“I know Mae went through something similar, and I get you don’t want that shit made public, but I guarantee you right the fuck now that if Mae had been taken by these bastards, you’d be storming that fuckin’ base, taking names and pissing on skulls!”

Tanner suddenly stood from his chair, attracting my attention.

“What the fuck do you want, Nazi? In case y’all haven’t noticed, this is motherfuckin’ Hangmen church, not a Klan rally, Prince of the fuckin’ White Knights!”

“Ky! Enough!” Tank spat as he jumped from his seat, glaring me down. A chair scraped on the wood flooring, and suddenly Flame was by my side, fuckin’ rage in his scary fuckin’ eyes like I’d never seen before.

Gripping my arm, Flame spun me around. “All that abuse shit… Maddie… rape… kids…” He boomed out a scream. Then his crazy fuckin’ black eyes met mine. “Did those Bible assholes do that shit to Maddie? What they did to Mae and Lilah, did they fuckin’ do to Maddie?”

I sighed and reluctantly nodded my head. Flame ripped out the biggest blade I’d ever seen. Slicing it clean across his chest, blood dripping down his fucked-up demon-faced tattoos all over his sternum.

“Worst done to her outta all of ‘em, brother. Her fuckin’ ward, Brother Moses, was one sick, imaginative fucker.”

Flame’s whole body tensed, a fuckin’ scary as shit noise ripped from his throat, and he boomed out, “HE AIN’T HER FUCKIN’ BROTHER MOSES! SHE’S FUCKIN’ MINE!!!”

Flame gripped the edge of the table. All the brothers leapt from their seats just in time for him to overturn the table. The brother stood there in the middle of the room, dripping blood and sweat, fists clenched, and panting like a fuckin’ rabid pit bull after a dog fight.

Staring at Styx, he snarled. “We go in right the fuck now. I’m with my brother Ky. ‘Cause if any one of those abusive cunts come for my Maddie, Mae, or do anything to hurt Lilah, I ain’t gonna be responsible for the carnage I’ll fuckin’ inflict. I’ll fuckin’ bring a kind of evil those Jesus freaks will never have even thought possible!”

AK and Viking walked to Flame and tried to calm him down, but this time the brother launched them both back, his crazy strength knocking them both flat to the ground.

Styx pounded forward and stood toe to toe with Flame. “Maddie and Mae are going nowhere, and as for Lilah, we’ll get her back. But, brother, we got one shot at this, and we don’t wanna fuck it up. Doesn’t mean you won’t get to bleed some fuckers dry. Just means we gotta get this shit down.” Styx’s hard, take-no-shit gaze met mine, and I knew he was addressing me.

Fuck!

Tanner suddenly stepped forward and split his attention between Styx and me. “I can get those blueprints. And I can get the coordinates to the base.”

“Yeah, and how the fuck you gonna get that, American History X?” I asked. I suddenly didn’t trust this fucker.

“I’m gonna walk right into Klan HQ and take it from the fuckin’ office. I know where Landry keeps his personal shit. I’m the fuckin’ heir and privy to more than any of the wizards know. I’m my old man’s pride and joy, and he taught me how to be one sneaky fucker. You said it yourself, Blondie. I’m the Texas KKK’s Prince of the fuckin’ White Kinghts!” he said sarcastically, staring me down without even flinching. “I know more shit that goes down in this state than the fuckin’ president of the United States. All the cops ‘round here are Klan.”

Tank pounded forward and spun Tanner around. “You do that shit and get caught, you’re dead,” he hissed quietly.

Tanner shrugged, his muscled traps bunching. “They find out I’m hung up for Adelita and I’m fucked anyway. At least this way I can prove to your pretty-boy brother here that I want out once and for all.” Tanner stepped closer to Tank and said, “I can’t be in that fuckin’ place one more day. I can’t stand and preach about white purity and the Christian race when the only bitch I ever wanted and can’t ever have is brown and fuckin’ Catholic. Nah, man, let me do this.”

Tanner looked to Styx and me. “I get this intel. I join the Hangmen. I got a shitload to bring to this club, and you can trust me.”

“Trust you?” I laughed with humor. “We don’t even fuckin’ know you. You’re leaving the Klan that’s provided for you your whole life over some Mexican/Nazi Romeo and Juliet bullshit. Why trust you now?”

Tanner shot forward and met me nose to nose. “‘Cause the way you feel about your bitch is the way I feel about that cartel princess I want to be mine; that’s why. And I’d do anything to fuckin’ protect her… including giving up my inheritance and my motherfuckin’ freedom.”

“You lynched any blacks?”

That question came from the back of the room, and Hush stepped forward dressed in all leather, Cowboy at his back. Hush’s light-blue eyes bored into Tanner.

Tanner dropped his head.

“Yeah,” he rasped out. “Been there when blacks, spics, yellows, Jews, gays, pope worshippers—you name it—been fuckin’ hung, drawn, and quartered then dragged behind trucks until there was nothing left but their torsos,” he answered honestly, and I had to give it to the bastard; he had balls.

Hush, our mixed-race, shaved-head brother was shaking. Granted, the brother was more white than black, the product of his Swedish mother’s Scandinavian looks, but a Nazi and a black? Like mixing water and oil.

“But that ain’t me no more,” he said as Cowboy put his leather-clad arm around Hush’s neck and forced him back, mouth at his ear, no doubt talking him down from slitting Tanner’s throat.

The room was silent, and I said, “You get that intel and we’ll fuckin’ see if you can roll with us.”

A loud whistle cut through the room, and all eyes fell on Styx. His face was stone. He pointed at Flame. “You, pick up this fuckin’ table and clean up the mess you made and cut the psycho shit down. Maddie ain’t yours. You don’t own that shit, so pipe the fuck down!” He next pointed to Hush and signed, “You’re our brother. You come first before any civilian, intel or not, right?”

Hush nodded and slouched back against the wall, glaring daggers at Tanner. Styx finally pointed at me. “And, Ky, last time I fuckin’ checked, I wore the president’s patch and I fuckin’ lead this club, not you. Don’t fuckin’ think because you finally found a pussy you wanna be all up for more than a fuckin’ second that you get to call the shots. You don’t. You’re not thinking straight and making a fuckin’ shit show of this church, so calm it the fuck down before I take you out of the plan to get Lilah back, period.”