by Tillie Cole
Judah’s eyes narrowed on the cell. “It’s a phone.”
I pushed it further to his face and snapped, “It’s a cell phone. A cell phone with a GPS. A GPS that the Hangmen will one hundred percent be tracking. A GPS that will have shown the Hangmen exactly where we are, and if I’m right, they’ll be arriving here any fucking time.”
Judah’s face paled as I let him go. He looked to the sisters, and said, “So? Crush the cell and let’s take them home. We cannot simply give them back!”
I looked at my brother as though he was simple. “Do you not think they will come in for us? They know where we are, Judah! Surely you cannot be this naïve!”
His face frosted over. “The Lord is on our side. If they come for us, we will prevail.”
At this point I realized how sheltered Judah truly was. He had no idea of what he had done. No fucking idea! Staring him straight in the face, I said, “I am the Prophet, Judah. Me. And I make the decisions. It was ill thought of you to go behind my back and plant your child whore in the Hangmen compound. It was ill thought out of you to ever believe that you know what is best for our people, above me.”
Hearing the sisters’ terrified whimpers getting louder behind us, I took hold of my brother’s arm and dragged him outside. I strode past Brother Luke who had Sarai by his side, and signaled with my chin for them to get in the van. Brother Luke frowned, but something in my face must have convinced him not to ask any questions.
Hearing Brother Luke and Sarai get into the back of the van, anger took a tighter hold and I smashed Judah into the side of the van. “
“Cain! What—” he went to argue, but I cut him off with my hand around his throat.
“It was ill thought out of you to lie to my fucking face. I asked you if you adhered to the scripture with the Cursed Delilah, and you swore to me you did.” I leaned in, hand squeezing tighter. Seeing Judah’s cheeks redden, I said, “And you lied. My twin, my own flesh and blood fucking lied, to my face.”
His mouth worked without words, when he finally choked out, “We needed to send a strong message to our people. We needed to show them what happened when they turned away from the true path, as she did.”
I slammed his head back against the metal of the van. “And that was not your decision to make. It was mine. As the Prophet of New Zion, that was up to me.” Loosening my grip slightly, I said, “I love you. You are my only family. But do not betray me, brother. And never fucking lie to me again.”
I stepped back, dropping my arm. Judah sagged against the metal of the van and gasped for breath. Retrieving the cell, I smashed it to the ground, and stamped my foot down until it was completely destroyed.
I moved to re-enter the mill, when Judah spat, “Do not let them go, brother. Do not crush everything I have worked for.”
Freezing, I then slowly turned round and shook my head. “You know nothing, Judah. You believed you were doing good, bringing those women here, but your naivety has brought us directly into a death trap.” I pointed to his face. “This is on you. You acted foolishly, and we need to leave now, or believe me, there’ll be nothing left of us by morning.”
I stormed back toward the mill, when Judah called out, “You fear them, Cain. I can see it pouring from you. You fear the devil’s men.”
Stopping dead, but without turning round, I said, “And so should you, Judah. You’ve never met them. You’ve never walked among them. And you have no idea how easily they would take your life.” Taking a steadying breath, I said, “Like I said before, Judah. You’re naïve. You know nothing of this outside world. Fucking nothing at all.”
Walking again, picking up my pace, I approached Mae and her sisters. They all stared up at me in terrified confusion. The youngest one was shaking. Looking around the deserted old mill, she asked, “Are you to kill us?”
Fear radiated from her in waves, and I wondered how the hell she belonged to Flame? Running my hand down my face, I shook my head. “No.”
Submitting to look at her face one more time, I turned to Mae and suddenly felt drained of all energy. There was water in her eyes, and she asked in disbelief, “You are letting us go? Truly?”
My shoulders sagged at the relieved happiness in her voice. “It was never my plan to take you.” I threw the empty purse on the ground. “No doubt there was a GPS in your cell. I imagine your men will be here soon.”
Drinking in Mae’s features one last time, I turned toward the van when I heard. “Rider?”
My eyes closed at the sound of that name, because at this moment I’d have traded everything to be that guy again. I glanced behind. Mae was on her feet, the “Property of Styx” cut she was wearing stared me right in the face, sending a wave of fierce anger coursing through my body. Her long black hair was lifting in the breeze and I thought she’d never looked more beautiful than she did right now.
“There is hope for you yet,” she said with a trembling voice.
I huffed a humorless laugh and shook my head.
“It is true,” she pushed, “The road to your redemption lies just ahead.” She pointed to her sisters. “This, freeing us three, is a start.” Her hand rubbed over her stomach, and she added, “Be who you truly are, not this man you are struggling to be. Because the real you is better. He is a better man by far.”
The beat in my heart fell at her words, but without responding I turned away and left the mill.
Walking over to the paid men, I said, “More of our men are coming to collect the women, our van is full.”
I caught them frown, and one stepped forward to say, “You got the cash? Deal was you’d pay on delivery.”
Knowing we needed to get the hell out of this place right now, I prayed to God to forgive me for what I was about to do. “The men coming will be bringing it. You’ll get the cash when they take the girls.” A sudden image of Flame came into my head. If Mae’s sister was his bitch, these men were in for a horrific death.
The men nodded their heads, believing my every word. I jumped into the van. The driver’s seat was left empty for me.
I didn’t look back as I pulled out onto the dark road. I didn’t look back at the men I’d most certainly just sentenced to death. And I didn’t speak to Judah, Brother Luke or the child all the way back to commune.
It was the first time I’d hated Judah in twenty-four years.
Chapter Twenty-One
Flame
I knew there was something wrong.
I sat at the window Maddie always sat at and I knew something was wrong. Two hours had come and gone, then three, then four. And when night had fallen, making it impossible for me to stare at her sketch of us embracing, clutched in my hands, I knew something was seriously fucking wrong.
Unable to sit in this cabin for one more fucking minute, I threw on my cut, grabbed my knives and hightailed it out the door. Heading into my shed, I started up my bike, then ate dust until I arrived at the compound.
The place was quiet. There was no music blaring through the front doors and no sluts were hanging around outside. Jumping off my bike I smashed through the front doors, only to see my brothers all standing around real fucking quiet. My eyes slammed on AK, Viking, Hush and Cowboy and I frowned. They were meant to be out on a run. They shouldn’t have been back yet.
Then I saw the Prez and VP standing at the head of the room. Their expressions were different to normal. And Ky began to pace back and forth, cussing, smoking smoke after smoke. His long blond hair was sticking out all over the place.
The flames were beginning to surge. Lapping up my blood, making it impossible to stand. The room was too quiet. It was all too fucking quiet.
Ripping out my blade, I then looked up, only to see all of the brothers noticing me.
“Fuck!” Ky spat. Styx silently got to his feet.
My eyes darted from brother to brother—Tank, Smiler, Bull, Prez, Ky, Hush, Cowboy, then AK and Viking last.
AK ran is hand through his dark hair and took a step forward. Tank gripped his arm and
shook his head. AK ripped it back. “I gotta fuckin’ tell him,” he said.
AK walked four steps toward me. I counted each one, then I snapped. “What the fuck’s wrong?”
AK’s chest deflated and he said, “It’s your little one, brother. Maddie and her sisters have disappeared from that church they were at. Ky went back to check it out when his old lady never called for a pick up, and it was deserted. Pastor, bitches, young kid, all of them gone. We think they’ve been taken. That’s why we’ve been called back from our run early. We burned road just to get the fuck back, in case we all need to pay someone a fucking visit. And we fucking know who it’ll have been. Klan or Bible freaks.”
“No,” I whispered, feeling my heart pumping the hellfire faster in my body. My muscles tensed as I thought of what he’d said. Maddie. My Maddie. The church. That fucking church. They’d hurt her. They’d hurt her, like I knew they would.
“They’ll hurt her,” I hissed, and felt my body shaking. “They took her from me. And they’ll hurt her.”
AK stepped back, and I saw all the brothers watching me. I could feel all eyes watching me. Mocking me.
But the anger, the anger was taking hold. Clenching my hands into fists, my body filled with rage, then I snapped my head back and released a loud roar. But it wasn’t enough, the flames were burning hotter still, my blood like lava, thick and hot.
Stabbing my knife into my belt, I jumped forward and gripped the table in front. I threw it over, hearing it crash to the floor, but it wasn’t enough. A chair came next. Lifting it into the air, I launched it at the wall, the wood splintering into pieces. But the rage was still fucking there. I took another chair, then another, smashing them one by one. But no relief came. All I could see in my head was Maddie’s hand in mine. Her lips pressed against mine. Her arms wrapped around mine. And it was all I could see. As I paced, as I treaded the wooden floor, her face was all I could see.
Then I could see her tied down at that church. At that motherfucking church! I could see her screaming in my head. I could see her in pain. And I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t fucking take it!
Then I thought of her gone, gone from my side, and stopped dead. No Maddie in my cabin. No Maddie laying beside me, helping me sleep. And no Maddie holding my hand, stroking my face, singing to me…
Unable to take the feeling gutting my body, I dropped to my knees, and all the fire drained out from my blood.
I rocked back and forth on my knees, my heart aching at the fact that she’d gone. I reached for the knife, but this feeling inside of me was new and I couldn’t cut it out. It wasn’t the flames. It wasn’t something that could be freed by my blade. It was my heart, without her. My heart was dark and empty, without her. And nothing I could do would take this feeling away.
My chest tightened so hard that I felt I couldn’t breathe, then sounds came from my mouth. Sounds I didn’t know.
The room had gone silent but for the sounds coming from me. Then I heard, “Fuck, Flame…. Brother…”
AK and Viking dropped down before me. “Flame. Shit.”
I rocked back and forth, holding my hand over my heart. “She’s gone,” I croaked, looking at my best friends, “And I can’t breathe. In here, is dark and empty, and she’s gone. I can’t get the feeling to go.”
“What the fuck’s going on?” I heard someone ask.
“He’s claimed Madds,” AK said without looking away from me, pulling back his outstretched hand from nearly touching me. “They’re fucking finally together and she’s gone. As you can see, he ain’t handling that shit too well.”
“Fuck me. Flame and Madds?” someone murmured. I looked up to see Ky and Styx approaching.
“She’s mine,” I said and saw Ky nodding his head.
“We know, brother,” he rasped.
“We need to get them back. I need her back. I can’t live without her.”
Styx turned away, his hand gripping the sides of his head and Ky rasped, “I know. I fucking feel the same way. We all fucking feel the same way.” But he couldn’t. They couldn’t. Because he didn’t have the flames. He didn’t have my flames that only Maddie could keep away.
Silence reigned strong, when suddenly Tanner ran into the room.
“What?” Ky said harshly.
“I fucking got them. GPS is off now, probably been destroyed, but it last tracked them about an hour north. Last reading was minutes ago. I checked the map, it’s some fucking ghost town. The signal came from the mill.”
“Shit. It’s the place where we used to make the Russian drop off,” Ky said to Styx, as he looked at the map Tanner held out.
In seconds I was on my feet.
“Wait!” Tank shouted, and I looked back, rocking on my feet. “Could be a fucking trap, Flame.”
“Like I fucking care,” I snapped. “I’m going to get my Maddie. And I got dibs on the fuckers responsible. I want their blood. I want their death on my fucking hands.”
*****
I’d never ridden so fast in my life. My Harley cutting up road like a motherfucking demon.
I could hear my brothers cutting up dust behind me, but I was leading this charge. I gave no shit about club formations and Styx being at the front. All I could think about was Maddie. Wondering if she was hurt. Wondering if she was still fucking there. Wondering if they’d killed her.
My hands shook on my handlebars as I pushed my bike’s speed, but I was close, the main road beginning to give way to the ghost town. The ghost town where she was waiting for me.
The beginnings of derelict empty houses came into view—old houses, stores and churches. The mill was further out. Turning up the gas, I pushed my bike to the limit as I roared down Main Street, then in the distance I saw the outline of the old gray mill.
My heart began pounding as I approached. I slowed, my eyes searching the land for Maddie. Stood there, fucking brazen as hell, were two fuckers dressed in black.
And I let the flames take their hold.
Let the need to kill take fucking hold.
Pulling onto the dirt road that led up to the mill, I cut the engine and launched off the bike. I heard more bikes turning off behind me, but my legs carried me forward. The men dressed in black started moving forward, ski masks covering their faces, but I didn’t stop to hear whatever the fuck they started shouting at me. My rushing blood was drowning out any noise but the fucking beating of my heart and the harshness of my breaths.
Only now feet away, I reached for the blades on my belt and gripped them in both hands. Jumping forward, I slit the throat of the first fucker and stabbed the other in the chest.
The one with the slit throat staggered back and fell to ground. In seconds I jumped on his chest. I ripped off his ski mask so I could see the fucker’s face. When his dying eyes met mine, I lifted my blade, and placing the tip on his forehead, stabbed it straight through his skull.
Ripping the knife from his corpse, I moved to the next cunt—he was already one foot in Hades with the boatman.
Wrenching the blade from his chest, I held a blade in each hand, and started hacking at his chest, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven…
I panted, my eyes refocusing to see nothing but a fucked up open chest, when movement from behind caught my eye.
Styx and Ky at the mill. Styx and Ky fucking holding their bitches. Jumping to my feet, wiping my blades on the grass and putting them back on my belt, I screamed, “Maddie!”
I ran toward the mill, when a small figure ran forward in my direction. Maddie… and she was fucking heading for me.
“Flame!” I heard Maddie’s voice cry. My heart beat faster when her voice sounded all broken and sad. She lifted the bottom of her dress and ran over the high grass, and seconds later, her face came into view.
She looked pale. Her green eyes were tired and red, but she didn’t look hurt. Thank fuck. She didn’t look hurt. Then my pulse pounded harder as she approached. When she was only feet away, I stopped dead. So did Madd
ie.
Tears were falling down her cheeks, but just seeing her chased any bad feeling from my heart away. And I could breathe. We stood in the tall grass, just staring at each other. My hands balled at my sides. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to step forward.
Then when I was standing right before her, I reached down and took her hand in mine. Gasping at the contact, Maddie squeezed her hand. When I looked down at her face, my throat fucking choked. She was so beautiful. And her expression. It was the expression she wore when I’d held her in my arms. When my lips had met hers.
“Flame…” she whispered. Maddie sucked in a quick breath, and said, “I need you to hold me now. I need to feel your arms around me so I feel safe. Because, right now, I do not feel safe.”
Groaning low, I pulled on Maddie’s arm and crushed her to my chest. The minute she was in my arms, I prepared for discomfort, but none fucking came. The flames stayed away, and Maddie’s arms slipped around my waist, then under my cut, until her bare hands touched my skin.
I hissed at the still unfamiliar feeling, but I… I liked it… I didn’t want to throw her off…
“Flame…” Maddie whispered. I held her closer. “I thought I would never see you again.” Maddie pulled back, and with shining eyes, she said, “All I thought about when they took us, was you.” Maddie took hold of my wrist and lifted it up. She took my hand in hers and then lifted it to her mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.
My eyes closed and my cock jerked in my leathers at the touch. “Open your eyes,” Maddie ordered, and I did. She had stepped closer and she was looking up at me. “Kiss me,” she whispered, as another tear ran down her cheek. “Kiss me, to prove to me you are here.”
Sliding up my hands on her arms, I pressed my hands to her cheeks and brought my lips down to hers.
Maddie moaned low in her throat as our mouths joined and held the edges of my cut, bringing me close. That noise out of her mouth cut straight to my heart, causing it to beat like a fucking drum.