2. Hive Mind

Dominic

“You think I’m going to hurt you?” I tried to keep the growl from my voice, but I couldn’t. Everything about this girl irked the fuck out of me, for some reason. Why would I want to hurt her and why in the hell was she so scared when she sought me out? She shrugged in answer and although she tried to cower away, she didn’t physically try to get free. Now I was upset and confused. Either she was scared or she wasn’t. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to let you go and you’re not going to run, okay? You’re going to tell me what you’re doing out here and why you’re alone.”

She frantically nodded her agreement and I let her go. She kept her eyes trained on the ground and that bothered me even more.

            “How’d you get here?”

            “I walked, from the bus.”

            “Why?” The bus stop was roughly a quarter-mile from here. This wasn’t a bad neighborhood, I made sure of that when I picked the location, but the thought of her out walking at night didn’t sit right with me. Dammit, why did I even care? Why did her being here, alone, unsafe, upset me so much?

            “The gym.”

            Captain Obvious. Of course she was here for the gym. She was literally at the gym. And why was she still mumbling? “Why?”

            “I looked online. It said you have self-defense classes.”

            At no point would I have considered that to be her reason. She was asking about self-defense classes and yet she was here alone this late at night. She risked a glance at my face just as a pick-up truck pulled into the parking space in front of where we stood, the headlights blinding us before shutting off. Blinking away the spots from the glare, I groaned because I knew that as scared as she seemed, it was about to get ten times worse. I glanced back at her and saw that, impossibly, her eyes had stretched even wider than before, then narrowed slightly as her little hands clenched into fists. That told me two things. The first I already knew, she’s scared shitless. The second was a surprise. She no longer fidgeted. Her feet were planted shoulder-width apart with the right foot half a step forward. Her fists had inched forward slightly from her sides and her brow was slightly furrowed. This timid little mouse had the instincts of a fighter. They may be buried extremely deep, but they were there.

“Don’t worry. If they bother you, I’ll kick their asses.” I had no time to examine why I promised her that.

            “Seriously, we’re still on this shit?” Cade questioned as he got out the truck.

            “Get the fuck over it, Whitey-white-white. Your dick isn’t going to work. That harpy broke it, so quit being selfish and let us go to the bar to get your groupies,” Van demanded as he hopped out the passenger side.

            If I wasn’t used to them coming at me like this I’d be embarrassed. Instead, I felt the chick, whose name I realized I didn’t even know, move closer to me and fuck if that didn’t cause Junior to absolutely ooze.

            “I said I’d go home and change before meeting y’all there. Why are y’all here?”

            “We thought you were pranking us. You never volunteer to go out anymore and definitely not for a drink,” Jax answered.

            I hadn’t even realized he was in the truck, so I looked inside to make sure no one else would pop out. They were like fucking circus clowns.

            “Top of the morning to ya, sunshine,” Van said as he grinned at the chick now plastered to my side.

            Every time one of them exited the truck and spoke, she took a step closer and my body reacted. I had no control over myself and felt like a teenager busting in his pants. If I weren’t so stunned and pissed, I’d have taken the time to consider what this actually meant. Instead I could only think, “Good lord, she’s skinny.” My dick had obviously lost his mind. We could never be with her. We preferred chicks with at least a little meat on their bones. We were too fucking big for anything less. And that wasn’t us bragging. That was just logic. At 6’ 4”, 264 pounds, we needed that some padding or no one was going to enjoy anything. A chick her size couldn’t handle us. And fuck me, I’m referring to me and my dick as an us.

            “It’s nearly ten at night, shithead, not morning,” Cade countered. “Who’s this?” he asked, jerking his head in her direction.

            “Caden, Vance, Jackson,” I pointed at each one as I spoke, not even sure if she watched us or the ground, which was obviously much more interesting, “This is—” I paused. Still didn’t know her name.

            “Bai—Rochelle,” she stuttered. “My name is Rochelle.”

            “Well, that’s obviously a lie, Bai Rochelle,” Van blurted.

            World’s best friends, these guys. She dropped her gaze again, but I raised her head with a finger to the bottom of her chin. “Head up, always,” I murmured so only she could hear.

            “Holy shit! What the fuck am I seeing?” Jax demanded, eyes bugged out, voice incredulous.

            “A very shy chick, I think. What you doing here, Bai Rochelle?” Van asked.

            “She wants to take the self-defense classes,” I answered for her, not liking him teasing her. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

            “Does she realize she’s about six hours late?” Cade asked.

            She stood right here, but he was right. The self-defense classes were at two PM, some days three PM. The way we saw it, if they need to take a self-defense class, they need to do it during the daylight hours. Before I could respond, Jax piped up again.

            “I’m going to ask this again, for those not paying attention. What the fuck am I seeing here?”

            He gestured to my crotch, where there was not only an erection, but all that pre-cum? Yup, big ass wet spot. Note to self, burn all Carolina blue gym shorts. Second note to self, these fuckers could actually still embarrass me. Thankfully, she’d moved so far away from them that she was partially behind me and couldn’t see what they were all now cheering and excited about. It’s my dick. You’d think I’d be the one this hyped up, but nope, still embarrassed. Even more so because it was the direct effect of this way too skinny, and way too timid for my lifestyle chick. We’d never fucking work and therefore it was a waste of absolutely awesome bodily fluids.

            “How about we give you a ride home, make sure you get there safely and then you can come back tomorrow at two for the class?” I suggested.

            Her eyes jumped to me and I saw pure panic. I wasn’t the only one though. All the laughing and joking stopped. This chick was terrorized by something and the protector in all of us has reared its head. We may break a few hearts unintentionally, but this was something none of us would do.

            “Tell us. Tell us who put that look on your face and I promise it’ll stop,” Jax growled.

            Jax. The most laid back of all of us was already willing to hurt someone just because of the look in her eyes. Nothing got to Jax outside of the ring. He was too damn happy to get upset about anything. Yet fierceness blazed in his eyes.

            “I don’t¼you can’t¼” She stopped and exhaled a deep breath trying to calm herself, that fighter peeking out again. “I can pay you. However much it costs. It has to be at this time though. Well, nine is better, but I can push it to this late if we do half an hour only.”

            Four sets of eyes stared at her in silence. I knew my brothers and I knew we had a hive mentality in certain situations. I’d bet anything that, like me, they were searching her exposed skin for bruises. None were visible, so that meant whoever abused her kept it to body parts that she covered, especially in this colder weather. Considering the way she kept trying to make herself smaller, I wouldn’t count out mental abuse as well.

            “Rochelle,” Van said while making air quotes. Fucking asshole. “Since you came to Nico, I’m assuming you want him to teach you, but if you don’t come to the classes there’s no telling who’ll be here this late. There’s no schedule for who stays and sometimes no one stays at all past seven.”

            If she moves any closer to me things would get a lot more interesting and we’d have to test that theory about her handling my size. Madness, but I was surprisingly okay with that. She glanced up at me, but dropped her gaze too quickly for me to read the question in her eyes. Her fingers gripped my hoodie and she moved further behind me. Pretty soon I wouldn’t be able to see her. I wondered if she even realized she was touching me. Wait. She was touching me.Why was I not freaking out? I looked up and saw Cade smirking as he looked between us. Shit. What was happening right now?

            “Please don’t be mad,” she begged, her gaze flitting between Jax and Van, “you’re not big enough. I’ll call first and make sure it’s Caden or you,” she finished with a quick glance in my direction.

            Huh. She didn’t know my name, either. I kinda felt insulted. Come to think of it, she didn’t seem like she recognized any of us and that was unheard of in this area. “Dominic,” I told her.

            “Dominic,” she parroted, testing my name on her lips.

            Yup, you guessed it—pre-cum.

            “I’ll call first, if it’s one of you, I’ll come.”

            Before any of us could respond, she’d high-tailed it away, hurrying towards the bus stop and, coincidentally, the approaching bus. Hive mind in full effect, all four of us followed without prompting. Once she was safely on the bus and it trundled away, I turned and headed for my truck. Her words finally penetrated the surprise of her not knowing us. She’d said Jax and Van weren’t big enough. While Jax barely scraped the middleweight class, Van topped out at the heavier end. She’d said it had to be me or Cade, both heavyweights, meaning the bastard she feared, was a big son of a bitch.