I pulled open the door and steeled my nerves. Determination flooded my veins as my feet met grass. I did not wait another second. Instead, I followed the sound of male voices across the yard until they came into view. They were seated around a large table, Styx at the head. And they were all looking straight at me. AK was pushing his hands through his dark hair. My feet almost faltered when I saw Viking rise from his seat and stand beside him. Pain was etched on their faces. Flame was their best friend. They had been the pair to rescue him from the mental hospital and give him a family when he had nothing. They gave him a life here at the Hangmen. A stab of sadness dug into my chest, imagining how they must feel too. But I pushed that aside and I held my head high.
Ky turned to me. “Madds, you can’t be here. We’ve got it—”
“I will not be sent away, Kyler. I am Flame’s wife and will not be cast aside because I am female. I have had a lifetime of this kind of treatment in The Order. I shall not tolerate it from men who are meant to be my family.” Silence followed my curt interruption. I had no time to give a soft and gentle appeal. My gaze moved from Ky’s hard blue gaze to Styx’s. His hazel eyes were tightly focused on mine. He didn’t move from the President’s seat. I heard voices from Mae’s home. I flicked my attention to the porch. Mae, Lilah, Phebe and Bella were stood there. Sapphira and Grace and the babies were there too. Mae handed Charon to Bella and I watched my sister hesitate about what to do, on whether to stand beside me or not. Her blue eyes flicked between her husband and me: concerned, conflicted, confused.
But this was not Mae’s battle. It was my battle. “Do you know where Flame is?” I demanded. Styx’s hard gaze was fiercely intimidating. As much as I loved Styx as my brother-in-law, I was not naïve concerning his reputation, why he was so feared by enemies, and so respected by each one of these men. Even by Flame. But I would not let him scare me in this moment of truth. If he knew where Flame was, he was going to tell me. The sound of a bike came roaring from behind me. I turned to see Smiler park his bike and saunter toward the table, as though he had not a care in the world.
“I’m gonna fucking kill him!” AK hissed, who then ran around the table and tackled Smiler to the ground. AK punched Smiler’s face, repeatedly, until Viking pulled him back. “You fucking did this! You sent them out there when Flame ain’t thinking straight!”
Smiler rolled to his feet, his long dark hair soiled by the mud from the ground and spilt blood. Smiling, he licked the blood pouring from his lip. “Mmm,” Smiler said to AK, “Fucking love the taste of blood.” AK went to attack him again, but Viking held him back. Then, the words AK had spoken began to filter into my mind.
“Them?” I half-queried, half-stated, my voice cutting through the silence. “You said them.” My pulse increased in pace. AK looked to me, catching his breath. His shoulders sagged. My eyes roved over the table. I closed them when realization dawned. “Asher,” I whispered. “Asher and Flame.” It suddenly felt as though a fist had grabbed my lungs and squeezed hard. They were my family: Flame, Asher, me and our baby. They were my family. And we were rapidly falling apart.
I marched to Smiler. I ignored the smug look on his face and issued a simple demand, “Where are they?” Smiler pushed his long brown hair from his face. “They are my family!” I stated curtly. “If you know where they are, you must tell us!”
Smiler pulled a piece of paper from his cut and walked around me to Styx. “Directions for the fire-starting fuckers. Camped out ‘bout four hours away.” He turned back to me. “Gave your man a head start. They fucked with you, with his property. You nearly died.” Smiler’s arrogant demeanor slowly faded, raw pain began to pulse through in its place. Then his eyes focused on my hands, which unconsciously cradled my stomach. “You nearly died, Maddie. So did your kid. Flame was a fucking mess. He deserves to have his revenge.” Blood dripped from Smiler’s lip to the ground. He did not seem to care. Like Asher, Smiler did not care about much since Slash died. “Some of us don’t get a chance at the revenge we’re owed. But your man did. I had to give him the kills.” My heart sank. That was where Flame and Asher had gone. They had gone to kill the men who had started the fire in the clubhouse. The fire that had almost killed us.
Flame…
I wanted to shout at Smiler. I wanted to scream at him, to tell him he was foolish for sending my husband and Asher into mortal danger. But the expression of sheer agony on his face encouraged me to maintain my silence. I walked to stand before Styx. “I am coming.” I somehow found the strength to stop my lip from trembling. “He… Flame is breaking down again.” Voicing the words out loud somehow seemed to cut deeper than keeping them to myself. All I saw were Flame’s black eyes in my mind, the yearning on his face to hold my hand, but his steadfast refusal to do so. “I fear he will be difficult to reason with, when you find him. But he will listen to me. He will come back to me. I know he will.”
Though there was a part of me that worried I was wrong. A traitorous part, which tried to convince me this time was it. This kind of darkness was what Flame could not return from. I tried to push it aside. He would come back to me. He had to. I could entertain no other outcome.
Styx’s gaze never moved from mine.
“It’s true, Prez,” Viking said, coming to stand beside me, flanking my side. “If Flame’s gone again, in his head, it ain’t us he’s gonna need. Y’all remember last time. AK nearly ended him. On Flame’s fucking demand. It was only Madds that could bring him back.”
AK stood on my other side. “We’ll take her in the van. She’s right. She has to come. We’ll protect her.” AK pointed at Viking, then looked at me. “You’re his old lady. We’re his best friends, the motherfucking Psycho Trio. Nothing will happen to you. We got you.” My torn heart healed a fraction at those words. At the conviction in AK and Viking’s eyes.
“Maddie, your baby,” Mae said from the porch.
“We are both fine,” I replied. Mae nodded, giving me a small whisper of a smile. “And I will never do anything to endanger them. Any of us.”
Styx looked out over the trees beyond his cabin. When he stood, he towered over me. Raising his hands, he signed. Ky spoke for him. “You come. You stay in the van with AK and Vike. You don’t come out until we tell you. I fucking mean it, Maddie.” I lifted my chin at the order but nodded. I was going. I was going for Flame and Asher. “Rider, you’re coming. Fuck knows what we’re gonna find when we get there. Edge ain’t back for a while why he packs up his old life and moves here. Need a doctor coming on this ride too.”
“I don’t know obstetrics that well. If anything happens with Madds—” Rider trailed off.
“I will come. I know some about babies. And we will get Ruth to come too. She is a doula. She will be the best one to have with us,” Bella said. I smiled at my sister when she nodded her head at me in support. Bella and Ruth would be there. I already felt better knowing they would be beside me too.
“We ride in thirty,” Styx signed, and slammed the gavel down onto the table. The men were a flurry of activity around us.