Three to Fall (Saint View Slayers vs. Sinners #3)

32. Hawk

32

HAWK

F lame erupted in the blink of an eye.

Grayson and Chaos reacted almost as quickly, both of them diving for Kara and Hayley Jade. Screams rang out around me, people rushed everywhere.

All I could do was stare at Ice, while flames engulfed his body.

He dropped his gun, screaming in pain, the gasoline fueling the fire until he was a walking inferno.

“Get the kids out of here!” War roared, standing beside me, the two of us watching Ice burn while he screamed in sudden agony.

I dragged my gaze away from the horrific sight and down at Chaos, Grayson, Kara, and Hayley Jade. My stomach plummeted, bile rising in my throat. “Are they hurt?”

They were both drowned in gasoline, their eyes red, and their skin had to sting, but I couldn’t see a burn on them. Grayson turned Hayley Jade around, covering her ears and eyes.

Chaos held Kara in his arms, dragging her away from the flames. “He’d stepped away enough that the trail of gasoline was broken. The flames didn’t get to them.”

“It burns!” Ice screamed, limbs flailing as he tried to put out the fire he’d created. “Kill me!”

His screams pierced through the night, churning my stomach.

There was no more talk of the Lord or Josiah or rebirth.

There was nothing left but a burning man in utter agony.

He’d tried to kill my woman. My daughter. And for those sins, I couldn’t pick up the gun to do as he’d asked. “Only the prez can shoot within the clubhouse gates.”

The acrid stench of burning flesh filled the air, and I covered my mouth and nose with my arm, coughing as the disgusting smell permeated everything.

War picked up the gun. Pointed it at Ice, who’d collapsed on the ground.

But he was too late.

Ice’s cries quieted.

He stopped moving.

War shook his head, emptying the weapon of bullets and throwing it into the flames with him. “Enjoy your eternal life, Ice. I don’t think it’s going to be behind pearly gates. Say hello to Josiah when he gets there.”

T he media caught wind of Josiah’s death by the next evening. I sat in Hayley Jade’s hospital room while she played on her iPad, fingers moving deftly across the screen like she’d owned one all her life.

I stared down at my phone and the massive headline that read: Cult Leader Found Dead in His Prison Cell.

I flashed it at Chaos on the other side of the room. His eyes flicked side to side while he read it and then nodded. “Your guys work fast.”

I wasn’t sure if it was one of our guys in the prison who’d been the one to repeatedly shank Josiah and leave him bleeding out on the concrete floor of his cell, or if it had been someone Vincent and Scythe knew from their time inside.

Either way, I didn’t care.

Only that dickless Josiah was now six feet under, his eternal fucking soul sold to the Devil to do as he pleased.

I fucking hoped he got exactly what he deserved.

It didn’t feel like a victory though. Ice’s screams for me to kill him echoed over and over in my mind, guilt swirling inside my belly.

I’d already vomited twice in the last twenty-four hours. I was pretty sure I wasn’t done.

Chaos snapped his fingers at me. “Stop it.”

I screwed my face up at him. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re blaming yourself. I can see it.”

I sighed heavily, glancing at Hayley Jade, but she had her headphones on and was fully engrossed in whatever YouTube video she was watching. “If I’d just patched him in earlier…”

“Fine. Let’s talk that out. Why didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Something always felt off. The others wanted me to, and I kept finding reasons not to. But maybe if I’d just patched him in, given him the family he so clearly wanted…”

Chaos sighed. “He was messed up long before you came into his life. It’s not on you.”

Grayson had confirmed it, finding hospital records for Alexander Key, detailing a long history of mental illness, ranging back to when Ice had been committed for the first time at barely twelve years old. We’d found empty bottles of pills in his room at the clubhouse. Anti-psychotics that hadn’t been refilled in the past few months.

He’d been spiralling for a long time, and none of us had seen it until it was too late.

But it didn’t matter what anyone said.

I’d always hold guilt over it.

That was my cross to bear. One I doubted I’d get over anytime soon.

But I would put it aside, bury it deep, because the people I had here were more important than the dead.

I leaned over and pulled Hayley Jade’s headphones off and grinned at her. “Say elephant.”

“Elephant,” she chirped back happily.

Chaos grinned at the game we’d been playing ever since Hayley Jade had been brought here for observation. Which mostly consisted of us getting her to say random words, just because we were scared she might stop talking if we let her stop for too long. “Say spaghetti.”

She twisted her legs up beneath her and bounced excitedly. “Too easy. Spaghetti.”

I leaned back on my chair and folded my arms. “Say pterodactyls are the best dinosaur.”

She made a face at me, her cute nose scrunching adorably. “But they aren’t. T-Rex is.”

I chuckled, just loving the sound of her voice. “Say Daddy again then.”

She rolled her eyes. “I already said it about one hundred million billion times!”

I leaned in, kissing her soft cheek. “Don’t care. Say it again.”

“Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.” She looked at Chaos and silently signed, “Dad, make him stop.”

I ruffled her hair. “Excuse me, short stuff. I understood that!”

She giggled. “Oops.”

In the space of an instant, in the terror of a moment I wished she’d never had to see, she’d started talking again.

And I’d become Daddy.

Chaos was Dad, though she signed it more than she said it out loud.

Grayson stuck his head around the door, and Hayley Jade’s face lit up. “G-Dog!”

I battled back laughter, and Chaos sniggered.

Grayson came in and high-fived Hayley Jade, but even he chuckled. “I know we said we’d try out G-Dog, but I don’t know if I’m feeling it. I think it might be too cool for me.”

Hayley Jade nodded seriously. “It’s definitely too cool for you.”

He laughed. “Thanks for agreeing. I think. Maybe we should try something derivative of my first name. Fred, maybe?”

Hayley Jade screwed up her face. “No. Definitely not Fred.” She grinned. “What about Freddie Spaghetti?”

Grayson nodded slowly, pretending to think it over. “That does have quite the ring to it. Let’s try it!” He fist bumped her this time, the two of them dissolving into laughter. He moved his hand around, making her chase it with her wobbly, noodle-like fingers.

We were letting Hayley Jade lead in what she called us. Chaos and I had been given parent titles, but it was clear the way she felt about Grayson, at least for now, was different. They had a fun uncle/niece sort of relationship going on, one that was bringing Hayley Jade a whole lot of fun and happiness while she waited to get out of the hospital. Kara was in another section, taking care of a small burn we hadn’t noticed until we’d got here.

“You okay?” I asked Grayson, standing to meet him in the doorway as Hayley Jade babbled to Chaos about whatever it was she’d been watching on her iPad.

He dragged his gaze away from her, a smile still on his lips. “Yeah, of course. Why?”

I shrugged but then answered honestly, “It would fucking kill me to hear her call another man Dad or Daddy and not me.”

Grayson shook his head. “You and Chaos have a different sort of connection with her. You’re her parents.” He grinned. “Wait ’til she’s a teenager and hates your guts. While I’m still the fun one she loves.” He smiled at the little girl fondly. “I love her. Don’t get me wrong. I’d lie down on train tracks for her, and for Kara. But I can meet her where she’s at. I don’t need her to call me Dad to love her like she’s my own. Dads come with all sorts of titles. Maybe mine is Freddie Spaghetti.”

“I’m still rooting for G-Dog, personally.”

A voice spoke up from behind us. “Beep-beep. Is there room for one more at this party?”

I glanced over my shoulder at Kara, freshly showered, wearing clean clothes we’d brought up for her, a white bandage on one leg the only evidence of the fire that had tried to claim her life the day before.

Grayson slipped straight into doctor mode. “What did the burn unit say?”

“To come back to have it redressed and that I’ll probably have some scarring, but it shouldn’t be too bad.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“And the baby?” I asked.

She smiled up at me. “Baby is clearly made of tough stuff. He’s doing well.”

All three of us stared at her, but it was Hayley Jade who got words out first. “I’m having a baby brother?”

Kara nodded. “They said it was still a bit early to tell for sure, but that’s what they think!”

Hayley Jade cheered and did a happy dance on her bed that had it squeaking and rocking on its wheels.

Kara glanced around at the three of us. “Do any of you want to have some sort of reaction?”

Grayson got his hands on her first, sweeping her up and spinning her around until she laughed. “Shit, a boy? Seriously? Okay, so hockey. Obviously. But also ballet, because flexibility is important, and I don’t want him thinking that dance is only for girls.”

Chaos pulled her from his arms and down on his lap. But his laughter was for Grayson. “The kid probably hasn’t even grown feet. You can’t put him in skates yet.”

Hayley Jade’s eyes went big. “The baby has no feet?” Her face twisted into a mixture of awe and horror.

Grayson sank down on the bed with her and started explaining all the different stages of fetal development and assuring her her baby brother would indeed have feet and the little buds he currently had would grow.

Chaos snaked his hand into the back of Kara’s hair and tilted her head so he could capture her lips. “A boy is going to be very fucking cool.”

She clutched his arms, nodding as she smiled against his mouth. “I can’t wait.”

I dropped down on my knees in front of her, not caring about the hard linoleum floor, just needing to get my hands on the swell of her belly. It was only a tiny bit different than normal, but it was enough to be noticeable to me. “He’s seriously in there.”

She put her hands over the top of mine. “He is.”

It was so fucking weird to think about. That she had this whole other little person inside her who might very well look like me. “How does everyone feel about the name Eagle?”

I kissed Kara’s belly as the sounds of their protests filled the room.

Maybe Falcon then.