Heart Recaptured

Styx looked to me, silently asking my opinion, and I shook my head. The Nazis wanted us to follow them, and we’d follow them right onto their turf and straight into a trap. Why else would they strike us face to face? We needed a plan. Then we’d let the psycho loose. I knew Styx agreed by the look on his face.

He shook his head at Flame, then addressed everyone else. “Get this place cleaned up. Block the gate up good. We’ll use the back exit from now on. Church in an hour. We need to take this shit to the table.” He turned to Flame. “You’ll get your kills, brother, but we need to wait this shit out. I ain’t losing brothers because we didn’t think it through.”

Flame twitched, his teeth gritting together, the corded muscles in his arms straining. He stepped up to Styx, and I braced to tear the nut job off our prez.

“She was fuckin screaming!” Flame hissed, his black eyes crazy wild and his teeth gritted together so hard I was sure his jaw was gonna snap. “The fuckin’ blast made her fall off the bed and on the floor, and she was screaming! The bullets were coming in the through the window, and She. Was. Fuckin’. Screaming! I can’t hear the screaming! I can’t take her screaming!”

Lilah tensed and her head cocked to one side. “Maddie? Is Maddie okay?”

Flame hissed and swung to face Lilah. I pushed her behind me and faced Flame’s psycho eyes.

“She was screaming!” he yelled. “I couldn’t touch her. I couldn’t touch her! She was screaming and looking at me! She. Was. Screaming!”

“Flame, is she okay?”

“She’s on the floor, hiding. No blood. No damage. She’s not hurt.” Lilah breathed a sigh of relief. Flame took out his blade and started ripping at his skin. I glanced down to see Lilah watching him with huge eyes.

“I had to kill them. Had to stop her screaming.”

AK stepped forward. “Flame—”

Flame swung around and fisted AK’s cut. The brother didn’t even flinch. AK and Vike had known Flame for years. They were the only fuckers that could understand him. “They could have killed her. For that, they will die! They could have taken her from me. They could have taken her from me! And she was screaming, but I couldn’t touch her!” He let go of AK, sliced at his arm, and hissed out in relief as blood dropped to the dirt. “I need to kill.”

“Soon, Flame,” AK said. “Soon.”

Flame growled and marched back to Styx’s apartment entrance. The brother had to make sure Maddie was safe.

Styx cleared his throat, signaling for my translation. “One hour ‘til church. I gotta check on Mae.”

Styx ran into the clubhouse and the brothers dispersed, cleaning up and getting prepped for war.

Reaching around, I took Lilah’s hand and brought her in front of me. She was covered in blood and shaking. “You okay, sweet cheeks?”

She went to nod her head, but at the last minute, it shook and she buried her face in my chest, crying her fuckin’ heart out. My chest tightened and I fought to breathe. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I guided her to the clubhouse entrance.

As we entered the door, the place was going crazy. Bitches and sluts were cleaning up the bar and anywhere else that had been hit by stray bullets or the impact of the IED.

“Can we see Mae?” Lilah asked, her mouth muffled in my cut.

I nodded and walked down the hallway to Styx’s private club room, a few doors down from mine. Mae was propped up on the bed, Styx lying at her side as Smiler stitched her head. Styx saw me approach. Then his eyes dropped down to Lilah peeking around my waist.

“There, that should do it,” Smiler said and backed away.

Mae breathed a sigh of relief, then looked up at Styx, following his gaze to Lilah.

Tears filled Mae’s eyes and she held out her hand. “Sister…” she whispered. Lilah let go of my waist and rushed to Mae, carefully wrapping her arms around her waist.

“I am so sorry. I should not have spoken to you in that way,” Lilah spoke quietly. “When I held you, unmoving, in my arms, I feared I would never speak to you again and I could not breathe at the thought.”

“Hush, everything is fine. I am fine.” Mae guided Lilah back and held her face in her palms. “We will all be fine. We will find a way for you join this strange world.”

Lilah nodded and whispered, “I suppose I must finally accept that The Order has gone. I just… I just do not know how to do it…”

Mae nodded and winced at the movement but replied, “Yes, you must. It will be hard, but I struggle too, sister. I am trying to find my way too. We can do this together. I promise you.”