Nobody pays Linda any attention or seems curious at her presence.
Two blonde women are collapsed and entangled on a dirty brown couch set in front of a make shift bar made from some crates and shipping pallets. Judging by the women's sluggish movements Linda thought that they were both drugged. Her files on motorbike gangs had page upon page about the gangs snatching and drugging young women and basically keeping them as sex slaves until they got fed up with them. These women usually ended up reported missing and never found alive again. These fuckers will pay vowed Linda.
"When the fuck do we strike back" said one of the pool playing bikers. A thick and well chewed cigar hung from the corner of his mouth, "This can not go unchallenged".
"Our moment of vengeance will be soon. We will strike back hard and fast. We will show no weakness or mercy to the scum that started this," said Blackjack. His physical presence seemed to swell as he spoke.
All the men stopped what they were doing and listened to him speak. Linda could see the respect that his crew had for him. He had proven himself time and again as a strong and powerful leader and after the attack at the bar he needed to reassert his dominance.
"Let me promise this to you men, by nightfall tomorrow we will have our revenge on the cowards who attacked me. We have already dealt with the rat who walked among us. Let me tell you his end was slow and painful."
Some of the gathered men nodded at this last part, satisfied at the horrible end their former brother met, many of them imagined an end that did not quite meet the horror of the real situation.
Blackjack pointed at the two men playing pool and said "You two stay outside on watch, four hour shifts and then switch. We can't be too careful".
The two burly men nodded and picked up guns from atop the makeshift bar. One armed himself with a shotgun and another with a high powered semi automatic rifle.
"Don't disturb me," Blackjack said to the remaining gang as he lead Linda upstairs.
The base of the stairs was locked by a steel gate with a large padlock on it. Access to the second floor was completely blocked by a steel cage with thick solid bars. Blackjack took a small brass key from a leather pouch around his neck and opened the lock. Once through he locked it behind himself and Linda.
"This floor is my own private sanctuary. No one will disturb us up here."
"I feel safe around you," Linda said in a whispered tone and reached out to take his hand.
His hand engulfed hers and radiated warmth into hers. She could see why he was a leader and the alpha male of this group. He exuded strength and a pure unfettered masculinity. He could be hard and cruel when it was needed but she could see that the men did not follow him out of fear, they followed him out of respect. A respect she imagined was hard earned in the unforgiving culture of motorcycle gangs.
At the top of the stairs stood two doors both made of thick tempered steel. Linda had seen similar doors in back room money counting areas in Vegas. These doors could take sustained damage from gunfire. She had even seen one stand up to a grenade in a heist gone wrong. The hapless thieves had thrown it against the door and when the grenade went off the door repelled the blast and the shock wave rebounded killing one of the thieves and seriously injuring the other. Linda had found that some criminals were just plain dumb and as stupid as it seemed, some of them tried to copy shit that they had seen in some big budget hollywood action flick. She knew that Blackjack wasn't one of these, he was clever and calculating and nothing like the stereotype of the dumb biker.
Blackjack unlocked the door furthest from the stairs, using the same key as the entrance to the steel cage. Once he and linda were in the room he relocked it behind him. Linda jumped at the noise of the heavy bolt being drawn across the door. It was the sound of a jail cell closing, of a place of no
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