My Maddie (Hades Hangmen #8)(28)

“Flames!” Bull’s voice cut into my mind and I snapped my head up.

Brothers started moving when AK shouted, “The clubhouse!” Over the trees I saw fire rolling toward the sky, smoke plunging into the air.

“No!” I screamed and ran to my truck. My fucking pulse set off into a sprint as I dived into the driver’s seat. I pulled out onto the dirt road, the back wheels sliding on the grass. “Maddie!” I roared into the truck’s cabin, as I followed my brothers’ bikes up to the clubhouse. The closer we got the more I saw the flames. “Maddie! MADDIE!” They were everywhere. Fucking flames. Flames climbing higher and higher, fucking eating the wooden parts of the clubhouse. Jumping from the truck I ran out the front. “MADDIE!” I heard coughing. The bitches were rushing to the tree line of the woods, Rider and Zane leading the way. I searched over them all. Watched AK, Styx, Ky, Tank and Bull find their bitches. Sia ran out of the building, Hush and Cowboy running forward to catch her. Tanner was with Lita near his truck. The kids were all there—the babies, Grace, Saffie—

“Maddie!” I turned my head to Mae. She was looking around too.

“Maddie! Where’s Maddie?” she said, panicked. “Maddie?” Mae shouted, eyes wide. “Maddie! MADDIE!”

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe! No. No. NO! “MADDIE!” I roared. “MADDIE!”

“Fuck!” Rider hissed.

I didn’t fucking wait. I ran into the building. As the door opened, the fire and heat crashed over me, the handle scalded my hand. I didn’t fucking care. Maddie. I had to get Maddie. I heard voices shouting my name from behind me. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t fucking die! Fire was everywhere. I ran down the hallway, toward the back room. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t fucking there! I didn’t feel the flames on my skin. They were already in my blood. “MADDIE!” I screamed, coughing as the smoke burrowed into my lungs. “MADDIE!” I ran forward. There were so many flames.

“Flame!” I heard a voice near me. But I had to get through the fire. Maddie was somewhere in here. She couldn’t die. I hit my head with my fist when I tried to fucking think. “FLAME!” A hand came on my arm and pulled me round. Ash. It was Ash. “Not down there!” he said, his arm covering his mouth from smoke.

He dragged me back by my arm. I threw him off. I needed to find Maddie. I needed Maddie! “There!” Ash shouted. He pointed to the back of the hallway.

My heart thundered when I saw a body on the floor. “MADDIE!” I ran. I fucking ran as fast I could, through the flames and smoke. I dropped to my knees. Maddie was on the floor. She was on the fucking floor!

“We need to get her out, Flame! Move!” Ash shouted. I lifted Maddie in my arms. She weighed nothing. I tried to look at her face. The flames stung my eyes. Her face was smudged with lines of black smoke. But I saw her eyes were shut.

“No!” I rasped and felt my fucking heart start to crack. I ran. I ran as the roof started falling around us. Ash ran in front of me, slamming his shoulder into the exit door that was shut before us. It burst open and he ran through. I followed, just as a gigantic crash sounded behind us. People ran around us. “Get the fuck back! GET THE FUCK BACK!” I screamed as I dropped to my knees and lowered Maddie to the ground. My throat closed, but a loud scream ripped from my throat when she didn’t move. “Maddie,” I whispered and gently pushed back her hair from her head. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. “Maddie!” I said and sat back on my heels. “Wake up. Maddie, wake up.” I leaned over her. I put my hand on her chin and turned her head to me. “Open your eyes. Please… Maddie… open your eyes…” But she didn’t. Something started happening inside me. The flames that were in my blood started breaking free from the walls of my veins. As I stared at Maddie on the ground, I didn’t care. I didn’t care that I felt the flames flooding through my flesh and bones, running under my skin and taking control.

I lifted Maddie into my arms and rocked her. “Maddie…” She wasn’t walking up. Her skin was pale under the black smoke on her face, and she wasn’t waking up. A drop of water landed on her cheek, cutting a track through the smoke smudges. Another one fell. I looked up to see where it was from. I felt water on my cheek. Me. It was from me. My chest ached so much I couldn’t breathe. As I stared down at Maddie, I thought I was dying. The pain in my heart was so much that I couldn’t fucking move.

“Flame.” AK dropped down beside me. I heard sirens in the background, but I couldn’t let go of Maddie. I’d killed her. The flames… I froze. I looked at the flames behind me, the fire. The flames had killed her. They had come for her. Come for the baby. She was dead. They were both dead. “Let Rider look at her.” AK was speaking to me.

I tensed, baring my fucking teeth as Rider dropped to his knees on the other side of Maddie. “GET THE FUCK AWAY!” I ordered, holding her closer. “I will kill you. Touch her and I will kill you.”

“She’s breathing, Flame,” Rider said slowly. I stilled.

I shook my head. “She’s dead. The flames killed her. She’s dead. They’re both dead. Like Mama and Isaiah. They’re both gone.” The pain that cut through me made me curl forward and gasp for breath.

“Flame. She’s breathing. She’s alive. Let me look at her.” The sirens got louder. I saw blue lights coming along the road to the club. “She needs to go to the hospital. She needs immediate help.”