“All of you go wait in the van,” Rider demanded. The men slipped on their balaclavas and left us the hell alone.
I stretched my neck back to the yard and caught sight of a blacked-out Ford van. No plates. No distinguishing features. Nothing for me to locate it with.
Mae was in the back, unconscious, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move to save my woman.
“Styx.”
Hearing my name, I turned my attention back to Rider, who had moved ’round and now stood before me. The fucker looked relieved… like he’d finally won.
“She caused this by choosing you, y’know.” My jaw clenched and I tasted my own blood as my gums began to bleed with the pressure. “I mean, what the hell does she see in you? The way she watches you. The way she’s obsessed with you. It’s completely alien to me.”
I almost couldn’t breathe as he talked about my woman. Shit. She did want me. Hell, she loved me, and this asshole couldn’t take it.
Rider punched me in the face, my head blowing to the side as a result. The brother had one hell of a right hook. “It’s time for you to listen, brother.” My eyes narrowed.
“For years I’ve had to put up with a shitload of sinful acts and the pure evil poison of this brotherhood: the brothers fucking anything that moved, killing for kicks, drinking, turning against the Lord. I earned your friendship, your trust. All the time, I despised you and the rest of the sinners in this chapter. What you didn’t see is that The Order acquired a lucrative contract several years ago. A contract for a whole lotta guns, guns to give us revenue to expand our… commune. It was gonna take a few years to set up. But that was good. We needed a few years to scope the market, get to know our competitors. We shipped weapons in from Gaza, top-grade shit. But someone was already on our turf: you.
“The plan was real simple: infiltrate the Hangmen, move through the ranks, and shoot the intel back to Prophet David and the elders. And I did. Did it to damn near perfection. It was us who undercut the Russian deal—I told them the details—began to phase the Hangmen outta the gun game. We got better guns. Russians had no complaints. Your old man going to the boatman was just the icing on the cake. I mean, his young kid, a mute bastard, taking the gavel? Putty in our fuckin’ hands.
“It was us who put the bid on your head with the Nazis. Pit eventually took the fall. It weren’t too hard to make you think the prospect was corrupt—like taking candy from a baby. But then Mae turned up, bleeding out. Everything changed for me. The whole fuckin’ game changed.”
Rider stroked his brown beard and a smirk appeared on his lips. I made a silent promise to myself to cut off Rider’s head and mount it on my wall, a trophy to smirk back at every day for the rest of my life. I’d never wanted to maim and kill a motherfucker so much. I wanted him to feel pain… lots of pain, so much pain that’d he’d beg me to end him.
“I didn’t know who Mae was at first.” He continued.
I tried my best to refocus. Anything he said could be useful. I needed to listen to every damn word out of this traitor’s brainwashed mouth.
“I’d never seen her before. I was kept away from the commune, kept away to study The Order’s leadership, study our teachings… study medicine, and learn how to heal. I was to be secluded until called upon to ascend. Things changed, though, and I was given a different mission: to infiltrate the Hangmen. I’d lived outside of commune, knew about life. I was the obvious choice to fit in with an outlaw MC.
“I’d heard of the four ‘Cursed Sisters’ of the commune, of course; the famed four beauties of The Order. We all had—Salome, her two sisters, and one other, Delilah. We, the brothers, were warned to stay away from them. They could tempt any man, cause them to fall. Salome was rumored to be the most beautiful of them all, but fuck, the rumors of her beauty were underestimated—that hair, those eyes… that sinful body. It wasn’t until I saw the tattoo on her wrist and the marks on her skin that I knew she was one of my own. I just couldn’t understand how she’d escaped. Then I got word from Gabriel that Salome had run away on her wedding day and I knew who you’d just taken in—one of the Cursed… the prophesized seventh wife of Prophet David. Taken her in and set out to make her your own. You turned her into your whore. Swayed her from The Order’s path of righteousness.”
Rider suddenly snarled and rushed me, slamming his fist into my stomach. The blow almost had me puking. I sucked up the pain. This asswipe would never break me. My hatred of him and his brothers was keeping me numb from pain.
“I wanted nothing to do with Mae. I had to let The Order know where she was, to organize the pick-up, and never get too close to risk all my work. She is Prophet David’s. But then you go and push her on me! You made me want her! Made me obsess about her!” He gripped my cheeks in his hand. “You ruined me! And now I have to deliver Mae back to him. My time’s up, keeping her away. I have to give her back!”
My lips curled over my teeth. Breathe. Swallow. Speak.
Fuckin’ speak! I ordered my throat.
But no words.
Yet again.
Fuck!
Rider laughed. “Still nothing to say, Prez?” he stepped back. “You’re pathetic. You couldn’t even grow a pair and speak to your woman when she was calling for you… crying for you. You never deserved her.”
I jerked so far forward off the gate my limbs bent too far. I felt my shoulder pop, probably dislocated, but I welcomed the pain. It would drive me. Fuel me on the path to revenge.
Rider edged in to say quietly, “I ain’t gonna kill you. No, it’d be too easy, and I don’t need no more blood on my hands. I’ve sinned too much for this club as it is.” The rat’s face fell at that, but then it immediately hardened the fuck back up. “I want you alive, Styx, knowing Mae is out there, knowing you ain’t gonna see her again. See how you like living the hell I’ve been through over these past few months. And don’t bother looking. You’ll never find us. No one ever does.”
“Brother Cain! We must leave now!” one of the men shouted from the yard.
Rider stalked off and never looked back. My heart pounded as the van engine started and I fought and fought against the ties until I had nothing left. I watched, strung up like a damn crucified mute pussy as the van rolled south, down my country road. Hauling away my woman.
I shook with uncontrollable rage, and opening my mouth, I released a long, silent scream.
***
“Styx! What the fuck!” I opened my heavy eyes and saw Ky, Tank, and Bull dismount their Harley’s, running my way. Rows of burning-with-rage eyes watched me. Tens of brothers sat on their bikes at the compound’s entrance, staring at me hung up, naked and beaten, in some ancient Roman execution pose. The Hangmen had finally returned from the ride out and I had no idea how long I’d been out here, but only one thing was on my mind: revenge.
And Rider: dead.
Bull pulled out his Swiss Army knife from inside his boot and cut me down, some brothers propping up my weak ass when I couldn’t fuckin’ stand on my own.
“Who the fuck did this?” Ky hissed, his voice like a scream in the quiet of the watching brothers.
They killed their engines and the brothers quickly moved me inside. Once through the main doors of the bar, they dropped me on the nearest couch and someone threw a blanket over my beat-up, naked body.
Beauty.
The psycho trio stood before me, seething, fidgeting on anxious feet. The whole club seemed to pulse with rage. “I said what happened?” Ky pushed again.
Letti came gunning into the bar from my apartment. “She’s not there,” she said flatly. Shit. I’d never seen Letti shaken, but her dark eyes were huge now she’d found Mae’d gone.
“Where’s Mae?” Tank asked tightly. They already knew she’d been taken.
I sat forward and ran my fingers through my hair. AK pushed a bourbon in my hand and I knocked it back in one, feeling the slow burn down my throat.
“Who was it, Prez? Neos? Mexicans? We need to take out more of the Klan?”
Flame growled as he constantly paced the floor like the goddamn fuckhead he was—the brother was thirsting for blood. Good. I’d need him soon enough. There was a whole lotta blood to be shed.
I glanced up at Ky, lifted my hands, then clumsily signed, R-I-D-E-R.
All the brothers who could understand sign froze in disbelief, including Flame. That was a first. The brother could never stand still, too many demons rattling around inside.
“R-I-D-E-R?” Ky spelled out loudly and slowly. “Rider took Mae? Strung you up on the gate like you were being fuckin’ crucified?” He confirmed for all to hear.
The room fell deathly quiet.
He was the rat all along. He set up Pit. Rider’s been getting our intel for years. He wanted our turf for guns.
“Who did? Who did the fucker work for?” Viking snapped.
I exhaled and fought the nausea at losing Mae. I felt like my stomach had been shredded. What the hell was she going through right now? What if they…? Shit! I couldn’t even think it. I wanted to crush skulls, cult skulls, and grind them into dust.
“Prez!” Ky bit out.
I refocused. Mae’s cult. Motherfucker’s the goddamn heir or some shit.
Beauty’s hand slapped over her mouth. “Rider’s in Mae’s cult? No…”
I nodded stiffly.
“Did he take Mae?” she asked, tears brimming in her eyes.
The room seemed to vibrate with tension as they waited for my response. I nodded again.
“No!” Beauty gasped. “They’ll punish her for running away. She told me herself.” Tank grabbed Beauty by the arm and turned her into his chest to keep her quiet.
Shaking with impatience, I turned to Ky, signing, You call on every chapter within the state, fuck, within an eight-hour ride. Call Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, New Mexico, and Alabama. Get them here. I’m calling war on the commune.
Me, you, Tank, Bull, and the trio are gonna pay the senator a visit. That fucker has something to do with this shit. He’s the key to getting Mae back. Hit the ammo hangers and move the guns. We’re gonna need everything we got.
“Then what?” Bull asked, the rest of the brothers readying to action.
I stood, held my fucked-up shoulder, and crunched it back into its socket, working out the cracks in my neck. Then we go get my old lady back. I’m fixin’ to bring the wrath of Hades on the whole damn lotta the brainwashed, abusive cunts.”
***
“Senator fuckin’ Collins!” Viking shouted as we burst open the master bedroom door of his mansion, down in Tarrytown off Mopac—some rich-ass gated community right on Lake Austin, where folks have more money than sense.
As one, we all froze.
The good ol’ senator removed his shriveled-up cock from deep up the ass of some Thai toy-boy and dived for cover on his bed.
Ky stepped forward and grinned. “Well, well, what do we have here, Senator Collins?”
“How the hell did y’all get in here?!” Collins snapped.
AK walked to his closet and began rooting around, pocketing a few top-grade Cuban cigars. “Your staff ain’t too loyal. Seems they value their own lives above yours.” He looked up and peered across the bed. “And that of your little underage twink, by the looks of things.”
The senator paled. The rent boy held up his hands—he was all of sixteen, seventeen maybe? Perfect ammo for us. Maybe Hades was watching after us after all.
Flame stormed to the kid and lifted him from the bed by his black hair. “You have ten seconds to get the fuck out of this room before I castrate you and feed your cock to his dog!” Flame threw him to the floor and, in less then ten seconds, the kid was smoke, slamming the door behind him as he went.
Ky sat down on the end of the bed and leaned back, staring at Collins. I stood against the drawers just watching as the old dickhead met my hard stare. He swallowed… hard.
I smirked.
He whimpered.
Pussy.
“So? Collins? Seems you’ve been keeping secrets from the good ol’ folks of Texas, eh? What would they say if they knew their perfect family man liked to suck cock?”
“What do you want?” he asked quietly, his beady eyes constantly darting among the brothers now stationed around the room. “I got lots’a money. How much d’y’all want?”
Ky raised his eyebrow and laughed. “We got plenty of money.”
Ky jerked his chin to Flame. Flame, the constantly twitching brother, glided to the bed and lifted up Collins by his throat, pinning him high against the wall.
“NO! Don’t kill me! I’ll tell y’all anything you wanna know!” Collins screeched, his words barely audible through Flame’s iron-tight grip. When the senator’s puffy face turned purple, Flame dropped his puny naked ass to the hardwood floor.
“Who put the Neos on us?” Any blood left in the senator’s face completely drained on hearing Ky’s question.
“I don’t… I didn’t—” Flame flew at him again. Collins pushed his hands out, screaming and scrambling against the wall. “Okay, okay… just don’t hurt me!”
Flame looked to me for instruction. I called him off with a flick of my chin.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ky said, moving to confront Collins. “I’m gonna start counting down from sixty. If I get to zero, I’m gonna get Flame here to give you a lobotomy. Let’s just try and jog that memory of yours.”
Flame threw back his head and laughed hysterically, flicking open his Persian switchblade in readiness.
“Fifty,” Ky counted down.
The senator rubbed his sweaty, bald head in obvious fear.
“Forty.”
Flame began loosening up: cracking knuckles, rolling his neck, slicing along his arms, blood dripping to the cream-carpeted floor.
Collin’s face visibly reddened with fear.
“Thirty.”
“Twenty.”
“Ten.”
“Five… four… three… two… one… zer—”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll make you a deal!”
I jerked my chin, ordering the senator to speak.
“It was some suit. He came in and I put out the hit. Neos took the bid. The suit wanted the mute dead, the Hangmen took outta the gun game.” He looked up at me. “The order came from the governor’s mansion downtown. The suit carried a letter with the governor’s signature and I was told to overlook all gun trades from some new organization, Gaza-funded or such shit. To approve no-flight zones and enforce trespassing laws around some piece of abandoned land north of the city. I didn’t ask no more about it. Less I know the better.”
“What did the suit look like?” Tank asked.
Collins pinched his nose. “Tall, good suit, normal. Oh, he had a long brown beard and a scar down his cheek.”
Gabriel.
Ky turned to me for orders.
Find out the location of that land. It’s the commune. No doubt. The suit was one of the fuckers who took Mae.
Ky nodded stiffly. He was pissed.
“We’re gonna need the location,” Ky demanded.
Collins frowned. “Can’t give it.” Flame approached, licking his bloodied blade, and he screamed, “Wait! Wait!”
I held up my hand signaling Flame to halt.
“The governor has shit on me. Shit that could destroy my political career, my family. He told me he would ruin me if I ever gave that location away… especially to you… the Hangmen. Can only mean he’s getting serious bank from them.”
“You mean he knows you like to fuck little boys?” Viking queried.
Collins’s lips tightened in annoyance. Viking smiled.
“The only folks who could give a shit if that location is found will be dead within twenty-four hours. The governor only cares ’bout what comes back on him. We’re fixin’ for no one to be left talking once we’re done. They or he won’t be giving you shit.”
Collins sighed. We had the fucker over a barrel and he knew it. “And you guys. What will y’all do with this piece of… personal info
rmation on me?”
“Fuck all… if the location works out,” Ky emphasized.
“And I’m meant to believe you won’t use it against me in the future?”
“Not at all. Help us, we’ll let you fuck road kill if y’wanna. Don’t give us the location, you’ll be national news in the morning.” Ky leaned down to where Collins sat. “Let’s just say we have some connections who’ll enjoy spreading this story.”
“Fuck!” Collins hissed. “I guess I have no choice then, do I?”
“Sweet. Fuck. All.” Ky agreed.
Five minutes later, we had our target location.
As we sat on our Harleys outside, Ky answered a call. “Yeah… ETA… Right…”
He closed his cell and looked to me. “Many as seven states of Hangmen en route. ETA eight hours.”
A feeling of relief stirred in my stomach. I was gonna get Mae back. In less than twenty-four hours, I’d have my old lady back on my bike and in my bed. The fuckers who took her would be long gone to the boatman, no dimes on their eyes. And that bastard Rider, he’d pay and pay good.
Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes. Hang tight, babe. I’m coming for you real soon.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mae
“Babe,” Styx hissed as I kissed down his taut, packed stomach, licking between the valleys and hills of hard muscle. Following the patch of hair leading to his underwear, I pulled down the waistband, his length springing forward only to land next to my mouth. Glancing up, Styx’s eyes were hooded at half mast, his teeth biting the silver ring that sat through his bottom lip.
“Mae… fuck…” he hushed out.
Smiling at how I could bring him to his knees, I leaned down and licked along his rigid flesh. A long groan escaped his mouth. “That feels so good, babe. So fuckin’ good,” he murmured, his tattooed arms flexing at his sides.
Planting my hand on either side of his hips, I crawled to straddle over his thighs, wrapped my lips around his length, and sucked him deep into my mouth. I loved his salty musky taste. His hand wrapped in my long hair and his hips began to lift, slowly plunging his erection farther into my mouth. “Babe… babe…” he said, each word synchronized with each thrust.