Bogart. So that was what they called him.
Bogart said, “Don’t worry, Jake, she’ll be on a chopper night and day. She’s headed straight for the panthouse.”
Out at the back of the shed, in darkness again. Seemed like the sun had taken a vacation. “Hold onto here,” he pointed at a grab rail below the seat of the huge motorcycle. Angelica clambered onto the back of the saddle and grabbed the chrome rail and he flicked a pair of cuffs over her wrist, chaining her wrist to the bike’s rail.
He said, “If I’d expected a passenger, I’d have brought the Softtail. The Sportster’s higher, less of an easy ride. Just hold on, lean when the bike leans, go where the bike goes.” He swung his legs over the front of the bike, sat and turned the key.
The engine burst into a crackling roar beneath us, with a steady pulse from the pipes behind. The thing jerked forward and she didn’t think that she was going to be able to hold on. They rode for what seemed like hours to Angelica.
With both hands gripping on to the grab rails under her ass, Angelica’s arms felt like they had turned to ice. Her legs were freezing so much in the wind that her knees shook violently for the whole trip. The rags of the tee snapped and flapped around her bare breasts.
The bike’s powerful engine thrummed underneath her. Reminded her of her Mama’s tumble drier, the way it shook her. Only, Mama’s tumble drier did that because it was a cheap appliance.
It shook because it wasn’t made well enough not to. This thing, this bike, it vibrated with a precision, speeding up, slowing down. Always with a force. And a beat.
This machine rocked her clit and her pussy and her insides, it even made her breasts shake. And it did it like it meant it. The feeling of his ass, like steel balls between her shaking thighs did nothing to lower the effect.
That whole journey Angelica was freezing and almost edging at the same time. Most uncomfortable ride she ever had.
Eventually, they came to a big roadhouse in a blasted crater of dry scrub. The red neon over the entrance said, HELL’S KITCHEN, BAR & GRILL. A heavy metal thud oozed out through the walls. Several bikes leaned outside, plus a number of pickups and a big container rig.
Probably like the truck the girls had been brought in from the Mexican border. They had been loaded in and out in pitch dark so it could be the same one for all she would ever know.
She saw Bogart look over a couple of the big, shining bikes, listen to them crackling as their engines were still cooling. Rocked one on its stand. He felt them, for the temperature she guessed, patted them like they were faithful horses, not just hunks of metal bolted together.
Bogart unlocked the cuffs and led her in through the bar doors. What lights there were behind the bar, on the stage or from the gambling machines around the walls. Red, blue or amber lights and logos flashed and flickered through the dark press of leather, denim, metal and hair.
Still shivering from the ride, Angelica had to stop a while to warm up. Bogart waited with no sign of impatience. Through the shadows and the mostly male bodies, she saw two or three girls gyrate around the stage.
They wore sparkly heels. That was about all. Maybe some glitter and rhinestones. They slithered and writhed in easy reach of the customers.
Sliding after Bogart through the crowd in the tiny cut-off denims with flaps of the tee hanging from her shoulders, she felt more naked than the dancers, and none of the bikers failed to notice.
When they saw who she was with, they kept their observations to themselves and they all greeted Bogart like some emperor returning from a conquest.
A cute, black-haired dancer crouched at the edge of the stage in front of a customer. Her big, round breasts pressed against him. Looking closer, Angelica saw that his cock was standing out and the girl had it wedged between her breasts.
She slid up and down, reaching under his balls. Some bikers were clapping time and stamped until the guy’s cock went off in the girl’s face.
She pulled on it and sucked on it to drain it dry, then she wiped all the cum from between her breasts and on her face into her mouth and licked her lips theatrically.
She showed her tongue to the crowd with a drooling hunk of spunk on it. She swallowed, licked her lips again and grinned. Her eyes shone and she shouted, “Who’s next?” and reached for the belts of the two nearest bikers.
Bogart steered Angelica to a room out back. Inside was a large empty desk with a wood swivel chair behind it, a black safe by the side, and two more chairs in front. A picture hung behind the desk of some men in another desert, in combat uniform. A tattered flag hung in a corner, and a big tapestry of the Savage MC colors hung on the wall opposite the desk.
Bogart offered her a chair. Wouldn’t seem like much normally, would it. “Sit. Relax.” But it was the first straightforward act of kindness that Angelica had been shown since she was taken from her family’s village two days before. Or was it three days, she couldn’t tell any more. Now was the first time that she felt truly tired, too. He poured bourbon into two shot gasses. Handed her one of them.
Not something she would usually drink, but these weren’t usual times. It was sinking in that usual times were fading into the past and behind her. Whatever the future would be, it wouldn’t be anything like the past.
She thanked him for the seat and for the whisky. He paused a moment, letting it hang. Like he was looking at it. Then he made an acknowledgement with a cock of his head. It seemed elegant somehow. “So,” Angelica asked him, “Is this a brothel too?”
His voice was hard and even, “Asking questions, especially questions around business is a dangerous sport in these parts.”
She wanted very much to know where ‘these parts’ were, but she figured that whatever she wanted answers for, she better find them for herself, and be very discrete about it.
There was a knock on the door. He told her, “Wait here.”
She said, “Hmm. Should I postpone my drive to Acapulco? Skip the flight to Rio maybe? Okay, you know what, I’ll wait here.”
He looked back at her from the door, “Help yourself to more bourbon if you want it. Seems to do you good.”
As he left she watched his tight ass roll in those leathers. After that she did take another shot of bourbon.
Bogart was away for some time, and as well as the noise from the bar there were sounds of boots and boxes and animated talk among the bikers. Through the door and the thin, wood walls Angelica heard talk of ‘shipment,’ ‘packaging’ and ‘cut.’ Also there was mention of a ‘city alderman,’ either in the bar or coming to the bar.
When he returned, Bogart said, “Angelica, I hope you’re going to be happy here and do well. I hope we’re both going to do well. But make no mistake, I’m not your knight on a white steed. You’ll be working here, just like you would have been with Jake.” He looked at her, hard over his shot glass. “That’s the way it is.”
She said, “There’s one thing.”
He said, “Your sister. I know we’re going to get to that. You think Jake was thrown by your, ‘Oh, I got to call her’ routine? Wondering about her test scores? It was quick thinking, woman, but you may have overplayed it.”
“Yeah, I thought about that, too. But I think he bought it. He was too busy showing off to you, Bogart.”
“I see your situation. But you cost me dear, woman. You want me to go back and bargain with Jake for another girl? Forget it.”
She looked hard into his eye, “Okay, look. I’ll do whatever you want, alright? You want me to fuck some guy for you, no problem. Sleazeball, dirtbag, don’t matter. You want me to struggle and pretend to fight back, you got it. Fists, nails, teeth, whatever. Act like I never did it before? Sure. Two guys? Three? Bring ’em on. I’ll make you money, I’ll sweeten your deals, I’ll help you do exactly whatever you want, American.”
She looked at him long and hard. She wanted him to see that she meant it and that she could do it. She stood and took a bite of the bourbon. What few fragments of clothes she had left
were hanging in rags. Her skin glistened, she breathed hard and her eyes blazed as he looked her up and down.
He saw a woman in shape, a woman with a woman’s body and a woman’s passion. A woman with a fire in her belly. He saw a woman who meant what she said.
They looked at each other a while. Her, trying to persuade him. Him? Who ever knew what that man was thinking? Everyone around Bogart knew that whoever thinks they know what Bogart is thinking, they’re usually heading straight for an ugly surprise.
Angelica’s voice was low and husky. She said, “I’ll go back into the bar right now. Grab two drunks and a psycho. I’ll do all three of them in here, right in front of you. You can put it on fucking YouChoob, you hear me?”
He chuckled. That was a rarity. “Angelica, you are some kind of a woman. No, do not go back to the bar and do not drag three random scumbags in here. You’re going to work alright, but you aren’t for the scrotes. Well, not the scrotes in the bar at any rate. You’re strictly for the high-class clientele.” He lifted a shot glass, “Megascrotes only for you. Scrotocracy.”
He leaned back. Looked her up and down. Deciding something. Right then she so wanted to fuck him. Most men, that would seal the deal. This man, this Bogart? Angelica stood with her legs a little farther apart, tilted her hips towards him, put her hand in the back of her hair.
Looked at him under her eyebrows as she let her head fell a little forward. Bit her lip. His black leather jeans, right in the front, they were moving all on their own. Like a cat was waking up inside. Stretching itself. He stood up. Took her elbow and led her out.
He led her down a corridor to another room. Inside, it looked like the finest room in the tackiest hotel in town. Big room, huge bed, red, shiny cover, plump red and pink cushions. Brown wood wardrobe, dresser, table and drinks cabinet. Red drapes on the walls, closed to distract from the fact that there were no windows. A worn leather sofa and chairs, dark brown like the carpet.
He held up one of the drapes. “Big mirror.” He said, revealing a huge mirror surrounded by a very heavy and ornate gilt frame. She noticed that the mirror wasn’t hanging and tilted forward, it was absolutely on a plane with the wall.
She said, “And what’s on the other side of the mirror?”
Bogart said, “Damn, you are sharp, woman. I’m going to have to watch you.”
He opened a door to a shower room with a hand basin, a mirror and a lavatory. He said, “Take a look in the wardrobe. Pick something out.”
She opened the wardrobe and as she looked through the hanging clothes asked him, “What’s the occasion?”
He said, “First day at a new job. Look your best and be ready to celebrate.”
She picked out a long silky dress, very low in the front and back, split up the side. About as classy as the room, but in a blue that could definitely work on her. On a shelf was a pair of heels that fit her okay and could match.
The shoes weren’t made for long walks. There were new pairs of hold-up stockings, so she chose a dark gunmetal pair. She said, “Any makeup?” He looked at her a moment. She saw his pants stir again.
He said, “There probably is, but it’ll be cheap. You really don’t need to fix your face. It looks just fine.”
She thought that what he meant to say was, ‘Your face looks just like the face of a whore, and you’re going to be whoring.’ But when he said about her face, “It looks just fine,” she thought she detected a tiny crack of an emotion sneaking out under the words. He worked the muscles in his jaw and quickly looked away after he had said it.
She went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Her face had smears of mascara and lip polish. It did look to her exactly like the face of a whore, and a tired, hard-worked whore at that. She closed the door and changed into the dress, put on the stockings and shoes. “C’mon,” he called from the room.
When she stepped out, his dark eyes widened and then narrowed. The slinky dress wasn’t exactly Parisian haute couture, but it displayed plenty of skin. Her simple silver chain with a small crucifix from her Papa and the little St Christopher she had worn since her first communion were now the only things Angelica wore that belonged to her.
The blue dress draped and flowed over her ample breasts well enough, and below the slashed back it shimmered and made something of her ass. The long slit showed her thigh as far up as the stocking top. His voice was thick as he put out a hand and said, “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Out in the bar, Bogart had Angelica walk ahead of him and he steered her through the dense crowd to a table in a set-off area in the far corner. A pudgy man in a nice grey suit was sat at the table trying to look comfortable in a dark room full of bikers. Like this was the kind of a place he usually hung out for his gin and tonic after work. He looked up and caught sight of Bogart, his eyes showed recognition. And some relief. Then he got a look at Angelica. That woke him up.
“Alderman Greaves.” Bogart said, and his hand went out to the man. The man stood and they clasped hands. Bogart clapped him on the shoulder. “I’d like you to meet Angelica.”
She put out a hand to him, paw down like a princess. He took it and attempted a courteous bow. A couple of drinks earlier he might have carried it off. The three of them sat around the table like familiar old Rotarians or Water Buffaloes. Alderman Greaves, “Please, call me Benny,” he said, mostly to Angelica, and he made some small talk with Bogart.
Angelica said, “Why don’t I arrange some drinks for us?” She was certainly going to need one. Benny said he was drinking vodka tonic. She said, “I think we can do better than that, Benny, don’t you?” Bogart looked at her, quizzically. Benny watched her walk over to the bar and she felt his eyes at the bottom of the plunging open back of the dress.
The bartender was a burly, grizzled looking older guy in a leather vest and a white wife-beater that showed a chest covered in ink like a map and a lot of curly white hair. Lots of hair on the sides of his head, and a bush of it sprouting from his chin and cheeks. None on top of his head. Angelica asked his name, he said, “Rusty,” and she told him hers.
Angelica asked, “Do we have champagne?” He told her, yes, and she asked him for a bottle of champagne, a bottle of tequila, a couple of cans of caffeine energy drinks and three shot glasses. Rusty’s eyes sparkled and he said that he would bring them right over.
Rusty brought a battered Jack Daniels tray to the table with glasses and the drinks. He set the bottles and glasses out like he was a wine waiter at the Ritz. He could have had a white linen cloth over his forearm. When he left, Angelica poured a quarter of a glass of energy drink and the same of tequila into each glass, then a third of a glass of tequila. Bogart knew what she was doing. Benny didn’t. She showed Bogart how to cover the glass with his palm and lift it a couple of inches from the table. He played along.
She said, “Benny, you know slammers, don’t you?”
He said, “Of course.”
Bogart knew that she was flattering the mark. And she knew that she was building bonds with Bogart. A channel of communication, a common language was developing between the two of them. They shared secrets. They were complicit. In Hell’s Kitchen, Bar & Grill, Angelica got her first practical uses of what she learned in law school about interrogation and examination of witnesses.
Angelica and the two men covered their glasses with their hands and slammed them on the table. The drinks foamed up and they slung them back in one hit. Benny spilled about half of his but Bogart and Angelica were careful not to notice.
Bogart said, “Benny, there’s something I have to do. I’m sure that you and Angelica can find plenty to talk about, though. Maybe I’ll see you when I get back.” Benny stood to give his version of the bro-hug that Angelica had seen Bogart and Jake make earlier.
As Bogart left, Angelica said to Benny, her new best friend, “I’ll only be a moment. You won’t run away will you?” and she moved as elegantly as she could in those heels after Bogart.
She caught him up and said
, “What ever you want. What. Ever. OK? I’ll do it. Just. Get. My. Sister.” He looked at her. He knew that she was thinking about bargaining for him to fetch her sister first.
He understood the respect that Angelica showed him, trusting him that he’d honor the deal, and honor, trust and respect came high on Bogart’s priorities. Even though he hadn’t said that he would do it, not in so many words. He was about to leave when she touched his arm and said, “The drape over the mirror. You want that I should pull it back.” He nodded.
Her hand still on his arm she said, “Before you go, give me something.”
“What?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anything. Just something so that I’m not completely alone in this place. Something that I can hold in my hand, American.”
“All I’ve got in my pocket is keys to the bikes.”
“One of those will be perfect. Please.”
“You wouldn’t think of trying to ride off, would you?”
“Yeah, that’s a worry, right?” She cast her eyes around the bar, at the bikers in heavy leather, most of them with colors on their backs. All of them tough, hard, mean looking men. “Nobody here would mind about me trying keys in the bikes outside, one by one, would they.” He saw what she meant.
Angelica thought about raising the matter of whether or not she knew how to ride a Harley, but then she thought better of it. Decided it was a topic that would keep for another time.
“Okay,” he said, and worked a key off his chain and he handed it to her. As she took it, it seemed very precious to both of them, now. She was trusting him, and he trusted her with something of his own. Something important. She put it on her silver chain and it hung on her collarbone next to her Catholic trinkets.
Looking for Somebody
In a back room of the clubhouse, Beanie found Lump and asked if he’d seen Cap. Lump said, “He’s probably in a barn or somewhere, still sleeping off the party.
Savage Angels: A Savage MC Erotic Romance Page 4
