Black Dogs Motorcycle Club: Full Series Box Set (66 page)

"Madison,
this here is Lurch," Dax said as the biker extended his hand.  She shook
it with a smile.  His nickname seemed appropriate to his looks.  He really did
remind her of the tall butler from the Addams Family.  Lurch nodded at her, his
grip was firm.

"Lurch,
Madison is coming with us.  She'll ride with me."

Lurch raises
his eyebrows at this.

"It'll
be fine," Dax assured him. 

"Your
decision," Lurch said.  His voice was deep and sonorous.

"That's
right.  So let's ride."

~
FIVE ~

The sun was hot and had
heated the leather seat of the motorcycle, burning the insides of her thighs as
she saddled up behind Dax.  She really needed to get longer pants if she was
going to be continuing to ride.  She strapped the helmet over her head and wrapped
her arms around Dax.  His chest felt firm underneath her hands, and she
breathed in the smell of his leather jacket as she lay her cheek against his
back. 
I can get use to this,
she thought.

The motor
roared to life, and they took off.  Slowly at first, as they made their way
down the winding road of the hidden complex and then finally picking up speed
as they got onto the freeway. 

The sun was
already beginning its descent in the west as they sped along, and Madison knew
that by now she would have been ending her shift and heading back home if she'd
stayed at her bartending job instead of quitting and leaving with Dax and
Troy.  Her parents were likely going to be wondering where she was, and she
wasn’t sure what to tell them.  They wouldn’t approve, of course, but they
really didn’t have a choice.  This was her life, and it was about time she took
charge of it and stopped living up to their expectations.

Taking the
job at the biker bar was the first step towards that, and just getting them to go
along with that had been a hard enough battle to win.  At the end of the day,
though, she was an adult and they couldn’t really stop her.  She suspected,
though, that they had only really stopped fighting about it because they
thought she would probably give up after a week or two.  That she’d realize
that she was wrong and they were right, as usual, and that this whole “biker
thing” was just a phase that she would grow out of. 

The truth
was, she’d always had a thing for bikers, and it was actually her parents
fault.  One of her earliest memories were when her parents would take her to
visit their friends, Don and Nancy Wallis.  Madison had only been maybe nine or
ten at the time, but the Wallis family had a girl of their own, Linda, who was
the same age.  Whenever they got together, they would shuffle the two girls off
to play together while they did grown up things – mostly drink wine and play
bridge.

Linda and
Madison would play for a while, but they never really hit it off as well as
their parents would have liked.  Part of it was Madison’s fault, as she was far
more interested in Linda’s older brother Rick.  Rick was a lot older, at almost
18, and whenever he was around Madison would find a reason to sneak away from
Linda and over to his room to see what he was up to. 

She was
totally crushing on him, and he really didn’t pay much attention at first.  But
whenever she was able to find a reason to get into his room, she would notice
that his walls were covered in pictures of motorcycles, and his shelves filled
with models and replicas of bikes. 

After a
while, Madison started to take an interest in bikes as well.  At first, it was
just a ploy to find a common interest with Rick and get him to notice her.  In
that respect, it worked.  Eventually she would start talking to him about
bikes, and once he realized he finally had someone who wanted to actually hear
him drone on about his passion, he was enthusiastic about talking to her.  He
even let her try on the leather jacket he had spent his first paycheque on. 
She still remembered the warm smell of the leather, spiked with just a hint of
eau du Rick. 

But it never
really went further than that.  She was only ten, after all, and soon Rick had
a girlfriend his own age and he was barely ever home anymore whenever her
family came for a visit.  Or if he was, he would be locked in his room with his
girlfriend and Madison was no longer welcome.

It was
disappointing, but although nothing ever happened between herself and Rick, she
often thought about him over the years, and he was one of the first boys she
ever fantasized about.  Whenever she did, she would think about him in his
leather jacket, both of them wrapped around her naked body and then him taking
her on the back of the bike that he actually did end up getting.  She’d seen
him riding around on it, years later. 

It was a
fantasy that she had always kept to herself – hidden in the back of her mind. 
The high school she went to didn’t have anyone in it that rode a bike, and so
consequently she never had an opportunity to ride one, much less date anyone
that did.  But once she started to watch shows like Sons of Anarchy, her old
feelings had awoken within her again and she was finding it hard to push them
back out of her head.  And so she found herself a job where she was sure to
cross paths with the men she so often daydreamed about, and she was finding it
hard to believe that after only working there for a few days she was already
riding around on the back of a bike with her arms wrapped around one of the
hunky, tough members of the most renowned motorcycle club around.

They rode
for another 20 minutes before both bikes pulled off the freeway and into a
seedy part of town.  A lot of the houses and buildings that they passed were
boarded up, although Madison noticed that some of the boards looked as if they
had been pried off and she was sure she saw faces peeking out of at least one
as they rode past.  They finally pulled up to a large warehouse that seemed to
be in a better state then most of the surrounding buildings.  There were no
broken windows, although the windows that were there were more than 10 feet off
the ground so she couldn’t see anything on the inside. 

They pulled
around to the back, and she was surprised to see a parking lot full of cars. 
And not just old beaters, either.  She noted some BMW’s, Jaguars, and even
couple of Porches.  The big men pulled their bikes up alongside the back wall
of the warehouse where there were already a few other Harleys parked.  They got
off and removed their helmets, so Madison followed suit.

“Where are
we?” she asked, probably louder than she needed to be but she could barely hear
herself over the ringing in her ears.  They were numb from the roar of the
engine she had been riding over.  She hoped that was something she’d eventually
get use to, and wondered whether bikers typically wore earplugs.

“At one of
our clubs,” Dax said over his shoulder.  He and Lurch started to walk without
looking back, forcing Madison to quickly follow.  “When we go in, I want you to
stay at the bar.  We have some business to take care of.”  Dax hadn’t even
looked to see if she was still keeping up with them.

They made
their way around to the front entrance and there were two large men in leather
jackets with Desperado patches on their breasts.  They nodded at Dax and Lurch
as they approached. 

“Yamada is
inside,” one of them said to Dax.

“Thanks,
Thunder,” he replied. 

“So is
Magnum.”

“Shit, he
is?  What’s he doing here?”

“Girls,”
Thunder said with a shrug.  “What else?  He doesn’t know about the situation. 
He just showed up an hour ago.”

Dax shook
his head.  “Fuck sakes.  This may get more complicated if he gets involved.” 
He shook an accusatory look at Madison, as if blaming her for coming along once
again.  “Remember what I said.  You stay at the bar.”

The other
biker standing by the door grabbed it and pulled it open.  Madison was
immediately greeted with the sounds of music and voices from within.  All three
headed in and the door was shut behind them.

The inside
of the warehouse was brightly lit, and packed with people.  To the right of
them was a large bar that spanned most of the length of the interior, but most
of the people were concentrated around the center, standing in groups around
various tables that were sunken a few steps lower into the floor.  Every few
seconds Madison would see and hear them groan or roar, punctuating their
exuberance with fits of clapping, laughing and the occasionally pounding of
fists. 

“Are they
gambling?”  She’d never been to a casino before, but she’d seen enough of them
on television and movies to recognize the dark wood and green felt, and the
unmistakable clacking of chips as people threw them onto the tables or played
with them in their hands.  She even noticed the dark black domes dotting the
ceiling which she knew held cameras that would watch the action closely for
cheaters.

“Smart
girl,” Dax said.  “Wait at the bar.”

It was a
casino, and she knew that gambling wasn’t legal in their state.  This must be
one of the ways the Desperado gang made their money. 

Dax and
Lurch headed down into the pits, pushing their way through the crowds, so
Madison shrugged and did as she was told, heading over to the bar.  The girl
behind the counter smiled at her as she mixed a cocktail for another couple
that were at the other end.

That was me
a few hours ago
, Madison thought.   The girl even had a similarly low cut
top that accentuated her large breasts, but she was wearing tight fitted jeans
instead of cut offs.

When the bartender
approached, Madison just asked for some coke.  The girl looked at her for a
moment.  “To drink?”

It was a
strange question, but Madison just nodded and the girl turned to get a glass. 
Before she could give it much though, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.

“Well, well,
hello there pretty lady,” a deep and raspy voice said from behind her.

She turned
to see an unfamiliar face smiling at her.  The man wore a black skull cap
despite being inside, and his beard was long but actually braided neatly into a
thin rope beneath his chin.  He wore the leather of a biker, with a Desperado
patch that said VP on it.

“Oh, um,
hello,” she said with a shy smile.  She looked quickly around for Dax but he
was nowhere in sight.

“Who brought
such a dainty little flower into my dark little garden here, I wonder?  Are you
a player, or are you looking for something more ... exotic?”

Madison had
no idea what the man was talking about.  She just shook her head.  “No, I...
don’t play.  I don’t gamble.  That is, I never have...”  She trailed off as the
bikers hand slid down her arm and was now holding her hand, squeezing it
gently.  She considered pulling it away, but she thought that since he was a
Desperado she was likely safe.  “I’m here with Dax,” she said, answering his
first question.

“Dax?  Dax
is here?”  The man’s head whipped around, causing his thin beard to flop
comically back and forth under his chin.

“Yes,
somewhere, I’m not sure.  He and Lurch said they had some business to take care
of but-“

The man let
go of her hand and spun around without another word, launching himself down
into the pit and shoving people out of his way as he stormed through.  Madison
wondered whether she shouldn’t have mentioned Dax.  She hoped she hadn’t gotten
him into any trouble.

“Here you go.”

The
bartender’s voice reminded her of her drink, and she turned back to take it. 
“Who was that?” she asked, tilting her head towards the pit as the biker
continued to push his way through.

“That’s
Magnum,” the bartender said.  “One of the owners I think.  He’s here a lot.” 
She looked Madison up and down and then added.  “I’d stay away from that one,
honey.”  She then left to go and serve another customer at the other end of the
bar.

Magnum? 
Seemed like everyone in this club had a nickname except Dax.  Then again, she
wasn’t even sure if Dax was his real name or a nickname as well.  Although she
couldn’t imagine what Dax would mean.  Magnum, at least, was fairly obvious. 
That was probably his gun of choice or something.

She sipped
on her drink and watched the crowd.  None of the bikers were visible anymore. 
There were still large amounts of people concentrated on certain tables, but
the biggest and loudest centered around a long rounded rectangular one where
they were throwing dice around.  She knew that was the craps table.  She also
identified other crowded tables where there were cards games, and even a
roulette wheel.  They seemed to have it all.