“Do you like the taste of pineapple?”
Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the back of the van and prayed. I had not prayed for so long. Not with specific purpose. But right now, I prayed hard to God that He sheltered Asher and Flame in his arms and kept them safe until I got to them. Because I desperately needed to get to them, to Flame. He would be okay as long as I was by his side. He had to be. There was no other option. My fingers found my wedding ring and I held my left hand over my heart.
I am coming, Flame. I am coming to bring you home.
Chapter Seven
Flame
I wrestled my bike to a stop, tires skidding on the wet mud. My breathing was hard, but all I could focus on was the smoke rising above the trees. Black fucking smoke filled up the sky. Smiler told me I’d see it and to follow it. Ash pulled up beside me, out of breath from the ride. “That them?”
My hands were shaking as I held the handles of my bike. It was them. It was fucking them. I didn’t know what they looked like, but I saw featureless faces in my head screaming, as I plunged my knives deep into their chests. I didn’t look into people’s eyes. Fucking hated seeing their eyes. But I’d stare these fuckers down. I’d bare my teeth as I twisted my blades in their guts, and I’d watch them die… slowly.
“Flame? Is it them?” I nodded to my brother.
This was where Smiler had directed me, to the middle of fucking nowhere. I cut my engine and pulled out my knives, never taking my eyes off the smoke. I felt the flames thickening my blood, scalding my flesh, preparing for the fucking evil I was about to bring down on these cunts. I hissed and clenched my teeth at the feeling of my pulse slamming in my neck and my fuck-ton of scars aching with the fucking need to kill. I had to kill. I had to tear the fuckers apart for what they’d done to Maddie. My stomach dropped and a fucking dagger of pain cut through my chest.
I’d left her. I’d fucking left her in the hospital. But I had to kill these assholes. They’d hurt Maddie. They’d hurt the baby. I wouldn’t let anyone fucking hurt the baby… not again.
“Flame?” Ash whispered. My attention snapped to him. “What’s the plan? You need to tell me.”
“Kill them,” I ordered, as I got off my bike. “Kill them all.”
I started marching through the forest, the long grass wrapping around my legs. Ash ran to catch up. I stopped when I saw a gun in Ash’s hands. “No fucking guns,” I spat and knocked it from Ash’s grip. It hit the ground with a thud. “Knives,” I demanded. “Only fucking knives.” Ash pulled a way too fucking small knife from his jacket. “No!” I reached into my cut and pulled out one of my German blades. “This one.” I stared at the rising smoke, tasting the blood I’d soon spill. “Kill them up close. Look the fuckers in the eyes. Make them scream as you sink the blade into their skulls. Make it painful. Make it last. They hurt Maddie. They don’t fuck with what’s mine.”
“Okay,” Ash said. I thought I heard his voice crack. I didn’t know why that would happen. He was here to kill, just like me. He’d killed before. He’d liked it. I went to move forward, but my feet stopped, and my head ticked to the side when a thought started throbbing in my temple. “Don’t get hurt,” I said to Ash, when I pictured him getting stabbed in my mind. The pain in my chest was back again at the thought of Ash being hurt. I fucking hated that pain. It made it too fucking hard to breathe.
“I won’t, Flame. I can do this. I can take them out for Maddie.”
“Good.” I pushed forward toward the smoke still rising above the trees. I followed it. Smiler had told me to be quiet. That he’d seen three of them camping their RV’s in this forest. That’s all the intel he’d gathered.
Behind me Ash’s feet snapped a twig. It only made my blood rush faster through my muscles. Burning my skin. The twig sounded just like a bone breaking. Bones I was about to fucking snap and bend until the cunts screamed. My muscles twitched harder in excitement the closer we got.
I reached the edge of the clearing and heard music playing. I smelled smoke and burning meat. The smoke. The black smoke led me to the camp. It looked like the smoke coming from the Hangmen’s burning clubhouse. The smoke that had been in Maddie’s lungs. Our baby’s lungs. It was smoke that nearly killed them. That these fuckers had brought to our compound’s door.
“Flame! Flame!” Ash whispered. “Wait! Don’t run straight in! AK said never do that!” But I didn’t listen to him. I couldn’t because I saw red as one of the fuckers left his RV and walked into the clearing. Snarling, I lifted my blade and threw it out of the trees, straight into the cunt’s thigh. He screamed out in pain and dropped to the ground clutching his bleeding leg.
I ran. I fucking sprinted toward him, new blade in hand. Dropping down over where he stood, I plunged my knife into his chest. I stabbed the fucker over and over again until his blood sprayed my face and slipped into my mouth. I tasted his blood—it tasted like death. I was gonna deliver him to the boatman. I needed to make sure he died, no fucking coins on his eyes.
“For Maddie,” I hissed, as I rammed my blade into the side of his neck. He choked on his blood. His blue eyes stared up at mine. I heard voices and gunshots. Heard fucking gun safeties being unlatched and raised voices, but I didn’t stop. The fucker underneath me tried to push me off with the last of his strength, but I kept stabbing, sinking my blade into his flesh until I started chipping at bone. Until his flesh fell away, and his eyes went still. “You tried to kill her. You need to die. You need to fucking die!”
“Flame!”
The asshole beneath me was watching me. His blue eyes frozen on mine. I hated meeting eyes. Even dead, I fucking hated this fucker meeting my eyes. Lifting my blade, I slammed it in his left eye. My cock hardened seeing the eye split in two. “Die. Die. Die!” I growled, as I stabbed at his now-empty eye socket.
“Flame!” I distantly heard my name called. I had to kill him. I had to make sure he wouldn’t harm Maddie and the baby ever again. “FLAME! Help me!” My hand froze and I closed my eyes when Ash’s voice cut through the fog in my head.
Ash… Ash…!
I snapped my head up and searched for Ash. I froze when I found him. Some cunt had hold of him, arm around his neck. He had a motherfucking gun to Ash’s head. I jumped to my feet. My skin was wet. The blood. My cock twitched when I saw I was wet with an enemy’s blood. “Flame…” Ash’s voice cut out as he tried to speak, it cracked like it had in the forest. That pain in my chest I fucking hated was back. “Help me,” he whispered. His fucking bloodied bottom lip trembled.
“Let him go,” I warned, rolling my neck, holding the handles of my blades tighter. I was gonna fucking kill the bastard that held him. I was gonna tear him the fuck apart for touching my brother. My anger grew and grew, the flames in my blood grew hotter and hotter when I saw blood coming from Ash’s mouth, when one of his cheeks started swelling. I fucking looked into Ash’s black eyes. I didn’t know why they looked the way they did. But my stomach clenched. They looked different. They were wider than normal. His pupils were dilated. It made me wanna go and rip him from the fucker’s arms and stab the bastard in the neck.