“Nicole,” she lied.
“We called Nicole and she said she hadn’t heard from you all day. Why are you lying, Madison? What’s really going on?”
Shit. Of course they would call her best friend. That was a stupid lie, she wasn’t thinking clearly. “Mom, just... look, I just need some time, okay?”
“Maddy, tell me what’s going on? Are you in some sort of trouble? Your father and I can come and get you, just tell us what’s happening? Your scaring me! This isn’t like you.”
“Mother, just leave me alone. I’m 19 years old and you still treat me like a child! I can take care of myself.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and ended the call, then turned it off before her mother could call her back. They made her so angry sometimes, they had no confidence in her ability to make her own decisions in life.
“Was Mommy worried about her little baby?”
Madison spun around to face one of the girls from inside. She hadn’t even heard her come out and follow her down. Her face reddened at the thought that she heard her talking to her mother, but she knew better than to admit it.
“Don’t you have better things to do than eavesdrop on private conversations?” she shot back.
“Not at the moment I don’t, no. You're Dax’s new distraction, right?” The girl had on tight leather pants and matching boots, as well as a black leather vest. Her dark brown hair hung down past her shoulders, and she had dark brown eyes.
“I’m with Dax, yes,” Madison replied, choosing to ignore the distraction comment.
“I heard you already had a round with the Prez,” she said with a little smile. “You know what’s next, don’t you?”
Madison felt her face redden again. Did everyone know everyone’s business here? “I’m aware of the bullshit rules. I’m sure you had to follow them just like everyone else, so don’t bother giving me a hard time about it.”
The other girl just laughed. “Actually, I didn’t. I hooked up with Magnum when I first got here, and those rules don’t apply to the VP or Prez. I didn’t stay with him for too long, but it got me in without me having to be passed around like a whore. I wasn’t as interested in that as some of you new girls...”
Madison had to resist the urge to slap the brunette across the face. “Fuck you,” she spat. “Trust me, I don’t want to sleep with anyone else, least of all whichever of these fucks you’re with, if that’s what you’re worried about. You think your man will want to trade up if he gets with me, is that your problem?” If this girl wanted to trade insults, she was ready for it.
Anger flashed across the girls face but then it quickly disappeared, replaced with a little half smile. “Well, well. Looks like this cat has claws after all. I’m Trish, by the way.” The girl extended her hand.
Madison was confused by the sudden friendliness, but she reached forward warily and shook hands with the girl anyway. “Madison.”
Trish nodded, looking her up and down. “You’re not really dressed for riding,” she commented. “But you have nice legs, I can see why you want to show them off.”
Madison was taken aback by the sudden change of attitude, she wasn’t sure how to respond. “Uh, thanks. I wasn’t really expecting to be riding when I got dressed... yesterday. Things have happened kind of fast.”
The other girl continued to stare at her body with a little smile and then finally brought her eyes up to meet her gaze. “That’s alright. Anyway, listen, you’ll get along fine here, just make sure to show that backbone you just showed me or the other girls will eat you alive. Come on back in, the guys will be out soon and they’ll be expecting us to greet them.” She turned and started back to the clubhouse. Madison was confused, but followed behind her. What the hell was that all about?
“I’m sorry about Magnum,” Madison said suddenly. Trish paused but didn’t turn around.
“I’m not. He was an asshole, which is why I left him soon after getting into the club. But man could he fuck. I’ve never had a dick that big before or since. That’s the only part of him I miss.” She laughed and reached for the door, pulling it open and stepping in.
Madison laughed too as she entered behind her.
The men were still not back, but the other girls, about ten of them, were all standing around in little groups and talking. When Madison came back in, most of the conversations stopped as everyone stared at her again.
“Ladies,” Trish said loudly, addressing the room. “This here is Madison. She’s alright. Don’t give her a hard time, or she’ll return the favor.”
And just like that, smiles broke out across most of the faces and some of the girls approached. They greeted Madison, welcomed her to the club and some of them even gave her little hugs. There were a few, however, that kept their distance, the sourness never quite leaving their faces whenever they looked her way.
She asked Trish about them quietly.
“Remember what you said to me outside? That I was worried my man would want to trade up? I’m not worried about that, but those girls are. That’s their problem. Any new pussy is a threat, because theirs is old and skanky, or they don’t know how to satisfy their man. Whatever the reason, I wouldn’t worry about them. Not if you plan to stay with Dax, anyway.”
She stood around and chatted with some of the girls for another 15 minutes before the doors to the back room finally opened and the men began to stream into the room. Madison scanned the faces as they emerged, anxious to see Dax’s stubbly face and bald tattooed head. When the bikers all had come through, she still didn’t see any sign of him. The other girls had all hooked back up with their men, even Trish was pressed up against one that Madison recognized from earlier, although she wasn’t sure of his name. She looked very happy, and was talking excitedly to him. Madison wondered if perhaps he was the new VP.
Finally, Dax appeared in the doorway, next to the Prez. Both men were smiling as they chatted and then they shook hands before Dax turned away and entered the room. His eyes met Madison’s and he gave her a smile. She had to force herself not to run over to him, settling instead on walking quickly. As she approached, she noticed immediately that his jacket patch was different.
“VP? Really?” She threw her arms around Dax’s neck and gave him a big hug. He returned it with one arm of his own, squeezing her tightly against him. “I’m so happy for you! Did you know this was coming?”
“You never know,” he responded quietly, his face next to her ear. “But I had an idea. It was a close vote, actually. The Prez had someone else in mind. But people here are ready for a change, and I intend to help push one through. Magnum didn’t make a lot of friends in the club, and the Prez is only slightly more popular these days.”
People started coming up to Dax now to congratulate him formally. Madison noticed that some of the cold stares from earlier had softened, and one of the girls that had been full of venom before even gave her a hug now, as her biker shook Dax’s hand. But she also noticed another reversal – some of the girls that had seemed friendly earlier were now ignoring her.
When Trish walked up, though, Madison was glad that her attitude hadn’t changed. If anything, she seemed even more friendly, giving Madison a very big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Madison, have you met Dane yet?” She put her hand on the biker next to her. He had a big beard, and a bigger belly. But he was all smiles as he pulled Madison in for a big bear hug. When he released her, she noticed the patch on his jacket was the one Dax use to wear.
“I think he inherits the name Sarge,” Dax said. “It comes with the patch.”
Dane laughed. “That’s right, Veep.”
Dax scowled when he heard that. “That better not stick.”
“I’m going to make it my mission to see that it does,” Dane said with another belly laugh.
Dax just shook his head, but then he put his arm around Dane’s shoulder and pulled him away from the girls. “We’ll be right back,” Dax said as they moved away.
Trish was smiling brightly at Madison. “So y
ou’re safe after all,” she said when they were alone.
“What do you mean?”
“Dax is VP now. That means you’re off the hook. You’re immune to our bullshit rules, as you put it.”
Madison’s eyes widened as she realized it was true. Trish had said that when she hooked up with Magnum, she didn’t have to sleep with the other guys because the VP didn’t have to share his woman. Now that Dax was VP, Madison was safe. She let out a sigh of relief.
“No wonder some of the girls that were scowling before seemed happier all of a sudden.”
“Yep. You’re no longer a threat.” Trish paused and then reached down and grabbed one of Madison’s tits through her shirt, giving it a squeeze. “As long as you keep these big mamma’s away from their men, you’ll make lots of friends.” She looked Madison in the eye and gave a little wink, pulling her hand away slowly but not before letting her fingertips graze softly against her nipple.
Madison swallowed in surprise at the forwardness of the other woman. Before she could say anything, though, she was distracted as another girl bumped hard into her as she walked by. Madison spun around to look but the girl just continued to walk without so much as a backwards glance. “What the fuck?” she said aloud.
“Don’t mind her,” Trish said. “That’s Courtney. She’s just pissed off that Dax is VP and not her man, Guts. He’s the short guy over there with the scar on his face. The Prez was backing him, but he didn’t have the votes.”
“So she blames me for that?”
“Don’t worry about it. Some of the girls are relieved that you’re not going to sleep with their man, and some are jealous that you’re the new girl that’s already with the VP. You won some fans and lost some others. It’s all politics, like anywhere else.”
“So it’s like Washington?”
Trish laughed. “More like high school, actually.”
Madison laughed as well.
“You ready to ride, Trish?”
Both ladies turned to the voice to see that Dax and Dane had returned.
“Sure, let’s go.” She reached out and gave Madison’s hand a quick squeeze of support, and then turned to head out the door with the new Sergeant-at-Arms.
“I’m going to have to go soon too,” Dax said. “But I want to show you something, first.”
He put his arm around Madison and led her through the door to the back room. They walked through a hallway and past a big room with a large table. “That’s our council room, where we meet and take votes,” he said but he kept walking past it. They turned a corner and got to a door which he opened and beckoned her through. He followed closely behind and closed it.
The walls of the room were wood panelled to match the rest of the club house, and there were a couple of pictures of motorcycles on the walls. There was a big desk at one end, with a high backed chair behind it and a couple of folding chairs in front of it. Along the opposite wall was a long, wide couch. “The office of the VP,” he said, motioning with his arm.
Madison smiled and turned to him. “Wow, your very own office. Does that mean you have to start wearing a suit to work?”
Dax smiled. “Fat fucking chance.”
Madison slid her hand up his chest, running her fingers along the inside of his jacket and letting the back of her hand graze the contours of his chest. “I’ve never been with a vice president of anything before,” she said softly, raising her eyes to look the big man in the face. “Does this make me the second lady?”
“Something like that,” he said. He reached up and grabbed her hand, holding it. “I just wanted to show you my office, I gotta go take care of some things with Dane. I was thinking you could stay here.”
“Why are you always trying to leave me behind?” she asked. “Didn’t Dane take Trish?”
“I’m trying to protect you,” he said.
“From what? Aren’t I safest next to you? What’s going to happen? Nothing worse than last night, I would hope?”
Dax shook his head. “Last night was unexpected, but that’s the point. I’m not expecting trouble today either, but that doesn’t mean trouble won’t show up. We have to talk to some sketchy people, and they aren’t going to like what we have to say.”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m trying to clean up some of the mess that Magnum and the Prez made of this club. Get us out of some of the really negative shit they got us into. Like drugs.”
“Is the president behind you on that?”
“No, but most of the rest of the club is, and we took a vote right after I was declared VP. The majority rules, and we’re moving in that direction. But I gotta get the ball rolling. It's my initiative, so the success or failure will fall on me.”
"It's that important to you?"
Dax was quiet for a moment, staring off blankly past Madison before he said anything further.
"Gambling and sex are vices. Sure, people say they're a sex addict, or they have a gambling problem, but that shit is easy to fix compared to drugs. Your parents can be addicted to sex or gambling, and depending on how bad it is, they could still lead a normal life. Or if they're addicted before the baby is born but clean up their act when they come along, then it's all good.
But with drugs, none of that is true. That shit can take a hold of you one time, and then never let you go. You do drugs when you're pregnant, you fuck that kid up for life. You do it when they're a baby or a small child, you're likely setting them up for the same kind of failure. And once you're an addict, you're always an addict. Even if you're in recovery. Easy to slip back in, let that life take a hold of you again, and then nothing else matters anymore. Not your job, not your friends, not even your family."
Madison watched as he spoke. His jaw had firmed up, and he was still staring at the wall, avoiding eye contact. She sensed he wasn't finished so she waited for him to continue without saying a word.
"My mother was addicted to crack," he finally said. "I don't think she did it when she was pregnant, but she started soon afterwards. My dad left right after I was born, and she fell in with a bad crowd. Hooked up with a dealer that kept her in supply, and he tried stepping in as my father. Use to beat me senseless if I even came out of my room when a deal was going down. Said people buying drugs didn't want to see a kid around, might make them remember their own family. He treated my mother even worse than me. Use to pimp her out to pay for the drugs he would give her, said she owed him. She was too strung out to care.
One day she just didn't come home. Cops came by the next day to have someone identify her body. Some guy she was sent out with had cut her throat instead of paying her. Once she was gone, the dealer just left. I woke up the next morning and I was alone."
Madison stood there listening in shock, horrified at the story Dax was telling her. She couldn't imagine what his life had been like. "How old were you?"
"Seven, maybe eight? Fuck, I dunno. I pounded on some neighbor's doors and eventually someone took me in and called the police. I was in and out of foster homes after that until I was old enough to get away. As a kid, I had no control over what happened to me or around me. I became numb to it."
"Shit happens," Madison said quietly, finally understanding his tattoo.
Dax reached up to rub the back of his head where that saying was etched forever onto his skin. "Yeah. That was one of my first tats. This one," he rubbed his hand along the skull that marked the top of his head, "reminds me of my mother. Where she ended up. It keeps me away from drugs, no matter how bad things get."
"Oh Dax," Madison said, moving closer to him and putting an arm around his waist. There was nothing else she really had to say, she just wanted to hold him. He continued to stare absently off, lost in thought.
"Anyway," he said, "that's why it's important for me to get this club on the right path. When I joined it, it was like the first real family I ever had. But when the Prez and Magnum took over, things started to slide downhill. Drugs were the last straw, I'll not lose another family to tha
t. Not if I can help it. Gambling is fine. Sex is fine, as long as the girls are there of their own accord and not strung out - I make sure we don't hire anyone with a pimp or a substance problem. And we make sure it all happens at the club, where we can keep them safe."
"I understand," Madison said softly. "Thanks for sharing that with me."
Dax pulled back slightly from her, finally tearing his eyes away from the wall and training them on her. "I've never told anyone that. I'm not even sure why..." he trailed off as she lifted her fingers to press them gently against his mouth.
"It's okay," she said.
He stopped talking, his deep grey eyes looking into hers. He reached a hand out and stroked her hair, running his fingers through the silky blond strands until they gently touched her skin underneath. Madison felt a shiver run up her back. She pulled her fingers away from his mouth and edged slowly forward, lifting her head up to replace them with her lips.
Dax's fingers pressed against her skull, pulling her forward lightly, giving her permission to complete the kiss. When their lips finally touched, they both drew in a deep breath. At first, their lips only pressed forward, each of them completing the kiss without adding anything more. The fingertips on the side of her head kept their pressure, though, and Madison used that as a guide that she shouldn't pull away.
Dax was the first to open his mouth, giving her permission to move forward with her tongue, which he met with his own, wetting their lips and beginning the slow dance that connected their bodies. She felt his fingertips start to trace down along her skull, rolling behind her head to the back of her neck as it descended. Goose bumps ran along her spine, ending only when they met his warm touch. Once his hand had reached the bottom of her neck, he extended it out to grip her firmly, pulling her into the kiss and forcing more passion to erupt between the two of them.
Their lips were wide now as they pressed against each other's face, their tongues spinning wildly inside their mouths. Madison felt the burn of his stubble on her chin and mouth, and she reached up to pull him forward just as he was pulling her, wanting to bring him in even closer than he was already. Her breasts were already mashed up against his hard leather jacket, and she felt his knee push between her legs. She opened her thighs, letting him slip between and then she ground down, rubbing her covered pussy against his leg for stimulation. She moaned into his mouth and he reached around with his other hand and grabbed a handful of her ass.
Sergeant-at-Arms (Desperados MC) Page 5
