Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Looking just like someone we both knew, brother… My head twitched as I remembered his words from the woods. He fucking hated me. Ash fucking hated me.
“Let me fight beside you, Flame. Let me…” His voice cut out and his eyes lifted. They shined with tears. I didn’t know why. He thought I was like our poppa. He thought I was evil. That I would hurt him like our poppa hurt us both. “Just let me come, okay?” His voice sounded different. Something broke through the anger and poison in my veins. A fucking ache in my chest—something I got with Maddie. I used to feel it with my mama and Isaiah. Now I felt it with Ash.
“We need to go, now” I said and slipped my knife back in my cut. I kicked-started the bike and my engine fucking roared. “We ain’t stopping ‘til we get there,” I pushed. Ash pulled beside me. I looked over at him. He had flame tattoos on his skin. We had the same black eyes and the same black hair.
Ash turned at me. “Let’s go kill these fuckers. Us two. Yeah? For Maddie.”
Then we set off. Death was coming to the devil-worshippers. The Cade brothers hell bent on delivering the fucking fatal blows.
Chapter Six
Maddie
I blinked my eyes open. The sound of the hospital machines beeped with a steady rhythm, the noise music to my ears. The rhythm told me we were alive. A nurse was at my side. “We’re removing all this today, darling. You’re going home. You and that little one are healthy and free of smoke. You’re very lucky.”
“Home,” I whispered, taking a deep, replenishing breath. I craved the comfort and safety of our cabin. I yearned for the warmth of our marital bed. And I needed to take Flame away from this place. I needed to remind him of who he was. I had to bring him back to me. Back to my heart where he belonged.
I turned my head, searching for my husband, who was sitting on the chair. I frowned when I saw he was not there. Not having him beside made me feel like I was missing a limb. For days I had to endure watching him slowly come undone, knife always in his hand, always pushing into his flesh. I felt my heart breaking, minute after minute, cracking in two, watching the man I loved beyond words rocking on the chair, eyes fixed on the floor. It was agony to witness him falling apart. No matter how hard I tried to console him, to hold him, to kiss away his fears, Flame held back. He stopped speaking. But his eyes betrayed his inner torment. His trembling lips gaoled the confession I so desperately needed him to confide in me.
And he would not touch me. I looked down at my offending hand. The one that he could not bring himself to hold. I closed my eyes and felt them fill with tears. I felt his rough hand around my fingers, ghost-like, an eerie echo of the walls he had brought down on our love. I cast my mind back to our cabin when I had locked myself inside, refusing to let AK do what Flame had begged of him. Kill Flame. Once and for all to destroy the flames that tortured my husband’s soul. To silence the venomous voice of his father who, when Flame was but a child, told his son that he was evil, that demons had possessed his body. A father who should have loved and protected Flame. Who should have held his son close when Flame’s fears were laid bare to his ears, when his testimony and confession needed to be met with love and understanding, not denial, certainly not the emotional lashes of eternal damnation and sin.
I felt my tears slip down my cheek, felt my throat close with fear and dread. This time the sadness was for me. The world thought me brave for overcoming the horrors of my own past. But it was all due to Flame. He had been the one to save me. He was my sword when evil thoughts came to drag me down into the pits of despair. Flame was my protective shield when doubt and feelings of unworthiness began to take root in my heart, spreading like a cancer, countering any happiness I had found—and I had found it in abundance with Flame. More than I deserved.
Flame felt he was the weak one. The one who burdened me. But he was no burden. He was the richest of blessings. He was a solitary light in the smothering darkness. His flames were neither evil nor devil tainted. They were sharp bursts of redemption. Of hope. Flame was light. He was my warmth.
“Maddie?” I flickered my eyes open. Bella was standing at the bottom of the bed. She was chewing on her lip. She was obviously nervous. I quickly wiped my eyes. Bella came rushing to my side and took hold of my hand. It was the soothing touch of a beloved sister. But it was not the hand I craved, the touch I needed to feel, to breathe well again.