BRUISED

Chapter One ~ Kessi

 

It was a typical night at the Screaming Fox in Newbury, California. The beer was flowing, Johnny Cash and Pantera were alternating on the juke box, and the Spider Skull Motorcycle Club had taken over the majority of the bar. Kessi Lloyd had been tending bar at the Fox since she turned twenty-one, and despite the often raucous nature of the Skulls and their friends, she loved her job. The bikers were good to her, and in the three years that she’d been working there, their tips had made it possible to support her daughter Hanna all by herself.

 

Kessi had gotten pregnant with Hanna right out of high school, which meant her plans for attending college in Boston were but on hold indefinitely. Her boyfriend, Peter, had wanted nothing to do with a baby, and he left them both to NYU to study acting. The last she’d heard; he was a waiter at the Olive Garden in Times Square.

 

Hanna was six now, and she was the sweetest, kindest litter girl Kessi had ever known. Working nights meant Kessi’s best friend, Marnie, would stay over every night while Hanna slept, but considering the money Kessi brought home after a shift, it was worth it. She’d get home in time to send Hanna off to school, and then sleep until she got off the bus. Being a single-mom wasn’t always easy, but she was lucky to have Marnie, and a job she loved, which was more than a lot of moms in her position could ask for.

 

It was 2:45am, which meant last call at the Screaming Fox. Kessi called out to the guys to get up to the bar if they wanted anything before she started cleaning and restocking. The Skull’s leader, Fenix Marvel, strode up to the bar with a giant grin on his face. He couldn’t have been more than fifty, but he wore the fact that he looked about twenty years older than that as a badge of pride. He had long white hair and grey, handlebar mustache, with thick black brows that set above his cheery blue eyes. But damn, if you looked at him the right light, you could see what a sexy man he’d been in his youth, and he still bore traces of that man when he smiled. The women who had lived in the mountain town of Newbury still talked about what a beauty Fenix was, and he was never for want of someone in his bed.

 

But Kessi, well, he treated her like a daughter. She’d invited him over last Christmas, and he’d shown up with a giant bag full of gifts for her and Hanna like a leather-clad Santa Claus. She knew that the Skulls got in their fair share of trouble, but the truth was, as long as she wasn’t involved in it, she preferred to pretend it wasn’t happening. They were her family, and tough guys or not, they took care of her.

 

“Kessi, my girl, get my boys a round of whiskey. Top shelf. We have a new man joining us and we need to celebrate him getting his patch.”

 

Kessi pulled down a bottle of 18-year-old Jameson, knowing that Fenix spared no expense when they brought in new members. She poured twelve shots for the all of the guys, then one for herself, which she rarely did but she knew that Fenix would be hurt if she didn’t join in the celebration.

 

Fenix took the tray from her and gestured for her to come to the table where the boys were gathered. “Come on, Kess. I want you to meet Chasan Denner, our new guy down from Oregon. He’s actually Irish or English or… something. I don’t know, he can tell you.”

 

Kessi chuckled as she jumped over the bar and made her way to the table where the skulls where laughing and initiating their new guy into circle with stories of heists and bar fights that Kessi pretended not to hear. Fenix was just about to initiate the introductions, when she caught eyes with Chasan, the only man at the table she didn’t know, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

 

Kessi had never seen anyone who looked like him before, and she had seen a lot of men come through the Fox. He wasn’t terribly tall, but he was muscular, and broad, with strong arms covered in intricate and beautiful tattoos of all kinds. His hair was dirty blonde, but his scruffy beard was a shade lighter, and his blue-green eyes sparkled like ocean outside the bar. His lips were full and lovely, and his ears stuck out just enough that it gave him a boyish look, which made Kessi melt. Chasan smiled at her, and his eyes crinkled with mischief. It made her want to dive over the table and kiss him stupid.

 

Luckily, Fenix didn’t notice anything; he was too busy handing out shots. “Fellows! A shot for our new man, Chasan Denner! Pretty boy he may be; I think he will make a great addition to the Skulls.”

 

Kessi grabbed the shot off the tray and swallowed it down a gulp quicker than any of the bikers of the table. She was just trying to calm her nerves, but they were all staring at her in awe, impressed at her ability to handle her liquor. Fenix just laughed.

 

“Denner, this is Kessi Lloyd. She’s been the bartender at the Screaming Fox for three years, and she’s basically one of us. Be good to her, my boy.”

 

Chasan nodded with another cheeky smile, and when he spoke, his voice had a hint of a Cockney accent, though it was clear he’d been in the States for a while. “It’s nice to meet you, Kessi. Thank you for taking such excellent care of us tonight.”

 

Kessi regretting not sitting down, because her legs turned to jelly in an instant.

 

“Nice to meet you, Chasan. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you a lot in the future,” she said, trying to sound less smitten than she was feeling. Get involved with one of the Skulls wasn’t a great idea, but the way Chasan was looking at her… it was making her that logical might not be the way to go this time. Kessi hated to kick them out; she could have looked at Chasan all night. But if she didn’t start cleaning up and get the bar shut down soon, she’d never be home in time to get Hanna ready for school.

 

“Well, fellas, I hate to rush you out, but it’s about that time. And Dean already scratched for the night, so I have to close down myself.”

 

The guys starting offering to help, but she turned them down and hustled them out the door, but not before Fenix gave her a kiss on the top of the head. “Are you sure you don’t need any help, baby girl?”

 

Kessi gave him a gentle shove out of the door.

 

“I got this, Fenix. Go get some sleep. Hanna will be up soon and I’ve got a lot to get done here before heading out.”

 

Fenix nodded as he headed to his bike and waved at her as he sped off down the road outside the bar. With a laugh and an exaggerated wipe of the sweat off her brow as she thought of Chasan and those sparkling eyes, Kessi made her way back into the bar to start her nightly ritual to close down the bar.

 

* * *

 

The sun was just starting to creep over the horizon as Kessi locked up the Fox and made her way to her car. She felt a sick churning in her stomach that she couldn’t quite explain, but she tried to push it out of her mind as she starting cataloguing everything Hanna needed to take to school in a few hours. She was almost at her car when she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, and then everything went white. When she hit the ground, the thud echoed in her ears, and the feel of gravel on her skin was like a thousand tiny knives, digging into her flesh.

 

Kessi rolled on to her back and tried to open her eyes, but a hand flashed across her cheek, sending another shock of pain through her skull so blinding, she couldn’t catch a breath. She tried to reach for her purse; Fenix had given her a knife a few years ago just in case something like this ever happened. And yet here she was, her bag out of reach, and a body on top of her, pinning her to ground.

 

It was a man, of that she was sure; he had his forearm jammed in her neck, making it hard for her to breathe. Every time she opened her mouth to scream, a fist came crashing down on her face, or into her side. Kessi tried to open her eyes and catch sight of the man who was attacking her, but all she could see was a red bandana and a scar across his right eye before his gruff voice yelled at her to shut her eyes again.

 

As the man began tugging at her jeans, something in Kessi’s head snapped. She wasn’t about to be sexually assaulted outside the bar mere hours after the Skulls had left; she had to do something, fight back somehow. With every ounce of her energy, she jerked her leg up and nailed him as hard as she could between the legs, sending him screaming and flying off of her, on to the ground.

 

Kessi scrambled to her knees and grabbed for her bag, digging as quickly as she could for her keys while the man groaned and whined on the pavement. Once she found her keys, she jumped into her car and sped out of the parking lot, hands shaking, and made her way back to her house. Calling the cops wasn’t an option, because they’d just assume it was somehow related to the Skulls and their business. No one would help.

 

As she pulled in to her driveway, her eyes beginning to swell, she gingerly set her head down on the steering wheel and fought not to cry.

 

What do I do now? she thought as the lights began to turn on inside of the house.