Page 58 of Gash

“It’s addressed to you,”she said, looking at Gash.She waited until Gash was beside herbefore she glanced over at Jeff.“The countdown on the, erm, thebomb, gave him twenty more minutes.”

“You don’t need to whisper.Iknow I’m a dead man.I’m just surprised you’re not beating the shitout of me, Charlotte.After all, I did take your kid, and put youin a hospital.”Jeff laughed.“You should have seen her go crazy.It took a lot of surgery to repair the damage you did to myface.”

“What the fuck did yousay?”Gashasked.

Charlotte saw through Jeff’s act.He wasterrified.

“She was knocked up withyour kid, and taking it out of her was a damn pleasure.I wasordered to do it, which I thought was harsh, but it was fuckingawesome.”

“Who ordered you to doit?”

“Master again.”

She listened to Gash and Jeff talk.All the time, she looked around the apartment, wondering what thehell was going on.

“Who is Master?”Charlotteasked.

Gash gritted his teeth.

Jeff laughed.“No one fucking knowswho he is.He’s a mythical being.”

“What is goingon?”

“Tell her,Gash.”

“You don’t fucking talk toher,” Gash said.

“I’m dead anyway.It doesn’tmatter.”

“He wants you to kill him,”Charlotte said.“I guess getting your throat slit is much betterthan being blown to bits, right?”

Jeff growled, disgust clear on hisface.

“Why Gash?Why him?”Charlotteasked.She looked at Jeff as he stared at her.“Why me?”This wasone big vendetta against Gash, and she hadn’t seen it before thatmoment.She looked toward Gash.“Do you know who Masteris?”

“I’ve not got a clue,” Gashsaid.“He’s a ghost.No one knows who he is, or what he does.He’snot known.”

“Do you knowhim?”

Jeff snorted.“No one knows him.Mastermakes sure you know what he wants you to know, and you do what hetells you to do.”

“What happened seven yearsago?”

He shook his head, and Charlottefolded her arms.“Why not tell us?You’re going to dieanyway.”

“Look, all I know is thatthere was a letter with five grand cash, a list of instructions anda promise of more.I did what was said in the instructions, moremoney was presented to me.”

“Where does Rebecca comein?”

“She was given the same deal.Cash for jobs, and we met up, hit it off, and we decided to sharethe bounty that this job would take in.The object was to take downGash, the member of The Skulls.No reason was given, justinstructions on what to do, when to do it, and that he had toremain alive.”

“What about me?”

“You weren’t part of the planuntil you were discovered to be pregnant.My boss didn’t believeyou’d be any real threat.You were fat, and Gash wasn’t known forliking fat women.You were not expected, so you had to be takencare of.Also,hethought it would be fun to see what happened between youand Gash when he discovered the truth.”

“And my unbornchild?”

“We were there.We saw you touchyour stomach and say Gash’s name.Once you were out of it with thedrugs, we got in touch with Master, and he told us the baby had togo regardless of who it was.Master wanted you out of the way butnot dead.”

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