Page 9 of Gash (The Skulls #13)

“ This smells good,” Lacey

said.

Charlotte turned to see a young girl

following behind Lacey. She offered them both a smile, unsure what

to say.

“ Oh, shit, Charlotte, this is my

daughter, Sally. Sally, this is Gash’s friend,

Charlotte.”

“ You cook?” Sally

asked.

“ Yeah, it was a condition

of staying the night.” Charlotte frowned, looking between the

two.

“ Cool, we don’t have to

worry about takeout. Dad doesn’t like to hurt her feelings, but Mom

can’t cook. I’m going to go and do homework.” Sally kissed Lacey’s

cheek, and headed out of the kitchen.

Lacey looked ready to cry.

“ Are you okay?”

“ Yeah, I’m fine.” She waved her

hand in front of her face. “I, erm, I can’t have kids, and being

able to adopt Sally, and now she’s calling me mom—it’s a dream come

true.”

“ Did you adopt her at a young

age?” Charlotte asked. Her own heart was breaking over the child

she had lost.

“ No. It was only a few

months ago to be honest. Sally fought us both at the beginning.

Whizz told me she was acting out in case we sent her back to her

foster home.” Lacey took a seat.

“ You wouldn’t do

that?”

“ I know it’s strange,

adopting a kid that will probably be going off to college, but I

saw Sally, I saw how broken she was, and I just knew I could help

her. Whizz and I, together, we could help her. We’re not perfect

ourselves, but we make a good life.”

“ You make a good

team.”

“ I like to think

so.”

“ Will you adopt

more?”

Lacey sighed again. “I hope so. We’ve

spoken to Sally about it, and she doesn’t mind. We’re looking into

adopting once everything settles down at the club.”

“ I hope Gash and I are not a

problem—” Before she could finish saying anything more, Lacey held

her hand up.

“ No, you’re not a problem. You’ll

come to learn in the MC life, it’s always hectic and

chaotic , but

there are moments where it’s peaceful. You’ll learn to embrace

those peaceful moments, and be happy about it. You and Gash are

more than welcome here. I just wish I could have made you something

delicious to enjoy. I’m not exactly good in the

kitchen.”

Gash chose that moment to enter the

kitchen. He stretched out his muscles, and Charlotte couldn’t help

but stare at his hardness. His muscles were so big and thick, and

she felt like a complete girl just looking at him.

You’re a woman.

He was much bigger now than he was seven

years ago, and back then he’d been ripped.

Charlotte, stop it. You’re not

seriously thinking about a guy being ripped?

“ Showing off, are we?”

Lacey asked.

Gash lowered his arms, which she found

disappointing.

“ We know you’ve got the muscles

and the hot body. There’s no need to brag.” Lacey rolled her eyes

and jumped out of her chair. “I’m going to go and check on Whizz

and Sally. Don’t fight, kids.”

Charlotte chuckled. “I like her.” She

spoke once Lacey had left the kitchen.

“ She’s interesting.”

“ You don’t sound like you

believe that.”

He laughed. “What can I

say ? She’s a

little eccentric for me. Whizz loves her, and yeah, that bastard

didn’t really smile for a time when I got out.”

Charlotte had seen the scars on Whizz’s

face, and even the ones on his hands. She knew all about scars. The

last thing she would do was stare at someone with visible marks on

their body. She had her own scars, and not all of them were on the

outside of her body. There were some on her wrists and on her body

where she’d gotten desperate. Her scars were deep within her heart,

and she hoped that helping Gash would ease the pain that was always

there, making it hard for her to breathe at times.

Staring at the chicken stew, she

looked at the red sauce , which reminded her once more of blood. Pushing

the thoughts to the back of her mind, she moved to the pantry and

found some dried pasta to cook.

“ What put that sadness in your

eyes, Charlotte?” Gash stood behind her. She hadn’t even heard him

move. His hands gripped her hips, and she closed her eyes.

Charlotte loved his touch, always had, and it had been her

downfall.

“ I told you I’m not

ready.”

“ Did Jeff hurt

you?”

Opening her eyes, she turned off the

tap, and moved out of Gash’s arms to put the pot on to

boil.

She went to tuck some hair behind her

ears but paused when she realized her hair was up in a

ponytail.

“ Did he?” Gash

asked.

Staring at him, she nodded. “Don’t ask me

how he hurt me, but he did.”

“ Okay, why did he hurt

you?”

Licking her lips, she took a deep breath.

“When I came back home, you had already been arrested, and the

evidence had been building against you. The moment I heard what was

happening, I tried to put a stop to it. I wanted to help you. I

know you’re not a rapist. I know you’re capable of murder but not a

jealous murder. Jeff and Rebecca were there at the apartment, and

let’s just say they made sure you were already sentenced, and I

wasn’t in a good enough state of mind to help you.”

“ There are a lot of holes

in that story.”

“ I’m not ready to tell you those

holes. Maybe one day I will be.” He was going to find out the

truth. Jeff would laugh in his face, and it would blow up.

Charlotte’s heart started to race, and everything fell away. Why

was she hiding her secret? What did she have to gain from it? Gash

would forever be doubting her, and the only way for him to realize

she was on his side, was by giving it to him straight. “Actually,

you know what? I’m tired of hiding this. Remember you asked if

there was a woman who used to visit our apartment?”

He nodded.

“ You remember fucking a woman,

right ? You

were drunk? That woman was me, Gash. Yeah, that’s right. You fucked

me. We had sex together, and the next morning, you didn’t even

remember it. I figured I’d just forget about it, too. I got this

big promotion at work and was asked to go to England for a business

meeting, and while I was away, that was when you were arrested.

When I finally got home, I suspected I might be pregnant because

I’d been off my food and everything. I took a test, and I found out

I was pregnant.” She saw she was shocking him, and it was tearing

her apart talking to him. But this had to be said. If she didn’t,

Jeff would spill the truth, and the last thing she wanted was for

that fucker to ever think he had any more power over her. “You

didn’t use any protection during the time we were together. We were

pregnant, and I was going to tell you once I helped testify on your

behalf. I wanted you to be involved, and I knew it was going to be

a challenge to make you realize that we had slept together. Jeff

and Rebecca were there. They saw the test that I had taken, and

they knew I was going to the cops to give my testimony. I was

stupid, and I told them I knew you were innocent. To cut an even

longer story short, the night you were accused of committing the

murder, you were with me. I remember the day because it was the

best day of my life. I knew without a doubt you couldn’t have done

it. Rebecca was framing you.”

“ What happened to the baby?” Gash

asked. “I

know what fucking happened to me. What happened to our

baby?”

Tears filled her eyes as she stared at

him.

“ Jeff drugged me up as I was

about to leave the apartment, and he had Rebecca’s help. The next

thing I knew, I woke up, and he had my baby aborted. After that, I

went a little crazy, and let’s just say I’ve been trying to kill

myself every chance I got.”

Gash stepped forward, taking hold of her

hand, and turning it up. She stared at his bent head, refusing to

look at the scars that covered the inside of her wrist. She saw

them every single day, a constant reminder to her. When she was at

work, she covered them up with long sleeves. There were times she

forgot that they were there. With Gash staring at them now, she

relived the relief that she felt when she pressed the broken glass

into her skin. She’d tried to end her life with broken glass,

metal, anything that could cut into her skin.

Each time, before death would claim

her, she’d been saved.

Her doctor on the last time had stayed

with her, talking, and asked her to consider the fact that maybe

she was still alive to give someone a message.

“ We had a baby?”

“ Everything you need to

know is with Whizz. Excuse me.” Charlotte couldn’t stay with him

after revealing her soul to him.

Leaving the kitchen, she made her way

outside and took several deep breaths. The garden was small, but it

had a chair toward the back. Taking a seat, she stared up at the

cool sky.

“ Are you okay?” Sally

asked.

Charlotte turned, surprised to see the

young girl sitting on the patio, doing her homework.

“ I thought you were

inside?”

“ I like working outside. It

clears my head.” Sally shrugged. She had a blanket wrapped around

her. “Are you okay?”

“ I’m fine.” Charlotte stared up at the

stormy sky. “It’s going to start raining soon.”

“ There’s snow forecast,”

Sally said.

“ Figures.”

Sally didn’t say anything else, and

Charlotte couldn’t help but look back at the young girl. “Are you

happy?”

“ I am. The Skulls, it’s a family,

and with Lacey and Whizz adopting me, I’ve finally found a place

for myself. Besides, I’m always protected.”

“ Protected?”

“ The guys and the prospects, they

all work to protect us. Some of the brothers pick me up, and bring

me home. I like it. For once in my life, I’m actually

safe.”

Sally went bright red, and

Charlotte just knew that she had a crush on someone.

It had been too long

since she had been young, and falling in love. There were times she

wished she could still be like that.

****

“ I need the folder you have on

Charlotte.” Gash leaned against the door. His entire world was

turning upside down, and right at that moment, he couldn’t focus

for shit. The woman he’d spent years dreaming about was none other

than Charlotte, the woman he’d always liked but always overlooked.

The woman he believed he could never have.

“ You know?”

“ She just fucking told me. It’s