the Hangmen to where I was going. Taking a piece of paper, I wrote to Tank.
Tank,
Just want to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You were there when I was in the Klan. You were there for me even when you left. You were there when I left too. You always had my back. You’re the only person in my life that I can say that about.
You’ve been the best friend I could have asked for. And I want you to know it. Stick with Beauty. There’s not many bitches out in the world like her. You got one of the best.
I took a deep breath and pressed my pen to the paper again.
I’m done with the running. I’m done with the Klan and the cartel. I’m going to settle shit once and for all. Going to stop them coming for you all. Gonna stop this war and keep the Hangmen and the old ladies and kids safe.
Live free. Ride free. Die free, brother.
Tanner.
I folded the letter and placed it on my desk. Leaving my room, I walked my bike down to the edge of the compound. I waited in the forest for night to fall, then pushed my bike to the road. I hadn’t had a clue what the fuck happened with Ash and Wrox. The place was like a ghost town. But I saw what all this shit was doing to this club. What the poison from the Klan and cartel had done to this brotherhood. Fighting among chapters and an innocent—no, two innocent—kids killing and selling their souls to Hades. Zane wouldn’t ever be the same after the capture and shootout. Ash had already gone postal, and Smiler was right behind them, guiding them into darkness.
I thought of Mae and Charon. Of Lilah, Grace, and the twins. And of Saffie and what she’d told Adelita. About her father. About it all. The fucking club was crumbling. If I stopped the Klan and cartel, they had a chance to rebuild and fucking pull their shit together.
I didn’t start my bike’s engine until I was well out of sight.
And I headed to the Mexican border. Where the Klan would meet me at an agreed point and I would be taken in. With every mile of road I traveled, the closer I got to the men who would kill me; the numbness left me. Because I would be with Adelita again soon.
I dream that we meet each other in some distant future and recognize one another’s souls. And we’ll be found.
I was holding onto that fucking dream with everything I had.
Chapter Fourteen
Styx
I sat my ass down at my desk. Ky slumped in the chair opposite. “F-fuck. M-me.” I leaned back on the chair, staring at the ceiling. The bastard sun had come up a couple of hours ago.
All night. All fucking night I’d been dealing with the fallout of Ash killing Hick. And Smiler. What the hell had that prick been thinking, taking Ash down to the shed?
“What a fucking night,” Ky groaned, and downed the coffee he’d just poured. He slammed the empty mug to the table. “Just when you think we only have to deal with one Flame, in comes model 2.0. Only this one knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing.” Ky shook his head. “Makes the kid even more fucking unhinged in my book.”
Ash was off prospect duty. Banned from club life for a month. Wrox hadn’t been happy with the verdict—I didn’t give a fuck. This was my club and my rules, and as I’d told Wrox, Hick had fucked up. Blood had been paid with blood. It was the fucking Hangmen way. Hick was killed in place of Slash. Smiler was on leave for a couple of weeks for his part.
What a fucking shitshow.
But I got it. If that’d been me as a prospect, and some fucker had been responsible for Ky being killed . . . slitting his throat would have been the least I’d have done. I’d have taken my sweet fucking time stripping him of his skin and making the fucker scream. Knowing my old man, he would’ve slapped me on the back and shot Wrox and his chapter through their skulls for daring to question him.
I’d sent Wrox and his chapter packing. I wasn’t dealing with their pussy asses when we were in a fucking war. Those fuckers tried to come at me and my brothers. And they fucking paid the price. Four in the hospital, and