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10 Blindfolded

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.

“What the fuck? Wrong twin dude!” I yell into the air, not exactly sure where Damion is sitting, but then the ‘sorry’ comes from my right. I’m getting more and more uncomfortable every passing second and I shift again to relieve my aching muscles.

“Fuck this!” I swear softly, cursing Garcia and all his goons. This has been a pretty stressful month and I don’t have the patients for this shit. I really don’t.

Being Aria’s fake boyfriend is driving me up the walls. It’s only been a short time, but I can’t stop thinking about her, wanting her, needing her. Not to mention the huge unsolicited hard-on I have to deal with on a more than regular basis. I swear I’m officially going crazy, feeling stuff I haven’t for a very long time, if ever.

And to make things worse, her working in the club, put me straight into hell. Every single guy tries his luck with her, some even cross the boundaries of personal space and touch her inappropriately. Yes, she quickly sorts them out, but still, it places me in a bad situation ‘cause I want to commit murder each time. I fucking punched more guys this last week than in the rest of my life combined. I’m a lover, not a fighter. It’s been so bad I had to take her from waitressing to put her behind the bar where, at least, they can’t reach her. It doesn’t stop them from trying though. But what’s actually my biggest problem is that Brian fucking Cruise became a regular face at the bar, making eyes at my girlfriend, trying – and succeeding might I add – to piss me off.

“Hey, let’s sing a song … “ Jackson breaks through my clouded mind, “… I’ll start … ‘the wheels on the van goes round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the van goes round and round, taking us to trouble’ … “

“Shut up, Jackson! You’re just making things worse,” Axel utters from opposite me, “cause you can’t sing to save your life.”

“Hey guys, Garcia won’t harm us, don’t worry,” typical brooding-genius Ilkay is back, but I think he’s right, or rather, I hope he’s right.

“You can’t know that for sure, and what if it’s not him …” Noah says.

“If not Garcia, then who can it be?” Axel asks.

“Remember that ‘Old Man’ guy that’s trying to expand his business into San Francisco – do you think it could be him?” Alejandro asks.

“The dodgy European mafia old stagger,” my twin seems to have forgotten about his singing. “He helped us before … so why kidnap us now?”

“Oh, my word, what business would a mafia grandpa have with us? ” Lee sounds pissed, “And what use would we be for the Europeans? I’ve never even been to Europe!”

I’m starting to see why Jackson is so hooked up with this guy – he seems to have an irritating temperament and blabbers out everything that comes into his mangled-up head – things that sometimes don’t make any sense – like now.

“And the Old Man is in New York, not Europe!” he continues under his breath. If I wasn’t sitting so close to him I would not have heard that. What does Lee know about the Old Man?

“If I were him, I would kidnap us,” Damion answers his fiery roommate, “Just think about it, he can blackmail Garcia by using us, Inferno is the perfect place to sell drugs and there are some serious world-famous money-bags in this van.”

“Not you Lee though … I’m sure you’re just collateral damage,” Jackson just couldn’t let it go. They are always in each other’s case. I swear one day there’s gonna be a murder. Usually, I’ll put my money on my brother to be triumphant, but I’m not so sure this time … Lee seems to perfectly match him in any way.

“Blarg!” Lee makes a puking sound, “I’m sure you guys are not that important,” Lee snorts, “and too stupid to work it out.”

“What do you mean?” I ask the pipsqueak. Silence falls among us, waiting for his answer. Does he know something we don’t? Is he working for the Old Man? What is he hiding?

“Eh … I just think that you guys are way too self-insured … San Francisco doesn’t turn around you …” He just back-stepped like a cat on a hot tin roof. But why? I’m now not sure I trust this little man … I’ve read somewhere that guys with small hands are not dependable … or were that small ears? Doesn’t matter, everything on Lee is small. I’m pretty sure even his dick is tiny. Maybe that’s why he’s so arrogant … what do they call it … little man syndrome?

“What’s wrong with being confident?” Damion asks this time.

“Confidence is great … arrogance - not so much,” Lee answers immediately.

“Look who’s talking … “ I start but swear lightly to myself when the vehicle stops abruptly, throwing me sideways to crush the person next to me while bumping my head against something hard.

“Ouch! Get off me you lump!” Lee shouts. Great, out of everybody in this van I have to fall on him. I probably broke that small body.

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, bro, I just lost my balance,” I try to explain to the hot-tempered little guy that my equally stubborn brother seems so fond of. And what’s worse is that my fake girlfriend is also way too attached to him. Even though Aria explained that her friendship with Lee is just that and nothing more … I still don’t like it much; in my experience, a guy and a girl can never have a platonic affinity … either the guy wants to fuck the girl or she wants to fuck him! Unless one is gay or they’re related – and sometimes even then it still happens. Sick but true.

“If you damage my goalie, I’ll have to hurt you brother,” Jackson says playfully, but I know my twin too well – those words are not said idly – he means it.

It’s as if Jackson got hooked by Lee’s huge soulful eyes, protecting his little roomy like a mother hen, something he’s never done before. Since Lee arrived Jackson is acting even more mysterious and psycho broody, coming home with more bruises and cuts than before. I can’t say I’ve seen Jackson without a mark on his body since the whole Harry debacle. I’m one of the few that knows about his secrets, but if you want my opinion, he’s pushing it these days.

I want to utter something back to my stupid brother, but the words die on my lips when the sound of the door sliding open fills the air.

Before I can even come to my senses, I’m roughly dragged out and pulled forward.

“Hey, stop pushing me or I’ll kick your balls up to your throat, dick-head,” a girl shouts from somewhere in front of me. My heart skips a beat or two. It’s Aria, I’m sure of that, but what is she doing here? And the little flipping screwball is gonna get herself killed with that big mouth.

“Just get on the boat!” a rough voice orders.

“Boat … great, they’re gonna throw us into the ocean!” Jesse grumbles, but my mind is still evaluating why my girlfriend would be here.

“If you touch me again, I will pull your larynx through your ass and make you wear it like a tie … “ Okay, that’s definitely my sweet little sister and she’s just as loony as my girlfriend. Here comes trouble … with a capital T, that’s for sure.

“Mel!” Damion shouts next to me and I can feel him struggling to get free, so he’s probably being held down by a guard.

THUD!

“Ouch! You gonna pay for that!” one of the guards swears behind me.

“Damion, stop fighting, I’m okay, don’t worry,” Mel shouts and I roll my eyes. The biker got a blow in somehow. I suddenly understand what he must be going through right now, cause my heart feels as if it’s getting squashed by a vice grip, but at the moment our hands are tied … literally. I also know that patience is not Damion’s strong point.

“Psst, bro … calm down … let’s wait until we can see what’s going on … “ I whisper softly at him.

“I’ll fucking kill them,” he mumbles and I totally agree … if anybody so much as hurt a hair on Aria’s head … or my sister’s … they’re fucking double dead!

“Stop pushing me, shitface!” That sounded like Thalia. It seems they captured all the girls too. But why? And then my heart stops beating altogether.

“Sis, I’m scared!” Leyla. Fuck!

“Don’t worry, Leyla, I’m here,” little Luke answers bravely. They even got the kids. I’m getting seriously worried now – Garcia won’t kidnap his own son.

“Fuckers!” Noah shouts.

“Hey, guys, keep calm … now is not the time,” Alejandro says, and he’s right.

Then with one quick motion, the bag over my head is removed. I blink a few times to get my eyes accustomed to the sudden light. We are standing in front of a huge yacht, docked in a small private harbor of some sort. And when I say huge … I mean huge. I look around frantically, but there’s no sign of the girls.

Damion gape at me, speaking a thousand words with his eyes, his jaw tight. I nod, letting him know that I’m with him - we’ll fight till the end if needs be. All of us will. This ‘Old man’ type is gonna get his false teeth knocked out.

“Walk!” A guard pushes me towards the ship and I walk onto the boarding ramp. Another man is waiting for us with folded arms, his face as serious as that of a lying politician.

Next to him is some steel drums, filled with concrete with a chain fixed into them. Okay, this is NOT looking good.

“Fucking Alexander,” I swear to myself, blaming my gran – it must be his sins that are visited upon us, putting us in harm’s way all the time.

“Told you we’re going to go down the deep blue,” Jesse mumbles as he glares at the drums. Poor guy … he’s not one of the bravest souls out there.

“Take them to the back,” the man orders and we get pushed along the luxury vessel.

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