Darkness Embraced (Hades Hangmen 7)

I read his response, and a strange kind of peace settled in me. Good.

Arrange it. Tell me when and where. I’m coming in.

Wade gave me what I asked for, and I closed down all my computers, wiping anything that would lead the Hangmen to where I was going. Taking a piece of paper, I wrote to Tank.

Tank,

Just want to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You were there when I was in the Klan. You were there for me even when you left. You were there when I left too. You always had my back. You’re the only person in my life that I can say that about.

You’ve been the best friend I could have asked for. And I want you to know it. Stick with Beauty. There’s not many bitches out in the world like her. You got one of the best.

I took a deep breath and pressed my pen to the paper again.

I’m done with the running. I’m done with the Klan and the cartel. I’m going to settle shit once and for all. Going to stop them coming for you all. Gonna stop this war and keep the Hangmen and the old ladies and kids safe.

Live free. Ride free. Die free, brother.

Tanner.

I folded the letter and placed it on my desk. Leaving my room, I walked my bike down to the edge of the compound. I waited in the forest for night to fall, then pushed my bike to the road. I hadn’t had a clue what the fuck happened with Ash and Wrox. The place was like a ghost town. But I saw what all this shit was doing to this club. What the poison from the Klan and cartel had done to this brotherhood. Fighting among chapters and an innocent—no, two innocent—kids killing and selling their souls to Hades. Zane wouldn’t ever be the same after the capture and shootout. Ash had already gone postal, and Smiler was right behind them, guiding them into darkness.

I thought of Mae and Charon. Of Lilah, Grace, and the twins. And of Saffie and what she’d told Adelita. About her father. About it all. The fucking club was crumbling. If I stopped the Klan and cartel, they had a chance to rebuild and fucking pull their shit together.

I didn’t start my bike’s engine until I was well out of sight.

And I headed to the Mexican border. Where the Klan would meet me at an agreed point and I would be taken in. With every mile of road I traveled, the closer I got to the men who would kill me; the numbness left me. Because I would be with Adelita again soon.

I dream that we meet each other in some distant future and recognize one another’s souls. And we’ll be found.

I was holding onto that fucking dream with everything I had.

Chapter Fourteen

Styx

I sat my ass down at my desk. Ky slumped in the chair opposite. “F-fuck. M-me.” I leaned back on the chair, staring at the ceiling. The bastard sun had come up a couple of hours ago.

All night. All fucking night I’d been dealing with the fallout of Ash killing Hick. And Smiler. What the hell had that prick been thinking, taking Ash down to the shed?

“What a fucking night,” Ky groaned, and downed the coffee he’d just poured. He slammed the empty mug to the table. “Just when you think we only have to deal with one Flame, in comes model 2.0. Only this one knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing.” Ky shook his head. “Makes the kid even more fucking unhinged in my book.”

Ash was off prospect duty. Banned from club life for a month. Wrox hadn’t been happy with the verdict—I didn’t give a fuck. This was my club and my rules, and as I’d told Wrox, Hick had fucked up. Blood had been paid with blood. It was the fucking Hangmen way. Hick was killed in place of Slash. Smiler was on leave for a couple of weeks for his part.

What a fucking shitshow.

But I got it. If that’d been me as a prospect, and some fucker had been responsible for Ky being killed . . . slitting his throat would have been the least I’d have done. I’d have taken my sweet fucking time stripping him of his skin and making the fucker scream. Knowing my old man, he would’ve slapped me on the back and shot Wrox and his chapter through their skulls for daring to question him.

I’d sent Wrox and his chapter packing. I wasn’t dealing with their pussy asses when we were in a fucking war. Those fuckers tried to come at me and my brothers. And they fucking paid the price. Four in the hospital, and the rest nursing concussions and fractured jaws. Motherfucking pricks. If they ever tried that again, I’d fucking slaughter them all myself, no hesitation.

I knocked back my coffee and was about to get up and get the fuck home, when Tank crashed through the door. “He’s fucking gone!” he shouted. Tank waved a piece of paper in his hands. He slammed it down on the table. I saw scribble on the paper, but Tank made it so I didn’t need to read it to know who it was from. “He’s fucking gone after her.”

Tank kicked the spare desk chair across the room, the wood splintering against the wall. “He fucking tried to explain it to us all. He fucking stood before us all, and then Wrox and his dickheads came at us, and made it so he couldn’t. Tanner must have slipped out while we were all dealing with the fallout.” Tank’s hands smashed down on the table top. “He’s gone to Mexico. On his own. With the Klan and cartel after his blood.” He grabbed the paper. “This? It’s a fucking suicide note. The brother knows he ain’t coming back. He knows they both want him.” Tank shook his head. “He’s gone so they won’t come after the club. Just like Adelita did. They’ve both gone back, and they’ll both be killed. And what did we do? We fucking ignored him and focused on Ash killing Hick.” Tank pointed at both me and Ky. “When it was your old ladies, we fucking armored up and brought hell to that cult. We didn’t hesitate. But Tanner . . . brother went in alone because we didn’t have his fucking back when it counted.” He stood upright and folded his arms across his chest. “So, what the fuck we gonna do about it? Because we better be fucking doing something. He ain’t the reason we went to war. Despite what he thinks, it goes beyond his involvement.”

Tank glared at Ky. “You wanted war because of Sia. AK wanted war because of what happened to Phebe and Saffie. Ash killed Hick because of what the cartel did to him, Zane, and Slash. Smiler wants blood spilled for Slash.” Tank dropped down to a seat next to me and Ky. “So, we’re all going in. I don’t give a shit if it’s just our chapter. But that guy is the best fucking friend I ever had, and he’s a true Hangman. I ain’t taking no for a fucking answer.”

Tank met my eyes, and I could see the challenge in his gaze for me to argue back. It just pissed me the fuck off. I was getting real fucking done with brothers in my club thinking they could talk to me however the fuck they wanted.

I lifted my hands to give him a fucking reality check, when a knock came at the door. I tipped my head back and signed, “This day is never-fucking-ending!”

Mae stepped through. Her face was white. I shot to my feet in a second. Ky and Tank did too. “What?” I signed.

Mae’s wolf eyes were huge. She walked forward, and my fucking heart started slamming in my chest. “What’s wrong? Where’s Charon?”

“He is safe. He is with Bella,” she said, and my stomach picked the fuck back up.

“Then what?” Had there been an attack? Was someone missing?

?

??You need to read this.” Mae held up my mother’s journal.

I shook my head. “Mae, not the fuck now—” I signed, but she cut me off.

“Styx! You must read this. Now.”

I saw Ky frowning, wondering what the hell was going on, curious as to why Mae was suddenly shouting when she never fucking raised her voice. I hadn’t told anyone I’d been reading it. Not even Mae . . . though apparently she knew. Bitch always read me better than anyone else.

“Adelita . . .” Mae whispered and shook her head, clutching the journal to her chest. Her eyes filled with tears. “It is Adelita, Styx.” I didn’t know why, but at Mae’s tone, my pulse started firing like a damn cannon. My eyes dropped to the journal in Mae’s hands. “It’s her . . .” Mae said, as a tear fell down her cheek. And then I knew. I knew what she was fucking saying.

I didn’t know what the fuck came over me. Some kind of deep-level rage that I’d never felt before. Some damn inherited promise to my mother came barreling into my fucking gut. But I looked at Ky and lifted my hands. “Get everyone the fuck here. NOW! I’m calling church.”

“What the fuck’s going on?” Ky asked. Tank looked just as confused.

“Call fucking church!”

Ky and Tank left the office, and I took hold of Mae’s arm, slamming her to my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head. “You have to save her, Styx. You need to bring her back home.”

“T-Tanner’s gone too. G-Gone after her.”

Mae pulled back and placed her hand on my cheek. “No . . .” she whispered. Her face changed from sad to fucking determined.

Pure motherfucking Hangmen bitch right there. And she was fucking mine.

“Then bring them both back, baby. Where they belong. This changes everything. For you . . . For Charon . . . For her . . .” I took Mae’s mouth, kissed the fuck out of my wife. When I pulled back, she repeated, “Save them. This awful wrong needs to be made right.”