Page 27 of Gash (The Skulls #13)

Chapter

Fourteen

“ We need to go shopping for

supplies,” Steven said, coming out of the pantry.

Charlotte swallowed her porridge and

watched as Lash cursed. Gash rubbed the back of her neck as the

tension in the club mounted.

Ever since the news that one of Chaos

Bleeds crew had been taken and injured it had set all of The Skulls

on edge. The kids were behaving, which was a surprise as Charlotte

had heard the women speaking of them being terrors.

“ Fuck! We need food. Devil will

be arriving in a couple of days. He’s packing his women up, but he

doesn’t want to risk leaving Spider. We’re waiting for him to wake

up, and so far, he hasn’t.”

“ I can go,” Charlotte said,

speaking up. She wanted to go to the store to pick up some clothes

for herself, and some supplies. It had been well over a week since

she’d gone to the store for herself, and it would also give her a

chance to call her boss up, and let him know she wasn’t returning.

In time she’d also need to empty out her apartment. Maybe she could

pick up a paper so she could start looking for places for her and

Gash to live.

“ No,” Gash said.

“ What?” She turned toward

him.

“ You’re not

going.”

“ I want to go. There’re some

things I’d like to get.”

“ I said no.”

She felt the eyes of the club focus on

them. “You know, I’ve put up with a great deal of your shit since

you came back into my life, and for the most part, I accepted it. I

won’t be going alone, right?” She looked around the

room.

“ I need to go,” Sally said,

speaking up.

“ I’ll go,” Steven

said.

“ Me too.” This came from

Ink, Adam, and Twisted.

“ See, I’ll be more than

safe.” She cupped his cheek. “Please, I want to go and get some

things. Let me.”

Gash sighed, and after several seconds

passed, he nodded. “Fine. I’ll come—”

“ I need you here,

Gash , to look

over our other supplies,” Lash said.

She saw her man grit his teeth,

clearly not happy with being told that he couldn’t do something. He

really didn’t like being told no.

Charlotte laughed. “See, we’re both going

to be busy, and we’ve both got stuff to do. I’m going to pick us up

a newspaper as well. We can go apartment hunting. How does that

sound?”

“ Fine! You keep an eye on her, do

you understand me?” Gash said, pointing at the men.

“ We will.” They all agreed

in unison.

Finishing her porridge, she took the bowl

into the kitchen. She helped do some dishes, and then the guys

shouted they were rounding up to leave. Kissing Gash, she followed

Sally, Steven, Ink, Adam, and Twisted. Angel was asking for several

items, and Charlotte made a mental note to pick them up.

Climbing into the back of the

truck, she saw with Sally , who was looking out of the window. She saw that

Steven kept glancing toward Sally.

“ Are you okay?” Charlotte

asked.

“ I’m fine.”

“ Steven keeps glancing over

here.”

Sally sighed. “He thinks I’ve got a

crush on him.”

“ And you don’t.” They spoke

quietly so no one heard them.

“ It’s complicated,” Sally

said.

“ Okay, I get complicated, believe

me, I do.” Charlotte ran fingers through her hair. “You know, I

never thought I’d breathe again.”

“ I heard you had it rough. No one

has actually talked to me about it. It’s just what I’ve heard Mom

and Dad talking about.”

Charlotte showed Sally her inner

wrists. “I

went through a really dark period in my life when Gash was sent to

prison. I lost a child, and I went a little, erm, crazy. I get

complicated.”

“ You tried to kill

yourself.”

“ More than once, and these are

not my only scars. It’ll get better.”

“ He’s full of

himself.”

“ But you do have a crush, so I guess he has a reason

to be,” Charlotte said. “Don’t worry. Your secret is more than safe

with me.”

“ I don’t want to ruin my

life,” Sally said. “I’m so scared that I’m going to do or say

something and they’re going to get rid of me. I can’t stand the

thought of losing The Skulls.”

Charlotte grabbed the young woman’s

hand and squeezed. “I have the same fears. They’re a family, and

you want to be part of that more than anything. I get it.” She

rested her head against Sally’s shoulder. “They’re not going to get

rid of you. You’re one of them.”

The car pulled into the busy

supermarket, and they all climbed out. She hooked her arm through

Sally’s and made her way into the store. When she saw the clothing

section, she split from the group, and started grabbing some items

that she figured she’d need.

Once she was done, she made her way back,

but she needed to use the bathroom.

“ I’m going to the toilet. I’ll be

right back.” Ink made to follow her, and she shook her head.

“Seriously, we’re in a crowded shop. Let me take a pee in peace.”

Before he had a chance to say anything, she was gone, rushing

toward the bathroom.

The bathroom was silent, and she

rushed into a stall. The pop music played in the background after

she finished her break, and she left the stall, washing her

hands.

“ Charlotte Bilson, we’ve

never had the pleasure of meeting in person.”

She spun around to find a large guy

coming out of a stall, the stall next to hers. Her heart started to

race.

“ Do I know you?”

“ You know of me, but you don’t

actually know me.” He started chuckling, and she took in his

business suit—it had to be designer, and expensive.

“ You’re Master.” She frowned. He

couldn’t be Master . He’d been terrorizing Chaos Bleeds, not that she knew

where they lived, but there was no way he could be here, could he?

“No, you can’t. You’ve just put Spider—”

“ Into the hospital, yes. You see,

darling, the key to being successful and powerful is having minions

willing to get dirty for you, and that’s exactly what I have.” He

leaned against the stall as if he didn’t have a care in the

world.

“ You didn’t hurt

Spider?”

“ Oh, I hurt him, and I

currently have two things that he considers precious in my

possession. I’ll give them up when I get what I want. I love to

play games.”

“ Games?”

“ Yeah, I think the funniest one

I’ve played so far is guess who. None of you have a clue who I am.

You, I don’t blame, you don’t know me. Others, I’m a little

disappointed, but that’s okay. I’m never disappointed for

long.”

He struck before she could

defend herself. Master grabbed her, slamming her up against the

bathroom mirror, so the glass smashed. He winded

her , landing

a blow to her stomach, and she collapsed onto the floor.

Charlotte couldn’t stop him. He picked

her up by fisting his hand in her hair, and tugging so she had no

choice but to get to her feet. She cried out from the

pain.

“ Now, let’s see what Gash

will do when he knows I’ve got you, his precious little bitch. I

wonder if he’ll pick to save you, or take me out, Charlotte. What

do you think?”

“ Let me go!”

“ No.” He wrapped his arm around

her waist, and she felt something hard pressed against her side.

“We’re going to leave this store, and you’re not going to stop. You

try to get attention, I will shoot you, and then I will take Sally

in your place. Would you like me to do that? That little bitch

knows what it’s like to be used and abused. I’m sure there are

enough men willing to pay the price to fuck that bitch until she’s

torn in fucking two.”

The mention of the young woman had

Charlotte freezing. She couldn’t let anything happen to

her.

“ I’ll behave.”

“ Good. Let’s

go.”

She shouldn’t have told Ink to leave her

alone. They left the bathroom, and she gritted her teeth as she saw

there was a side entrance, leading away from the store. There was

no chance of her escaping. He shoved her through the door, and then

into a dark windowed car. Master didn’t allow her to sit on a seat.

He pushed her to the floor and forced her to kneel with no

protection. Tears stung her eyes, and she turned her head to the

side so she could breathe.

“ I like my bitches on the floor,

knowing what is good for them. You give a whore an inch, they’ll

take a fucking mile.” He wrapped her hair around his fist, pressing

her head against the seat. The pain was instant, and she cried out

as the tears started to fall. “You wanted to die, didn’t you? For a

long time, you wanted to take your own life, and give

up.”

“ Stop,” she said,

whispering the words. She had never been so afraid before in her

life.

“ Why? I’m giving you what you

want.” He pressed the gun to the back of her head. “I’ll give you

what you failed to do yourself.”

She shook her head, crying out and

whimpering. “Stop.”

“ Do you want me to end your

miserable, childless life?”

“ No, please stop.” She didn’t

want to die.

Master laughed. “That’s okay. I’ve got

another game I want to play first. Let’s see how much Gash loves

you.”

****

Gash looked around at the weapons in

the basement. They had quite the collection ready in case of a

war.

“ Tiny believed in being

prepared, and I believe in shooting first and asking questions

later,” Lash said.

“ We haven’t got time to fuck

about. Not with our families’ lives at stake,” Nash said, looking

through the ammunition. “We’re getting too old for this

shit.”

“ We’ll deal with

Master.”

“ Any news on Spider?” Gash

asked.

“ None.”

Gash nodded. “We’ll wait.” Rubbing the

back of his head, he stared around the room. “I’m going to ask

Charlotte to marry me.”

“ Well that was fucking

fast,” Nash said.

“ I love her. She’s the only woman

I’ve ever loved. I want to get my ring on her finger before she

realizes that I’m not what she deserves.”

“ Angel deserves better than

me. She deserves a man who has a nine to five job, who’ll bring

home a steady wage, and won’t be at risk of dying when he goes out

on the road. I thought about all of the shit kind of reasons why

Angel and I shouldn’t be together, and then I thought of the most

important reason we are together.”

“ What’s that?” Gash

asked.

“ There’s no one else in

this world who’ll give her the kind of love I can. I worship Angel.