“… can be touched,” I finished, under my breath. Maddie’s hand lay on my chest. She’d heard me. My arm lifted to lie over her shoulder and I pulled her closer, holding the one person I could touch. Placing my mouth close to her ear, I whispered, “He can be touched, Maddie. He ain’t like me.”
“I know,” she replied, and hugged me tighter. “That’s good, Flame.”
Viking walked past me toward the bikes, away from the fucking corpse. With Asher under his arm, he asked, “Little fucking Ash. You ever been to Texas?” Viking stopped dead in his tracks and looked back. “Fucking Ash, brother. Flame and Little Ash.” He shook his head and smiled. Turning back to Asher, he asked, “You ever been on a bike?”
“No,” Asher replied in a timid voice. “But I’ve seen one. And I’ve always liked them.”
“Good thing, brother. Because where you’re going, you’re gonna learn to fucking love them.”
AK followed them both without saying a word. I stood there just breathing, staring at the old shithole of a house. Maddie walked in front of me. “What now?”
Pushing a loose strand of her black hair behind her ear, I said, “I need you to wait out here.”
Maddie stilled, then dropped my hand and walked to the bikes. I headed back to what was left of my poppa on the ground. Bending down, I picked up his fucking torn up corpse in my arms, and carried it into the house, back to the cellar. Without even looking at its face, without even looking down into that fucking pedo cell, I threw it into the hellhole, throwing in that fucking cursed blade with it.
In seconds, I stood at the front door, and reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my lighter and brought up a flame. I stared at the orange flames, feeling the flames in my blood stir in response. Then I walked through the old doorway for the very last time, and flicked the open flame onto the cluttered dry floor. I shut the front door behind me, and just fucking smiled. Lifting my head, I saw Asher on the back of Viking’s bike, wearing leathers far too fucking big for his paper thin body. Then I climbed on my bike. Maddie was already waiting, her arms coming around my waist as soon I sat in the saddle.
AK rolled his bike beside me, and asked, “What now, brother?”
Focusing straight forward, I said, “I got one more place to go.”
AK revved his engine, and said, “Then fucking lead the way.”
We pulled out onto the dirt road. I smelled the smoke of burning wood. And I smiled again. I smiled knowing that that fucker would burn to ashes.
We hit the main road, and I tore up asphalt heading for one last place. AK and Viking were right on my back wheel, not one fucking car to be seen on the road.
My chest tightened as we approached the building I hated most. When the old church came into view on the deserted country road, I pulled my bike to a stop out front.
Sliding off my bike, I turned to Maddie. “You stay here out front with the kid. This won’t take long.”
Maddie swallowed, but she got off the bike and walked toward Asher who was sitting on Viking’s bike. Viking and AK joined me.
“What the fuck is this place?” AK asked, inspecting the old white shack.
My hands fisted and I replied, “A church.”
AK frowned and Vike shook his head. “And what we doing at a rundown church? ‘Cause I’m pretty fucking sure I’ll burst into flames if I walk into that place,” Viking said as he pointed to the entrance.
“You go in there and bring anyone inside, out back. I’ll be fucking waiting,” I ordered, and without waiting for a reply, went to my bike and took two new blades from my saddlebag. Gripping the handles, I walked round the back and waited.
It wasn’t two minutes later when AK and Viking came out holding a man each. And the rage came back seeing Pastor Hughes and Elder Paul in their hands.
My brothers held them in their grip, the two men from my past completely white with fear. Vike flicked his chin, and said, “These were the only two in there. They who you want?”
“Yeah,” I growled. I lifted my blades and ordered, “Hold them up against the wall.”
AK and Vike moved without question, and slammed the Pastor and the Elder against the wooden wall of the