Crash

“Brothers?” I whispered this time, letting Jude step in front of me and stay there.

“Metaphorically, baby,” the stocky boy answered. “And brothers that share everything.” Jude’s broad back was the only thing saving me from another eye raping by stocky boy. “Everything,” he repeated, telling a crass story with one word.

“Vince,” Jude said, his voice murder. “Get the hell out of here before I make you.”

Vince laughed. “I know you like yourself a little piece of ass, whether you’re kicking it or screwing it, but I doubt you’d be able to take all three of us down before we took you down.” The two other boys, who must have been twins and hygiene-impaired, stepped into the circle. “Right before we took your girl down. Each took your girl down.”

I should have been terrified. Every survival instinct inside me should have been firing at top speed. Teenage girl had nightmares about situations like this.

But I wasn’t. Whether it was Jude’s balled fists, or the fury rolling off of him, or the fact that my survival instincts took a hiatus, I felt as calm as calm could be.

“Let’s find out how that goes for you,” Jude said, his jaw set. “Come on, you dip-shits. Which one’s going to be the first one to come at me?” Curling his finger at each of them, he waited.

We waited for a while. No one, least of all the stinky twins, looked like they could come away alive, let alone walking, if they came at Jude. From the looks they were shooting at him, you would have thought he was walking death with a pair of fists that packed a powerful punch.

“We’ll leave you alone,” Vince said at last. “Let you finish up what you came here for. One last summer screw.”

Jude made a noise that sounded more animal than man. “That’s a smart move, but isn’t going to save you from catching an ass-whooping the next time I catch up with you.”

“As always, Jude, such a pleasure,” Vince said, following after the twins who were already halfway down the beach. “And a word of advice for you, girly,” he said, stepping to the side so he could look at me. When he did, a smile that was nasty by every definition of the word curled his mouth. “Make sure he uses a condom. You don’t want to catch what that man whore’s got growing down there.”

Jude’s entire body jolted forward, he wanted to chase after those guys and do who knows what to them, but he stopped. Glancing back at me, his shoulders dropped and then his arms relaxed back at his sides.

The man had been insulted in as many ways a man could be, threatened, taunted, and teased, and here he stayed. A foot in front of me. A man who I didn’t doubt could end all three in ten seconds time judging from the rage and confidence I’d witnessed in his eyes.

And he stayed behind with me. Whether to protect me in case the three stooges made a return trip or to pick up right where we’d left off, I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t care.

“Hey, Dickweed!” I yelled at any and all of the trio ambling down the beach. Not able to make out any details, I guessed from them stopping they were looking back my way. I made sure to step into the fire light so they could get my full message. Raising my middle finger, I yelled, “There’s plenty of this to share!”

“What the hell are you doing, Luce?” Jude hissed, pulling me behind him again. I didn’t take Jude for the chivalrous type, but I liked it, more than any woman of the twenty-first century should.

“Not even a fraction of what I’d like to,” I said, as the only reply the three gave me was a chorus of laughter.

“Listen, I dig your spunk and your take no prisoners attitude, I do,” Jude said, turning to face me, “but you don’t mess with people like this.”

“People like this or brothers like this?” I said, so much nervous energy bouncing out of me from the highs and lows of the past ten minutes I didn’t know what to do with it.

Jude sighed.

“Those are your brothers?” I actually said a quick prayer it wasn’t true.

“In a way,” he replied, closing his eyes.

“In what way?”

Opening his eyes, he reached for my hand. “In the way that doesn’t matter.”

“Then screw them,” I said, letting him take my hand when I knew I shouldn’t have before I had some clarification as to who or what he was. “I should have flipped them off again. They’re all bark.”

“No,” he said firmly. “Please, Luce. These are the kind of bastards that have no bark. They sink their teeth into you without any damn warning.” Grabbing my arms, he pulled me close, looking at me like he could force his words to absorb. “Don’t mess with them. If you see them coming down the sidewalk, cross the street.”

This earned an eye-roll from me. Surely he was exaggerating. I didn’t doubt the doofus triplets had done their fair share of pot and defacing public property, but they weren’t ballsy enough to do the stuff that would earn them hard time if they were caught. Coward was stamped across every one of their foreheads.

“Shit, Luce,” Jude said, crossing his arms behind his neck and spinning towards the beach. “This is exactly the reason I told you to stay away. So you didn’t find yourself eyeballs deep in my shitty life.”

Now his words of caution were starting to make sense. Why he said I should stay away from him if I was smart.

The thing was, if staying away from him made me unsmart, I never wanted to be smart again.