It Ain't Me, Babe (Hades Hangmen #1)(38)

“Please… It is too fast. I… I do not know what I am feeling. It is too much, too soon. And… You came here with Lois. This… us, like this, is not right.”

He let out a single, humorless laugh. “Sh-she’s not my w-woman. She’s j-just a f-f*ck. She d-don’t matter.”

“Styx. She matters. How can you be so unfeeling?” I scolded. “To you she may mean nothing, but Lois; Lois loves you. I cannot—I will not—be with you like this. It is not right.”

Dropping his hands, he drew back two steps before hissing, “Y-you like him?”

I frowned in confusion. “Who?”

“R-Rider!” He began pacing. “I-I saw y-you. Y-you like him.”

“I—”

“I-I came to s-see you f-first thing this m-morning, wh-when I g-got back. D-door was open. Y-you were with him. L-laughing. Y-you were t-too close. I-I d-don’t f-f*ckin’ like it.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Styx, how can you say that to me when you are here with Lois?”

He stilled. “Th-that’s your p-problem? L-Lois? Fuck, M-Mae. D-done.”

I did not get a chance to say anything in response. Instead, Styx stomped off, leaving me alone in the woods, breathless and wet between my legs. I tipped my head to the sky, catching my breath. Why was I so wet between my legs? Why did I ache… there? Why was everything on the outside world so hard to understand, these new feelings impossible to decipher? A lump clogged my throat, but I fought back my tears. I chose to leave The Order. I simply had to learn to adjust to all of… this.

I immediately made my way back to the waterfall in a daze. When I broke through the cover of trees, Styx was already back at his bike, shirt and cut back on, and Lois stood beside him, tears in her eyes as she watched him sign. Her arms were wrapped over her chest as though to shield herself from his words.

“Please, Styx. Don’t do this to me. You’re all I have left. I wanna be with you… just you. You know this,” she begged, checking no one was watching. But we all were. They were causing quite the scene. My heart broke at the utter devastation in her voice, the gutting expression on her pretty face.

Styx’s hands moved again, a tired, defeated look on his face, until he glanced over at me and it softened a fraction.

Reality dawned: he was giving her up for me.

Oh… no… Lois…

Lois followed the line of his vision and all hope seemed to drain from her body. She turned back to Styx. “It’s because of Mae, ain’t it?”

Styx did not answer. Lois reached out for his arm, but he stepped back, a harsh coldness in his glare.

I suddenly felt warmth at my sides as Letti and Beauty joined me. Beauty laid a hand on my shoulder as she watched the scene play out. “Poor bitch. She’s loved Prez forever. Was a club brat with him and Ky. Known him her whole life and always wanted him. This’ll f*ckin’ kill her,” she whispered and tears, this time, did drop down my cheeks. I was the cause of her pain. I hated myself at that moment. Maybe I was a Cursed after all.

“Styx, please. Listen to me,” Lois pleaded, but Styx turned his back and walked away.

Lois wiped at her cheeks and turned to face the watching club. She faltered slightly at the attention, then began to walk right toward me. My heart beat furiously the closer she got. I expected her wrath, her disdain but, instead, a wash of tears streamed down her cheeks and she trembled.

Standing before me, her eyes ran over every inch of my face and she stroked a hand down the length of my hair. “So soft,” she whispered, and I swallowed back my nerves, not daring to move.

Leaning down to my ear, she said, “He never forgot you, Mae. Growing up, I watched him sign to Ky about you all the time, his chick with the wolf eyes. The chick behind the fence, the chick he kissed. It was constant. His precious number three, whatever that meant.”

She drew back to stare me down and offered me a small smile, taking my hand in hers. “I think it was always you he wanted. Of course, no one believed you were real. His pop thought he was not only mute but insane, for a while, when we were kids. But now here you are, in the flesh, dropped on the club outta nowhere, answering all his prayers. You’re the one thing he couldn’t ever let go.” Her head tilted to the side in appraisal and her eyes saddened. “You’re a sweet, sweet girl, Mae, but why did you have to come here? Why couldn’t you just’ve stayed away? I’ve loved him forever, and then you turn up and take him away with a single flash of those beautiful wolf eyes he adores so much. First my daddy leaves me, now Styx. I have absolutely no one left. There’s no point to life anymore…”

Swallowing back the lump in my throat, I started to answer her, when all of a sudden I heard a screech of brakes and gunshots fired. Before I had a chance to turn around and see what was happening, a bullet pierced Lois’s forehead, her stunned face frozen in time as her body crumpled to the ground, her soft hand slipping from mine.

Spinning round, I panicked. Bullets sprayed around our area, the trees shaking with the impact of the metal shells. Chunks of bark splintered into wooden chips. Beauty and Letti fell to the ground for cover.

I froze, well out of my depth. My pulse beating at a frightening speed, I glanced sideward. Styx, Rider, and Ky sheltered behind the provisions truck, Styx rapidly signing orders, Ky shouting the commands. They pulled out concealed weapons and, rising up through gaps between attacking shots, fired back. The red truck holding the attackers slowed, two men wearing balaclavas took aim, and my arm suddenly burned. When I looked down, blood was seeping from my arm where I had been grazed by a bullet.