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War
Friday - Midday
War couldn’t believe he was fucking nervous. Nervous about meeting a grown man who was his son. Last he talked to him they had been about two hours away and making good time which meant he would be arriving soon.
They had talked quite a few times since he got the results of the DNA test. But even more over the last week but not enough that he got a feel for the man he was. Kid was cold and distant and after a private talk with his president War understood why he was the way he was. His life under the thumb of Flash Warne and his bitch hadn’t been easy. It had enraged him to find out his son had suffered physical and mental abuse from both of the Warnes. It was the abuse he had suffered at Flash Warne’s hands that made him want to find the fucker and rip him into tiny little pieces, then feed him to the sharks.
He had just finished a call to his old lady, the millionth one today alone. If possible she was even more excited about Kid’s visit than he was. She had wanted to be at the clubhouse when he arrived but War had persuaded her to prepare a private family dinner at home instead. He was about to go into the common room and get a beer when Mouse knocked on the door jamb and walked into his office with his laptop under his arm. Not good. He really didn’t want to deal with any shit right now.
“Whatever you need can you be quick about it? My old lady has been blowing up my phone all morning and I have to keep her calm and at home. I don’t want her rushing out here and revealing the existence of my son to the rest of the brothers before we are ready. For now, as you know, it’s only the officers who know until we have the sitdown tomorrow.” War grumbled. “I headed her off by asking her to make her special chicken dinner for the boy, so once we have them settled I’ll be heading home with the boys and we’ll be back later for the party.”
Mouse looked worried as he sat down in the chair in front of the desk with the unopened laptop on his lap.
“I’ll be as quick as I can, Prez.” He opened his laptop as he spoke. “As ordered I’ve been keeping an eye on the bitches next door and as you know they pretty much are who they say they are. Ex-cons going straight and living clean. But yesterday afternoon things changed. I was going to come to you yesterday but you were busy with all the stuff you’ve got going down and then I had another glitch in the tunnels I had to check up on.”
He waved a hand as if to wave it all away. “But to get back to yesterday afternoon. Murchison, the Syndicate’s number two, pulled up to their gates. At first they let him and his goons sit outside the gates, but eventually they let him in, but only him, and he was escorted inside. He was in there for about thirty to forty minutes when he was once again escorted out. He was pissed when he went in but he came out very fucking pleased. The women escorting him, not so much. Not long after he left he had men watching the front and back of their property and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s checking on us as well. I tried to hack their system to see if I could find out more, but the computer bitch was waiting for me and kicked my ass out. I have to give it to her, she’s damned good at what she does.”
“Is that it?” War asked with a frown because he couldn’t see why it would be of importance to their club. If the bitches wanted to get dirty with the Syndicate there was nothing they could do about it. They would watch though just in case it impacted their own businesses.
“No, it’s not.” Mouse put the laptop on the desk and turned it so War could see. “Shortly after Murchison left, two of the bitches shot out of the property in those muscle cars they love driving and laid down rubber out of there. Murchison’s twats tried to follow but the bitches lost them. Rock had a feeling it was important and sent a prospect to follow them. They didn’t notice him, and he reported that they went to the Children’s Hospital where the bitches met up with a silver SUV. None of them got out of their cages, they turned right around and escorted the SUV back to their compound. And this is where it gets even more interesting.”
Mouse tapped on the keyboard and the cameras they had on their roof panned over the parking area of the building next door.
“Watch when they get out. All the bitches are armed and have their backs to the SUV, in full protection mode while a woman with a little boy in her arms gets out and runs through the front door. Shortly after, this guy, the driver, gets out, looks around then opens the back door and leans in. When he pulls out he has a little girl in his arms. You can see just by looking at her that she’s obviously not well. They hustled her inside pretty damned quick. It took some time but I was able to run facial recognition on them, and guess what Boss? That’s Rentia and Denver Kepler and their kids. Face’s family. And as we know, Face and Rentia are Murchison’s estranged daughters.”
“Fuck.” War swore with a heavy frown. “This doesn’t look good.”
Mouse shook his head. “No, it doesn’t, Prez. Murchison and the Syndicate has moved against them or he’s threatening them with something. And that’s not the end yet. Between eleven and twelve last night the bitches got some muscle in to guard their compound. And Boss, the muscle, it’s not your normal run of the mill bodyguard bullshit. They were all wearing dark camo and black masks, but one of them wasn’t and I recognised him. Bruno Nichols. Those are his men. His fucking A team I suspect.”
When Mouse paused War waved him on, he wanted to hear the rest of this and make some decisions before their visitors arrived and he went home for dinner. He didn’t have a lot of time to spend with his family before he had to get back to the club to the party they were throwing for their visiting brothers.
“We know the bitches are subcontracting to Bruno’s company, checking his systems and ensuring that they are impenetrable. In the almost five years they’ve been working for him he’s never had to send a team to protect them. We’ve been trying since they bought the place to find dirt on them and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing. They’re fucking squeaky clean since getting out of prison. I’m convinced something has gone tits up next door and that fucker Murchison’s involved. I think they’re being blackmailed to go back into business for the Syndicate.”
War exploded out of his chair as he temper flared.
“Fucking hell! I don’t need this bullshit on my doorstep on top of everything else. We have Dagger and his men arriving in about an hour and the brothers from the other chapters have been pulling in all day. We will have several presidents under our roof and we don’t need it advertised. And we’re going to be overrun by tired men with short tempers looking to party to take the edge off before our sitdown tomorrow. We can’t have those bitches and their problems causing trouble right now, there’s too much at stake. With Murchison watching them they will have eyes on us and I don’t want that.” Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and made a decision.
“Keep your eyes on them and report any movements to me directly. Anything at all, understand?”
Mouse nodded. “Ja, I understand, Prez.”
“Find Wheels and tell him I want to see him. Now.”
“On it, Prez.” Mouse said as he gathered his laptop and got out of the office.
War didn’t have to wait too long before Wheels walked in.
“You wanted to see me, Prez?”
“Ja, close the door.” War said then waited until it was done before he spoke. “I need you to take Brick and Nuts and go next door and ring the bell. Ask to speak to Face. While you wait I need you to take a very, very good look around and report back on how many of Murchison’s fuckers you see out there and how many guards the bitches have. If she comes out to see you, which I doubt she will, tell her we’re getting men in from all over the country for a couple of days and to keep her bitches away from the front of the compound for the duration of their stay. Make it sound like we’re concerned about their safety or something.”
Wheels frowned in confusion. “Why the fuck would we give the bitches a heads up? They’re fucking ex-cons, who the fuck cares if the Syndicate has eyes on them before taking them out? With them gone we’ll have a chance to get our hands on their property. Good riddance.”
War shook his head at Wheels’ reaction. He had expected it but his enforcer’s hatred towards women was getting to be a pain in the ass.
“I fucking care. I care about the trouble that will be dumped on my fucking doorstep should anything happen to those bitches. We’ll be the first the pigs will suspect. You know damned well they belong to Bruno Nichols and he can have the pigs here at the drop of a hat. We don’t need that shit with our brothers visiting. Curb your fucking hatred, go do your fucking job and report back to Burn.” War snarled angrily as he pushed up out of his chair to tower over Wheels.
“Sorry. I’m sorry, Prez. I’m going right now. I’ll let you know what we find.”
“And Wheels, we need an accurate count of the fuckers inside and outside of that compound.” War warned coldly.
Tapping two fingers to his temple the bastard retreated out of his office and War could hear his boots thumping angrily on the tiled floors as he walked back to the common room.
Grabbing his phone he sent a quick text to Burn, his VP before sliding the phone into his pocket, leaving his office and locking the door behind him. When he walked into the common room Burn and Rock were waiting for him. He quickly clued them in.
“We might have a problem with the bitches next door. I’ve sent Wheels over to do a quick recon. He’ll report back to you, Burn. As soon as Dagger gets here we’re going home to have dinner with my old lady, Rock will be with me as well as two of the prospects.”
When Rock tried to protest he gave him a look that shut him up. “You know why your attendance is mandatory plus your sister is home and she apparently brought some fucker with her.”
He had to hide his smile when Rock’s entire attitude changed. He definitely looked pissed off. Burn tried to mask the snort of laughter but he didn’t succeed. It burst forth and War punched him on the arm to shut him up.
“Ouch! Fuck! That hurt, Prez.” He complained with a small knowing grin. “I warned both of you when she moved out of the house into her own place. I said she was going to come home with a man one of these days and here we are. She brought a man home.” Burn winked. “Bring him over for the family braai tomorrow, Prez. Let’s see how he copes around a bunch of badass bikers.”
“Jesus.” War groaned. “I have no fucking idea who this guy is but I will damned well know before the end of dinner, you can bet your left nut on that. And as soon as I have his name Mouse will get on finding anything and everything about the little fucker.”
“If he’s fucking my sister I’m going to cut his fucking nuts off.” Rock snarled.
Again Burn laughed. “Calm your tits, Rock. Keeley is twenty three, you can’t tell her who she can and can’t fuck.”
“You mention my daughter and fucking in the same sentence again and I will fucking gut you.” War threatened and he wasn’t joking either. He was fucking dead serious. Keeley was his baby girl, and she would always be his baby girl.
“Enough of this bullshit. Burn, keep your eyes open tonight and I’ll catch up with you when we get back from dinner. Now, let’s have a beer in peace before this place turns into more of a madhouse than it already is.” With that he turned and walked to the bar that curved along two walls on the left of the common room. Three prospects were running the bar because War didn’t allow club sluts to work behind the bar, it caused too many problems with the brothers and the club.
The club had learned their lesson with club sluts being too close to club business. They were here for one purpose and one purpose only, a hole to fuck for those who wanted it. They were allowed in the common room, the kitchen and the fuck rooms, nowhere else.
Years ago a slut had almost ended his marriage with her lies and schemes.
War was adamant about not going down that path ever again. Shaking his head he put all that bad shit behind him and stood next to his son drinking his beer as they waited for the arrival of the Joburg chapter.
Face
I sat at my desk trying to make sense of the file that Murchison had had delivered to our gate. He wanted us to infiltrate and steal files from the Iron Dogz MC in Johannesburg. The asswipe was totally crazy if he thought something like that was at all possible. It was a damned joke. Murchison obviously had no idea about the inner workings of an MC.
And when we first moved in next door to an MC we didn’t either.
Our first order of business had been finding anything and everything we could on how outlaw MC’s operated. We even made friends with a few men and women from riding clubs to observe how they interacted. Not that they were anything like the outlaws living next door but it helped us to understand the dynamic and rules these men lived by.
We had been fresh out of prison when we moved in and the three of us who had been in prison the longest had been clueless about social media and shit like that. With the help of Pet and Star we quickly learned how to navigate the internet and smart phones.
We all loved watching movies and tv shows and after watching the badasses next door riding in and out of their gates we started looking for movies and shows about bikers. That’s how we became SOA fans and watched ever single season like it was our religion. We were still totally divided over who was the sexiest character of all. Most of the women were Jax or Opie fans but I was firmly in camp Chibs, the man rung my bell big time and it wasn’t just because of the facial scars. There was something about the man...
Not that SOA was like a documentary about outlaw clubs or anything, but it did help us to see the guys in a different light. That there was another side to most of the badasses, a softer side. And being a group of ex-cons ourselves? That just made it a whole lot easier not to judge the lifestyle of the men living next door.
My name being called ripped me out of my memories.
“Face! We have a damned rude asshole biker from next door at the gate wanting to speak to you.” Evvie called down the passage.
I swore softly. Give the bastards a minute of your thoughts and like a genie they pop up where you least expect them.
Closing the file and pushing it away from me I stood and walked out of my office. Why the hell would they come to our gate? We’ve been here for almost five years and had one visit from War on the day we moved in and then nothing. We knew they had a camera on their roof trained on the forecourt of our building and another that pans over the entire property. We didn’t care because there was nothing to see anyway. And when we used our back door? We had that camera of theirs timed to the last second and have avoided being caught using it for years.
We hoped, they were nosy bastards and might have a camera trained on us that we haven’t located, yet.
It was just too much of a coincidence to have first Murchison and now the MC at our gate in the last two days.
The badass standing outside the gate had his arms crossed over his big chest with a highly pissed off expression on his bearded face, glaring at me as I walked towards him. He had two men with him who were checking us and the surroundings out very, very carefully. Interesting.
“I’m Face, I understand you want to speak to me.” I said as I stood on my side of the gate and crossed my arms over my chest to mirror him.
“Fuck. I can see why they call you Face.” He snarled. “Your face is fucked up.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” I glanced at his kutte but his big arms concealed his name.
The pissed off expression slipped a little and I could see interest in his eyes as they slid over me from the top of my head to my toes and back up. I was dressed in a tight tank top with too much cleavage on display and spandex work out shorts which left barely anything to the imagination. I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to get over his inspection of my body while the toe of my boot tapped an irritated beat on the paving. Yes, I was wearing tactical boots with my workout clothes, and again, yes, I worked out in my boots. I could run kilometres in them without any discomfort whatsoever.
When he spoke, even though he had me tightening my lips in annoyance, he was at least being honest. My looks made most people uncomfortable and I didn’t get honesty about it a lot of the time.
“Never thought I’d find a bitch with a fucked up face interesting but hell babe, you are something else.” He was no longer looking pissed off at all.
“Right. Thanks. Now that we have that part of the conversation done, what is it you want to speak to me about?” He was wasting my time and I had a shitload of stuff to get done before we moved my family out tonight.
He grinned, then winked. “My Prez wanted me to warn you that we have a lot of brothers coming in from out of town. It’s going to become rowdy and wild later and he would appreciate it if you could keep you and your girls from coming to the notice of the visiting brothers. We don’t want any trouble.”
Behind me Cuba and Evvie started laughing and I grinned as I turned and wagged a finger at them. They were laughing because it meant it might just be easier to use the tunnel if the boys next door were partying hard. I was still grinning when I turned back and immediately his eyes were focused on the scarred side of my face. I knew that the damage to the muscles kept the right side of my face virtually without any expression. He no longer had his arms crossed over his chest, but had one hand up against the welded mesh covering the steel struts of the gate, the other on his hip, making it possible for me to see his road name. Wheels.
“Wheels, please tell your president thanks for the warning and not to worry. It will be like no one lives next door. Unless we decide to have our own little party in the back garden we’ll attempt to be invisible.” I smirked and winked at him.
Shit. The man was sex on legs as he grinned and winked back at me. I heard Jameson, one of Bruno’s men, growl angrily and I glanced his way only to see him shaking his head in exasperation.
“How about you have that party and invite me? I promise you won’t regret it.” The bastard flirted.
This time I laughed outright and winked. “Sorry bro, if we have a party it will be a women only kind of party. I’m sure you know what I mean.”
Laughter burst out of his big chest and I saw the shock on the faces of the guys with him. It seems this wasn’t a man who laughed freely very often.
“I’m cool with that, babe. Nothing wrong with adding a bit of meat into that mix now is there?” He wiggled his eyebrows and gave me a very dirty smile.
“Damn, you sure are a confident bastard. I’ll keep it in mind for another time. And my name is Face, not babe. Now, are we done with this little meeting at my gates or is there more you need to tell me?”
He stood back and slipped his hands into his pockets and of course it led my eyes right to his damned dick. When I looked back up he was smirking at me and I shrugged. I looked, so what.
“We’re done for now, babe. I’ll let my prez know you’re okay over here. I’ll be seeing you again, Face. Have a good day, babe.”
And with that he turned and stalked back down the road to the entrance to their property. I didn’t wait around but went back inside with Cuba and Evvie following me giggling like bloody little school girls and singing, Wheels and Face sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. I ignored their annoying bloody asses.
Back in my office I dragged the file back in front of me and threw it open. There were photos of all the officers at the Iron Dogz MC, Johannesburg. I don’t know how Murchison got hold of the photos or the information but that wasn’t my problem. The photos were stapled to individual sheets of paper on which each man’s legal name, his road name and club designation were listed. It was followed by his personal information. As in his woman’s name and the names of his children, if he had either of those. And then there was information on his family, parents, siblings everything about them that could be of use.
I had a very bad feeling about this. A really, really bad feeling.
I knew exactly how Murchison operated and all this information on the family members of the Joburg Iron Dogz wasn’t good, it wasn’t good at all. Someone had to warn them. But that someone wouldn’t, or rather, couldn’t be me, not until I had my own and my crew’s families secured.
I lay the photos out on my desk and studied them one by one. But my eyes kept on coming back to one that seemed oddly familiar. I knew for a fact I had never met the man but he looked so damned familiar. I tapped a finger on the photo as I tried to work out where I had seen him before. But I drew a blank. Shaking my head I put all the photos back in a pile and put them back in the file, blew out a slow breath and closed it.
With my hands behind my head I leant back and stared up and the heavy ceiling above me. I knew that even if my family and those of my crew were safe Murchison would still pressure me into doing the job. He would find something else to use against me.
I would be forced into doing the job no matter how much I would hate it.
And then there were the logistics of it to consider as well.
If I did as Murchison wanted I would have to move to Joburg for a short while and try to infiltrate the Iron Dogz. I already knew it would be a virtually impossible endeavour. The club was on alert because of shit my fucked up sperm donor and his granny-fuck had pulled with them. The whispers about the unofficial war between the bikers and the Syndicate was running rampant in the less than law abiding community.
There was only one other way to play this and stand a chance to come out of it still breathing. I had to approach the Iron Dogz, lay my cards on the table and hope for the best. Chances were high they would make me disappear the minute I approached them because of who my sperm donor was. And because of who I used to be before I was locked up.
Unless. Unless I could get another club to vouch for me. A club that were known allies of the Iron Dogz. A club like the Sinners Sons.
Would War vouch for me?
Not if he found out we’ve been sneaking through his damned tunnel. He would rather kill me himself before vouching for me.
I had to give the problem some more thought. There had to be a way we could do this that wouldn’t end up in death all around.
But first I had to get Tershie to the specialist. Nothing was as important right now. Everything else would have to wait. Stef had been with her since he arrived and he had assured me she was stable and would be ready to move later.
And hadn’t that man been a huge surprise.
He walked into the building like he had been living here for years. He was big, beautiful, friendly and so not gay. I realised it within minutes of him walking through the door. The way he had eyed Mads up and down spoke volumes. But that’s all he did, he looked her over then shut it down, completely. He became absolutely professional and after the introductions had been made asked to be taken to his patient.
And that’s where he has been ever since.
I had tried to get Star to give me the background on her cousin but she refused. She said he would tell me himself when he felt more comfortable around us. The little bitch gave me the bare minimum in his file with a little note that Stef would add to the file at a later date.
I let it go, for now.
Stef had brought a lot of equipment with him and after a short discussion we agreed to set aside one of the rooms to be turned into a surgery for him. I had watched him as he moved around and set up the things he had brought with him. He was a puzzle I would work on later. When I had time.
As the hours slowly ticked by I kept myself busy with a few upcoming jobs that required careful planning before we could do what we did best. Infiltrate.
All afternoon bikes had been streaming into the compound next door and the deep throated roar had become the theme of the day.
As the hours ticked by the noise of the party next door became louder and louder. Louder than it has ever been in the years we’ve been living next door to them. I wondered why.
By five I was ready to throw a brick over the wall, not that it would have shut the loud bloody bikers up. Their party was going to be epic by the sounds of it.
And that suited me just fine, so there would be no bricks flying their way.
They would be so busy partying they hopefully missed the tiny blip in their camera system when Star hacked it.
We were all keeping our fingers, and all other body parts that could be crossed, crossed.
And praying, definitely praying.
To every single god out there who might be listening.
I was hoping they were all listening because we needed them tonight.
