Date = 1 April
Place = San Francisco (back of a van)
POV – Enrique
The stench of rotten eggs, mixed with something drastically nasty, burns my nostrils and makes my eyes water.
“Ug, someone is dying from the inside out,” I murmur, desperately trying to push my nose against my shoulder to seal off the smell since I can’t use my hands.
“Oh, come on people … seriously, who let it rip?” little Lee asks, sounding as if he wants to kill the culprit right there and then. He’s the definition of the smaller the bottle the deadlier the poison … a tiny guy with a huge cocky and fearless attitude.
The air is filled with grunts and groans, but nobody mans up to being the owner of the fart.
“Guys, please … although that was a shocker … we’re in tight corners here … I really don’t want to suffocate before I’m killed,” Jackson protests, removing my number one suspect from my list.
“Stinks like a shrimp boat that got stuck in the cheese aisle of the supermarket!” Lee gasps right next to me as if he’s inferior to our mere mortal boys and I’m sure he’s rolling his eyes under his hood. I’m still trying to sort out my bearings about this newest addition to our group I fucking love how he fearlessly stands up to everybody … especially Jackson … like a tiny pigheaded midget, but I’m jealous about the time my girlfriend spends with him. Fake girlfriend … I remind myself … fake fake fake … But what was that kiss about? She wanted it too … and not just in my mind.
“What does somebody want with us this time?” I recognize Alejandro’s voice, coming from somewhere to the left of me. I shift my position, trying to find a more comfortable one where the cable ties don’t cut into my flesh that much.
“Do you think they’re gonna kill us … or worse, torture us?” Jesse sounds scared and after the whole Harry fiasco who can blame him? I, myself, am a little strung up … not that I’m shitting bricks or anything, but still. And I also think he might have his priorities a bit mixed up.
“Oh, they could just start the torture by putting the Blackburn brothers in a room with a spider … ” Noah sniggers, obviously trying to contain his laughter but not fully succeeding.
He doesn’t realize how devastatingly close to the truth what he just said is. Where the hell did he hear about that anyway? Ah … Leyla … of course!
“Real funny! You guys are cracking me up. It’s like comedy night in the back of a van,” I say. That spider incident wasn’t our finest moment and I don’t want to talk about it … I just want to forget the whole thing ever happened. But what the rest of the guys don’t know is that it’s not really the spider we’re afraid of, but the memories associated with it.
“Yeah,” Big Red jumps in with a sarcastic baby voice, “wis th’ wee tarantula scary?”
Everybody laughs. Gmf, I’m stuck with a lot of clowns in my life. Bravo. And that Scottish bastard sometimes just gets on my nerves with his foul mouth.
“Well, I’m not shy to say that I’m fucking scared of spiders,” Lee says out of the blue.
“Feardie nyaff,” Big Red giggles.
“I can insult you, but I’ll just need to explain it to you afterward,” Lee responds quickly leaving the big man hanging in the air. That just shows how wrong Red is … Lee might be small but he’s no wuss.
“Shut the fuck up about the spider! You guys don’t know shit!” Ilkay shouts and the whole van dies down. I swear I can hear my own heart beating.
“Okay, let’s not talk about bugs in our last moments on earth,” Jackson breaks the awkward silence first.
“I can’t die now … I need to reproduce first … else the mighty Grey legacy ends with me,” Axel joke-acts dramatically, probably trying to lighten the mood. I wonder if my brother ever told him what our spider phobia is all about. Probably not … although I think Axel knows more about my twin than I do.
“Well, at least Logan will continue the Blackburn genes if we die, since he’s not here,” I continue the lighthearted discussion.
“Ug, and there goes our perfect genetic trades down the drain … ” Jackson counteracts quickly, “and that’s if that loser can even get a girl pregnant, by the way,” and then he whispers, “Personally, I think he’s still a virgin.” And laughter shakes the van again, the whole traumatic spider incident now long forgotten.
“Hey, leave my poor friend out of this … ” Damion says from the side, “and he’s for sure not a virgin, I can promise you that. He’s just better at hiding his shit than all of us.”
We might always shove Logan down; teasing him, but as a matter of fact, he might just be the best brother out there that’s for sure. Even though he’s the youngest, he’s way more mature than Jackson and me – like a less worried version of Ilkay. Maybe that’s why we always like to tease him so much. That and the fact that he gets roused up so easily.
It’s just how the cookie crumbles being a Blackburn brother means there’s no place for sensitive smoochy feelings full stop. And Logan happens to be way too emotional and sentimental – things we twins don’t understand. He and Ilkay choose to not fuck around in the bundle that much but to have relationships instead. Not that they last long … but still. I think my longest relationship with a girl (before Aria that is) lasted around 6 days … and Jackson never goes out with the same girl twice.
“Yes, we all know how good you are at hiding yours … but that shit is over for you, or else I’ll fucking kill you for real,” Jackson scolds. And he’s right … if Damion just thinks about messing around behind my sister’s back, he’s dead. But something tells me that he’s truly smitten with Mel. Like I am with Aria? Did he also feel this scared and confused, or is it just me?
“I stopped a long time ago. From now on I just have one voodoo pussy on the brain.”
“Fuck … too much info bro! That’s my sister,” Ilkay scuffs and I feel like I want to puke. What’s with this voodoo stuff anyway? There’s no such thing as a magical vagina … they’re all the fucking same. My head tilts back and a giddy smile shifts over my face as I wonder what Aria looks like beneath her underwear.
“If Mel has a boy, he’ll be a Blackburn at least, since she’s not married yet … ” Ilkay is now just getting back at our sister’s fiance. When his adrenaline gets pumping, he drops his most serious layer and loosens up. Although the sex of the baby is still a secret for now, they’re planning on holding a gender-reveal party on Leyla’s birthday. Something to cheer her up a little, but she doesn’t know about it.
“Boy or girl, that baby is a Grimm,” Damion complains, “at least I did my part for humanity by creating a perfect specimen in-the-making to carry on my image.”
“For now he’s a Blackburn, dude!” Jackson shuts him up.
“Hey!” Damion shouts.
“And you’re fucked any which way … if you don’t get killed by our kidnappers … my sister is going to kill you for getting yourself into danger again,” Ilkay teases, and we all laugh. But then again … Aria might end up assisting Mel and kill me off too. I stop laughing and sigh deeply. But this time it really truly isn’t our fault.
“Hey, guys, do you think it might be Garcia behind all this … I’m sure I recognize one of the guards,” Axel changes the subject before a blindfolded fight starts in the intimate quarters of the van.
“Yer guy, Garcia, woehld ‘e actually kell oehs?” Big Red asks. He’s a giant of a man staying with Logan and he’s Jackson’s teammate. But sometimes he’s just a little too much, getting him into trouble with the girls. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but he’s not a too bad dude overall.
“I’m sure he’s done it lots of times before … ” Jesse answers him quickly leaving me to ponder his words. Garcia is not that kind of a gang leader boss, is he? I never contemplated that … but come to think about it, he must have … eh killed before given his profession and position … I guess. Nah, Garcia is a good man with a bad reputation that’s all. He won’t do anything to us.
Pondering about it still doesn’t explain what this shit is about, but I’m sure there’s some kind of mix-up. I mean, Garcia just comes straight to the club if he wants to see us. Yeah, after everything we went through, and him being Luke’s father, he’s rather a regular at our family gatherings and even Inferno.
So why go to this extreme? He could just have asked us to come to him. Maybe it’s not him … but who then? And whoever it is, his timing sucks – we were just downing our first drink at the club to celebrate our birthday mine and Jackson’s when these guards showed up with guns and started tying us up. So much for getting wasted tonight to forget about a certain redhead that tortures my life.
Anyway, they didn’t elaborate much, but rather pulled some hoods over our heads and stuffed us into a van. We’ve been driving around now, what seems like hours, but I’m sure it’s more like minutes.
“Don’t worry guys, I’m sure there’s a good explanation for all this, and then we’ll have an extra reason to get drunk.” I’m trying to sound confident and non-caring, but it’s just a sham … like the rest of my life.
“I hope the girls don’t worry too much when they don’t find us at the club … I mean … Mel being in the condition she is … ” Damion’s voice hints at the worry he’s feeling for my sister and his baby. Good, let him worry.
“You mean the condition you PUT her in … ” Jackson counteracts and I can’t help but smile. Even in this situation, my brother won’t let a chance like that slip by to tease our future-in-law. And the fact that our best friend put a bun in our little sister’s oven is still a rather sensitive issue for us all. No one wants to think about his sister having sex … especially not with a dude like Damion. Yes, we forgave the shithead, but he still broke the rules in more ways than one.
A hard punch lands unexpectedly on my chin.