Hardy Read online

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 e
verything 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.

  Chapter Six

  “How was your ride?” Rose asked Hardy as he walked into their home. She was surprised to see Steven following behind him.

  “Strange,” he said, coming to her side.

  She paused as he wrapped his arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her lips. He used to do that action so many times. She’d missed it. Rose missed how natural he was with her in the way he touched her. She’d put a stop to that, and it was a stop she deeply regretted.

  “How was your day?” he asked.

  “Great. I shopped a little.”

  “Did you buy anything?”

  “Not much.” She’d not really had the heart to buy anything after her talk with Sandy. It was still hard for her to admit that she was wrong, especially when it came to Hardy. Biting her lip, she pulled away from him, going to the fridge. “I’m making dinner. Are you staying to eat?”

  “Yes.”

  Hardy took a seat at the table, and Steven also took a seat.

  Fighter came to the door. “Can I head out?”

  “Yes,” Hardy said. “I’ve got it from here.”

  She grabbed everything out of the fridge to make meatballs while Steven and Hardy talked.

  “What do you think that apartment was all about?” Steven asked.

  “I don’t know. Gash is a ticking bomb, and any moment he’s going to blow. I don’t want to be around for when that happens.”

  “What’s going on?” Rose asked.

  Hardy was the one who spoke up first. “Gash went out for a ride. You were shopping, and I figured I’d tag along. Steven came, too. He took us a couple of hours out of Fort Wills to another town on the outskirts of the city.”

  “That’s not hard to do. Everywhere has small towns with apartment buildings.”

  “This place had shit, literally shit, in the building on the floors and walls. It was fucking disgusting,” Steven said, shuddering.

  She stared down at her meatball mix wondering if she should continue on.

  “It was bad, Rose. Anyway, Gash wasn’t just there for the view or whatnot. He took us to an apartment. The apartment where he allegedly committed the rape and murder.”

  “I never believed Gash was capable of raping a woman. Murder, yes, you’re all capable of that. He had too many women hanging around him to care about taking something that didn’t belong to him,” she said. She’d known Gash for a little time before he was locked up. He’d always been nice, a partier but nice.

  “Tell me about it. Fucking insane. I remember when the cops came to take him on the bogus charge. The whole club was in uproar,” Hardy said, retelling Steven with how Gash was taken, forced into the back of a police car. “Tiny was so pissed. The whole club was. None of us had ever gone down for rape. Tiny wouldn’t accept shit like that. He’d kill any bastard who forced a woman.”

  “I know. Tiny’s got strict rules for his men,” Steven said.

  “It’s what set him apart from other MC leaders. Devil’s another one who won’t accept cruel men in his club.” Hardy explained everything.

  “I’ve always thought it was wrong of them to sentence Gash. He’s not
the kind of man to hurt a woman.”

  Both men grew silent. Rose finished making up the meatballs, placing them back in the fridge to cool while she made the sauce. Angel had given her this recipe, and she loved making it.

  “Do you really think he’ll do it?” Steven asked.

  “Kill a woman?”

  “Yeah.”

  Hardy let out a sigh. “I’ve not got a clue. I don’t know what to expect when it comes to him. Ever since Gash got out of prison, he’s been hard, tough. I don’t know what he’s capable of, and to be honest, I don’t want to find out.”

  She continued to make dinner as they talked.

  “Wow, I don’t know if I could do that,” Steven said. “Take a woman’s life.”

  “Neither of us went through what he went through. We can’t force him not to. This is Gash’s life, and if he wants to fuck it up, that’s up to him.”

  “I don’t know. It seems wrong. Gash could lose the rest of his life for this. Where is the justice in that?”

  “What do you think, Rose?” Hardy asked.

  She turned around to face her man.

  My man?

  Rose didn’t know what Hardy was anymore. They were having a baby together. He’d not tried to get into her bed, and he was giving her more space than ever before. She didn’t know if she liked it or not.

  “Gash is going to do what he needs to do. I only hope he can handle the consequences of his actions. I mean, it has been what? Seven years, and he’s still fighting her.” She shrugged. “She’s still winning, and he needs to make her winning stop.”

  So is the club whore who fucked your man.

  She’s not around, and yet she’s winning all the time.

  Biting her lip, she turned back to her pasta sauce. She didn’t like the thought that had just gone through her mind.

  The rest of the night went by without event. Steven and Hardy talked about everything and nothing. She drifted off, thinking about her baby. By the time ten o’clock came she was tired and excused herself. She’d already set up the blankets for Steven. This was what she loved about being an old lady. She loved welcoming people into her home, Hardy’s brothers.

  Entering her bedroom, she went straight to her bathroom taking a quick shower. When she came out dressed in a nightshirt she found Hardy sitting on the edge of her bed. She paused, staring back at him. The air seemed to thicken with tension.