There was a loud and urgent knock coming from the front door causing me to look up from my glass of whiskey that I had been swirling around in the glass I held.
I sighed and put my glass down on the coffee table in front of me, standing up and stretching my legs before wandering over to the door as the knocking continued to grow louder.
Whoever it was better have a good enough excuse to be causing me such a fucking headache.
I reached out my right hand taking hold of the door handle and swiftly opened it with impatience.
"What.." I nearly shouted but the scene in front of me stopped me in my tracks.
Stephan stood there with his head down, his hair messed up with cuts and bruises covering almost his entire face. It was then that I realized he was also silently crying with his face screwed up in pain and the poor lad was also shaking like a leaf.
"Stephan what..." I started but decided to bring him in doors first. I grabbed a hold of his arms and steered him into the house closing the door behind us. He winced in pain and tried to wriggle out of my grasp letting out a low whimper from the back of his throat.
I quickly let go of his arms in case anything was broken and grabbed his face forcing him to look at me.
"Stephan what happened huh?" I asked anxiously while scanning his face and stroking a stray hair behind his ear. Whoever did this was going to seriously fucking regret it.
Instead of answering he just shook his head averting his eyes away from my concerned face while continuing to silently cry and sniffling now and then.
I quickly scanned my eyes over his shaking body looking for any visible serious injuries but he was still wearing his Chez Chez uniform and hoodie which covered any possible ones from view. So, this couldn't have happened long ago then as Chez Chez had only closed less than an hour ago and everyone had made their way home.
I looked back at his bloodied and tearful face with my hands still lingering there, I then gently took a hold of his shoulders turning him around and then placing my hands on his arms again to direct him to the couch while taking care not to accidentally jar any hidden injuries.
"Ok, come on then." I whispered to him sitting him down on the couch. He immediately laid down curling into a ball on the sofa and buried his face into the cushions and started to cry harder.
"Hey, Stephan, hey, your ok." I said while stroking his hair back and trying to get a look at his face but to no avail as he attempted to brush off my efforts to look him over.
I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked up to see Cheryl who was getting ready for a night out with Lynsey. She strode into the kitchen ready to open the fridge until she noticed her surroundings and realized something was going on.
"Whats happened?" she asked in a hurry making her way to Stephan's side kneeling down next to me. She reached out her hand and placed it on Stephan's shaking shoulders.
"I don't know, get me something to clean him up will ya?" I said looking back down at Stephan who had begun to quieten down a bit now. I silently cursed that we didn't have a med kit in the house which right now would have come in damn right handy.
"Sure, your ok love" She said to Stephan before getting up and running up the stairs to fetch supplies from the bathroom.
I lifted his head in my hands stroking back his fringe making him open his wounded looking eyes that made my heart sink. It suddenly reminded me of the time that I had hit him and how wounded he looked then and I felt a pang of guilt making myself feel sick and ashamed of myself of what I had once done to him.
He seemed to come to his senses and began to slowly sit up with my help as he wiped at his tired sore looking eyes and looked at me apologizing.
"It's okay I said tapping him on the cheek and scanned my eyes over his bloodied face again, most of it looked to be dried now but the bruises would surely leave their mark.
"Who did this Stephan?" I asked but I never received an answer as Cheryl came running down the stairs with a small jug of water and cloth in her hands which she placed on the coffee table glancing at Stephan in concern as I took a seat next to him.
"Ste, what happened love?" she asked kneeling on the floor in front of him and letting her hand stray down to his knee.
"Nothing.." He replied his voice low and quiet. His responce made me slightly agitated with him and I began to turn the chewing gum around in my mouth which I usually did when either bored or agitated. All we wanted to do was to fucking help him for fucks sake.
"Should I cancel with Lynsey, maybe I could get her to come and see to him?" She asked turning to look at me with obvious pain for Stephan or maybe it was pity in her eyes.
"No, go I'll take him to hospital if I need to. You go right ahead." I replied as I knew Stephan was hiding something from me.
"You sure love? It's no bother really." She answered making me glance from Stephan who was still avoiding our eye contact back to Cheryl. At times like this Cheryl could really be hard to get rid of...
"No, go head sis I'll take care of him." At this Cheryl got up giving Stephan I small smile and a last pat on the knee.
"Ok love but keep me updated?" With a nod from me she gave a last glance and a goodbye to Stephan then she was off and out the door with a small thud off to meet up with Lynsey.
I turned to Stephan reaching out to unzip his Chez Chez hoodie so that I could have a better look at the poor lad who was still shaking on the spot with his eyes downcast.
"What yer doing!" He yelled jerking out of my reach while trying to hide a wince.
"I just want to check you over, okay?" I said lowering my voice in case I startled him.
"Well I don't need it ok, I can do it myself." He snapped while slowly unzipping his hoodie with shaky fingers but he didn't take it off.
Oh so thats how it was going to be was it. I try to help him and he snaps at me as if it's my fault. I found myself snapping back at him in return.
"I'm just trying to help you Stephan. now take yer hoodie off will you?" I snapped my agitation growing.
He sighed in defeat and shrugged out of his hoodie with a bit of difficulty revealing a few bruises on his right arm which I reached for to examine.
"It's fine Brendan." He said annoyed trying to yet again jerk out of my reach.
"Sit still Stephan." I was starting to really get impatient with the lad as I quickly felt his arm where the deepest bruises where making him flinch but otherwise not yell out which I took as a good sign.
"Hurt anywhere else, huh?" I asked scanning his face in case he tried to lie to me.
He shook his head, his hair was still stood on end and he looked completely miserable. I decided to try and clean him up a bit taking the cloth from the coffee table and dabbing a corner of it into the water that Cheryl left there. I then slowly reached out to turn his face towards me and was surprised to find that he let me.
I began with the cut on his lip which was mostly dried blood wiping it away to have a better look. He winced every now and then sometimes trying to pull his face away as I cleaned up the other cuts a long his face making me get a tighter hold on his chin until he stopped squirming.
"OK, don't lie to me Stephan. Who did this to you?" I attempted to ask again since Cheryl wasn't here anymore to distract Stephan from answering me.
"No one" He said letting his voice drop.
"Stephan, for fucks sake, I said don't lie to me." I think I scared him a little bit because his next reply came out very fast.
"I fell." He whispered but I could tell he was lying.
"Look at me. Tell me, they won't get away with it ok?" I said as I forced him to look at me.
He started to cry again so I placed the cloth back onto the coffee table and brought him to my chest letting my arms circle around him, one hand smoothing the back of his hair down.
"Shhh." I tried to comfort him as best I could until his sobs died down and he said something inaudible.
"What?" I asked while pushing him away until he was at arms length.
"Warren" He said with a shaky voice and my face dropped. That fucking bastard. He wouldn't get away with this, if only the fucker had known the reason I had killed Danny he wouldn't think he was so fucking clever.
Now I knew why he wouldn't talk in front of Cheryl as she would probably blow up in his face despite the evidence in front of her face.
As I brought Stephan close to me again all I could think of was how I could get back at Warren and how in the mean time I could protect Stephan from him as Warren now owned half of the club.
This was going to be one hell of a week in store for us all and I clenched my teeth in pure hatred of that bastard Warren Fox. First he kills his girlfriend, dies, comes back from the dead, dates my sister, blackmails me into owning half the club and then beats up Stephan. Oh yes he was going to pay alright...he was really going to pay.