Healing Gabe (Last Hangman MC Book 3)

by Muriel Garcia

  “Hey Brother,” Aleck greets me, patting my back.

  “Hey Brother. I see you didn’t wait for me to start eating.” I fake being hurt.

  “You were taking forever!” Viv exclaims and eyes me suspiciously.

  “What?” I look at her feigning innocence.

  “What are you hiding?” She comes over looking at me, knowing I’m up to something.

  “Nothing, why?” I look at her confused.

  “In your shirt, what’s that?” She pokes the bulge gently and it meows. “No. Fucking. WAY!” She squeals.

  “Yes way.” I grin and open my shirt, taking the kitten out. “Meet Slick.” I grin as she picks him up. He curls up in her arms and rubs his face all over her.

  “He’s so freaking cute. Hi Slick.” She grins talking to him in a baby voice, I might regret getting her a cat if she starts babying him, but seeing the look of pure happiness on her face is worth it. The cat meows and starts purring.

  “What the fuck is that? That’s not a cat!” Aleck frowns, giving the cat a disapproving look. Slick looks over at Aleck and hisses.

  “Don’t bully my kitten!” Viv glares at Aleck.

  “What? It looks and probably feels like a dick!”

  “Oh my God, he did not!” She shakes her head at Aleck and goes to sit on the patio, petting the cat, the girls follow and sit around her.

  “Wrong thing to say?” Aleck chuckles.

  “Yeah, she loves those cats.”

  “No one could tell that that’s a cat.” Ant chimes in.

  “Piss off.” I chuckle.

  After she spent an hour petting and playing with the cat, she puts him back in his crate and we all sit around the table to start eating.

  “Remember when you came back from Grand Isle Gabe?” Line looks over at me grinning innocently.

  “Yeah? What about it?” I look at her confused.

  “Remember the bet we made?” She full on smirks. Uh oh, totally forgot about that.

  “No?” I look at her.

  “You’re full of shit. Your sexy Thunderbird is mine.” She grins, proud of herself.

  “I have no recollection of such a bet. I’m sure you have the wrong person.” I tell her as seriously as I can.

  “Pay up, Buttercup.” She snorts at her own joke.

  I sigh and make a big production of getting my keys out of my pocket. “There you go.” I hand them to her.

  “Victory is sweet, oh so very fucking sweet.” She sighs happily taking the keys from my hand.

  “Actually, I couldn’t part with my own thunderbird for sentimental reasons. She was my father’s but I did get you one and customized it myself. It’s in the driveway.”

  “You did not.” She looks at me shocked.

  “I did.” I smile and she’s out of here within two seconds. We all follow her and see her hugging her new mint Thunderbird with white swirly detailing. Not the classic colors, but totally Line’s style.

  “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she squeals bouncing up and down before hugging me.

  “You’re welcome.” I chuckle. “Glad you like it.”

  “Like it? I fucking love it!” She beams and stares at it, sighing happily. After my failed attempt at protecting her from Brian last year, I vowed myself that whenever I got the chance, that I’d make her smile and happy. I’m glad I was able to keep my promise to her and give her the car she wanted, but also put a smile on her face.

  We spent the rest of the day eating a lot of food, a lot of cake and playing cards. It’s almost 2 AM and Viv is asleep in bed. I locked up downstairs and within the five minutes it took me, she managed to roll around and lay straight in the middle of the bed, taking up the whole space. Slick is asleep at her feet. I don’t care if I have to sleep in the chair, as long as I know that she goes to bed with a smile on her face and no worries on her mind, I did my job and that’s all that matters.

  I never thought I’d ever be happy again, I thought I’d only feel pain and heartache for the rest of my life. I’ve been miserable for the past twelve years, roaming the earth, not fully living, just going through the motions. Sure, I had the club and my brothers, but it wasn’t helping me cope with the double loss I had endured. That day I lost the woman I thought I was going to be with and the woman I was in love with. There was a hole in my heart that kept growing bigger and bigger every day. Things could have turned to shit for the both of us, but we were there to pick each other up.

  I’m grateful she keeps pushing me to express my feelings more, it’s getting easier. I know I love her and she knows I love her, but I’m scared that if I show it in public, the world is going to want to rip that away from me.

  She’s helped me so much over these past couple of months, she’s made me the happiest I’ve ever been. I still miss my parents and think about them daily, I wish they’d had the chance to meet Aleck and know that their younger son was alive and well, but I’m sure they are watching over us and are proud of us.

  Life couldn’t be any sweeter. I have my woman, a beautiful house, my blood family and my brothers. Viv doesn’t know it, but she has saved my life in more ways than one.

  She’s healed me completely.

  The End.

  TRUSTING JASON PREVIEW

  I lost my wife two months ago.

  My life has been fucking hell since then.

  Between mourning her loss and working, I haven’t had any time for me. I buried myself in my work, hoping it would take away the pain and the image of her dead body, but no, if anything, it’s only made it worse. When I’m all alone at night in my bed, that’s when the real nightmares begin.

  Nothing makes me feel alive anymore, nothing except one person who manages to lift my spirits. Nothing will ever happen. It’s not the memory of Jenny that is stopping me, which makes me sound like a total fucking asshole, but because she’s the baby sister of one of the Last Hangman.

  Gabe knows me and knows I would never hurt her, but he’s not exactly the understanding type. To be honest I don’t know if she does even want me, she could be helping me out of survivor’s guilt. I’m a damaged widower.

  Everybody thinks I’ve had it easy all my life but they are all so fucking wrong. My past would make the MCs seem like saints. Something’s coming and I know it’s going to destroy the life we once knew, but I can’t bring myself to confess to the MC all the shit I have done. All the things I had to do to survive and then because I started to enjoy it. They would never believe detective could do all of this shit. What they don’t know is that there’s a good reason why I played my part in taking down the Kings so well. My entire life has been a fucking lie. I’ll have to tell them sooner rather than later, they need to be prepared for the shit storm that’s going to be coming our way.

  FALLING FOR KALLI PREVIEW

  by Mia Lily & Muriel Garcia

  Mason

  All damn morning I’ve had to listen to Tyler go on and on about the rents due. I don’t mind the first and second time, but after the third and fourth, he was starting to piss me off.

  “I’ll sort it, how many fucking times do I have to tell you!” I snap at him, making him realize he is giving me a damn headache.

  It’s always me that gets moaned at because apparently it’s my fault we are down a room-mate. In a way, it probably is my fault, but it takes two to tango. I can see from his facial expression that one of his Tyler rants is coming.

  “Well, if you hadn’t fucked and broke our last room-mate’s heart, we wouldn’t be in this mess. How many times did I tell you not to go there? Yet, you did it anyway!” Tyler huffs, following me as I walk away from him, heading towards my bedroom. I step inside and slam the door hoping to God it shuts him the fuck up, even if it’s just for a minute.

  Yeah, I did fuck Faye, the last room-mate. She knew my reputation and what I was like. It’s not my fault she developed a huge crush on me and then lied to Amie and Tyler, telling them I said I wanted more just to get in her pants. I may be a manwhore, but I’m
not a liar. I take in the familiar scene of my bedroom in the loft we live in, I can describe it in two words, absolute shithole, but it’s my shithole. I keep it a shithole as it reminds me of my room back hom when I lived with my mother. It reminds me of how she used to get on at me to clean my room, I can still hear her voice clear as day in my mind. People that used to know me say I look very much like her, dark brown hair, piercing blue eyes. I can’t see it myself. I shake her from my thoughts as thinking about her only saddens me. I head over to the desk on the far side of the room to look for a pen and a piece of scrap paper, pulling open my top drawer, condoms…nope, don’t need them. More searching turns up more condoms. For fuck’s sake, can I catch a break? I slam the drawer shut nearly breaking the cheap piece of shit, and open the second drawer. Aha! My sketchbook and a pencil, that’ll do the job. I rip a bit of paper from the page and quickly scribble an advert, it can’t be that hard to find a room-mate surely, we live in the city of Manchester for God’s sake.

  ROOM-MATE NEEDED ASAP

  LOFT CONVERSION

  NO WEIRDOS OR SERIAL KILLERS

  PHONE: 012 513

  Pleased with myself, I walk over to the bed and slip on my black leather jacket. I grab my mobile, keys and cigarettes of the oak bedside cabinet and walk out of my bedroom slamming the door.

  As soon as Tyler spots me in the open plan living area, he starts going on and on again, but I mentally block him out and stalk towards the front door. I sigh with relief when I’m safely on the other side of the door. I quickly walk down the iron steps to the alley at the back of our loft and make my way to the little coffee shop that sits on the corner of our street. I know full well that this is the ideal place to advertise as students are always in there. I just hope that no good looking girls apply because I have a history of sticking my dick in them.

  I light up a cigarette and take a long drag, letting the smoke fill my lungs as I walk. It’s a disgusting habit and know for a fact my mother would be turning in her grave, she hated smoking. I quickly take a few more drags when I realize I’m outside the café. Throwing it to the ground and dragging my grey converse over it to make sure it’s fully out, I push open the door, the sound of the stupid fucking bell above my head scaring the shit out of me.

  The place is full to the brim, it’s the usual for this place. I weave through the tables that are packed too closely together towards the counter, that is now free from customers. I can see a black haired girl fucking about with the coffee machine, looking like she doesn’t have a clue what the hell she is doing. I patiently wait while checking out her backside. It’s a nice view!

  As I’m gazing at her arse, head tilted to the side, this is the moment the chick decides to turn around, looking adorably flustered. She blushes at catching me eye fucking her, she’s actually pretty cute with beautiful green eyes.

  “Can I help you?” she asks, making her cheeks turn redder than the sign above the counter. This chick is definitely shy.

  “Hmmm, I think you can, Darlin’. Can you hang this up in the window for me?” I pass her the scrap of paper giving her my killer smile? Her cheeks flush again as she takes the piece of paper from me, her hand grazing mine. I watch her as she reads over my note, a grin breaks out on her face.

  Before she looks up, I’m gone, already heading towards to the exit. With one last glance over my shoulder, I see the sneaky little minx put the advert in her pocket. Interesting…maybe I’ll be seeing little Miss Flustered again…

  Kalli

  Today is definitely not my day. I woke up late thanks to Lisa’s antics last night; she kept me awake with her moaning and screaming until 4 am! I had the morning shift and had to be here before 7. Thanks to her, I was half an hour late and had to listen to my bloody manager go on and on, threatening to fire me if I'm late again. I could see Cassie, my co-worker, wanted to have a go at me too, but a glare from me ensured she restrained herself. We don’t really like each other, she’s more into doing her nails than working, and yet our manager isn’t saying shit to her.

  I groan whilst trying to sort out the milk foam maker. Two weeks since I started working here and not once has it ever worked properly. I know I’m doing it right but it never cooperates, always making me look like a fool when a customer asks for some foam in their drinks. Or worse, it sprays milk everywhere, including on me, like it did yesterday morning. That machine is a thing of the devil, I swear.

  I’ve been trying to get it right for the past ten minutes when I feel eyes on me. I turn around and see a hot guy, tall, leather jacket, dark hair and the most piercing blue eyes I’ve ever seen, currently staring at my ass.

  “Can I help you?” I look at him, turning bright red. I hate people staring at me, it always makes me feel uncomfortable, I already feel out of place enough without customers openly staring at me.

  He's going on about something but I'm not listening, I’m lost in his eyes. The next thing I know, he gives me a piece of paper. I take it, our hands touching. As cliché as this sounds, I feel a jolt of electricity shoot through my whole body. I quickly withdraw my hand and look down at the paper. I can’t help but smile, this couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m in desperate need of a new place to live, Lisa is driving me up the fucking walls. Last night’s activities weren’t a first, she brings a different guy home every single night and fucks them loud enough for the whole block to hear. I mean, each to their own but I can’t stand people that fuck just for the sake of fucking. A change of scenery and roommate is very much needed. When I look up from the paper, I’m left staring at the wall, he left already. I’m a tad bit disappointed but can’t help the smile spreading over my lips. This could be the opportunity I’ve been waiting for so long. It would have been so much easier though to ask him face to face how much the rent was, for some reason I can’t manage to hold a conversation over the phone, I’m a stammering mess. I guess I’ll have to suck it up and call him on my next break.

  I tuck the piece of paper in my apron and get back to the stupid milk foam maker. I grumble at it as it sprays more milk over my chest causing my white top to go see-through. I swear under my breath at the machine and pull my apron up, trying to hide the stains until I can go in the back and change. I need another job. I love my coffee as much as the next person but this place is driving me insane.

  The only reason I’m staying here and not looking for another job is because I need to save up and this is the only place that would accommodate to my college schedule. I need to move out of the hellhole I’m living in at the minute, and help my father. He’s a retired soldier and lives off of a small military pension. It’s enough for him to pay the bills, food and the upkeep of his property, but that’s it. He could never treat himself to something he’d like or go for a weekend away somewhere. I know he’d love to go fishing with his military buddies but can never go because of the fee they ask for the permit. Hence why I’ve been working my ass off, to be able to live a normal life and put some money aside, and hopefully save enough to surprise him with the permit for his upcoming birthday.

  I fail to stifle a yawn, glancing around hoping none of my colleagues saw me. I’m so tired, I don’t remember the last time I had a proper night of sleep. Between work and college I’ve been crazy busy, maybe getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night, even if I'm lucky. I won’t last long at this rate. I hope they're not asking too much for rent at that guy's

  place. My current roommate is charging me a lot, most likely to be able to buy herself whatever she wants since she doesn’t work. Her parents pay her half of the rent and she's always coming back with expensive things. She says they keep raising the rent but I’m done having her play me for a fool.

  Two hours later I finally get my break. I make myself a coffee—no foam!— grab a muffin and head to the employee’s room. I sit down at the table closest to the window and take a sip before dialing the number on the paper. Here goes nothing…

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Where do I start?

  Mo
m — Thank you for always being there for me. You’re the best mom anyone could ever have. I love you.

  This book wouldn’t have been possible without Ellie Aspill. You’re a brilliant editor and friend. I don’t know how you manage to put up with me and my many freak outs. I know we were on a very tight schedule for this one, but thank you for helping me make it on time. You rock. I’m so glad you are a part of this journey with me and couldn’t ask for a better friend and editor.

  Charlotte Spence — My amazing PA and friend. Thank you for your support throughout this crazy journey and helping keep me sane during the writing of Gabe’s story. I know I put you through a lot with all the cliffhangers I was throwing at you as you as I was writing it. Thank you for always being there for me.

  Louise Howard — Thank you for always giving me your honest opinion and always giving me great tips and advice of what needs to be changed. Thank you for being there for me since book one. I’m so grateful to have you as a friend.

  Stephanie Lewis — Thank you for being there for me since the beginning. Without your support and your help, none of this would have been possible. I will never be able to thank you enough. I can’t wait to work with you on many more books.

  Rebecca Pau — Thank you so much for the beautiful covers. You’re a star. It’s always a pleasure to work with you and our banter and chat always make my day. I can’t wait to work on many more books with you.

  Alicia Marietta — Thank you for helping me with this and supporting me. It means a lot. I’m glad you enjoyed Gabe’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for your precious advice.

  Kim Brown — Thank you for everything. You’re a true friend and anyone would be beyond lucky to have you as a friend.