Damnable Grace (Hades Hangmen 5)

Tension left my body, and I had the feeling that I was floating. A hand covering mine suddenly became my anchor. Body back on the soft grass, I stared down at his tattooed hand resting atop mine. I fought back the tears that were pricking my eyes at his gentle touch.

This man was gentle and kind. He was . . . “An angel,” I whispered and lifted my eyes to meet his. “You are my angel,” I said. His lips parted. They were full, kind lips. “You are an angel here to save me. You spared my life once before, and you have returned to do so again.”

Seconds stretched, only the sound of the flowing water to be heard. Then, “Yeah.” He gripped my fingers tightly. “I’m here to get you, Phebe. To take you from this hell. You just gotta hold on for tonight. Just fucking hold on.”

“Very well,” I said. I held on to the angel’s hand when he tried to pull it away. The angel frowned at me in confusion. “Tonight may be hard,” I said and felt the echo of pain being brought to my body in some other place. Squeezing tighter, I asked, “Could you stay with me through this? Just for tonight? I . . . I may need you . . .”

The angel’s eyes softened, and he nodded his head. “Always,” he said and shifted closer to me. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. A foreign sense of safety engulfed me in its warmth. “Just fucking hold on, yeah? Just for tonight.”

I breathed.

I smiled.

It was exactly what I intended to do.

Chapter Six

AK

I sat on the edge of the mattress in the barber shack, counting down the minutes. My leg bounced as the bitch behind me made quiet noises of pain. I blocked her out. I had only one mission tonight.

And we were seconds from it going down.

I checked my watch.

Then . . .

A bell sounded. My heart fired like an Uzi. I clutched my gun and peered through the barred window. Guards and men ran from their shacks and barns. A gunshot rang out, and I looked to the main exit.

I fucking froze.

“Hush,” I hissed. What the fuck was the suicidal fucker doing?

Arms spread wide, he shouted in his thick Cajun accent, “My mama’s white and my papa is black. I’m your worst fucking nightmare, so why don’t y’all come get me and my massive interracial cock!”

The asshole took off running. Guns fired, and men ran after Hush. I saw guard after guard abandon his post, like good little Klansmen after a black. When the guard opposite the dentist shack took off, there was a rap on my door. Vike was there, ushering me outside.

“He went with them,” Vike said.

Meister. The fucker had taken the bait.

Flame came running from the back of the shack and dove on a redneck that had been late in stopping his fucking. He sliced the cunt’s throat and slit stripes down his femoral artery. The asshole fell. Vike pushed me forward. “Get her. We got minutes. We’ll get anyone that’s left behind.”

I darted to the next-door shack and peered through the window. I struggled to see through the thick layer of dust and dirt. But someone was in there, lying deathly still in a chair. I slammed my shoulder into the door, the old wood folding immediately. I rushed inside the small room and stopped dead. Phebe slumped, beaten to a pulp, on an old-fashioned dentist chair. She was naked, and the blood was fresh. An IV of heroin or some shit was attached to her arm.

I ripped out the needle, ignoring the small spray of blood that followed, and scooped Phebe up in my arms. She released a low moan but didn’t wake. She weighed practically nothing. As I left the shack I saw five bodies in the middle of the road.

“Think we got ’em,” Vike said as Cowboy and Flame came to stand beside me.

Phebe moaned in my arms. “Fucking state,” Cowboy said as he looked at Phebe’s body. Bitch was naked, and I had nothing with me to cover her up. I eyeballed Cowboy until he looked away.

“Tree line, up ahead, that’s where he left the van,” I said and started moving. I had barely made it three steps before I heard a gun click and several sets of feet crunch on the rough ground. I froze and snapped my head to the right.

Fucking Himmler, along with two assholes with guns aimed right at our heads.

“Knew there was something up with you cunts the minute you walked in this place,” Himmler said, tightening his hold on his gun. Flame and Cowboy stiffened beside me. I gripped Phebe tighter in my arms. Himmler’s eyes fell on Red. “Meister ain’t gonna take kindly to you trying to steal his slut, fucker. He won’t give a fuck if you were a sniper or can kill from yards away.” He stepped closer, and closer still, until the barrel of his gun pressed against my forehead. He smiled, and I braced to strike. His head cocked to the side. “Why’re you here? You ain’t Klan or AB. If you were, you’d be joining the cause, not stealing from it.”

“Black-lovers dot com,” Vike said from behind me. “Might have heard of us. Whites who just love fucking blacks. Pussy, cock, you name it. We’re all over that chocolate shit.”

Himmler snarled at Vike’s lame-ass joke, but it gave me the split second I needed to attack. I slammed my hand on the barrel of Himmler’s gun, knocking it from my head. I dropped down and laid Phebe on the ground as Vike, Flame and Cowboy jumped on the other pricks. Guns went off, sounding like fucking thunder in the empty ghost town.

I pushed Himmler back, and we fell to the ground. The fucker fought me for the gun. But I held on and slammed my forehead against his. Himmler cried out. I heard the gargled sound of someone choking on blood. I looked to the side to see Flame straddling one of the men, his chest covered in blood, his knives slinging into the Klansmen’s flesh.

A blow hit my mouth, drawing blood from my lip, and I saw red. I dropped my fist and plowed it into Himmler’s face. Wrenching the gun from his hand, I swerved the piece with one smooth movement and pressed it against his throat. The fucker met my eyes, and I smiled. I smiled as I sent a bullet through his skull, splattering his brains on this fucking messed-up ground.

I shot again, through his chin this time, watching the asshole’s jaw blow off. I thought of Phebe and the other sluts in this place and shot again, and again, lost in the sea of blood, until someone pulled me back and I hit the ground. I aimed the gun at whoever it was, and saw Cowboy stand back with his hands in the air. “You got him. ’K. And we gotta fucking go. Now. Those shots will have the rest of these fuckers back in seconds.”

Shaking my head back to the here and now, I threw the gun to the ground and scrambled for Phebe. Her naked body was spattered with blood. I lifted her up and looked at my brothers. Flame’s face was awash with blood, and his black eyes were crazed.

“Move, now.” I ordered. We left the hacked-up fuckers on the ground and fled into the trees.

Not stopping for my brothers, knowing they’d follow, I aimed for the path that ran toward the road. Branches and twigs

smacked at my face as we ran.

Ten minutes later, we arrived at the van Hush had left for us. Vike and Flame jumped into the cabin and hit the engine. I got in the back, as did Cowboy.

“Where the fuck is he?” Cowboy asked in panic, his eyes scanning the abandoned back road.

“More like what the fuck was he thinking?” I snapped, thinking of Hush taking all those fuckers head on.

Asshole.

Cowboy balled his fist and punched the side of the van. Phebe flinched in my arms. At least she wasn’t so far gone on drugs she couldn’t react to shit. Maybe she’d be okay. At least physically. I grabbed the blanket that was in the back of the van and wrapped it around her naked body. Phebe moaned again, and her eyes rolled, but she still didn’t wake up. Christ knows what cocktail Meister had had her on.

“There!” Vike’s voice shouted from the cabin. I looked out of the open doors and saw Hush sprinting toward us. The fucker was lucky he was fast. He signaled for us to start moving. Cowboy hung from the back and clutched Hush’s hand, pulling him inside. They slammed the doors behind him, and we sped off. I kept my gun in my hand, just in case.

“What the fuck was that?” Cowboy snapped. He hovered over Hush, fucking pissed.

“What?” Hush snapped back, his expression darkening.

“The massive-interracial-cock taunt, you asshole. You were meant to set off an explosive, not offer yourself up for a fucking lynching,” I bit out.

Hush ignored me and bored holes into Cowboy’s face. “You think after all those Klan fuckers have done to me, to my family, that I was just gonna distract them with an explosive? Fuck that shit. I wanted those fuckers to see my impure ass. I wanted them to seethe.”