Souls Unfractured (Hades Hangmen, #3)(3)

I couldn’t be touched. I couldn’t be f*cking touched. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, I started to count, waiting for the flames to hurt her. Waiting for the pain… eight, nine, ten, eleven… My eyes snapped down as I reached eleven, expecting to see her pain.

Eleven.

But she wasn’t hurt.

Eleven.

I’d gone past eleven.

The little bitch’s arms tightened around my waist and I looked down in shock. I saw her thick black hair. I saw her back rise and fall with her breaths.

“Thank you,” she whispered and pressed her cheek against my chest. “Thank you so very much.”

My lungs froze as she thanked me. But I didn’t understand. Like always. I didn’t f*cking understand anything.

Why wasn’t she hurt from my touch?

Why was she f*cking thanking me?

Then her arms tightened again, and I wanted to touch her back. I wanted to motherf*cking touch her.

Heart still pumping from the rush of the kill, pulse slamming in my neck, I squeezed my eyes shut. Forcing my arms down, I took a deep breath, and pressed my hands to her back. As my hands touched the material of her dress, I sucked in a breath, feeling her body jump under my palms.

I almost pulled back, the feel of her in my arms f*cking with my mind. But that was shot to hell when I felt wetness on my chest, on my skin, and the bitch, cried, “You freed me. You freed me from him.”

At those words my eyes snapped shut. My heart sprinted in my chest, but the flames in my blood, the heat in my blood, was calmed.

The flames never calmed.

They forever f*cking burned.

But with her…

I wanted to grip her tighter.

I wanted to hold her closer, but then she dropped her arms and pulled away.

My hands clenched at my sides as I watched her go, then just before she reached her sisters, she looked back at me and asked, “What is your name?” Her voice was shaking, like she was scared. But her eyes never left mine. They f*cking burned into mine, making my heart pound.

Then I thought of that question. My name…

“Flame,” I said, pushing my other name far from my f*cking mind, the name I couldn’t stand.

I froze as she dipped her eyes and smiled. My fingernails dug into my palm, so I could f*cking try and stay calm at that smile. “You have my eternal gratitude, Flame. I am forever in your debt.”

The air blew out from my mouth as she turned and walked away, but I couldn’t stop staring at her.

My eyes dropped to my hands and I stared at my palm. I’d touched her. I’d f*cking touched her and I hadn’t hurt her.

Then my stomach fell. Because the flames were still under my skin. I could feel them. And if I touched her again, I could hurt her.

“Fuck man, you alright?” AK stood in front of me blocking my path to the little black-haired bitch.

I held up my hands, palms up high. “I f*cking touched her,” I whispered. “I f*cking 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 f*ck 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 f*cked 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 f*ck 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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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 f*cking get near her again. No one would ever hurt her again. If they did, they would die.

Die under my motherf*cking 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 f*cking 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 motherf*cking 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.