Ice ran his fingers through his hair and drew in a deep breath. This was going to suck.
“I brought photos of the car and photos of the two women from about seven years ago and a few more recent ones. We would like Jinx to take a look.”
Ice turned to Jinx who sat like a damn statue in his chair. “Jinx, I know this must be fucking torture for you. But maybe looking at these photos will jar a memory loose. Even just the smallest one might help us to pin these fuckers down.”
Jinx shook his head. “It’s a huge big blank spot in my memory. I’ve tried and the last thing I remember is Sparrow throwing his arm around me and telling me I was getting fat. After that it’s all a blank.”
Dagger clasped a hand on his shoulder. “Have a look, brother. What could it hurt?”
“It hurts every fucking day of my life, Dagger. I let him down and he died. If not for me he wouldn’t have been there that night.” Jinx ground out.
Ice got there before Dagger could say a word. “If he hadn’t been with you he would have been with River. Weren’t they supposed to go to dinner? These people don’t give a shit about innocent bystanders. They would have killed her. Think of it this way, Jinx. Your bender saved River and Duncan’s lives.”
Both Dagger and Jinx let out heavy breaths. Jinx nodded more than once then sat forward in his chair.
“Show me the photos.”
Skelly flipped his laptop around and pushed it across the desk towards Jinx. He pulled the laptop closer and frowned as he clicked through the photos, over and over. Then he stopped on one and stared at it for quite a few minutes. He clicked to another and did the same. And another.
“Jesus.” He whispered his eyes locked on the screen. “You’re right. We saw this car. We saw this fucking car. A bitch was driving and she had a passenger. Another bitch. She fucking cut right in front of us in heavy traffic, almost took us down. We were pissed and followed but they drove into the parking at the Hilton and we lost them. Sparrow was fucking livid and insisted on driving around the block. That’s when we saw them again. They were parked in the open parking at the back of the hotel talking to an older woman and two men. They must have seen us. And they would have seen us in the traffic before they cut us off, would have seen our kuttes, maybe even our names.”
Jinx turned to Ice. “Is that why they came after us? Why they killed Sparrow?”
Ice pushed the laptop back to Skelly. “Find me a photo of Winifred Maingarde.”
The atmosphere in the room went electric as Doc shot forward in his chair. Skelly clicked then wordlessly turned the laptop towards Jinx.
“Is this the older woman you saw with the bitches?”
It didn’t take him long. Jinx nodded angrily. “That’s her, the old bitch we saw with them.”
“Would you be able to identify the men if we got some photos together?” Ice pushed for more.
“I don’t know, but I’ll fucking try. At last it feels like I’m doing something to avenge my best friend. I’ll do whatever I have to, to get these fuckers. They killed a good man just because he saw them talking to someone. We didn’t even fucking know what we had seen was important.”
Skelly pulled the laptop towards him and searched and clicked then pushed the laptop over again. A recent photo of Dominick Maingarde filled the screen.
“Was he one of the men you saw?”
Jinx immediately shook his head. “No, he’s too young and his hair is the wrong colour. One of the men had thick salt and pepper hair, the other was a fucking ginger. The ginger looked like a bodyguard or something.”
At least they now knew Dominick hadn’t been involved. If he had been it would have sucked. Despite what he did for a living Ice liked the man. Would Dom help them to identify the man who had been with the old bitch? He didn’t know but it was something to think about.
Skelly sat back in his chair with a frown and tapped his fingers against his lips.
“I think we’ve seen this guy, and it was recently. I can’t swear to it but I think he was with the old bitch in Durban. I need to talk to Mad Dog and Ziggy and go through the footage. I’ll let you know if I find something.”
Ice nodded then looked back at Jinx. “Anything else seem familiar?”
Jinx was frowning as he slowly shook his head. Ice could see something was happening in his head but it wasn’t enough. There was one more nudge they could try.
“There’s one other thing we could try. But, Jinx, it won’t be easy. It will be fucking hard, maybe even soul destroying but it’s all we have left.”
“You want me to listen to the recording.”
Ice didn’t say anything just nodded.
Clasping his hands behind his head Jinx leant back in his chair, he folded his bent arms around his head as he looked up at the ceiling. As if he was protecting what was in his head, or protecting himself from what he knew would most likely destroy his peace of mind. Or what little peace of mind he had been able to gather over the last five years.
“When?” He asked softly.
“We can do it now. Dagger doesn’t want to hear it. He can wait for us at the bar. It’s not very long but I must warn you, it’s not easy to listen to.”
“Let’s do it.”
Dagger immediately stood and after a hard pat on Jinx’s back he walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. Doc and Skelly didn’t leave.
And then the sound of Sparrow’s voice filled the room and Jinx fell apart. At the end he sat bent over with his elbows on his thighs, his hands over his face as he cried unashamedly. For a while the only sound in the room was Jinx’s sorrow, and then he sat up, wiped his eyes and sniffed. And by the look in his eyes Ice knew it had worked.
Jinx remembered.
“The car was there, waiting for us when we walked out. And the back end was dented and scratched to shit as if it had been in an accident. Windows were open and those bitches shot at us. I tried to get in front of Sparrow but it was already too late. We were both hit by the time we went down. I hit my head as I went down and that was it. Nothing, until I woke in the hospital and Dagger told me Sparrow was gone.”
He steepled his hands in front of his face groaned. “Why the fuck didn’t I remember this shit? We wasted five fucking years! Five fucking years!”
“Nothing has been wasted, Jinx. Five years ago none of what you remembered would have made any difference to the case. The pigs weren’t interested in hearing about it. Wrote it off as a gang related shooting. Done. Closed the case.” Ice continued explaining.
“The good thing about five years having passed is when we serve out justice none of it will blow back on River and Duncan. And what we uncovered tonight is part of a very big conspiracy to take down and take over the prominent clubs in the country. I need to talk to my prez and clear some shit with him but I think we need a formal meeting of all the clubs who are involved.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” Jinx said.
Ice sighed and stood.
“And now I have something personal I have to talk to Dagger about. Would you mind if we use your office, Doc?”
“Nope. I’ll send him in. When you’re done come and have a beer before you take DC home.” Doc said with a sly grin.
Jinx hadn’t moved, he stood and waited until Dagger walked in then looked at Ice. “I’m not leaving him alone with you. Sorry, Ice, can’t do it.”
Ice shrugged and moved away from them to give him some space in case the bastards started throwing punches once he told them what he had to.
“What I’m going to say is going to piss you off so I’m just going to come right out and say it. So here goes nothing.” Ice drew in a breath. “River’s babies are mine. I’m the father. I fell for her, Dagger, fucking hard but I had to push her away for her own safety. She is mine, her children are mine.”
Deathly silence as two sets of eyes stared at him. Nothing showed in their eyes and then Dagger nodded and looked at Jinx. He held his president’s eyes for a few seconds then nodded as if
in agreement. Those eyes turned back to him. Then Dagger gave Ice an ultimatum he had no problem agreeing to.
“You have twenty four hours then I want to hear River is yours. Under your protection and the protection of your club. If she agrees you will marry her as soon as fucking possible and you will make her your old lady. River, Duncan, those babies and any other babies she might have will always be Sinner’s Sons family and will have our protection as well as yours.”
“Fuck.” Jinx muttered. “Never thought one of the Dogz would become our brother-in-law. Always thought our girl would fall for some civilian asshole when the time was right.”
Ice frowned at Jinx. “She’s been mine for months but I had to push her away to keep her safe. Now with her pregnant and vulnerable I can’t leave her out there. I’ll be bringing her and Duncan on to the Iron Dogz grounds to keep her and our family safe.”
Dagger laughed while Jinx’s lips lifted in a small smile and both shook their heads. Then Jinx explained.
“Not going to happen. River will fight you tooth and nail. She won’t leave mum and dad or her house. Make peace with it, Ice. You’re going to have to move in with her. We’ve secured both houses as much as we can and we have brothers on her and Duncan 24/7. The same with mum and dad. And when you move in it means we have more brothers available to protect them.”
“She won’t let me move in, man. You both know it.” Ice said.
“Who said anything about giving her a choice, brother?” Dagger said slyly. “You pack a bag, and we ride there with you, get you through the gates and the rest is up to you.”
“Okay, I can do that. As long as she doesn’t shoot me before I’ve explained.”
Jinx shook with laughter and Ice could see by the way Dagger looked at him that his friend hadn’t laughed in a very long time.
“There is the distinct possibility. She is really fucking pissed at you. Especially after seeing you with that slut. I always wondered what had pissed her off that night at the restaurant, now I know. I hope you have a really good fucking explanation for the shit we all saw.” Jinx wasn’t laughing anymore.
Ice shrugged. “I’ll tell her everything and hope for the best.”
Dagger laughed. “Come on, brother, let’s have a beer and make some plans to get you into the house tomorrow. I have a few ideas of how we can play it.”
Ice followed a laughing Dagger and Jinx out of the office and joined DC and Doc at the bar.
He made plans with Dagger to get him into his woman’s house before they all left. Maybe not her bed, but he would be in the house and that was a hell of a lot closer than where he was right now.
But first he had to report to his Prez. God, he had so much to tell him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
River
I cried myself to sleep and woke up with a headache and puffy eyes. Staring in the mirror after my shower I thought about the talk with my beautiful boy and made a decision.
My prawns deserved another shot at having a dad.
I was going to try one more time. Not now. Tonight would be soon enough.
And if he blew me off again then so be it. I would know I had tried my best.
First thing though was taking care of the disaster that was my face. I could not go to work looking like I had cried all night. Regardless of the fact that I basically did.
I got a look from mum when I dropped Duncan off before heading to work. I knew the look. It said ‘we’ll be talking later girlie’. Later would be fine, right now I was still feeling way too fragile. Maybe it was all the hormones flooding my body or maybe it was the silent dread I felt about the call I would be making later. And after the way he had spoken to me the last time I had called him I wasn’t holding my breath that it would go any better this time around.
The man was obviously a pig and a bastard, but he was the father of my prawns and he needed to know about them. I did not like the idea of his fashion plate of a girlfriend having anything to do with my babies. Her behaviour in public had been super skanky and I didn’t want any child of mine around that kind of person. So I was going to offer him the deal of a lifetime.
Personally I wanted nothing from him. No money. No involvement in their birth. No relationship at all.
All I wanted was for him to give them his last name, the protection of his club and if possible to show up at important events as their father.
If he refused then he could just disappear, hopefully never to be seen again. As far as I was concerned that would be the ideal solution. The prawns would have his last name but that was all. And if it left a hollow feeling in my gut I was not going to acknowledge it. Not now and maybe not ever. They would be mine, like Duncan was mine.
But if I had to be totally honest, Duncan wasn’t only mine. He was part of the Sinner’s Sons family, they loved him and made sure he knew who his daddy was even though he was no longer with us. Duncan loved his uncles and looked forward to spending time with them. The club was helping me to raise my boy and they would be the ones teaching him how to be a man.
If the prawns were girls I would be okay. But what if they were boys?
Would Dagger and the guys step up for them as well? And what would the Iron Dogz do when they found out I had had Ice’s boys? Would Hawk want to get involved in their lives?
Shit. I had to call DC and talk to her about this.
But first I had to call Dr Strauss’s rooms. I wanted a scan to find out the sex of the prawns, as soon as possible. If they were boys I might have a problem and I wanted to face it now rather than after they were born.
As I made my way through the early morning traffic I frowned when I realised I now had two more men on bikes escorting me to work. It didn’t seem to worry my usual escorts so I put it down to Dagger being over protective and went back to worrying about Ice and the sex of the prawns.
Wrench was waiting when I pulled in. Like he now did every single morning. According to him he was waiting on the inevitable hurling stage he was certain would appear when we least expected it. And he wanted to know in advance if his day was going to include holding my hair back while I vomited. So far I had been super lucky. No morning sickness, touch wood.
“You look like shit. What’s wrong? Oh fuck, did the hurling start? No worries, Boss, I got your back. I stocked us up with several kinds of crackers and soda water and juices and all that crap. We have Wet Wipes to wipe your face. I called my mum and she said I had to get hard sweets for you to suck when you feel nauseous but aren’t hurling. So I got several types and flavours. I’m happy to report we’re all set up for the workshop to turn into a vomitarium.”
I had to laugh at the slightly grossed out look on his face.
“No, the hurling didn’t start. I just had a bad night, couldn’t sleep for some reason.”
As we walked into the workshop I looked around at the work we had to get done and sighed. I was going to have to hire another mechanic soon. We had more work than the two of us could comfortably cope with already and when my belly got too big I wouldn’t be able to work. And to be honest it wasn’t the safest environment for the prawns. There were always chemicals and exhaust fumes hanging around. And then there were the fumes from our tiny spray booth. Luckily none of them hung around too long because of the huge extractors mounted on the roof of the workshop.
And those fumes were the reason why Wrench handed me a facemask with a filter in it every single morning. He got quite pissed when I didn’t wear it. To stop the continuous nagging I wore the damned uncomfortable thing. My dad and the guys jokingly started calling me Moto Doc. I was hoping like hell the name didn’t stick.
By lunchtime I was feeling a lot better and wolfed down the sandwiches we had delivered from a nearby sandwich shop. I used the break to call and set up an appointment for the scan and was lucky. I got an early morning appointment for next week Wednesday. All I had to do was get through the next five days. Actually only four and half days because the day was already half way done.
&n
bsp; On my way home I again had four escorts instead of just two. Okay, this wasn’t normal so I needed to call Dagger. Was there some threat I needed to be aware of? But first I was getting out of my work clothes and having a shower before I called him. Mum and Duncan were playing Legos on the carpet in the lounge and I smiled at their total concentration on the job in front of them.
“Hello, family, I’m home.”
“Hello, sweetheart.” Mum smiled as she handed Duncan a blue Lego piece.
“Hey, Mumma. I’m building a room for the prawns and Nana is helping.”
“Wow, that’s great, boykie. I’m going to have a quick shower then you can show me.”
All I got was a nod as he concentrated on the building in front of him.
I was drying off when I heard bikes and recognised Dagger’s but not the bike that came in with him. It meant I wouldn’t have to call him. I slathered lotion on my skin to try and prevent too many stretch marks. I had been lucky with Duncan and only had a few low down on my belly. This time I didn’t think I was going to be so lucky. These kids were already showing and they were only going to get bigger.
I slowed in the act of pulling on my panties and listened to the rumble of male voices.
“Uncle Dagger! Look! I’m building a room for the prawns.” Duncan shouted excitedly.
And then my boy spoke to someone else.
“Mr Icey! Did you know my mumma has prawns in her belly? Two of them! I’m going to be a big brother. We don’t know if they be boys or girls. They don’t have a daddy just like me. Mumma said their daddy didn’t go be with the angels like my daddy. Sammy says their daddy will come see them ‘cause mumma is very pretty. And Sammy says his daddy says mumma is a fox. Why is he calling her a fox? Mumma isn’t a fox, she’s a mumma.”
I heard deep male chuckles and could virtually hear my boy taking a deep breath before he carried on.
Lost And Found In Blue (Iron Dogz MC Book 2) Page 17