Page 1 of Gash

Chapter One

Charlotte Bilson placed her handat her throat as she glanced across the table at a fumingGash.Helooked bigger than she imagined, and she placed her hand around herneck, just to make sure everything was fine with her.Yep, her neckwas still in place, which was a relief.Coming home to find Gashinside 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 melike that?”she asked.

“I didn’t attackyou.”

She raised a brow, but didn’t actually sayanything to him to refute him.It had been years since she last sawhim.Age had done wonders for him, and yet it hadn’t at the sametime.He was harder than she remembered, colder too.There weretimes where she recalled him always smiling, always laughing.Now,the man she once knew was gone, dead almost.He constantly wore afrown, and he was staring at her as if he’d like to kill her.She’dbeen in his company a matter of minutes, and yet she saw the changeinside him, the darkness.

He does want to killyou.

“Do you know what the wordattack actually means?”

“You’re alive.”

“That has nothing to dowith the word attack.Seriously, get a dictionary!”

He stared at her with his cold eyes.“Do you really think you should be testing me rightnow?”

“I don’t give a fuck.You comeinto my place, attack me, and now you want me to treat you likewhat?Some fucking person I know?”She hadn’t unloaded her anger inover five years.It had been two years since Gash’s release fromprison, and he had gone down for five years before that.Sevencomplete years of living without a damn care in the world.Her lifemeant shit to her, quite literally.She didn’t care.

“Tell me where RebeccaCharleston is,” he said, moving from his position at the table.Hegrabbed a chair, turned it, and sat down so that he was leaning onthe back of the chair.

She started to laugh.“I don’t knowwhere she is.”

“You said you’re going tohelp me.”

“I promised to help you, Gash.Ididn’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 themare.I figured you’d know.You came to me, not the other wayaround,” she said.

“Why did you thinkthat?”

“You found me.”Sheshrugged.“I have to say I’m surprised.”

“You think after serving fiveyears for a rape and murder that I didn’t commit, I’d leave youalone.”He reached out, tucking some hair behind her ear, startlingher.

“What are you doing?”sheasked, 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 backinto her life with sweet words.He’d come with threats.

“I didn’t give youpermission 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 feltjust from the touch of his fingers on her arm.Did he remembertheir time together at all?One nightwhere he’d taken her virginity, blown herworld, and he didn’t have any recollection.Should she beembarrassed that she wasn’t that memorable?

God, she’d stopped thinking about allof this shit since she got out of a fucking mental ward, and now hewas back, making her relive it all again.

Not all of it.Gash wasn’tresponsible for what that bastard, Jeff Wright, did to her.

Forget about it.Stopthinking about what happened, and focus on what is going onnow.

“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’velost.

“What’s yourproblem?”

“You’re my problem.You storminto my apartment, attack me, and now you’re ordering me around.I’m not a damn child, so stop yelling at me.”Her heart waspounding.This was not the kind of reunion she ever imagined havingwith Gash.She didn’t imagine hearts and flowers, but she didn’timagine this, accusations, threats.They had been friends once.Didn’t that account for something?Her throat was a little sorefrom where he’d gripped her around the neck.

They were not getting anywhereat the moment.They were both just yelling at each other, and thatdidn’t help anyone.Violence never worked, yet that was what they both wanted,to kill their enemies.

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