Chapter Four ~ Chasan
Chasan woke up the next morning with Kessi curled up on top of him, her sweet bruised face dreaming peacefully on his chest. He felt like he could have stayed there forever, with his arms wrapped around her, protecting her from the outside world. He had no idea what time it was, but he suddenly realized he could hear his phone buzzing in his jeans pocket on the other side of the room. He carefully untangled himself from Kessi and walked to the corner of the living to see who had been calling him.
His phone showed twelve missed called from Fenix.
“Shit,” Chasan grumbled as he slipped back into his jeans and dug around the room for his t-shirt. Once he was dressed, he scrawled out a note for Kessi telling her he’d back later, then he went out on the porch to listen to his voice. What he heard made his blood run cold. It was Fenix, and the message was short.
“Denner, it’s Marvel. We found him. Meet us at the warehouse.”
* * *
By the time Chasan got to the unregistered warehouse that Skulls used for their business, most of the other guys’ bikes were parked along the side of the building. He had a feeling he’d missed the bulk of the whatever Fenix had planned for the man who had attacked Kessi, but it certainly hadn’t been his intention. After the last week, he’d caught feelings for Kessi deeper than he’d ever imagined, and he only hoped he could release some of his own rage on that monster who had hurt her so badly.
Chasan used his key to get into the warehouse, and he found the other Skulls circled around something he couldn’t see, but he had a decent guess as to what it was. When Fenix saw the door open, he turned around and nodded at at Chasan.
“Took you long enough. We found him this morning. Turns out the Fox had security cameras, and Forty-Five recognized the guy from high school. They all went to high school with Kessi, and apparently, he had some twisted obsession with her.”
Chasan stepped through the crowd of Skulls and saw the man who had attacked Kessi. He wasn’t terribly tall or terribly strong, but he looked drugged out, and unpredictable, which is probably how they ended up here to begin with.
“What’s his name?” Chasan asked, trying to temper his anger for as long as possible.
“Leon Braum. He’s a junkie. To be honest, I thought he was dead. He isn’t exactly showing up at the reunions, is what I’m saying,” Forty-Five said with a scowl.
Chasan inched closer to Braum, and before he knew what he was doing, he’d reared his fist back and planted it square in the man’s stomach. But Braum barely budged; he just grunted and spit, clearly lost in his own drug-induced haze. Chasan was just debating whether or not there was even a point in continuing when there was a knock on the warehouse door. Fenix spun around, his knife drawn.
“Who the fuck is that? We’re all here… Denner… check it out.”
Chasan rolled his eyes and walked to the door. All of the Skulls may have been there, but they had big mouths and most of their girlfriends and wives knew about the warehouse. It wasn’t uncommon for one of them to come by at an inconvenient time. But when Chasan opened the peep hole on the door, he saw Kessi on the other side. He flung it open and snuck out.
“Kessi, what the hell are you doing here? How do you even know about this place?”
Now it was Kessi’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Fenix tells me plenty, Chasan. When you left me that note, I had a feeling that they’d found him. Who is it?’
Chasan crossed his arms and tried to look tough, but he saw the worry in Kessi’s eyes. “A guy you went to high school with. Leon Braum? Apparently he was obsessed with you?”
Kessi put her head in her hands. “Obsessed is a little strong. He was always around but I never… Jesus. Is he in there?”
Chasan nodded. He didn’t want to let Kessi inside, but he knew that she wouldn’t be deterred if she was intent. So when she pushed him aside and went in the warehouse, he didn’t even try to stop her; he only followed in behind her.
All of the Skulls turned in surprise when they saw Kessi come in, but no one made a move to stop her from approaching Leon. She seemed to look at him with pity more than anything, and it was making the Skulls, who had spent the morning beating the shit out of him, uncomfortable. Finally, Kessi broke the awkward silence.
“Fenix, does he have any charges on his record?”
Fenix shrugged, “How the hell would I know something like that, Kess? We only found him easy as we did because Forty-Five recognized him.”
Kessi scrunched up her face and turned to Forty-Five. “Don’t give me that crap, Eugene. You know if he has charges.”
Forty-Five gave her the death stare. “Kessi Dawn Lloyd, I told you, don’t you ever call… Damn it, woman. Yeah, moving product across the border, suspicion of meth production, the usual small scale stuff. But he jumped bail and now he’s in a heap load of trouble. Why?”
Kessi let out a long sigh. “I want you guys to stop this. I appreciate you wanting to kill him. I wanted to too. But this doesn’t feel… right. Can’t you just dump him in front of the police station?”
The Skulls all started looking at each awkwardly, unsure of what to do. They had planned to finish Leon off and dump him in in pieces in the ocean before Kessi even had a chance to find out, but with her standing here now, looking at them so imploringly, they didn’t feel like they could tell her no. It was her choice, and Fenix would never deny Kessi the right to make her own decision.
He walked over to Kessi and put his arms around her. “Whatever you want, Kess. Chasan, take her home. We’ll unload him tonight when the shift is light.”
Before Chasan could usher Kessi out of the room, she turned to Leon.
“If you ever hurt anyone again like you hurt me, these guys will hear about it. And I won’t be around to stop them from doing what they should have done this time. Do you understand me?”
Leon didn’t say a word. He just nodded without making eye contact. Chasan walked up and took Kessi’s hand, and lead her away from Leon, and she followed him gratefully. When they got outside, she put her arms around his waist and held him as tight as she could.
“Thank you for staying with me through all of this. I don’t know think I’m going to move past this for a while, but at least facing him helped me get a little closer.”
Chasan returned her embrace, and kissed her softly on the top of the head. “I’d like to help you get all the way the way there, if you’d let me. I know I’m just a biker bum, and things may get complicated more often than not, but I think I can be there for you. And for Hanna.”
Kessi stood up on her toes and kissed Chasan with all of her might.
“I’d like that.”