Chapter 170: ‘One of The Guys'

Dom was taken aback. He had never seen Mina so angry. In fact, he did not even know that she had it in her. He had grown to see Mina as a pushover and while he expected her to have some sort of reaction, he did not expect the anger and disappointment that he saw in her eyes.

"Mina don't be like that. We were just treating you like one of the guys," Dom said.

"One of the guys?" Mina asked sarcastically. "Clearly I am not 'one of the guys,'" she said, pointing out the obvious. Mina believed that if they saw her as a friend, they would have been upfront with her.

"I didn't think you would be angry; I wasn't trying to hurt you." It was the truth. He thought Mina would have given up from the beginning of their spar. He only continued because he figured that she was trying to keep her pride. At least that is what most men would have done, but Mina was not a man.

Sensing the situation had spiraled out of their control, James interrupted.

"Haven't you ever had a fight before?" the man asked, and Mina shot him a cold look.

"Do I look like Jessica?" Mina asked, and Jessica, who had already been rebuked by Mina, flexed the muscles in her arms. James lifted his hands in surrender. Another man nearby shook his head, reminding James to keep his distance.

"Hey, hey, hey. I saw that. What was that look about?" Mina asked, but no one answered.

The truth was that they were terrified of offending Mina. They knew she was not dating their boss, but she might have been dating his sister. They were still not fully aware of what happened to Bressaw or Samuel, but they knew it had something to do with Miss Luna and Mina.

"Mina, I'm really sorry. I do not have many friends that are women. I didn't think I could just ask you about those things." Mina folded her arms and pouted. She was a little satisfied with his explanation, and the overwhelmingly male nodding heads around the room made her realize that he was probably telling the truth. James, who had been the one to convince Dom to interrogate Mina, saw an opportunity and took it.

"Mina, this is my fault. I didn't know you would be offended," he said. Mina narrowed her eyes at the man and he involuntarily looked down. He was not afraid of her, but he was afraid.

"How do we make this up to you?" Dom asked. A terrifying and wicked grin appeared on Mina's face. She looked at each man in the room and instinctively knew that all eight of them played a part in this 'scheme.'

"Jessica," Mina called out to the only other woman around. "What is the most grueling punishment for a Lee soldier?" she asked.

There was the sound of metal hitting metal as those pretending not to be listening quickly dropped their weights and stood at attention. They rushed at Mina out of fear, each one apologizing profusely.

"What is all this?" Mina asked, in a confused panic. She had only been planning to have Jessica assign them an impossibly hard exercise routine.

Dom noticed that the look on Mina's face was not only confused, but there was an innocence in it that made him want to be truthful about what they heard. He had already learned from his previous mistake of not being honest, and he would not make the same one twice.

----

While listening to Dom's account, Mina's expression changed from bitter to angry. The more she was told the more her lip quivered. Still, she openly corrected the men where their story was mostly false. Everyone was shocked to hear that there was no love triangle, but that both men had chosen to disregard orders on their own accord.

"Did you not know what happened to them?" Jessica asked.

"I didn't," Mina said, obviously depressed.

"Is there any way I can help them?" she asked.

"Not unless you can convince our boss to let them off," James replied. Which earned him a scowl from Jessica.

"Basically no," Jessica said.

"Then I probably shouldn't come back here," Mina replied. "I don't want to be the cause of anyone else's downfall."

"Mina, that isn't what we meant in telling you the truth," Dom said. For some reason, his heart was racing as the thought of not seeing her again crossed his mind.

Dom had gotten used to her company, and in a lot of ways she was the only real friend he had. Just looking at her was like a healing potion, not that she knew, but he was aware of how she came to be at the Lee mansion, and in what condition. Still, she smiled every day and it helped to remind him that things could always be much worse.

"Okay, Okay, Okay," Jessica interrupted. "This is obviously a huge misunderstanding. Let's settle this over a few drinks," the woman suggested. A few claps in support echoed around the room.

"I don't drink," Mina said.

"You do today," Jessica replied, and with that Mina was pulled out of the gym and into the woman's car.

When the engine started Jessica apologized to Mina on behalf of her comrades.

"I told them they were being idiots," she said. "But do they listen to me?" Mina let out a halfhearted chuckle. She was not in the best of spirits and as much as she loved male bashing, right now was not the time.

----

When Mina arrived at the bar, she instinctively covered her nose. The smell was atrocious. It was nothing at all like the place she had visited with Luna. As she walked, she could feel her feet sticking to the floor and she knew that it was caused by more than spilled drinks.

"You'll go numb to it soon," Dom said. Mina spun around; she did not know the man was even behind her.

"Did you just get here?" she asked. Relieved that it would not be just herself and Jessica, who she had come to realize was more hardcore than she originally thought. Dom held two thumbs up in a gesture that was too cheesy for her not to laugh. Relief washed over him at the sight of Mina's returning smile.

'Am I starting to like this girl?' Dom thought.

"Let's get you a drink." the man said, trying to shake off the feeling of having feelings.