Chapter 2 Brutus
brUTUS
“Just one more bite for me, sweet girl.”
“Oh fuck. Gee. Please.”
“Right there, right there, right there. So close. Shit.”
“I missed you so much.”
“Missed you, too, princess.”
“Ranger! You sneaky little snake!”
Cooking dinner was a breeze. Got me out of my head for a little bit, too.
I threw together some pasta, some alfredo sauce, roasted off fresh vegetables and some chorizo.
Nothing fancy, just a simple pasta meal they could all scoop into a bowl and take back to their partners.
The smell still lingered through the air while I patrolled the safehouse, keeping an ear out and doing a mental tally of everyone that I could hear.
I tried not to let all of the sounds get to me.
Some sounds were better left not talked about.
But listening to my brothers comfort their women made it painfully obvious how shitty I was at crafting those kinds of relationships.
Women were either afraid of me or not interested at all.
I didn’t talk much. I loomed more than anything else.
Darkness suited me better than the light.
And in this day and age, with the rise of violence against women more popular than ever, most just crossed the street when they saw me coming.
I couldn’t blame them, either.
I wasn’t very big on smiles.
Or so I’d been told.
After walking the outer perimeter of the safehouse twice, I slipped inside.
The only people I couldn’t find were Anna, King, and that woman, but I didn’t have to look far to figure out where they were.
I slipped inside through the back door, making my way toward the kitchen.
And as I stood in the shadows of the doorway, I saw Anna standing there, leaning against the kitchen countertop with her arms crossed over that massive chest of hers.
Honest to God, I didn’t know how she kept herself upright.
I followed her line of sight, mostly because she had this little smirk on her face that she usually got before she stuffed her face with pickles and chased after me.
I wanted to know who the unlucky bastard was that was in her line of sight.
But a whimper tugged at my attention, and when I whipped my gaze to the other side of the kitchen, I found what she was staring at.
King, with a fork in his hand, holding some food up to that woman’s mouth that I tugged out of that cage.
She kept looking at the food like I laced it.
“Just one bite,” King encouraged with a voice I never heard him use before.
My gaze flickered back to Anna, and her smile simply grew.
“You first,” the woman said ever so softly.
My attention snapped back to her and I watched as King did what she asked without hesitation.
He took a bite of the food, chewing slowly, and I watched her while she watched him.
The fear in her face was evident. The way she curled into herself, tucking herself back against the chair, was enough for me to know to stay in the darkness.
I didn’t want to scare her any more than she was.
“See?” King asked as he opened his mouth and showed her that he had swallowed. “All gone. Now, will you let me show you that we’re here to help?” He took another stab at the pasta dish and held a bite up to her lips. “Just one bite. If you don’t like it, I’ll get you something else.”
Anna moved in the corner of my eye, and when I turned my attention again, I saw her smile damn near reach her fucking ears.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her smile like that.
It relaxed her face in a way I hadn’t clocked yet.
She always seemed too spun up. So focused on keeping everyone at a safe distance that she never let anyone actually see her.
Or maybe she just really enjoyed tormenting me with pickles.
My nose curled at the thought.
Hate those fucking things.
I must’ve gotten lost in my head, because when my gaze focused back on the scene, I was still staring at Anna.
Only this time, she turned her attention toward me.
My stare focused on her face and she stuck her tongue out at me. That little button nose of hers wrinkled up, and that neck tattoo of hers jumped as she tilted her head side to side like a petulant toddler. I snickered and shook my head softly before I decided I was ready for some food of my own.
But when I stepped out from the shadows, I heard a gasp.
The woman King was feeding jumped in her seat.
King whipped his head over his shoulder before clocking me, and then he went back to stabbing the food he had in the bowl in his palm.
“It’s okay, it’s just Brutus. He’s the one that pulled you out of that cage.”
I just lifted my hand to her. “Hello.”
The woman watched me warily before she flinched at my voice.
I fucking hated it when women flinched at my voice.
“Just getting some food,” I muttered as I reached for the kitchen cabinet.
“You don’t need to be afraid of him or anything,” Anna said as I reached for a bowl over her head, “he’s really just a big ol’ teddy bear deep down inside.”
I shot her a look as I palmed the bowl and pulled it from the cabinet.
She just thwacked me with my hand in my abs, though.
“See? Teddy bear,” she said with a cheeky smile on her face.
“This teddy bear will crush you,” I mumbled as I pointed. “You’re in front of the silverware.”
She giggled as she pushed off the countertop. “Not big on manners, though. Don’t expect him to thank you for anything.”
My face fell flat as I stared at her. “Really?”
She beamed up at me with pride. “Really.”
I was painfully aware of the set of eyes on my back.
My entire life, people always thought I was older than I looked.
I was almost six feet tall by the time I was thirteen, and it only got worse from there.
The instant my voice dropped, I was no longer a child.
I was expected to act the age everyone thought I was, and I found out it was easier to be quiet than it was to be heard.
I grumbled to myself as I plucked a fork from the silverware drawer.
I walked over to the pot of food and served myself.
“You want a drink, Bee?” Anna asked.
I heard the fridge door open as I reached for a napkin. “Water’s fine.”
“We’ve got pickles in here if you—”
“Good God, you and your fuckin’—no pickles!” I said with a chuckle behind my voice.
But I heard a chair scraping across the floor before another gasp sounded.
“Brutus, come on, man,” King said as I felt my shoulders slump a bit. “Can’t you keep it down while she’s in here? You know your voice booms.”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” the woman whispered in a shaky voice, “it’s okay. He’s okay.”
“You’re all right,” I heard King say softly before there was shuffling behind me. “You’re okay. You’re good. Come on, you’ve eaten enough. I’m sure Doc will be satisfied.”
I retreated back into myself as I turned to Anna.
She had a look on her face that I didn’t care to decipher as she held the bottle of water out for me.
I simply nodded my head as I took it from her, and then three big strides had me back in the darkness of the hallway that connected itself to the kitchen.
I watched King stride out of the room with that woman in his arms.
“Brutus,” Anna said.
I ignored her as I continued out of the kitchen.
“Bee!” she exclaimed behind me.
My patrol was done, and I was ready to get out of the light. It was always better if I simply stayed away. Kept to the darkness. I didn’t frighten as many people that way. We had another vulnerable woman in the safehouse. I needed to get back to business as usual.
I wondered if business would ever be usual again.
Anna’s voice fell into the background as I weaved my way to the room at the back.
With most everyone being toward the front of the safehouse, it left the back end of it a little too unguarded for my taste.
So I wove through the slim hallways that my shoulders practically scraped against as I kept my footsteps light.
Everyone thought I was insane because I wanted stealth training during my military days.
It served me well, though. I wanted to think it made me less intimidating.
Maybe even a little more approachable. At the time, I thought, ‘Hey, I could offset my size by being light on my feet.’ You know, tip the scales in my favor a bit.
Though I found as I grew up, that was rarely the case.
My silence usually made me seem all the more intimidating.
I stopped fighting the stereotype after a while.
There were better uses of my energy growing up.
“Brutus!” Anna called out down the hallway.
I shouldered my way into my room, lost in my haze of thoughts. I heard someone fucking in the distance, which was a familiar sound. I was happy for my brothers, I really was. But good fucking god, they all fucked like wild, rabid animals.
I was over the growling at night.
“Are you going to answer me, or keep ignoring me?” Anna asked.
I sighed as I placed my plate and drink down on the little bedside table the room afforded me. “No.”
She scoffed and I looked over at her long enough to watch her fold her arms over her chest again.
I had to pinch the bridge of my nose to stop from looking.
“No, what?” she asked.
And I knew that stubborn look on her face. The determination behind her eyes. She was going to get a conversation out of me, whether I liked it or not.
She really was a spitfire, that one.