My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8) - Tillie Cole Page 0,44
a wet rag in his hands. He began cleaning blood off the floor around my feet. “Look at me.” I didn’t. I kept my eyes firmly on Maddie. “Flame! Look at me!” I quickly met his eyes before focusing back on Maddie. “You good?” I nodded. “You’re not gonna break? Freak out like last time?” I didn’t fucking answer.
AK stood up when I heard feet come onto the room. I gripped my knife tighter. I snarled at anyone who came too close to me or Maddie. Styx, Ky, Hush, Cowboy… all my brothers came into the room and shut the door. Styx stood against the wall on the opposite side of the room to me. They kept their distance from Maddie’s bed. I’d hurt them badly, if they dared get too close.
Styx lifted his hands. “The clubhouse is fucked. It’s being bulldozed down as we speak.” I dug the tip of the knife into my skin thinking about the fire. My blood began to boil remembering all those flames. Styx curled his lip as he spoke. “The cunts who did this will die.”
Ky nodded. “Three bodies were found in the clubhouse. Planted—three females. All on the missing person’s register. Some bastard deliberately put them in the clubhouse, then set it alight.”
“They wanted us to be caught,” Tank added. “Fuckers were trying to frame us, as traffickers.”
“Who? Any leads?” AK asked. I saw the fire in my mind, feeling its heat burning my skin. I smelled smoke. I saw the flames surrounding Maddie, killing her, taking her away from me. I looked at Maddie, lying still in bed. Doctors told me they were waking her up today. They told me she was better, that she was coming home soon. Somewhere, out there, were people who had tried to kill her. They were going die, slowly and screaming under my knife. I shut my eyes and saw her in my arms. Saw her looking dead in my arms.
“I need to kill them,” I growled and opened my eyes. “I’m going to fucking kill them all.”
Styx nodded. He lifted his hands. “I’m calling Smiler back from suspension. He might have gone postal, but he’s a military tracker. And a fucking good one.” Styx nudged his chin at AK. “You and Smiler are gonna get us a lead on these fuckers.”
“Prez,” AK agreed, nodding.
“We find out who these assholes are and why they’re fucking with us.” Styx cracked his neck. “Then we kill them and any other cunt who thinks they can mess with us.”
“I still got no leads through communication,” Tanner said. “But I’ll keep looking. They must be communicating somehow. I just need to figure out the channel. Then I’ll have the bastards.”
“What about the bodies? The bitches in the fire?” Hush asked. “What’s happened with them?”
“Chief of the firehouse found them. He’s on payroll. He got rid of the bodies in an incinerator near Dallas. He’s fixin’ to tell the families of the missing bitches that they’d been discovered in another fire somewhere else. No bodies, just teeth. I don’t fucking know. Don’t know how the fuck he’s gonna spin it. All I know is someone has crossed a fucking line. And they’re gonna die,” Ky said.
“The devil worshippers?” Cowboy said. He whistled. “Why does it sound like a fucking joke coming out my mouth? Is this what we’re up against now? Fucking devil worshippers?”
“Stinks of bullshit to me,” Ky thought out loud. But all I heard was devil… devil and demons, and fucking fire in my blood. “Goats heads and bitches on crosses? It’s gotta be a fucking front. Something bigger has to be going on behind all the fucking theatrics.”
“Whoever it is, we’ll find them,” Ky translated, speaking what Styx was signing. “Until then, we patrol. We watch the club and anyone who dares come close.” My hands itched. I got to my feet and I felt pure fucking heat surge through my veins. I needed to kill. I needed to slit throats and stop hearts. I needed fucking revenge. I looked to Maddie, resting on the bed. She looked so fucking small. I sliced the knife against my arm, hissing as the cut ran deep and the blood flowed down my palm.
“Here he fucking is!” Rudge declared. “I wondered when we’d see you again! This is the Flame I remember. A fucking beast!”
“Shut the fuck up, Rudge,” AK spat.
“They need to die. They hurt Maddie.” I turned my head to Styx. “When they’re found, I’m killing them. Me.”