Page 6

“It has been too damn long since we had a girl day,”

Tate said, whooping as they entered the mall. All of the women had arrived in two cars, one driven by Fighter, the other by Ink. The prospects kept a good distance, which Rose was grateful for.

“I hear you,” Eva said.

Angel, Sophia, Prue, Lacey, Eva, Tate, Emily, Kelsey, and Sandy were all there. All of the women of The Skulls, apart from Sandy. She was a sweet-butt turned something else. Stink had a thing for her, but as yet nothing had happened.

“I’m surprised you’re on your own,”

Rose said, linking her arm through Sandy’s.

Sandy released a sigh. “Tell me about it. Stink’s keeping a close eye on me.”

“A close eye? That guy is in love with you, and has been for so damn long, I’m surprised he can see straight,”

Tate said. “When are you going to put the guy out of his misery?”

“I’m not trying to make him miserable. Believe it or not, I didn’t know he had a thing for me. I know he liked me, and we were good friends. I never knew he wanted anything more from me.”

Sandy shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“He’s told you?”

Rose asked.

“Yeah, he’s told me, and I don’t know what to do.”

Rose gave her a look. “You really don’t know what to do?”

“Well, part of me wants to dive in with him, and see where it goes. Then another part of me is terrified of losing what I’ve found with him. I care about Stink. What if us being together ruins our friendship?”

Biting her lip, she and Sandy walked a little behind the other women. They were talking amongst themselves.

“Do you love Stink?”

“I don’t know. Would I be upset if anything was to happen to him? Of course I would. I’ve never been in love, Rose. I don’t know what it feels like, nor have I ever wanted to be bound by someone,”

Sandy said. “I’m so fucking confused right now.”

“I can imagine.”

“I know he’d be so fucking hot in bed. I just know it,”

Sandy said.

“Is that all you care about? Him being hot?”

“Well, it’s not about him being hot. It’s Stink, and he’s a Skull. He’s going to be so damned hot in bed. I’ve heard some of the sweet-butts talking about him. He’s supposed to be like a machine in the sack. I never actually slept with him though.”

Sandy sighed looking lost in her world.

“I really don’t need to hear this.”

“Come on, I bet Hardy is so fucking great in bed. I wonder how you can even look at another man.”

Rose blushed recalling exactly how good Hardy was in bed. He could go for hours, and have her panting for him within minutes of his touch. Last night he’d only needed to kiss her neck, and she’d been more than ready to jump him.

“I knew it. I knew Hardy was good in bed.”

“You’ve never actually slept with him, have you?”

Rose asked.

Sandy paused, and a frown came across her face.

“Forget I said anything,”

Rose said, stepping away from Sandy.

The other woman wasn’t going to let her go easily.

“Do you really think I’d do something like that?”

Sandy asked.

Rose detected the hurt in the other woman’s voice, and she felt like the worst kind of person in the world.

“I don’t know.”

“I fucked the men who were available, Rose. I never fucked any of the married men. Even if Tiny had been married at the time, he wouldn’t have been on my list of men to sleep with. In fact, I didn’t have a fucking list, okay? I slept with whoever wanted me, and who I was willing to fuck.”

“Okay, I get it.”

Sandy’s hand tightened on her arm. “No, I don’t think you do get it. Hardy hasn’t touched another club whore since you found him all of those years ago.”

Rose smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, I do worry about it. I get that you’re pissed at him, and whatever you’ve had going on in your life, but I swear to you, Hardy loves you. He doesn’t want anyone else but you. You are the love of his life.”

The rest of the women had stopped and were watching them.

Tears sprang to Rose’s eyes. “I don’t want to do this.”

“I think it’s time you did do this.”

Sandy looked back toward the other women. “I’ve got this.”

“Are you sure?”

Angel asked, stepping forward.

Rose waved them on. “Yeah, I need to eat something. I’ll be fine.”

They nodded, reluctantly leaving them. Fighter followed them while Ink took to guarding the rest of the women. They went to a coffee shop within the mall. Rose stayed outside while Sandy got them some drinks and something to eat. Fighter sat a table behind them.

Rose liked Fighter even if he talked when she really didn’t want him to. He had a mind of his own, and wanted people to know it as well.

Sandy came back ten minutes later, placing down a tray filled with snacks.

“Right, I’ve got everything, and I even snagged some napkins that we can use as tissues in case this becomes emotional for you. Did I ever tell you women with a bun in the oven get over emotional? With your situation I’m surprised you’re not drowning in tears.”

“My situation?”

Rose asked, filling her tea with lots of sugar. She didn’t know if she wanted to understand what her situation was.

“You know, dealing with Hardy and all of his crap.”

Releasing a sigh, Rose stared somewhere past Sandy’s shoulder.

“I don’t think so, missy,”

Sandy said, clicking her fingers. “I could be trying on new sexy underwear, and yet I’m here talking to you about your husband.”

Rose let out a sigh. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Honey, Hardy loves you.”

“He cheated.”

“A long time ago, and I know it’s no excuse, but this is a little outdated for your outrage. Weren’t you pissed off when it happened?”

“Of course I was. I was so damn angry, and hurt. I mean, I’ve never been with anyone but him, and yet he’s fucked everyone.”

Rose pressed her lips together. “I’m sorry.”

“What about? I understand where you’re coming from. It’s a little late to be pissed off, but again, I can understand why you are. A lot of women would be pissed. Then the bitch goes and kills herself and the baby. It must have hurt.”

“Part of me was glad,”

Rose said, admitting the truth to Sandy that she’d never admitted to anyone else.

“Glad?”

“Yes, I was glad.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she tried to wipe away her tears. “What kind of person does that make me?”

“I take it you were glad the bitch was dead, not the baby.”

“I wanted the baby, Sandy, but I would have known every single day that she wasn’t mine.”

“Honey, you’re not a mean person. You wouldn’t ever have hurt that baby. I know what you wanted. You wanted the bitch who had your man, and who could give him a baby when you couldn’t. That I can understand more than Angel’s niceness.”

Sandy reached across the table and took her hand.

“She had been fucking him, and then she was pregnant with his kid.”

Rose shrugged. “I guess I was afraid that in time I’d have been pushed aside as a nuisance. Hardy could have a woman like her, and a kid. What need did he have with me?”

“Is this why you started dressing up for the club, stripping off, showing off your body without anyone touching?”

Sandy asked.

“Yes. A club whore is fair game. I became the next element. I was the temptation that no one was allowed to touch. I thought it would keep him.”

“It did, it has, and when it comes to Hardy, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve known Hardy a long time. I’ve been to most of the club parties, I can promise you, he’s never even looked in another woman’s direction. He loves you, and he’s not going to be stepping out on you anytime soon.”

“How do you know? How do you have that kind of faith?”

Rose asked. She wanted to understand as she wanted that kind of faith. She wanted to trust him again, and to never worry that if she felt like being a couch slob for a day, he would be looking for someone else.

“From the moment you walked out on him, demanded a divorce, Hardy has been a shell. He’s hurting, and it’s not because someone took away his favorite toy either. That man loves you. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.”

“Yeah, but the club whores haven’t exactly been putting him to the test.”

“Are you for real? I wouldn’t fuck the married ones. There are some club whores who will. They’d fuck anything in the club, and Hardy has been approached. He just doesn’t want anything to do with them. I promise you. He loves you.”

Rose ran a hand down her face. “I hate myself right now.”

“Don’t hate yourself. Learn to trust, and to love him again.”

“I never fell out of love with him. I wanted to. I wanted to hate him, but I can’t. Does that make me weak? Does that make me a doormat?”

“No. It makes you strong. You love Hardy, and now you’re making him fight for you. Don’t look at it as being something you’ve got to change. Look at it as being something that you’ve lived through.”

Rose took a deep breath. “I want to trust him.”

“Then give him a chance. Make him earn you back. If Hardy loves you the way I think he does, then it doesn’t matter how hard you make it for him, he’s going to come back to you.”

****

Gash was climbing onto his bike when Hardy pulled into the parking lot of The Skulls’ clubhouse. Climbing out, he walked over to the large biker. He’d been out of prison a couple of years now, and seemed to appear like the Hulk at times. The guy was so damn big, huge even. Women would be swooning all over him, but Gash only fucked who he wanted, and punished the women who tried to touch him when he didn’t want.

Getting sentenced to a rape he didn’t commit would do that to a guy.

Hardy would have been so pissed if something like that had happened to him.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’m heading out for a ride. I need to clear my fucking head.”

“Want some company?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a couple of hours,”

Gash said, finally looking up.

“What’s going to be a couple of hours?”

Steven asked, coming out of the clubhouse.

Steven was once a prospect of the club but had earned his patch by nearly getting killed multiple times, along with Blaine, another member. He was a good time guy, and wasn’t looking at settling down any time soon.

“I’m heading out for a ride,”

Gash said.

“If you’re heading out for a ride why do you know it’s going to take a couple of hours?”

Steven asked.

It was Hardy’s thoughts exactly.

“I’ve got something I want to check on. I don’t want to wait around another minute. You pussies can either come or stay. I don’t give a fuck.”

Hardy let out a sigh. If he left Gash to go and do whatever the hell he wanted to do, it would be on his head if something happened. The last thing he wanted to do was get in the shit with Lash or Tiny.

“I’m heading out with you,”

Hardy said.

“What about Rose?”

Steven asked.

“She’s having a girly day, and possibly a girly night. I don’t want her to call the cops on me in an attempt to get rid of me.”

He wanted to court his woman, make Rose fall in love with him again, not give her the chance to get fed up with him.

“I’ll come. I’m tired of being around the clubhouse. There’s nothing to do but fuck and play pool right now,”

Steven said.

“You could fix up some of the cars that are waiting for your attention?”

Gash said.

“I could do that, but it wouldn’t answer my curiosity.”

“Curiosity?”

Hardy asked.

“Yeah, I want to know where Gash is going. You won’t tell me when you get back, and neither will that big fucker. I’m coming along. Deal with it.”

Gash shook his head, and Hardy climbed onto his bike. Within minutes they were on the road. Hardy had sent Rose a quick text to let her know he was out on a ride with Gash, and he might not be back.

He hated leaving her behind, but there wasn’t anything he could do. With her pregnant could she even ride on the back of his bike? Fuck, it was something he’d have to ask the doctor about. He hated this, and yet loved it. The baby she carried gave him another chance. It gave them both a chance.

Got to keep her.

I can’t be without her.

I love her with all of my fucking heart and soul.

I’m nothing without her.

He’d had a rude awakening when Rose walked out and an even bigger one when he was served with divorce papers. When Tiny told him he was to back off, and it was the club rule, it had felt like someone had torn his heart out, and smashed it into the ground, constantly stamping on it.

Every time Rose pulled away from him was another pounding his heart took. Whenever she turned him away, forced him to leave her alone, he’d been tearing apart inside. He’d been angry at himself. If only he’d not gone to that fucking party all of those years ago, and made her talk to him, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

I was scared.

He let the fear of losing her keep him from making Rose talk to him. It was his first, and biggest mistake, and one he was never going to repeat again.

The road opened up, and Hardy kept in line with Gash. He was between Gash and Steven, but his thoughts were all on his woman and their unborn child. What more could he do to help him show Rose that he was going to stick around, that he wasn’t going to fuck up again? He’d not looked at another woman, and he didn’t want to.

Hardy had almost lost Rose once. He wasn’t stupid enough to risk it a second time. He frowned as Gash came to a stop outside of a rundown apartment building. Coming to a stop, Hardy looked at the building.

“What’s going on, Gash?” he asked.

“This is where my life went to shit.”

Gash climbed off his bike, and Hardy noticed a couple of kids staring at them. They were scrawny with clothes that were either too big or too small.

He and Steven followed Gash within the apartment building.

“How did this make your life go to shit?”

“This is where that bitch’s boyfriend was found. It was a much better building back then. None of this crap was lying around, and there weren’t kids hanging around. It was different.”

They entered the apartment building, and the stench of mold and decay was strong. Wrinkling his nose, Hardy followed his brother with Steven by his side. He was sure he saw human shit along the walls.

“Fuck, I’m going to need to go through a fucking sanitizer,”

Steven said. “This is fucking disgusting.”

Gash didn’t stop. There was something off about him, and Hardy didn’t want to be the cause for him to explode.

They walked up four flights of stairs, and Hardy would be forever sickened by the sight of the building. It was silent, and the whole building echoed even though there were people living there.

Gash kicked open a door and entered an apartment four doors down. Hardy and Steven entered the apartment, and there was nothing special. There was a ratty old sofa, and what surprised him more was the bloodstain on the carpet. This was once a crime scene, and now it was abandoned.

A couple of pictures had been left on the mantel piece, and Hardy didn’t recognize any of the faces.

“This was the place,”

Gash said.

“This was the place what?”

Steven asked, turning around.

“I fucked a woman, and later got accused of raping her, and killing her boyfriend.”

Gash smiled viciously. “It’s not much is it? A piece of shit apartment, and not even in a good area. No one would give a shit about what is going on, or what the hell was happening here.”

Gash kicked a few things around, coming back into the sitting room. He grabbed one of the pictures off the shelf, and paused. Hardy watched him stare down at the picture, frozen in place.

“What’s going on?”

Hardy asked.

Moving toward him, he looked down at the photo and saw two women. One was blonde, and even from the picture he saw that she was teasing the photographer, lifting up her shirt, showing off her chest.

The other woman, a brunette, stood away from the blonde. She smiled in the picture, but it didn’t reach her eyes. There was something not quite right about the picture.

Gash turned the frame over, opening the links, and pulling out the photo. “We’re going.”

Following him out of the room, Hardy paused as someone was coming upstairs. It was a man in his thirties, and before either he or Steven could do anything, Gash had the man thrown up against the wall.

“What happened to the two bitches who lived in that apartment?”

Gash said, spitting each word out.

Hardy winced as Gash pulled the guy away, and slammed him back against the wall.

“Fucking hell, let me the fuck go.”

“Tell me,”

Gash said, snarling out each word.

“I don’t fucking know.”

Gash grabbed the picture. “Take a good long look.”

The guy stared at the picture, frowning. “The brunette, she left well before the blonde. She went a bit crazy, fucked in the head, and left. Never saw or heard from her again. The blonde, she made a big show of leaving. Don’t know where they went.”

“What do you mean the brunette went crazy?”

“She tried to kill herself or some shit. It was just rumor, but she went a bit fucked in the head, tried to kill herself, hysterical.”

“Anyone else been here longer than you?”

Gash asked.

“No. I stay here ‘cause there’s no fucking rent. It’s a shithole, but no one claimed the building.”

Gash growled and turned to leave. Hardy and Steven followed him out to their bikes.

“What the fuck is going on, man?”

Hardy asked.

“What the fuck is going on? It’s quite simple. I’m looking for a blonde bitch, and a brunette. I want answers.”

“Which one did you fuck?”

Steven asked.

“The blonde. It was the blonde who sent me to prison. It was her that accused me of going mental, and killing her boyfriend. She was the one who told me to fuck her. She was fucking begging for my dick.”

Gash looked down at the picture. “I’ve waited. I’ve done everything Tiny asked of me, I kept in line, and I didn’t get my revenge. I’m not waiting around another second. I want to take down the bitch who fucked with me. I want to see her dead, and I’m going to smile while do it.”

“Gash, you’re talking about killing a woman, man. That’s not you.”

“It wasn’t, but no bitch had sent me to prison before. Now, I don’t care. This is what I’ve wanted for a long fucking time. It’s what I’m going to get, and neither you nor the club are going to stop me.”

Hardy watched as he climbed back on the bike.

“Where are you going now?”

Hardy asked.

“Back to the club.”

Gash didn’t wait around for them.

“He’s a ball of sunshine,”

Steven said. “I never knew he was so fucking bitter.”

“You would be, too. He was incarcerated, and we weren’t always there to offer protection. Gash had it bad,”

Hardy said.

“Will he do it?”

Steven asked.

“What?”

“Kill a woman?”

Hardy paused, staring at the path where Gash had disappeared from. “If anyone is capable of it, it’s Gash.”

The man had been simmering inside, waiting for the perfect opportunity, and that was coming. He wondered who the brunette was in the picture, and more importantly, he wondered who was going to get hurt in Gash’s need to take out his revenge.

****

“I want to know where she is,”

Gash said, storming into Whizz’s room. Lacey let out a squeal, not that Gash blamed her. He’d walked in on the pair having sex, Lacey riding Whizz.

“What the fuck, Gash? Get the fuck out,”

Whizz said.

Lacey climbed off of Whizz, and he watched him throw her the leather cut. She pressed it in front of her, glaring at him. He wasn’t interested in the purple-haired woman. Her hair changed so bloody often that he expected her to come down to the main club with her hair looking like a rainbow.

“I’m not going anywhere until you do this for me.”

He slapped the picture at Whizz’s chest. “Find me Charlotte Bilson. The brunette. You can’t find me the blonde whore? Get me Charlotte. She’ll help me.”

With the way Whizz tensed, Gash knew he’d already found Charlotte. “You bastard. You know where she is?”

“I don’t know where she is. Give me time, and I’ll get you the information.”

“Good. She’s the one I want.”

“Why? She wasn’t responsible for your problems,”

Whizz said. “She didn’t accuse you of anything. She didn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“No, she didn’t, but she’ll know how to get to the bitch who did.”

He wanted to find Charlotte. The fucking bitch could have been there to help him, and as far as he was concerned, she was just as much to blame for his incarceration. “Get it done,”

Gash said, storming out of Whizz’s room.

****

“What are you going to do?”

Lacey asked.

Whizz closed his bedroom door, looking toward his woman. Any arousal he’d experienced moments before was now gone.

“I don’t know.”

“He’s determined. You’ve got all the information he needs,”

Lacey said.

“When are we supposed to see that Sally kid?”

Whizz asked, trying to make sense of everything that was going on in his world.

“We’re seeing her on Friday.”

It was now Wednesday.

“I’m going to hold off until next week.”

The longer he put it off, the angrier Gash became. Whizz wanted to give him the information. Going to his filing cabinet, he opened up the security lock and pulled out Charlotte’s file. It had been nearly seven years ago since Gash was first sent to prison. He looked at the picture of Charlotte before she went into a psych ward, and then the picture when she came out. She wasn’t the same person. The person that was now staring back at him, taken from her driving license, couldn’t handle Gash, not an angry one.

Lacey climbed off the bed, making her way toward him. “What are you thinking, Whizz? Talk to me.”

“I can’t condemn this woman. Gash is off the rails, and she can’t handle him. He’s like a fucking freight train, and she’s a puppy.”

She took the file from him, and started to read it out. “She’s twenty-eight years old, and seven years ago she was admitted after trying to kill herself.”

Lacey went silent as she read on but didn’t read aloud. “She was pregnant?”

“It’s what her file says.”

“I wonder who the father is,”

Lacey said.

“I don’t know. She’s never spoken about it, according to her psych notes,”

Whizz said.

Lacey closed the file. “Have I ever told you how scary you are with everything you can find out?”

“It’s the internet, babe. Everyone does the internet, and it’s the best way to get what I want.”

He opened his arms, and Lacey walked right into them.