Tattoos and lipstick - Chester Bennington fan fiction

Chapter Fifteen

Mel was fully engrossed by the book she was reading. She was fortunate that her mother was also a book lover and that house had a shelf stuffed with many genres of books. Too handy, but, then again, her mother knew Mel too well and she did have a weak spot for reading ever since she was little.

The growls and disturbances coming from the kitchen startled her. 

At first, she presumed someone was in the house and attacked Chester and that is why he shouted, but when she hurried to the kitchen and noticed a glass completely shattered on the floor, she halted her pace and stared at the deranged look on Chester's face. Inspecting the kitchen, she realized no one else was there, so something must have triggered his maddening behavior.

She wondered what it was and if she would have her neck in its place if she vocalized her question.

Chester had his fists closed against the wall, a small black phone squeezed so tightly between his fingers that his knuckles were white. 

He sensed her proximity, but he didn't even turn around. 

"Romero called. Your father was released --" He mumbled, an exasperated tone staining his gruff voice. Then, after punching the wall furiously, Chester exploded. "Fuck!"

"Fuck? Why fuck? Why don't we go to him? I mean, I know he lied to me and all, but he wouldn't let anyone hurt me." Mel suggested in an innocent and angelic tone that irritated Chester, but, at the same time, melted him.

Turning around, he looked right into her eyes as he explained to her why his liberation meant bad news.

"Because your father doesn't really care about your safety. All he wants is the fucking money, nothing else... You had to be shot for him to help me find a way to protect you... Money was all that he talked about when he asked me to protect you. And even now, I don't like this... It has been too easy... There's something fishy in this fucking story... " He stopped for a moment as if he started thinking about something else and whatever it was, it annoyed him too much. Then, he approached Mel. "But I care for you, I said I'd protect you no matter what. I owe that to Lisa and I owe that to you. No one is going to lay a finger on you -- I can't care less what McCoy does next or what you think. I won't let you go back to that man."

"But he is my father - or at least he has been my whole life! And being the mafia leader is not such a bad thing right now... He has people and he wouldn't let anyone hurt me!" Mel noticed Chester's face and, being afraid of an outburst, she immediately added. "You're the best person to protect me, but he can help you."

Chester sighed in despair and looked at the ceiling, then, back at Mel. He tried to calm down the rage he was feeling at the moment, with Romero for putting him into such a situation, with Richard McCoy for fucking his daughter's life, and Mel for being such a pain in the ass.

"Look, I get it. As despicable as he is, and as much as he lied to you, Richard has always been your father... But he doesn't care about your safety as a real father should. And that will get ya killed, can't you see? Romero still thinks that there are  Berlin guys after you...  I -- something doesn't add up... And why would your father sent us here, to find the truth... I mean, why now? If this is a place only your mother and Tony knew about, that only you and they had access, why did your father sent us here? This is not right --"

"What do you mean?" Mel asked, trying to fight the stupid urge to scream and cry.

"It's just something I've been thinking about," Chester said, walking around her. He went back to the letters and all the information they retrieved from the safe box. 

Mel followed him. She wanted to talk to her father herself and have proper answers, but she also wanted it to end. And it was maddening that Chester wasn't sharing his ideas with her.