My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8) - Tillie Cole Page 0,77

flickered on her lips.

“Asher,” she whispered. Even in the middle of the trees, I heard her soft voice. I walked forward. My feet would always find her, always be drawn to her, I was sure. As I emerged from the shadow of the trees Saffie’s face fell. Her eyes began to water when she studied my chest. Her hand rose to cover her mouth. I stopped in front of her. My heart calmed and the crack in my chest disappeared. Saffie lowered her hand. “You are hurt.” It wasn’t a question. She blinked, her long lashes fucking hypnotizing me as they hit her cheek.

“I’m okay,” I rasped.

Saffie met my eyes and I turned away. I didn’t want her to read me. Didn’t want her to fucking see anything in me. “Asher, I—”

“Shit, honey. There you are! Didn’t dare go back to the bar until I checked you hadn’t died in the woods. Rudge would put a bullet in my brain if anything happened to you.” My blood turned to ice as I heard the slut’s voice behind me. My gaze never left Saffie. I watched as her eyes grew wide, staring over my shoulder. A hand wrapped through my hair. “You ever want another fuck, you come back to me.” The slut walked past me and Saffie. She laughed and offered some advice to Saffie. “Jump on that one, sweetheart, he’s hung like a fucking horse. Filled my cunt right up.” She disappeared back into the woods, leaving a fucking trail of destruction behind her.

Saffie didn’t meet my eyes. She stared into the woods, her body not moving. I opened my mouth to speak, when Saffie finally looked at me. And the sight fucking destroyed me. Tears shined in her eyes, her lips parted, and she drew in a stuttered breath. She stepped back, blood draining from her face. And the gaze that had always been able to read me, regarded me like I was a fucking stranger. A cleaver wouldn’t have done as good of a job as cutting open my heart as Saffie’s expression of betrayal did right now. Her hands trembled so badly at her sides that she had to curl them into fists just to gain some control. Then she turned on her heel and rushed into the cabin.

The pain that the coke had masked returned with the force of a Mack truck. Her face. Her fucking face. The tears, the fucking trembling hands. I looked from AK’s cabin, then to Flame’s. I couldn’t go in either. Forcing my feet to move, I ran to Viking’s cabin and hammered on the door.

He flung it open, throwing on a t-shirt as he did. “What? Is it Flame?”

“Can I crash here tonight?” I asked. I waited for his fucking jokes, but Viking’s eyebrows pulled down. He opened the door wider and I rushed inside.

“Ash—”

“I need a shower?” I said, pushing my hands through my hair and down my face.

“Through there,” he pointed to the bathroom. I went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. I turned on the shower to ‘hot’ and let the steam fill the room. I couldn’t stand still. Saffie’s face haunted my mind. I slammed my fists against my skull, but I still saw her eyes, the fucking betrayal as the slut put her hand in my hair, then spoke from her whore mouth to a motherfucking angel. I tore off my clothes and jumped into the shower.

Taking the washcloth in the shower, I began to scrub my skin, fucking scrubbing the slut’s touch from my skin. I hadn’t been fucked before. I hadn’t even been kissed. The last person to touch me was my poppa. I tried to push all memories from my head. It should have been Saffie. I’d wanted it to be Saffie. But I knew I would destroy her, like I destroyed everything else. I was fucked up. Blood ran down the drain. I glanced down and saw I had opened the wounds on my body, bandages gathering into a heap on the tiles. But I kept scrubbing them. Flame thought I had flames in my blood, like him. Demons. Maybe I did. They were tormenting me too.

Bend over, Asher… my poppa’s voice whispered in my ear. I spun around and slammed my back into the shower’s wall, trying to get away from him. No one knew. I never told anyone. No one fucking knew. I’d told Flame he hadn’t raped me. Poppa had never stuck his cock in