My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8) - Tillie Cole Page 0,69
said, “He needs help, Maddie.” Rider’s gaze flitted over to AK and Asher who were listening. Rider sighed. “This is out of my fucking knowledge. I think… I think he might have had a psychotic breakdown, Madds. He needs help. He needs medical help. From a hospital. From psychiatrists, who know what they’re doing.”
“No.”
“Not a fucking chance,” AK echoed.
“The things he was saying,” Rider said. “He needs help.”
“He cannot stand hospitals,” I asserted and moved beside Flame to hold his hand tighter. I pushed my hand through Flame’s dark hair, not caring about the blood on my hand. He was my husband. I had to touch him. I had to be sure he was okay.
“They fucked him up before,” AK said. “He’s fucking terrified of them.”
“There are good doctors,” Rider argued. “Doctors who will listen and who will genuinely help him.”
“I can help him,” I countered, feeling my conviction grow. I tried to imagine Flame waking up in a hospital, a psychiatric hospital. He would not survive it, neither would the hospital. He would not cope. I knew this. So did AK. “He will be coming home with me. I have helped him before. I can do it again.”
“I didn’t see him before…” Rider trailed off. He was the prophet then, separated from the Hangmen. “But I’ve heard about it. I think, Madds, I think this time it’s worse?” The rush of pain in my heart told me I agreed. “You might not be able to help this time.”
“He is my husband,” I argued. “My Flame.” I smiled and kissed the back of his hand. Then kissed his wedding ring, the ones we exchanged alone, only the moon and stars our witnesses. “He knew me. Even in this troubled haze, he knew who I was.”
“He called you an angel, Maddie,” Asher added. I searched his face, and saw doubt and helplessness there. Then it occurred to me. Asher had not seen Flame in this state either. He had been found by us after Flame had begun to heal. “He didn’t know who you were. He thought you were an angel.”
“Then that is who I will be to Flame—wife, soul mate, angel. It does not matter in what terms Flame refers to me. He will always be the one my soul knows. He will always be the one my heart will rely on, when it is me who needs to be saved. That is what angels do, Asher. They guide and they save. If he needs me to be his angel right now, then that is who I will be.”
“Let’s get him home,” AK said. He and Tank lifted Flame off the ground, carrying him between them. Bull aided Asher.
“I said who the fuck do you work for?” Smiler was shouting down to the man they had captured. From what I could tell, he was the only one left alive. Smiler still held him to the ground with his foot. The man laughed in response, then pulled a gun from beneath him. Bringing the gun to his head, he pulled the trigger, instantly becoming limp under Smiler’s foot. Smiler backed away then kicked at the man’s body. “FUCK!”
“Tanner?” Tanner ran across the clearing to Beau who was crouched beside the dead girl from the cage. “Look,” Beau pointed. As we passed, I caught sight of a scar, no, a brand burned onto the back of her neck. “You recognize it?” Beau asked Tanner.
“What is it?” Ky asked, Styx moving beside him.
Tanner looked to Beau, then to Styx and Ky. “Our old man had a ring with that symbol on it.”
“What the fuck is it? Klan shit again?” Ky snapped.
Tanner and Beau shook their heads. “Not Klan. Old man never told us what it meant or where he got it. I didn’t tell us shit about much of anything.”
“So if it isn’t the fucking Klan, who the fuck is it?” Styx signed and Ky spoke.
“No fucking idea.” Tanner shrugged. Tanner took a picture on his cell phone. “But I’m gonna find out.” Turning my head away from the dead bodies and the men who had hurt my family, I followed AK and Tank to the van. They laid Flame across a row of seats and I sat beside him. Resting his head on my knee, I stroked his hair, thankful he had some temporary peace. Asher sat behind me. I reached around and took hold of his hand. I expected him to pull away from me. Instead he held on