice changed the location and time of the meeting by turning up at the gates of the Satan’s Savages clubhouse in the early hours of the morning. It was obvious they had had a huge party the night before and there were several bitches and hang arounds stumbling about in the yard. The meeting went down at the gates of the compound and went about as Ice had expected it would. The fucker had nothing to say, just a bunch of empty threats. But that was fine, they hadn’t expected anything anyway.
As he walked to his bike Ice turned around and raised his voice so everyone in the filthy little yard could hear him.
“There’s a reward of five thousand rand for anyone who comes forward with information about the tall blonde woman who has been visiting this club. Her name is Jane Warne. She’s a child sex trafficker and we’ll pay to get our hands on her. You give us what you know and we’ll keep your name out of it. All we want is the bitch. She sells innocent little kids to perverts. If you have young children keep them close and trust no one. And when I say no one, I mean no one. Call us if you know or hear anything that will help us put her away.”
There were shocked rumblings among the people standing around watching.
As he walked away the president of the Satan’s Savages was shouting at his men and the people in the yard but Ice ignored him as he got in the SUV and drove away with his brothers.
If they were lucky one of those bastards would be greedy or scared enough to contact the Dogz. He hoped it was soon because he wanted to get back to follow up on what Ziggy might have uncovered about Emma. Not that he had anything yet. Ice had been calling him every day to get an update but so far Ziggy didn’t have anything more to share.
On their fifth fucking day in the windy city one of the Satan’s Savages called. The information was sparse but worrying.
Jane had been in Port Elizabeth to do the ground work to set up another pipeline for the export of their product. The Savages hadn’t been aware the product was young girls and boys until Ice had made his little speech. When confronted by his officers the Satan’s Savages president had admitted to negotiating with Jane to set up the pipeline. She had offered a huge amount of money to the club. And his greed had resulted in the bastard becoming shark food.
Unfortunately Jane was gone. She had moved on to lure her next target into their filthy business. But they now had a trail to follow. She was targeting smaller clubs, clubs who needed money. Clubs who might be greedy for a piece of the tightly controlled criminal pie.
The Iron Dogz would be targeting those same small clubs in the harbour cities. They would all receive only one warning. Deal with Jane Warne and become an enemy of the Iron Dogz MC.
Relaxing back into his seat on their late night flight home Ice sipped on his whiskey and turned his mind to the job waiting for him in Jozi. He had to find a break in Emma’s armour.
Something told him their time was fast running out.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ice
They had been back several days and Ziggy still had no
thing of significance. He was working on the problem with Mad Dog and Skel, and the three of them were using all their skills to find the connection between Jane Warne and Emma Coetzee. They were digging deep into both of their backgrounds, refusing to give up and swore they would find the common denominator between the two.
Someone or something linked the two women to each other and to the Maingarde bitch. They needed to find that link.
Another thing that had them baffled was Emma’s fixation on DC, River Anderson and the Sinner’s Sons MC. Why?
Was Sparrow’s death somehow connected to all this shit? What did they know about his death? Had he seen or heard something? Was that the reason why he was gunned down?
And what the hell did DC have to do with any of it? Was it because of Jane?
He had way more questions than answers. And he needed answers.
They needed a face to face with Dagger because he was the only one who could answer the questions they had about Sparrow. But they couldn’t meet at Zeffers like they had last time. There were too many eyes on them there. They needed a place no one would expect either of them to visit.
And he knew just the place. He would have to ask Gail to let him take his nieces out for a treat. And the way she felt about him right now meant he would get an earful before she agreed.
Ice sat in the too small chair next to Dagger watching as his nieces and Dagger’s nephew bounced on the trampolines.
The boy was tall for his age and had super straight dark blonde hair that flopped over his green eyes as he jumped. There was a remarkable family resemblance between him and Dagger. And even at this age it was clear to see the kid was going to look just like his old man. Anyone who had known Sparrow or saw photos of the man would know this kid was his. Even the fucking smile was the same. He would be a constant reminder of his dad every time Dagger and River looked at him. That had to be fucking painful.
Looking away from the kid Ice forced himself to concentrate on business and not on trying to see something of his mother in the boy.
Lost And Found In Blue (Iron Dogz MC Book 2) Page 14