Souls Unfractured (Hades Hangmen 3)

I held up my hands, palms up high. “I fucking touched her,” I whispered. “I fucking touched her.”

AK nodded. “I know, brother. You doing okay? You’re not gonna go psycho on her ass, right? No thoughts to slit her throat going through that head?”

Moving to the side, I looked over AK’s shoulder and asked, “What was her name? What the fuck did Mae say her name was?”

AK glanced back too and said, “Maddie, I think?” He took a deep breath. “Yeah, Maddie.”

Maddie, I thought, then whispered her name aloud on my lips. “Maddie…”

Within hours we returned to the compound and the brothers from out of state, along with most from our club, drank and fucked the night away. But I could only see Maddie. I could only see her in Styx’s apartment window where she’d taken up position. I didn’t drink, or smoke, instead I watched her sitting on the window ledge, watching me back.

I paced below her window until AK and Viking dragged me home to my cabin. But I couldn’t get her the fuck out of my mind. Kept seeing green eyes and long black hair in my head. Kept feeling her hands around my waist.

Grabbing my blades, I burst out of the door and ran all the fucking way to the compound. As I broke through the line of trees, I ran until I reached the window of Styx’s apartment… then stopped dead.

The window.

Sat at the fucking window was Maddie.

My heart kicked into a sprint as I stared at her.

Then she looked down and stared back at me.

I watched her mouth drop open.

I watched her green eyes widen.

I watched her hand press to the glass.

I watched her lips, as they mouthed, “Flame…”

Clutching my blades at my side, I stormed forward. I began pacing below her window. Because no one would fucking get near her again. No one would ever hurt her again. If they did, they would die.

Die under my motherfucking blades.

Because she was mine.

The little black-haired bitch called Maddie was mine.

Chapter One

Flame

Present day…

No. No. NO!

I raced down the graveled road to my cabin, unable to stop the fucking messed up thoughts filling in my head. They have her. They’ll hurt her.

I pushed my legs harder. They screamed in pain, still weak from all the motherfucking weeks spent strapped to a hospital bed, but I needed to get to Maddie. She needed me to stop them. She needed me to stop them from hurting her too.

I’d taken a bullet for her. When Lilah freaked after she’d been rescued from the commune, and accidently fired the gun in her hands—the gun aiming right at Maddie—I’d had to save her. I’d had to fucking save her life.

But it was all for nothing, now they had her in that church.

Reaching my cabin, I opened the door and I burst into the living room. Finding my bike’s keys on the countertop, I grabbed them in my hand and ran to my bike outside. Throwing myself onto the saddle, I turned the key and the engine roared to life. My heart boomed like fucking thunder as the bike vibrated beneath me.

Heeling up the kickstand, I saw Viking and AK running down the hill after me. They were screaming at me to stop, but I couldn’t. I needed to get to Maddie. I couldn’t fucking leave her there, with those people.

Not her.

Not Maddie.

Not my Maddie!

Back wheel skidding on the graveled drive, I launched like a fucking bat out of hell onto the dirt road. I caught the sound of a bike following me in the distance, but I didn’t stop, Ky’s bitch’s words fucking piercing my brain.

“Maddie is at Our Savior Church… She has been going there for a while now. We all have.”

I rode harder, not knowing if I was too late. But knowing if I didn’t get there, it could be too late. They’d make her scream. And I couldn’t hear her scream. I couldn’t bear the screaming. It boiled my blood. It ignited the flames under my flesh. It fucking haunted my brain.

My hands shook on the bars of my Harley as I fought not to explode with fucking rage. I pictured Maddie’s green eyes. I pictured her pale skin. Her long black hair. Then all I saw in my head was her covered in blood; held down and hurt. And I could picture her screaming. Could see those green eyes wide, could see those eyes crying as they tied her down. All the people in the church tying her down and causing her pain.

And I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save her. Another one… another one would be taken from me. Because I wasn’t there to protect her.

Clenching my hands on the Harley’s bars, I let a scream tear from my injured throat. And I kept pushing my bike harder until I pulled into the opening roads of downtown. I ran every red light. Cut roads and crossings.

Then two more right turns and the motherfucker came into view.

White.

Grand.

A fucking house of evil disguised as good.

Our Savior’s Church.

And it held my Maddie.

Skidding to a stop out front, I jumped off my bike. As my boots hit asphalt, I fought the pounding in my head at being near this fucking hell. The drugs were still in my blood from the hospital, but I had no choice but to push through.

I looked down at my open palms and my hands shook, my leg muscles seized. And like a fucking pussy, I looked up at the steep white steps and I couldn’t fucking move.

And then, in my mind’s eye, I saw him standing in front of me, ordering me to get closer to the church door. I saw the cold look in his eyes as he stared down at me, his lip curled in disgust.