Page 10 of Gash (The Skulls #13)

not true, man. Tell me it’s not true.” Gash didn’t want it to be

true. He didn’t want her to have gone through that kind of shit on

her own. Fuck, he’d been so consumed by himself that he’d not even

thought about anyone else.

Whizz didn’t say anything. “I’ve just

finished printing her stuff out.”

“ Is it bad?”

“ It’s worse, and you’ll get

everything you need in there. There’s a spare bedroom upstairs on

the right. It’s where I’m going to put you and Charlotte

tonight.”

Gash thanked him and walked upstairs.

His hands were shaking, and when he closed the door to the bedroom,

he sat down on the bed and stared at the folder. He saw the sheets

of paper peeking out at the edges, taunting him.

Closing his eyes, he finally saw

Charlotte, the woman without a face, and she fit perfectly. He’d

fucked her hard, and taken what he wanted without asking. Charlotte

had submitted to him, giving him everything he wanted, and they had

been perfect for each other.

Opening the file, he started to

read ,

Charlotte’s words ringing around his head. Twenty-four hours ago,

he’d been intent on hurting her, and yet because of her association

with him, she’d been the one hurt.

She wanted to help him, and on the

paperwork in front of him there were calls, proof that she had

tried to reach out to him. Gritting his teeth, he read through

every single piece of paper, even down to Charlotte’s

admission.

He even

chuckled ,

though he felt anything but laughing. Charlotte had been pregnant

with their kid, and then she’d had it torn from her. She had gone

to a mental facility at the same time he’d been sent to prison, and

released the exact same day that he had.

Fucking shit!

Throwing the file to the floor,

he started to pace the bedroom. This was all just too damn much for

him.

“ Fuck! Fuck!

Fuck!”

He’d always assumed that he’d been the one

fucked over. Now he learned that not only had Jeff and Rebecca

fucked him, they had also fucked over an innocent. Charlotte had

been an innocent. She shouldn’t have been brought into this shit,

and yet she was.

Even now he remembered her as a shining

light, always smiling and laughing with him. Just being around her

had made him feel good. He’d always tried to make her laugh, which

wasn’t hard to do.

Since he’d seen her again,

Charlotte hadn’t laughed or joked. The carefree woman was gone, and

in her place was a broken one. Anger filled him, consuming him, and there

was nothing he could do to give her back what had been taken from

them.

Moving toward the window he

paused. Charlotte was still outside, and she was staring up at the

sky. Did she even realize the way she was sitting? Her legs were

out, and her hands with her palms facing up. It was the same position that

she had taken in one of the pictures as she’d been interviewed.

There was no life inside her.

“ You’ve both been broken,”

Whizz said, startling him.

“ What the fuck are you

doing here?”

“ I thought I’d come to see

how you were getting on. Lacey’s ruining what Charlotte did of

dinner.”

“ You knew this when I asked

you to do the search?”

“ Yes.”

“ It’s why you didn’t want

me to go hunting for her?”

“ Charlotte has suffered

enough. She doesn’t need to be used by you to find out more

truth.”

Gash gritted his teeth to stop himself

from crying. He just wanted to scream and cry, and hurt someone.

Jeff Wright. He was going to hurt that son of a bitch, and when he

was done, he was going to make sure that the bastard wished for

death long before he even got it.

“ They tortured her,” Gash

said.

“ She was helpless.”

“ I know.” He’d not been there to

help or save her. Instead he’d been locked in a cell, and spent his

days planning to hurt those who had put him there.

“I didn’t help

her.”

“ Dude, you couldn’t help her.

Don’t beat yourself up about shit you couldn’t control. You can

help her now, and that is all that counts.”

Charlotte’s face was turned up to the sky.

There was no smile on her face, and she was staring up at nothing.

Her face was blank.

“ W hen I was threatening her life she offered

to kill Rebecca providing I kill Jeff.”

“ I’m not shocked by that.”

Whizz shrugged. “What are you going to do?”

“ She was carrying my

baby.”

“ I think you need to touch

on the fact that not only was she carrying your baby, you didn’t

even remember putting it inside her.”

“ Everything is totally

fucked up.”

“ Do you care that you

screwed her?”

Gash glared at him. “What kind of

fucking question is that?”

“ I’m just trying to make

sense of it, man.”

“ Sense? You want sense? How about

this? For the past seven years I’ve been curious about a fucking woman that I

didn’t think existed. Only it turns out that not only does that

woman exist, but she’s been someone I’ve been harboring hatred for

because she didn’t come and help me. When everything I’ve been

thinking is fucking lies. Charlotte needed me. She was pregnant

with my kid, and I fucking failed her.” His voice had risen to the

point of yelling. He was so angry. This time he was angry at

himself, and how stupid he had been.

She had been there, and

tried to save you.

She went to hell along with

you, and you’d not even known it.

The first thing he did when he

saw her again was choke her. Fuck, crap, shit . He hated himself.

“ I had a kid.”

“ Did you remember her?”

Whizz asked.

“ I remembered bits of the night,

holding her, feeling her wrapped around me. It’s what got me

through the worst part of prison. I need to go talk to her.” Gash

wasn’t going to run away. All he wanted to do was forget about the

shit that she’d been through, focus on his own pain, but that

wasn’t the kind of man he was. Years ago, it’s what he would have

done, but now, he wouldn’t even dream of doing it.

Now was not the time to shirk his

responsibilities.

“ We’re here if you need

us,” Whizz said. “I’m going to keep on looking, and you can stay

here until you need it.”

Gash nodded. In moments like

this, he appreciated the club. The Skulls gave him the family that

he never had. They were his brothers, which was why he never sought out his own

brother. He didn’t even know what had happened to Andrew. They had

both come to the club together, and Andrew had failed to make the

grade when it came to The Skulls’ standard.

Pushing thoughts of his

brother out

of his mind, he made his way outside. Gash paused when he saw Sally

on the ground, studying.

Sally looked at him, then

toward Charlotte.

“Okay, I’ll look scarce.”

He waited until Sally was gone, and

the door had closed giving them some privacy, or as much privacy as

they could have in the garden.

Charlotte was nibbling her lip, and he

moved toward her.

“ That was fast,” she

said.

“ I read the file. I didn’t need

to read all of it.” He’d glanced through some of the pages. Gash

knew as much as he needed to about the situation.

“ Do you still think I know where

Rebecca and Jeff are?” Charlotte chuckled.

“ Don’t do that. Don’t make

jokes.” He knelt down, holding onto her knees.

Tears were once again in Charlotte’s eyes.

“You were drunk. I never expected you to remember what happened.

You thought I’d put you to bed after passing out.”

“ I don’t remember the day

clearly.”

“ You were my first,” she

said.

Gash winced. “You were a

virgin.”

“ Yep. How unlucky am I? Not

only do I have sex for the first time with a man so drunk he

doesn’t know his own name, but I get pregnant the first time.”

Charlotte shook her head. “I guess I asked for what I

got.”

He cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look

at him. “No, you didn’t get what you deserved.” Unable to hold back

any more, he took possession of her lips. It was a simple kiss, and

yet it was totally right. Pulling away, he wiped the tears that

fell down her cheeks, hating the fact she was crying. “We made a

baby?”

“ Yes.”

“ I’m going to kill Jeff. I

will make him suffer, and make him wish that he never looked in

your direction.”

“ Do you forgive me?” she

asked, sobbing.

“ You’ve got nothing to

forgive, baby. Nothing at all. I’m the one who should be asking you

for forgiveness.”

“ Why? There’s nothing to forgive

you either, Gash. I know you didn’t want to have sex with me. I

shouldn’t have let it get that far.”

She was staring down at her hands,

which lay in her lap.

Gash didn’t know what to say. Charlotte

had always been unreachable to him. She was the kind of woman a man

like him couldn’t have. He wasn’t a good man. He had killed people

and didn’t care that he’d ended lives. When he first met Charlotte,

she had always been the sunlight. She reminded him of purity, love,

and everything he’d sold his soul to never have.

“ You deserved better than a

man like me. I’m not a good guy. I’m a fucking evil bastard,

Charlotte.”

“ Stop it.”

“ No. You’re an amazing woman. I

loved spending time with you, but I knew I wasn’t the guy for you.

You’re the kind of girl who deserved someone who was gentle,

kind.”

“ You don’t know me at

all,” she

said. “I was attracted to you, and you gave me the most amazing

night of my life. When I woke in the morning, reality came back,

and that sucked.”

“ And you got pregnant. Were

you going to tell me?”

“ I told you that I was going to

tell you, Gash. I knew I had to make you believe that we’d been

together. You deserved a chance to be a father.”

He took a deep breath to stop himself

from falling apart. “I’d have believed you.”

“ You don’t know

that.”

“ I know you. That fucker took

away our chance to be together. We would have been happy,

Charlotte. I’d have made you my old lady, and no one would have

ever hurt you.”

“ Seven years, Gash. We would have

had a seven year old child.”

Pressing his head against hers, he

gripped the back of her neck, holding her tightly.

“ I will end him,

Charlotte.”

“ Not without me. You’re not

leaving me behind. I need this, Gash.”

They would have

to do this together,

and Gash wasn’t going to let her go.