Ky drank again then shook his head. “All those doctors and nurses looked at me and my patch like I was the reason she was so fucked up inside. I swear, man, I was one fuckin’ word away from stabbing them all in their throats. Lilah practically broke my hand tryin’ to keep me calm.”

I slapped my hand on his back. Ky laughed again. A friggin’ broken, agonized laugh. “Just when I think we’ve seen the back of those cult fuckers, something happens to bring them back into our lives. They’re like herpes—impossible to fuckin’ kill.”

“I’m sorry,” I signed. “You should have told me.”

“You’re happy, Styx. No reason to bring you down. This shit is just what it is. She’s my fuckin’ woman; it’s my pain to deal with.”

I took the bottle of Jack from Ky’s hand and took a long drink. Ky sighed, but I heard the anger bubbling inside, saw the fury racking his face. “I swear, brother,” he said, his tone graveled and cold, “if I could walk into that fuckin’ commune I would. And I’d kill every one of those pedophilic cunts. I’d skin Rider, toss his dead body on a fire for standing by and letting them do it to her. But Judah, the psycho twin that ordered all that shit on Li, I’d really have fun with that piece of shit.” Ky’s voice cracked and my heart fucking broke for him. “I’ve sinned. Fuck knows I have. I deserve to be punished. But Li? She’s the sweetest bitch there is, yet this happens to her? Not only is she raped over and over by those sick cunts, then she’s burned, lashed. She scars up her beautiful face because she thinks she’s devil-created . . . and now she might not be able to have kids? How the fuck is any of this fair?”

Tears dropped from Ky’s eyes. I was about to speak when someone moved past me.

Lilah.

“Ky, baby,” Lilah cried softly. Ky lifted his head. He turned his face away from his wife, but she made him look at her. Bending down, she wrapped her arms around Ky’s head and my brother fucking fell apart against Lilah’s chest.

“Shh,” she soothed. I stood up to walk away. Lilah reached for my arm. “I will tell Mae and Maddie, I promise. I could never keep this from them for long.” She paused, then added, “But let Mae enjoy this day. She deserves to be happy without worry. Because she will worry for me, she always does . . . it will break her heart.”

I nodded my head and mouthed, “I’m sorry.” Lilah smiled, then turned back to her husband, my best friend, a fucking mess in his wife’s arms. I walked slowly back to the clubhouse, anger boiling within me with each step. Ky was right. Those cult fuckers hadn’t paid for doing that to his woman. Not nearly enough. They hadn’t paid for what they’d done to Mae—hell, for little Maddie, too.

The sound of laughter hit me as I stepped inside. I walked right to Mae, needing her in my fucking arms. I pulled her from her seat, only to slip beneath her and reposition her on my lap. I wrapped my arms around her as she and Beauty talked. My hands found their way to her stomach. Mae handed me the sonogram and I stared at the little grainy image. I stared and I stared, all the time feeling like shit for my brother and his bitch, falling apart outside.

The longer I stared, the more my hatred grew. Grew for the fucks that had tortured our women. Fuckers that if I ever saw again, I would kill slowly and painfully. I’d give them what they deserved. I’d send them to Hades with no coins on their eyes.

To burn in fucking hell where they belonged.

Chapter Six

Rider

Every part of my body tensed as Harmony spoke those words. I am a Cursed woman of Eve . . .

No, I thought, her confession circling laps around my head. No, no no! My stomach formed into a black hole as we fell into a heavy silence. My deep breathing sounded like thunder as it bounced off the floor where I lay. Images of Mae, Delilah and Magdalene flashed across my mind.

I thought back to Judah. I thought back to when I told him we were all doomed . . . I have found another, he had said. I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but . . .

He had another Cursed Sister of Eve to fulfill the great prophecy.

No, not again. I pressed my palms to the floor. My arms shook at the small effort of hoisting myself up, but I persevered and managed to move into a sitting position.

I shuffled closer to the gap and rested my head against the wall. I closed my eyes, fighting the darkness that had resided in my heart. The anger was so potent that I felt it sear through my every vein. My spine was stiff and my muscles corded from the tension wrapping me in its embrace.

“Harmony,” I called, my voice almost unrecognizable to my own ears.