Date = 9 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Mel’s house)POV - MelaenaCandles. Wine. And a very long, hot bath with lavender-flavored foam is just what the doctor ordered. I slide into the bubbles and close my eyes, wondering if Damion and Logan are already on the plane.Just then my ringtone breaks the invigorating silence and upon seeing the caller ID I feel my insides pull into a knot. How does he do that? Even over a distance.“Hello,” It’s not Harry or D … but a whole other type of danger. I answer the video call, trying to hold the phone so he can only see my face, not that it’s possible to see anything with all the bubbles.“Hi angel,” the hoarse worry in his voice rolls over me, before I even catch his dark gaze, filled with an emotion between possession, vulnerability, safeguard, guilt, and what I would like to believe, lust.“I should have never left,” his voice changes, and he swears, hitting the wall next to him with his fist. The loud thud jolts through me. Over the years, I
Date = 12 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Groovzies)POV - MelaenaEnrique is pouting. Even over the phone, I know he’s pouting. Hard.“I asked Alejandro to take us. I’m sure he’s just as big and strong and badass as you, if not more.”My life is not normal. But I’ve heard normal is overrated — whatever normal is.But sometimes, even just once, I wish for tranquility where everyone in my life is pleasing and agreeable and I have this trouble-free uncomplicated existence where some or other annoying cockhead is not trying to dominate my being.After the incident with Harry, the guys are set on guarding me 24/7. And it’s enough to drive a patient saint up the walls. And I’m no saint. Also, it’s not good for my sensitive morale.That’s why Alejandro came to pick us up — a change of scenery so to speak — to take us to Haley. Her oh-so-handsome prodigal son, landed on US turf early this morning and is expected to arrive at her home for breakfast.“So you’re going to Haley’s again.” It’s mor
Date = 12 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Inferno)POV - Melaena“So, what’s your problem?” Kiara is watching me with big eyes and a knowing expression on her pretty face.Not really knowing what to tell her, I look down from the VIP section through the ‘magic’ glass, as we call it — it separates the main clubbing area below with huge glass panes that can switch from normal to one-way glass or frosted, depending on what you want.Comfortable pine seating booths are situated alongside the glass wall, and we’re seated at one of them.Right now the glass is switched to normal, so that both sides can see through, and my gaze sweeps over the dancing mass below — anxious as if I’m sitting on needles and pins — to seek out the stage and the guys on it.There are five of them tonight. Damion (yes, he can sing too), and the regular quartet band my brothers bring into the club as a side act to attract the ladies. Enrique’s strategy — more pretty ladies attract more men who buy more drinks.Indee
Date = 12 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Inferno)POV - DamionA bone-piercing scream flies through the club and my heart skips a beat, pulling my intestines into a tight knot. It came from the VIP section and somehow I know it was Mel.I hightail it for the stairs, prying myself from groping hands in the rabble, resisting the need to punch my way through, while I struggle to take small painful breaths.“Fucking MOVE!” I shout at a group clouding the bottom of the stairs, trying to enter the VIP section. They move. I reach the next floor and stop dead in my tracks.Mel is a dead weight in Alejandro’s arms, blood trickling from her throat. He runs to Enrique’s office, I follow, and he puts her down on the sofa.My demons slowly crawl from their shadows and dread freezes me to the spot as the panic starts to rise in my throat. I gag and swallow, putting my hand on my chest to try and crush the anguish where a demonic finger is tearing and ripping through my heart. I can’t lose her. I ca
Date = 13 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Damion’s house)POV - MelaenaI wake up with a jump, coughing frantically as a bunch of water is dumped on my face. I holler as the now wet shirt clings to my body and I glare to find whoever is responsible for this brutality. My eyes fall on my oh-so-lovely doggone cotton-picking brother, the evidence of the crime still in his hand. He grins from ear to ear before sprinting away.“Jackson blooming Blackburn!” I scream while pulling back the blanket from my soaked body and bolt after him.“I’m going to kill you and then make sure your sperm can’t reproduce!” I hear him howling from somewhere in the house and I run point-blank into a hard solid chest. Strong arms grab my waist and hoist me in the air before I can fall smack on my face.“Careful, girl.” He’s dressed in faded jeans and a T-shirt.From behind his friend, Jackson watches me with a huge grin and I feel like slapping him to smithereens. Damion drops me on my feet and tilts his head.“
Date = 13 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Grimm house)POV - MelaenaAfter a few hundred strides, my hormone level settles, and I notice I’m hitting some sort of wood. There is a designated path and I keep on it in order to avoid getting lost.Hell, I’ve touched his penis. And it was hard … and huge — the biggest on the track — if you believe the gossip.Then I broke it with my foot.I’m such an idiot. I soak in the stupendous beauty of my surroundings, trying to forget my own stupidity.The sunlight battles to penetrate the green tree canopy and only bits and pieces reach the ground where verdant fields flow seemingly indefinitely. Colorful flowers break the sea of green and I even spot little critters attempting to hide in the lush forestry. Even in broad daylight, this place feels like it belongs in a novel.I wonder where the pathway leads, and keep going, increasing my pace, just in case I’m being followed. Suddenly the forest clears into a pasture and the bright light of the sun
Date = 13 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Grimm house)POV - MelaenaHe walks up the stairs and abruptly drops me onto his bed — again.“Are you mentally crazy or just stupid? You can’t just run off like that! What if D got to you before I did? Are you trying to get raped or something?” He seems truly worried. I swallow down some spit. I never thought about that.“Don’t you lecture me,” I point a finger at his nose, “If you didn’t chase off all the guys in school I would have touched a penis before now.” He growls possessively, still looking at me as if he wants to eat me alive — it unravels me. “And I would not have run off or killed our offspring.” My mind is mooch.“Our?” What? “Fuck.” Another growl.He grabs me unexpectedly and kisses me — a hard desperate kiss that bruises my lips but is in no way any less erotic than any of the previous ones, and then he pushes me away.“And stop kissing me just to push me away, I feel like a flipping yo-yo.” I try not to yell at him, but it’s fr
Date = 14 NovemberPlace = San Francisco (Monarch Street, Alameda)POV - DamionIt’s around 9 pm and we drive down the quiet little street to where we’re supposed to meet Scarface (the nickname Mel gave Harry). He’s chosen his location carefully — this entire area is remote and dark.But remote areas are The San Francisco Boys’ hot spots — to perform and tape sometimes illegal stunts you need dim and distant places off the beaten track. So we happen to be familiar with most of them around the bay.We use this little area to prepare sets for high-risk performances, because of its location and proportions. And based on the comments from our viewers, it makes rather entertaining videos.Dad, Uncle John, and Alberto Garcia are in the backseat of an armored black Chevy Suburban SUV driven by armed bodyguards. While we are on our Reaper dirt bikes, dressed up in the same outfits used by co-op government officials — sponsored by Uncle John’s company of course.And thanks to Blackburn Inc. we