by Sam Crescent
Evernight Publishing ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-1-77233-744-0
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
I want to thank all of my wonderful readers for their patience. I know Gash has taken some time but I needed for him to be right. A big thank you to the wonderful Karyn White, my editor, who has helped me to shape every single Skull book. Also, thank you to Evernight for giving my MC a home.
You're all amazing and supportive.
GASH
The Skulls, 13
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2016
Chapter One
Charlotte Bilson placed her hand at her throat as she glanced across the table at a fuming Gash. He looked bigger than she imagined, and she placed her hand around her neck, just to make sure everything was fine with her. Yep, her neck was still in place, which was a relief. Coming home to find Gash inside her apartment, and not only that, to have him attack her, hadn’t exactly been the kind of welcome she wanted.
“Did you have to attack me like that?” she asked.
“I didn’t attack you.”
She raised a brow, but didn’t actually say anything to him to refute him. It had been years since she last saw him. Age had done wonders for him, and yet it hadn’t at the same time. He was harder than she remembered, colder too. There were times where she recalled him always smiling, always laughing. Now, the man she once knew was gone, dead almost. He constantly wore a frown, and he was staring at her as if he’d like to kill her. She’d been in his company a matter of minutes, and yet she saw the change inside him, the darkness.
He does want to kill you.
“Do you know what the word attack actually means?”
“You’re alive.”
“That has nothing to do with the word attack. Seriously, get a dictionary!”
He stared at her with his cold eyes. “Do you really think you should be testing me right now?”
“I don’t give a fuck. You come into my place, attack me, and now you want me to treat you like what? Some fucking person I know?” She hadn’t unloaded her anger in over five years. It had been two years since Gash’s release from prison, and he had gone down for five years before that. Seven complete years of living without a damn care in the world. Her life meant shit to her, quite literally. She didn’t care.
“Tell me where Rebecca Charleston is,” he said, moving from his position at the table. He grabbed a chair, turned it, and sat down so that he was leaning on the back of the chair.
She started to laugh. “I don’t know where she is.”
“You said you’re going to help me.”
“I promised to help you, Gash. I didn’t tell you that I knew where Rebecca was. I said I’d take out, but I don’t know where she is. I don’t know where either of them are. I figured you’d know. You came to me, not the other way around,” she said.
“Why did you think that?”
“You found me.” She shrugged. “I have to say I’m surprised.”
“You think after serving five years for a rape and murder that I didn’t commit, I’d leave you alone.” He reached out, tucking some hair behind her ear, startling her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, jerking away.
“Nothing.”
Shaking her head, she went to stand up, but Gash grabbed her arm. She didn’t want him to be touching her. The last thing she wanted was his tenderness. Gash hadn’t come back into her life with sweet words. He’d come with threats.
“I didn’t give you permission to stand up, so sit the fuck down!”
Yanking her arm away from him, she lowered back down in her chair. She didn’t like how she felt just from the touch of his fingers on her arm. Did he remember their time together at all? One night where he’d taken her virginity, blown her world, and he didn’t have any recollection. Should she be embarrassed that she wasn’t that memorable?
God, she’d stopped thinking about all of this shit since she got out of a fucking mental ward, and now he was back, making her relive it all again.
Not all of it. Gash wasn’t responsible for what that bastard, Jeff Wright, did to her.
Forget about it. Stop thinking about what happened, and focus on what is going on now.
“Will you stop manhandling me?” She cradled her arm against her chest. I’m not going to be affected by him. He means nothing to me, and he clearly doesn’t know what I’ve lost.
“What’s your problem?”
“You’re my problem. You storm into my apartment, attack me, and now you’re ordering me around. I’m not a damn child, so stop yelling at me.” Her heart was pounding. This was not the kind of reunion she ever imagined having with Gash. She didn’t imagine hearts and flowers, but she didn’t imagine this, accusations, threats. They had been friends once. Didn’t that account for something? Her throat was a little sore from where he’d gripped her around the neck.
They were not getting anywhere at the moment. They were both just yelling at each other, and that didn’t help anyone. Violence never worked, yet that was what they both wanted, to kill their enemies.
Sitting back in her chair, she stared past his shoulder. The memories were starting to invade once again. “I had nothing to do with what happened to you. If you remember I went away because of work with my boss. I had to go to England. When I came back a month later, you were awaiting a date for the trial, and they wouldn’t give you bail.” By the time the trial would have happened, she wouldn’t have been considered a reliable source as she already had a permanent place in a mental ward.
“I’m about to ask you a question, and I want you to answer me clearly. Did my lawyer get in touch with you?” Gash asked.
“Your lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“No. I wasn’t contacted by any lawyer.”
“I fucking knew it.”
It had been strange to her at the time as well. No lawyer had been in touch with her, and she’d only heard about it on the news as she was coming out of the airport. She didn’t have time to tell her story. There had been a date for the trial, and she’d tried to get in touch with Gash’s lawyer without success, and then it was too late. Jeff grabbed her, tore her world apart, and dumped her. After trying to take her own life, she’d been sent to a psychiatric hospital where she’d spent the next five years. Since getting out she had tried to find Rebecca and Jeff, losing lots of money in her own search to find the people who’d ruined her life. She didn’t have the right resources to find the two people who had ruined her life. Charlotte had to finally stop trying to hunt for ghosts.
Gash rubbed his temple. “I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this.”
“When you first got sentenced, I was out of the country. I’d gotten a promotion, and I was on my way back. When I got back home, before your trial, I, erm, I got sick, and I couldn’t help you, no matter what.” Charlotte wasn’t about to tell him what happened when she got back. She wasn’t ready to delve into that shit again.
“I get that.”
She shook her head and stood. “If you don’t mind, I want a drink.” She stormed into her kitchen, and as she filled
the kettle, she noticed that her hands were shaking. Taking a deep breath, she moved from the kitchen sink, to the counter, and turned on the kettle. She had to keep control over her emotions. The last thing she needed right now was to lose herself again. She’d been doing so well right now.
I can do this.
Can you do this?
The father of your child is sitting at your pathetic excuse for a table.
You didn’t have a child.
They destroyed that.
The very thoughts made her eyes fill with tears, and she tried to wipe them away.
It’s in the past. I can’t change the past.
Breathe in, breathe out.
It’s good to live.
She kept speaking the words her therapist advised her to do. She wasn’t about to waste years of therapy.
“Are you okay?” Gash asked, startling her. He stood right behind her. He gripped her waist, and she tensed up, jerking out of his hold.
“Don’t.”
“I don’t recall you being this jumpy.”
“How do you remember anything about me?” she asked.
“We spent a great deal of time together, Charlotte. Don’t try to pretend that it didn’t mean anything.”
Slamming the cup down on the counter, she spun around to face him. This guy was giving her whiplash, and she was so damn tired of him, and tired of the past invading her present. “How can you say that? How can you say that we spent time together, and yet, you come in here, threatening me?” She shook her head. “I don’t know anything about Rebecca and Jeff. I’ve been on my own for a long time.”
“What happened to you?” he asked.
“What?”
“You’re different. I remember a time when you had an easy smile, and were more than happy to talk with me. Now, you’re treating me like you don’t know me.”
“It has been seven years, Gash. Do you have any idea what happens in seven years? People change. I’m not the same woman you knew, and you’re not the same guy.”
“I am.”
“No. The guy I knew wouldn’t have shoved me up against the wall with his hand wrapped around my neck. Neither of us are the same, and you need to realize that it’s not going to fall back into old times.”
Gash stared into her eyes, and she forced herself to stare right back at him. It was hard for her not to look away, but she wouldn’t back down. He wasn’t the same man, and she didn’t trust him, not one bit.
“Did you and Rebecca have another friend?” he asked.
She frowned. “Huh?”
“I was wondering if you and Rebecca had another friend that visited you while I was here. I seem to recall a woman there, vaguely.”
Charlotte turned back to finish her coffee. “No one else but you, me, Rebecca, and Jeff, oh, and the guy that turned up dead, who was just a boyfriend Rebecca had made sure she’d been seen with. Nothing else.”
He touched her waist once again, leaning in close, invading her space. “Are you sure?”
“I’m more than sure, asshole.” She pushed her butt out, making him take a step back. “There was no other woman, and Rebecca was screwing all of you.” She took a seat back at the table, wrapping her fingers around the cup. “What’s your plan? Are you going to threaten me to death, or do you actually have a plan for us to find the bastard and bitch who affected our lives?”
“You know nothing.”
“What part of ‘I’ve been looking for them for some time’ didn’t you understand?” She didn’t know where her confidence was coming from. Gash terrified her, and so did their situation. She had agreed to kill the woman who had falsely accused Gash of raping her and murdering her boyfriend. Charlotte only knew half of what happened.
When she came back from her business trip, she’d been feeling off, and the only explanation had been the unprotected sex with Gash. She’d gotten a test, returned to her apartment, and had been overjoyed to learn she was pregnant. Jeff had been there, and he’d seen the test in her hands. What she hadn’t realized at the time was the fact she’d touched her stomach, and said Gash’s name. Jeff had obviously had no doubt that she was carrying Gash’s baby. In the few shorts seconds of happiness, she’d decided that, with her promotion, she’d finally get a place of her own, something that meant she didn’t have to have a roommate. Charlotte had grown tired of all of the men around Rebecca, and she didn’t want that kind of life for her baby. The moment she heard that Gash had been arrested, and a trial date was about to be set, she had been about to contact his lawyer in order to help him.
From the first moment she saw Gash, she’d been attracted to him. Every time she saw him, and got to know him, she’d fallen a little more in love with him. She was nothing like Rebecca, who’d been beautiful, slim, and completely experienced. Charlotte was not. They hadn’t even been best friends, merely acquaintances who shared an apartment. Neither of them could afford a place, so they shared. Gash didn’t know any of that. He thought they were best friends, when Charlotte hadn’t liked Rebecca, not at all. She’d put up with her, nothing else. The promotion had been her ticket out of that life, but it had all gone to shit. Jeff had seen to that. Once she discovered that Gash was going down for not just rape but murder, she’d tried to help, and had failed. Instead, her very future had been ripped out of her. Jeff had been there, and had caught her taking the test. He’d asked who it was, and she shouldn’t have told him. Gash didn’t know everything that had been taken from her, and she hoped he never did. Gash didn’t even know they had shared a night together, so he didn’t need to know what else had happened. She’d tried to help him, really she had, and she had failed them both. It already hurt her too much to handle it. She doubted he would even believe it, let alone understand what she was going through.
****
Whizz didn’t need to worry about Charlotte. She was fucking fire, and she was turning him on. Gash took a seat opposite her, and watched as she blew across the cup filled with coffee. His cock pressed against the front of his pants, and he stared into her eyes. She stared right back at him, and something ached in the back of his mind, like a memory trying to get out, but he couldn’t reach it.
“I’ve not got a plan. Coming to you was my plan. However, I’ve got someone who can help us. Do you think you can help me locate them?” he asked. He didn’t want to leave her alone. Charlotte was by his side now for the foreseeable future. Gash didn’t know where these emotions were coming from, only that she was inspiring them. Her gaze was filled with so much pain that he found it hard to keep eye contact with her.
What had she been through? Charlotte had secrets, and he bet that Whizz knew some of them.
“I’ve been to your old apartment. It’s a shithole now, and there’s nothing there.”
She blew out a breath, staring past his shoulder. “I’ve not been there in years.”
“Is there anything you remember? Anything at all?”
“Rebecca was a popular girl. Before I left, she’d started making visits to some rich billionaire in the city. I don’t know his name, but she told me he’d set up an apartment that he used when he was in town.”
“What name?”
“It was in her name. The guy, I don’t know who, didn’t want to have a, er, track record or something. I figured he was just married, and didn’t want any traces of him keeping a mistress.” She shrugged. “I told her to tell you. She wouldn’t. Rebecca said you were only after some good pussy, and you didn’t care who she fucked.”
“She got something right. Rebecca was a whore through and through. She didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything.” Gash stood, unable to look at Charlotte when he thought of Rebecca. He’d been young, and an asshole. What did he ever see in Rebecca? She’d been an easy fuck, and at the time he’d not been interested in anything but a good time.
He frowned, thinking about where their old apartment building was. It was a good hour from The Skulls clubhouse, and far enough away from Fort Wills. What the fuck had he
been doing all those years ago? With the court case, prison, and the shit that had been going on since he got out, he wondered now what he’d been doing near Rebecca in the first place. Gash scrambled through his mind, and remembered. He’d been looking for his brother when he’d found Rebecca.
“Did I ever talk to you about The Skulls and shit back then?”
Charlotte frowned. “You never actually talked about anything with me. You were really quiet.” Her cheeks heated. “You always had something else on your mind.”
“What are you not telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re in no position to hold something back—”
“The only time you were loud was when you were having sex with Rebecca. You didn’t talk about anything. The only reason I knew you were part of The Skulls was because of your damn jacket. You didn’t talk about them. Thinking about it, you were always so careful about what you did, in fact, talk about. You couldn’t hide your leather cut.” She pointed at the jacket he was wearing.
Gash had been looking for his brother who he hadn’t seen in some time. He’d never found him, so he assumed that he was dead. His real brothers were The Skulls. Gash made a mental note to talk to Tiny about it. Lash was the leader of The Skulls now, but Tiny was the leader back then and he’d been the one to give the orders.
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
“You’re coming back to the clubhouse with me. It’s late right now, and I’m fucking tired. Tomorrow morning we’ll head to the clubhouse where we’re going to start our search for those two fuckers.” He tilted his head to the side, and frowned when he heard a growling noise. “What the fuck was that?”
He noticed Charlotte went an even deeper shade of red.
“I’m hungry,” she said.
“What?”
“I’ve not eaten since lunchtime. I’m starving, and I didn’t exactly plan to get attacked tonight, and to starve.”