Heart Recaptured (Hades Hangmen 2)

The truck swerved as Flame hit someone in the cab, shattering it’s windshield. It turned, skidding on the asphalt as it tried to speed away. Hearing a female screaming, I looked back to see Lilah crawling out from the gate with Smiler and Beauty rushing to the clubhouse with Mae. Lurching to my feet, I ran toward Lilah just as Tank shouted, “Take out the fucker on the roof. They’ve got a sniper!”

Lilah froze, her attention focused on something over my shoulder. When I looked back, the sniper had taken aim straight at her. Like some fucked-up war movie, everything seemed to slow as the cunt fired… right at Lilah.

Running as fast as I could, I dived at her, crushing us both to the ground, rolling to save her from the impact. Lilah gripped my cut, her face buried in my chest, and I held her tightly, praying the asshat from the sunroof had been killed.

I heard Flame thunder out a scream and then suddenly the firing stopped.

All I could hear was Lilah panting harshly against my skin and the murmur of voices and guns loading in the background.

I don’t know how long I lay there with my bitch in my arms, listening to my heartbeat thudding in my ear. Then someone shouted, “Clear!” I exhaled a huge sigh of relief and began searching Lilah for injuries, trying not to lose my shit at her constant whimpering. She was okay. Thank fuck, or I’d be murdering mad.

Feet pounded near my head. “Ky! You down?”

Lifting up on my elbows, Lilah still curled into a ball at my side, I saw AK, Cowboy, and Hush standing above me. “Nah.”

“Is your bitch?” Hush asked.

“She’s good.”

AK sighed and I caught him checking around the yard. Moving to stand up, Lilah gripped to me tighter and Cowboy offered me his hand to stand.

Keeping Lilah glued to my side, I asked, “What the fuck was that?”

Tank, Bull, Viking, Flame, and the rest of the brothers rushed over. Styx followed behind, a fuckin’ murderous glare on his face. Of course, Flame began pacing, his M16s strapped to his back, blade in his hand.

Tank stepped forward. “It was the Klan, in case y’all didn’t catch their motherfuckin’ Swastika inks. Homemade IED to the gate. They’re lower rank rednecks, if I guessed right. The fuckers were shit aimers. If it were the officers, we’d be buying a shitload’a body bags. One thing’s for sure. White power wanted us to know it were them attacking.”

“Fuck!” Styx signed, and I voiced his word out loud. He looked around the yard. “Any injuries?”

“Two club sluts and one hang-around dead. Everyone else has surface wounds,” AK reported. “I’ll get the guys at the morgue to come get them under the radar, ASAP. Dispose of them quick and clean.”

Flame suddenly pushed forward and got in Styx’s face. “Let me go after the white power cuntbags. I need blood. I need to see their blood run like a motherfuckin’ river at my feet.”

Styx looked to me, silently asking my opinion, and I shook my head. The Nazis wanted us to follow them, and we’d follow them right onto their turf and straight into a trap. Why else would they strike us face to face? We needed a plan. Then we’d let the psycho loose. I knew Styx agreed by the look on his face.

He shook his head at Flame, then addressed everyone else. “Get this place cleaned up. Block the gate up good. We’ll use the back exit from now on. Church in an hour. We need to take this shit to the table.” He turned to Flame. “You’ll get your kills, brother, but we need to wait this shit out. I ain’t losing brothers because we didn’t think it through.”

Flame twitched, his teeth gritting together, the corded muscles in his arms straining. He stepped up to Styx, and I braced to tear the nut job off our prez.

“She was fuckin screaming!” Flame hissed, his black eyes crazy wild and his teeth gritted together so hard I was sure his jaw was gonna snap. “The fuckin’ blast made her fall off the bed and on the floor, and she was screaming! The bullets were coming in the through the window, and She. Was. Fuckin’. Screaming! I can’t hear the screaming! I can’t take her screaming!”

Lilah tensed and her head cocked to one side. “Maddie? Is Maddie okay?”

Flame hissed and swung to face Lilah. I pushed her behind me and faced Flame’s psycho eyes.

“She was screaming!” he yelled. “I couldn’t touch her. I couldn’t touch her! She was screaming and looking at me! She. Was. Screaming!”

“Flame, is she okay?”

“She’s on the floor, hiding. No blood. No damage. She’s not hurt.” Lilah breathed a sigh of relief. Flame took out his blade and started ripping at his skin. I glanced down to see Lilah watching him with huge eyes.

“I had to kill them. Had to stop her screaming.”

AK stepped forward. “Flame—”

Flame swung around and fisted AK’s cut. The brother didn’t even flinch. AK and Vike had known Flame for years. They were the only fuckers that could understand him. “They could have killed her. For that, they will die! They could have taken her from me. They could have taken her from me! And she was screaming, but I couldn’t touch her!” He let go of AK, sliced at his arm, and hissed out in relief as blood dropped to the dirt. “I need to kill.”

“Soon, Flame,” AK said. “Soon.”

Flame growled and marched back to Styx’s apartment entrance. The brother had to make sure Maddie was safe.

Styx cleared his throat, signaling for my translation. “One hour ‘til church. I gotta check on Mae.”