Page 28 of Gash (The Skulls #13)

She’s the love of my life, and no one out there can make her feel

as special as I can.”

“ That sounded romantic. Did you

know your brother was romantic?” Gash asked.

“ Nah, he’s a pussy deep

down. I bet he even writes her poems and shit.”

They both started laughing, and Gash

headed toward the stairs leading out of the basement to answer his

ringing phone.

“ Hello,” he

said.

“ A little birdie told me that

you’re looking for me.”

Gash frowned. “Who is

this?”

“ Well, I never said you

were bright. First letter is M, the last is R. Do you want me to

spell it out to you?” he asked.

“ Master?” Gash looked

around the room as people noticed he was on the phone.

“ Wow, a point to you. You

know how to spell.”

“ What the fuck do you

want?”

“ It’s not about what I

want. It’s about what you want.”

“ What do I want?” Gash

asked. Tiny moved to stand beside him.

“ Tell me, Gash, have you been in

love recently?” Before he had a chance to answer, he heard a

scream, Charlotte’s scream.

“ You fucking bastard. Let her go.

You let her go!”

“ Oh, I’ll let her go. I have to

say I’m struggling here. She wanted to die, and I’m more than happy

to give her what she wants. What do you think of a bullet through

the head?”

Another scream, and Gash slammed his

fist against the wall. “Leave her the fuck alone!” He yelled the

words. His heart was pounding, and when he got his hands on this

fucker, he was going to tear him apart.

“ You know what, I think burning.

That would be an interesting way to go, painful, and Charlotte

deserves pain.”

“ I’m going to kill

you.”

“ Threats are nice. They

turn me on, but I’m curious how much in love you are with this

woman. Come to where this all started. Come to the first place you

met Charlotte.”

“ What?”

“ If you remember that, you

might have a chance to save her. I’m about to light a match, and

I’m not interested in waiting. Oh, and come alone. I think it’s

time you and I meet.”

Master hung up the phone, and Gash

didn’t stand around. He rushed out of the clubhouse with several of

the guys on his tail.

“ He has Charlotte. I can’t

stay around, and I’ve got to go alone. Get Ink and those fuckers

back. I’m going to fucking kill them.”

“ Gash, this could be a

trap,” Tiny said.

“ I haven’t got time to

think. He’s going to kill Charlotte, and I can’t let my woman

burn.”

He rode out of the clubhouse as

darkness started to fall. Gash remembered where he had first met

Charlotte. It had been at the old apartment building where he

fucked Rebecca, where everything had been fucked from the

start.

Don’t die. Don’t die.

Don’t die.

Through the whole of his life,

he’d never been afraid . Not once had he ever been afraid. Going to

prison, getting beat up, he had lived through hell, and yet

throughout it all, he’d not been afraid, and he had accepted his

fate. Right here, right now, he couldn’t handle it. Charlotte’s

scream would be something he’d not be able to forget for a long

time.

He had failed her.

Master wouldn’t have gotten to her if

he’d gone to the shops with her.

Fuck!

Riding toward the apartment building

that had been rundown and was the filthiest building he ever seen,

Gash pulled up, and climbed off his bike. He rushed toward the

door, and stopped as he heard his voice. Master’s voice.

“ Don’t you want to see who

I am?” Master asked.

Gash was going to kill this fucker. He

was going to destroy him, and laugh as he did.

“ You messed with the wrong man,”

Gash said, turning around, and coming to a stop.

He ’d never

expected to see him again, and hadn’t given him a thought, as he’d

assumed he was dead.

“ Hello, brother.”

“ Andrew.” He stared at the

brother he’d not seen in over fifteen years. The last time he’d

seen the man before him was when Tiny told him he couldn’t join the

club.

“ I go by Master now.” The man

before him was his brother, but he’d changed. There was no sign of

him being an addict. The suit was expensive, and he was filled out.

“Do you like?”

“ What the fuck are you

doing?” This was the man who had been hurting women. His own

brother had paid Jeff and Rebecca to set him up for rape and

murder.

“ I’m playing. You know as

kids we always liked to play.”

“ You also liked to trap and

torture animals.”

“ I’ve upgraded. I torture people

now, men and women. It’s fun.” Andrew smiled. “I like to keep women

as my pets now.”

“ You brand

them.”

“ You’ve heard of my

work.”

“ What the fuck is your problem?”

He charged toward his brother, slamming his fist against Andrew’s

face.

His brother laughed, wiping away some

blood from the cut lip. “You sure know how to pack a

punch.”

Screams came from behind him, and Gash

looked back. Charlotte was in there.

“ I’m going to have to ask

you, brother. Do you love your woman enough to let me go?” Andrew

asked.

“ What the fuck did you

do?”

“ All will be revealed. I

sent Whizz an email. It has a rather poetic message.”

“ You’re my brother,” Gash

said.

“ I wasn’t your brother a

long time ago, even before we tried to join The Skulls. You should

tell Tiny that it was his mistake, and he had it coming. MCs have a

very short life. It’s outdated, and they’re all going to move on

because of men like me.”

“ No one is going to stop

The Skulls.”

Master laughed. “I’m not like any other

enemy you’ve faced, Gash.”

“ We’ve defeated every

single person who has come to take us down.”

“ It’s going to be interesting,

isn’t it, Gash? You won your chance at being part of The

Skulls.”

“ You were a fucking addict,

Andrew. You were more interested in getting high than you were in

being loyal. The point of the club is to watch each other’s back.”

Gash didn’t even know why he was justifying himself to his brother.

Andrew had always been a sick fuck, torturing animals when they

were growing up, hurting people ever y chance he got. He should have stopped

him, and now others were going to suffer.

Andrew shrugged, running his hands down

his pristine suit. “Let’s see who will win this time. I’d say we’re

equally suited. I’ll give you a proper burial when it is all

over.”

This time Gash laughed. “You see, Andrew,

the reason we’re not going down is because you sent us everything

you’ve got, and yet, we’re still fighting strong. You can’t defeat

us. We will kill you.”

There was an explosion in the distance,

and he ducked as glass rained down from the building.

This time, Andrew laughed. “Go on then,

kill me, Gash, but then you’ll never find Spider’s women, and

Charlotte will die. Take me out, and you lose the time you need to

save her. I guess that’s not a hardship. She’s nothing but a

fucking whore.”

The memory of Charlotte’s scream

echoed through his mind. Andrew took a step back. “Choose, brother,

me or Charlotte. Who is it going to be? Tick tock, Charlotte or

me?”

As he stared at Andrew, the man he needed

to kill to stop the evil that was going on in the world, he thought

about Charlotte. His memories went back to the moment he first saw

her, and how attracted he was to her. Next, he remembered having

fun and dancing with her late one night while he waited for Rebecca

to come home. The memories went by to the point where he kissed her

that morning.

He couldn’t lose her.

This was the hardest decision he ever had

to make. Before him was the reason his club, his family had been

hurting, and it would be so easy to kill him, but Andrew would make

it hard for him. He’d make it so Gash lost more time.

Either save his family from future

pain, or save his woman.

Gash didn’t hesitate.

He turned his back on Andrew and

rushed into the burning building.

“ Charlotte!” He yelled her

name, rushing upstairs.

The first place they’d met was inside her

room, and he ran as fast as he could to get to her. He couldn’t let

anything happen to her.

“ Charlotte!”

He kept shouting her name, rushing

upstairs, and making his way toward her. His heart raced, and as he

got to her floor, the smoke started to get thicker.

“ Help me, please, help me,

I don’t want to die.”

Charlotte’s words had him rushing

toward her room. He slammed open the door, and there, chained to

the radiator was his woman.

“ Gash?”

He rushed toward her, staring down at

where she was handcuffed to the radiator. Not giving himself a

chance to think, he pulled on the pole.

“ Come on, baby, I need you

to pull with me.”

Together they tugged, and when that

didn’t help, Gash lost his temper.

“ Go, Gash,” Charlotte said.

“I don’t want you to die. I love you. I love you so

much.”

He bent down, cupping her cheeks. “You’re

not going to tell me that you love me, and then leave me. I’m

getting you out.” He tore some of her shirt, and rushing toward the

sink. The water was dirty, but it would give them some time. Gash

placed the cloth over her nose and mouth, and did the same for him.

Then he found an old wrench. Grabbing the metal bar, he pried it

against the wall and the radiator. Using all of his weight, he

pried and the metal snapped. Charlotte slid her hands out of the

gap, and together, they started rushing out of the apartment

building. Leaving the room, they entered a cloud of smoke. Grabbing

the cuffs, he ran toward the stairs, and Charlotte kept up with

him.

Together they charged out of the

apartment building, and when they were clear, he picked Charlotte

up in his arms, carrying her toward his bike. Removing the fabric

from their faces, he cupped her face, and slammed his lips down on

hers.

In the distance he heard the rumbling

of bikes, followed by the sirens.

“ I love you,” Charlotte

said. “I love you so much.”

“ I fucking love you,

baby.”

“ You picked me. I didn’t

think you were going to pick me.”

“ I’d pick you every single

time. You’re my woman, and I fucking love you.”

He stroked the bruise on her

cheek.

“ You let him get

away.”

“ I couldn’t live without you.

Andrew, he’s not going anywhere.”

“ Andrew? But—”

“ Master is my

brother.”

“ Gash.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about

it. I’ll take him out soon enough.”

When his brothers came to a stop in

front of him, Gash looked at Tiny. “It’s Andrew. Master is

Andrew.”

“ We need to get out of

here,” Tiny said.

Lash tossed him a set of keys. “We

always have spares.”

He unlocked Charlotte’s handcuffs, and

climbed on the back of his bike, waiting for his woman to straddle

behind him. Staring at the apartment building, Gash wondered about

what was to come. His brother was unpredictable, and he’d never for

a second believed it would be Andrew who was Master, their

enemy.

Gash would watch his back because

Andrew didn’t know it yet, but by revealing his identity, he had

just brought about his downfall.

Andrew was unpredictable as Master. None

of The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds knew what to expect of Master.

Knowing it was Andrew, Gash knew his brother. He’d watched him

growing up, and now, Gash knew exactly how to play that fucker’s

game.

He could have had him tonight, but

he’d have lost Charlotte.

With Charlotte by his side, he’d be

able to take Andrew down.

****

“ You’re an idiot,” Sir

said.

Andrew rolled his eyes. He’d picked

Russell up along the way over fifteen years together. Russell had

nothing to do with The Skulls or Chaos Bleeds, and that was what

Andrew wanted. Russell could go through towns undetected, unlike

him.

“ Be careful,” he

said.

“ You showed

yourself.”

“ What fun is it taking down one’s

brother, if he doesn’t know it? For ten years I’ve sent many people

to take out The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds, and yet, all have failed.

I’m not going to fail. Remember the old adage, you want a job done

right, you’ve got to do it yourself.”

“ Is that why you took out

Rebecca and Jeff?”

“ No. Rebecca and Jeff had turned

against me, Russell. They had evidence, and were in meetings with

authorities and lawyers to get them witness protection. Believe it

or not, they had to go. They were such disappointments, but their

death meant my brother didn’t get a chance to. It worked out for

me, even if I did lose two good people out of it. Well, I can’t

call them good people now. Bastards were going to turn me in. No

one turns Master in.” Andrew laughed. He really did enjoy the

Master persona. At first, he’d not wanted to believe that Rebecca

and Jeff could turn on him, but when all the evidence had been

mounting, he didn’t have a choice. At least Gash didn’t get to have

his revenge, and he got a little pleasure out of that. He’d always,

even growing up, loved to take shit away from Gash. Soon, he was

going to take Charlotte, and then the club, and finally, only when

he was ready, would he take Gash’s life. He wanted to make his

brother bleed first.

Russel l moved to stand beside

him.

Andrew loved the finer things in life, and

he’d worked his way into an old woman’s heart, taking her money,

her business. For ten years he’d worked his way so that he had the

money he needed at his disposal. He had the means to stay off the

radar, and to tempt people to do whatever the fuck he wanted, and

he did it because he loved it. Everything was a game, and everyone

had a price. Andrew loved to find out what it was that made

everyone tick, and what he could do in order to make them suffer.

God, he loved making them suffer.

“ You’re not invincible,”

Russel l

said.

He turned toward the two women who were

chained together in his room. Paris, she was bleeding from the

beating that he’d given her. Her sister, she was simply dazed. He

was waiting for the call from the hospital to let him know that

Spider was awake. Once he was awake, he’d send the sister, and keep

Paris to himself. If Spider died, he’d send the sister back to

Chaos Bleeds, only she’d be dead as well.

His job was fun. “No one is going to

capture us, Russell. We’re not going to die. You see, the one thing

I learned making my way to the top, is you can’t take someone out

who doesn’t have a conscience. I don’t care if I kill a woman, take

what I want, and she’s screaming as I do it. I’ve killed without a

care. That’s why I will come out of this alive. The Skulls and

Chaos Bleeds, they care. They have people they care about, and that

will be their downfall. Devil has kids, and I can happily pull the

trigger. Bang, bang, bang, and his kids are dead.”

Russel l sighed. “What do you want me to

do?”

“ Go and see Angel’s doctor. Find

out everything you can, and let’s see what we can do to start

bringing down The Skulls. Everyone knows Lash loves his woman. I’d

like to see what he’d do when I take her out of the picture.

Pregnant women get so sick at times.”

His friend nodded and left.

He had a plan, and a game to play, and

Andrew intended to enjoy every single second of it.