Chapter 37
Sean swallowed hard as he slowly stalked into the house he once called home. The sentries stationed outside let him pass without incident, and as he walked past Legion, he tried not to stare or even glance in the big man’s direction.
It was not that he was uncomfortable with injury. Years of combat experience had created an iron constitution within him. He understood battle injuries, scars, mutilations, and the like. But Legion’s sorry state seemed like a foreshadowing of what was to come in his immediate future.
As he crossed the threshold, the smell of the space consumed him. He could recall a time when the house always smelled of fresh flowers. Deb had always taken care of the house with such precision and care. Now it smelled of rot and sweat and spilled alcohol.
Chainz was where he always was, of course.
He barely left his makeshift throne in what was once their living room.
Sean had fallen asleep in front of the TV in that space.
Jimmy had lain on the floor as he learned to crawl, roll, and walk in there.
He and Deb had snuggled together in front of the fireplace during the winter, a precursor to other, much happier activities.
There was a fire burning in the hearth as he walked in, and the curtains were drawn shut. It created an eerie glow that cut through the darkness, nearly silhouetting Chainz’s massive form as he sat heavily at the far end of the room.
Jessie was, as always, at his side. Maverick would normally take his place on the other side of that seat of power, but Sean knew that would never be again. All because of Vin… All because of his failure to kill Vin when he had the chance.
“Sean,” Chainz said as he slowly walked into the room.
Chainz had a way of saying Sean’s name that always made his blood run cold.
It was slow and low and drawn out. There was a manufactured fondness in it that Sean always saw right through.
When Chainz was calm or even amused, it was almost more terrifying than when he was angry. Almost. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you,” Sean said after clearing his throat. He was trying to show strength. He couldn’t portray any sign of remorse or guilt when he relayed the disaster of this mission to Chainz. That would be an admission of fault, and Sean knew that was as good as signing his own death warrant.
“I hope you’re bringing me back some good news,” Chainz said, and Sean could see the metal grill that covered his top teeth shine in the firelight.
“Well,” Sean said, trying to find something, anything positive he could say before going into the horrible turn of events that unfolded. “The message was delivered as instructed. The Natives have their notice to vacate, and they know they’ve got five days to get out.”
“Good,” Chainz said, drawing the word out. He was mostly still and relaxed in his chair, lounging as he looked Sean up and down.
His eyes were pinpoints of light pushing through the shadows. Sean thought that it resembled the red, hungry eyes of a predator in a cartoon show, right when the main character is about to be pounced on.
“So, they’re gonna go then?”
Sean paused, swallowing hard. “No,” he said, speaking the word quickly and pulling off the band-aid. “They refused to leave.”
“Did they now?” Chainz asked, still not sounding shocked.
Sean let out a breath of relief. He had worried that Chainz would hit the roof when told this news, and then his anger would only grow steadily from there.
“Well, that’s a dumbass move on their part. I assume you let them know what’s gonna happen in five days?”
“I did,” Sean said. “They got the message.”
“Did they?” Chainz asked, and suddenly the room was still and quiet. Even the sounds of Chainz and his soldiers' breathing seemed to melt away. The way he posed the question, it was as though he already knew the answer to it.
“Yes,” Sean replied, keeping his voice level and trying to stop his knees from knocking comically together in abject terror. “I delivered the message personally.”
“What did they say?” Chainz asked, still sounding remarkably patient but also giving the sense that he was leading Sean down a path he already knew.
“A lot of what you’d expect,” Sean replied, trying to push those thoughts from his head and keep on going as though everything was normal. “It was a lot of ‘Please, no,’ and ‘you can’t do that’ stuff.”
Chainz sat up, both of his boots heavily hitting the floor.
He placed his elbows on his kneel, linking his fingers together.
The crime lord rested his chin against his hands and leaned forward, his face pushed farther into the light.
Sean could see Chainz’s eyes narrow at him, his nostrils flaring and lip slightly curling as though a simmering rage were building within his skin, barely containable as it rose to a boil.
“And then what happened?” Chainz asked, his voice dropping nearly an octave to a dangerous level as if he were so enraged that his anger had collapsed in on itself and come all the way around to calm.
Sean swallowed a lump in his throat. “It sounds like you might know already,” Sean said, no longer able to stop his voice from shaking.
“I wanna hear you say it,” Chainz said, still quiet but with an undeniable quiver of anger shaking his lips. “I want you to say it to my face.”
Sean nodded and tried to open his mouth, but it was as though his lips were sewn shut.
Sean had always prided himself on his bravery.
He had seen so much in his life, experienced so many horrors.
But there was more than just his personal safety on the line here.
When you had nothing to lose, as he did during his service days, putting your life on the line was so much easier.
But now he had a family; he had something of a home to protect.
The idea of losing all of that and putting the ones he loved in danger terrified him.
But he wasn’t about to beg for his life.
He wasn’t about to run screaming from the house in hopes of finding safety.
He had to be a man, look Chainz in the eye, and say what needed to be said.
“Vin is alive and with the Natives,” he said. “He fought Maverick one on one and killed him. Then the Natives drew on us, and we had to retreat.”
Chainz roared in a fury and leaped up from his chair, his mammoth fist striking Sean hard in the sternum. It was as though he had been hit by a car. Sean fell back off his feet, slamming into the old wood of the living room floor and rolling as he tried to get his breath back.
Chainz was on him almost instantly, grabbing him by the front of the shirt and wrenching him up to his knees before slamming a meaty fist into the side of his head. Sean smacked back into the floor, his head bouncing off of it like a ball as the entire room spun through his disorientation.
“You stupid fucking son of a bitch!” Chainz roared, kicking one of his huge leather boots into Sean’s torso.
He tried to roll away, to rise back up to his knees, but he had never been hit this hard in his life.
That wasn’t to say Sean hadn’t been hit a lot.
From the earliest days of his youth, he had been absorbing blows from tough guys and street thugs.
In the service, he had his fair share of scraps that ended with him getting bruised up.
But no one he had ever faced had anywhere near the devastating striking power of Chainz.
He grabbed Sean again and tossed him effortlessly back into the living room. He rolled back to the base of Chainz’s seat of power and looked up at the silhouetted figures of Chain Gang members as they leered down at him.
He recognized a few of the men in that room as some of the party who accompanied him to the reservation. No doubt, while he had been taking the long way to the house, they had run right here to rat him out to the big boss.
Sean turned onto his back, but before he could move, Chainz stomped down on his chest. It hurt, but he wasn’t pushing with enough force to injure. Instead, he pressed Sean into the floor to hold him in place. Chainz seethed down at him.
“You told me he was dead!” he screamed down at Sean.
“Dead! Dead! Dead! That was our deal! That’s what you promised me!
I help you rescue your wife and kid, and you kill Vin when it’s all over!
Now, not only is the fucking prick still alive, but he killed one of my top men, and he’s mobilizing an entire group of people against us! Do I have all that right, Sean?”
Sean pushed up on the massive boot as it pressed him to the floor. He tried to speak, but he was having a hard time pulling in enough air to make sounds come out. Instead, he simply nodded his aching head.
“You fucked up big time, asshole,” Chainz sneered down at him, a long strand of saliva falling from his lips, hitting Sean in the face and mixing with the trails of blood that were running there. “I don’t let people fail me and live!”
Chainz removed his boot from Sean’s chest, but there was no relief to be found. Instead, the crime lord turned community leader stood over Sean, hunched over, and started raining punches down onto his prone body.
Sean tried to cover up as best he could, protecting his throat and face with both arms. But it felt like he was caught in a rockslide, as fists smashed into him over and over again like boulders falling from on high.
Chainz continued to thrash him for a full minute, stopping and straightening up to stretch his back.
Sean took this chance to try to push himself back on his arms, but Chainz saw this and reached down, grabbing him by the throat.
Sean felt both of Chainz’s hands close around his neck and took a huge intake of breath before they closed off his windpipe.
Chainz wasn’t talking any longer; he was simply too enraged to speak.
His mouth was trembling with the strain of abject hatred as he increased the pressure on Sean’s throat with every passing second.
The world started to blur around Sean, and his lungs burned for air. His dying mind started to wonder whether the sight of Chainz’s infuriated glare was going to be the last thing he ever saw.
It was then that a new sound cut through the air.
“Chainz, stop,” a voice called out, and a small hand appeared on Chainz’s shoulder. The big man’s head snapped to the side, his grip loosening just enough that Sean was able to draw an infinitesimal bit of air back into his lungs.
Jessie appeared next to Chainz. It had been her voice and her hand that had caused this momentary reprieve.
“Why should I?” Chainz growled at her, and Sean realized she had a lot more power in this relationship than he realized. Had anyone else in the entire world tried to stop Chainz while he was going berserk like this, he would have lashed out and made them pay for such a horrid transgression.
But Jessie was able to give him pause and make him question his decisions. That meant Chainz actually cared for her and respected her. That was information Sean might need in the future…if he had a future.
“We need him to keep the ranch people in line,” Jessie said, looking at Chainz seriously.
“They’ll fall in line out of fear,” he replied, his grip suddenly tightening.
“Is that a chance we should take with Vin out there possibly leading people against us?” Jessie asked. “Do we want an attack from two fronts?”
Chainz returned his gaze to Sean again, and that look of unbridled rage returned, as though the sight of Sean in the wake of his great failure was overcoming all of the logic that Jessie was pushing into his brain.
Sean felt that horrible strength return to his windpipe before Chainz made a pained face as though fighting with his own mind.
He suddenly and harshly threw Sean to the floor, letting go with both hands. Sean slammed hard into the living room floor once again, but the pain of that impact was overshadowed by the relief he felt at being able to breathe fully once again.
He gasped in air, but the movement made his throat ache. He was sure his face was going to be a mess of swelling and bruises, and he’d have imprints of Chainz’s sausage-like fingers on his throat for the foreseeable future.
“Sean, you made this mess, and you’re gonna clean it up,” Chainz said, stalking back to his seat and sitting down with a heavy thump. “Vin is your responsibility, and every bit of grief he gives me is coming out of your ass.”
Sean nodded in understanding, coughing up a wad of blood, which he caught in his hand. The floor was already filthy, but Sean didn’t want to risk offending Chainz again but dirtying it further.
“Now get the fuck out of my sight,” Chainz growled. “I got an operation to plan.”
Sean crawled away from Chainz until he was able to stumble up under his own power again.
He pushed his way through the front door, stumbling past Legion and falling down the porch stairs.
He looked up at the bodyguard, whose face bore similar markings to what was likely covering Sean’s at that moment.
Legion said nothing, which came as no surprise.
But his hard and harsh stoic demeanor seemed to soften for just a moment, and Sean thought he could see something resembling pity or compassion in his face.
But that wasn’t important right now. Sean had a problem that needed to be fixed.
Vin needed to die if Sean was going to keep on living.