“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.