Rafael
My parents, three brothers and my oldest brother’s wife Ava had touched down for our vacation in California in the middle of the night, so I hadn’t seen them before I went to work. I’d been excited to spend time with my family, so my smile was genuine as I entered the house. When I saw most of them assembled in the great room, all deep in conversation, it struck me as odd that my brother Alejandro, who’d come to Malibu with me weeks before, wasn’t with them. My surprise stemmed from the knowledge that he’d been anxious for my parents to meet his girlfriend, Kaya. I’d given him a lot of shit about her, but the reality was that I understood that she wasn’t a fake piece of shit. I knew this because a peacock named Elvis loved her to death, which said a lot about her.
As I got further inside, I noticed that three members of the security team that traveled with my family were standing against the wall just inside the doorway. They looked over at me in unison, almost like they were surprised to see me even though I could see that the tablet one of them was holding had live shots of the interior and exterior cameras, which meant they’d known I’d come through the door.
Something was odd about the overall vibe in the room, and my stomach clenched painfully as a horrible fucking suspicion took hold. My lawyer had told me that Francesca was going to be getting out of jail in the coming weeks, but the anxious and on-guard appearance of the security team made me think maybe she was already out and making threats. It was like a blow to the solar plexus. She’d wreaked enough fucking havoc to last a lifetime.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
My mother rose from the couch and smiled as she came my way. “Don’t panic. It’s been quite a day, but everything is fine now.”
It was great that she was saying everything was okay, but if it had anything to do with Francesca’s crazy ass, that wasn’t the case. “What happened?” I asked as my mother threw her arms around me.
“It’s nothing serious. I promise everything is truly okay,” she murmured so that only I could hear.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I hugged her back. No sooner had I let her go than my father was bestowing one of his bear hugs on me, laughing gruffly as he pounded on my back. When he stepped back, he smiled at me as we walked the rest of the way into the large living room.
I gave Dio and Joaquin head nods as I crossed the room and dropped a kiss on my sister-in-law’s cheek. Not surprisingly, she was sitting in Mateo’s lap. That Neanderthal had a difficult time letting her out of his line of sight, not that I could blame him after what they’d been through. Even though they’d been married for more than three years, I still felt guilt for what had happened back then. If it weren’t for me, Ava never would’ve been hurt. I carried that with me no matter how hard they both tried to convince me it wasn’t my burden to bear.
Ava snickered as she pinched my right cheek between her fingers. “You’re extra scruffy,” she said. “In a few days, we’re going to have to start calling you Mountain Man.”
I mock glared at her as I stepped back. “I’ve been on vacation,” I reminded her.
She shrugged and snuggled back into Mateo. “I’m just saying there might be a little too much vacation on your face,” she teased.
I shook my head as she and Mateo both chuckled. Of course, that fucker always took her side. I gave him a chin nod before taking a seat further down the couch, next to Dio.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He yawned and rubbed at his forehead. “I’ve got the start of a migraine that’s already making me want to commit.”
“I meant what’s up here at the house, hell breath.”
He grimaced and pretended to look affronted. “My teeth are minty fresh, ZZ Top.”
Mamá sighed. “Boys…”
“Sorry Mamá,” we said in unison. Rolling my eyes at Dio, I said, “If he’s not going to fill me in, who will?” I asked the room at large.
Joaquin spoke up. “I bet you’re going to be real surprised to hear that some lunatic got herself onto the property today claiming to be Seinfeld’s fiancée,” he snorted.
I felt awful for barking out a laugh, but I couldn’t help it. Until Kaya, Alejandro had had the worst luck with women possible. Pretty much the only shitty thing that hadn’t happened to him was having a crazy bitch pretend to be pregnant for several months. Apparently, that kind of insanity was exclusive to me.
“When you say she got onto the property are we talking streaked across the lawn or knocked on the door?”
“Oh, she did a hell of a lot more than that,” Papá growled. “She got into the house and was here for quite a while. We thought she was the girl from next door that your brother has been going on and on about. Only when your mother called him at work to tell him that his girlfriend was the devil did we figure it out. Security contained her while we waited for the police to arrive, during which time we were treated to a level of histrionics that would drive anyone mad.”
“Jesus,” I groaned. “Is that why Jandro isn’t here with Kaya?” I asked.
“Yep. They’re at the police station now so that Kaya can give her statement. Jandro and our LA attorney are taking care of the paperwork to file restraining orders against the lunatic,” Dio answered.
My brow furrowed as I took in what he’d said. “Why is Kaya giving a statement?”
“Because it turns out that the reason the bitch got through the gate was that Kaya was coming over to say hello,” Mateo answered. “The poor girl was accosted by the psycho claiming to be Seinfeld’s fiancée. As bad as that was, Jandro told us what was worse was that the psycho, Letty, screamed at Kaya’s bird.”
In my mind, Kaya’s peacock—well, her best friend’s bird—had somehow become mine, too. He and I had formed an alliance of sorts. Therefore, I was not happy to hear that some crazy bitch had been threatening bodily harm.
“How’d she even know about him?” I snapped.
“I guess he was there,” Joaquin answered. “Kaya said Letty was yelling at the limo driver to shoot the bird.”
“Shoot him?” I growled.
“It was terrible,” Mamá said with a frown. “We could hear that poor bird shrieking, but we never realized—”
I was up and over the back of the couch in a flash. “I gotta go outside and make sure Elvis is okay,” I called over my shoulder.
As soon as I cleared the door out to the yard, I let out a whistle. I knew I’d get a fuckload of grief if Jandro and Kaya ever found out that I’d spent the previous few days training Elvis to come when he heard it.
About thirty seconds after I whistled I saw him up on the wall between my property and the house Kaya was caring for. Fortunately for the psychotic bitch sitting at the Malibu police station, Elvis looked fine. If he’d been missing even one feather, I’d have gone nuclear. He strutted over to me cheerfully, letting out a steady stream of what I thought of as his bird babble along the way.
Crouching down, I tickled the fluff on top of Elvis’ head. “You doing okay, buddy?”
He shimmied his body like he was dancing as he cawed happily. He didn’t look upset—if anything, he seemed downright smug. It looked to me like it was crazy bitch, zero, Elvis, one.
We both turned as the wall of glass between the house and the patio opened a bit. Joaquin stepped out. “Kaya’s bird is a peacock?”
I smirked as I stood up. “Obviously,” I chuckled. “Q, meet Elvis. Elvis, this is my brother, Q. Feel free to ignore him, Elvis. This idiot gets way too much attention,” I joked.
Elvis cocked his head left to right several times while he looked Joaquin over. When he finished, he squawked something at my brother before he turned back to me and spread fanned his feathers out. Considering that he wasn’t chasing Q off the property and was instead showing him his plumage, I felt confident that my brother had passed the inspection.
“Oh my goodness it’s beautiful,” my mother said as she stepped outside and made her way over to us.
“It is a he and his name is Elvis. Not for nothing, Kaya has told me that he prefers to be called handsome.”
Mamá chuckled as she leaned forward to get closer to Elvis. “Such a handsome boy,” she cooed.
The little performer spread his feathers, cawed, and then preened for her gleefully by shaking his feathers. Nothing made Elvis happier than being told he was handsome. I knew damn well he understood the word, too, because he lit up when people used it. My dude was hilariously vain—so much so that I frequently caught him staring at his reflection in the wall of glass on the patio.
“Mi Amor,” my father cautioned as he joined us. “Perhaps you should find out if the bird bites before you get any closer.”
Mamá rolled her eyes and then smiled at Elvis. “I watched him let Rafael touch the little foof on top of his head. I’ll let him come to me if he wants to be touched but I can already tell he won’t hurt me.”
My father looked at me. “He’s safe?”
I nodded. “Very,” I assured him. “Papá, this is Elvis.”
Laughter rumbled from my father’s chest as he put his arm around Mamá’s shoulders. “The name seems appropriate,” he chuckled.
Elvis looked to be in his element with new people to impress. Closing his feathers, he studied my family before he looked at me as though he was waiting for something.
Crouching down, I gestured for him to come to me. When he did, I pointed up to my parents. “This is my Mamá and Papá, little man. They’re my family.”
I wasn’t surprised at all that Elvis already seemed to have decided that my mom was cool, but I admit to feeling relieved that he seemed open to my brother and father. Kaya had mentioned to me that Elvis wasn’t typically very keen on men, but he did great with Joaquin and my dad. I could tell he felt at ease when he walked out onto the large grassy area and fanned his feathers before he began dancing around and walking back and forth. The grass was his stage, and my family made the perfect audience.
After a few minutes of laughter and applause, my mother headed into the house to make some tapas. As usual, my dad followed along behind her. Seeing the way my parents were with each other, as well as how Mateo and Ava were and now Alejandro and Kaya as well—sometimes made me feel like I was watching a channel in a language I didn’t speak. I couldn’t conceive of having a relationship like that, even though I was surrounded by the best examples.
With my parents inside and Elvis busy dancing around the yard, Joaquin and I settled into the outdoor TV area.
When he grabbed the remote, I grimaced. I wasn’t in the mood for sports. “I swear that if you put fútbol on, I’ll smother your ass with a pillow,” I grumbled.
My brother lived and fucking breathed fútbol every single hour of every single day of his life and had done so since childhood. I was proud of his position in Real Madrid, and I watched almost every one of his games, but if he wasn’t playing, I didn’t care about the sport.
“I’m going to pick something that isn’t fútbol,” he assured me. “Believe it or not my assistant got me into a show about vampire hackers on HBO. I’ve got like ten episodes left to go to finish the series, so it’s not like you’re going to know what’s going on. You down to watch or should I go up to the game room?”
“I’m up for whatever but I gotta tell you, I’m wondering where you put my real brother.”
He scoffed. “Why’s that?”
“Uh, I don’t know, Q-ball. Maybe because you’re voluntarily watching a show about vampires?”
He frowned and directed a scowl my way. “What’s that supposed to mean, dickhead?”
I waved him off with a laugh. “It doesn’t sound like a sports show.”
“It isn’t,” he snorted as he pushed buttons on the remote and navigated the TV to the HBO on demand screen. “Posie loves the show—can’t get enough of it. She started binging about a month ago during playoffs and somehow I was sucked into it right alongside her. I made her promise that she won’t watch the series finale until we’re together.”
That set my antenna up for two reasons. The first reason was that my brother hadn’t had an assistant named Posie the last time I saw him, a mere ten weeks before. Back then, his assistant was a dude named Davis who was possibly the most organized person I’d ever met in my life. The second reason my interest was piqued was the familiar—and affectionate—way Joaquin spoke of Posie.
“What happened to Davis?” I asked suspiciously. God help my brother if he’d been fool enough to fire a great assistant for a piece of ass.
The theme song of the show was starting to play when Q glanced my way. “Davis’ girl is pregnant, so he tapped out to put down some roots. Posie is his sister, so having her take over was a no-brainer.”
I was just about to warn him about making sure she wasn’t a gold digger when Elvis popped up on the back of the outdoor sectional. He squawked at me excitedly as he started pecking my shoulder and arm insistently.
“What’s up, dude? You hungry?”
He squawked faster as he continued frantically pecking at me. Figuring he needed something to eat, I got up and ran over to the outdoor fridge to grab a container of blueberries. Elvis yelled louder, seemingly annoyed that I’d walked away to get him food.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I laughed as I hurried back to the TV area. Sitting down, I opened the container of berries, pulled out a small amount, and then held my hand up so that Elvis could eat out of my palm. When a second went by without him scarfing up some fruit, I turned my head and found him staring at me like I’d disappointed him in some way.
“You okay, buddy?”
He stuck his neck out so that his face was close to mine. From that angle, I could only see his one eye, and he was using it to give me a look that made me think he wanted to say something snarky like someone fed you lead paint as a child, didn’t they?
“Looks like the bird just figured out that you’re a total idiot,” Q snorted.
“Or maybe that crazy bitch from earlier made him anxious,” I worried aloud. “It’s okay, Elvis. The bad lady is gone,” I reminded him.
I swear he heavy sighed and shook his head before shifting his attention to the TV as he ate his berries from my hand. Putting my feet up on the large wicker ottoman in front of me, I leaned back and got comfortable as Elvis continued to eat. Looking up, I sucked in a breath when I saw the most gorgeous auburn-haired beauty in the history of ever staring into the camera while she ran down all the reasons she was going to snap someone named Colson’s neck. She did this clad in a tight black top, skinny black jeans and a pair of ridiculously high black spike heels, standing on a teeny-tiny ledge of a high-rise building.
“Fuckin’ Colson,” Q muttered. “I told Posie that douchebag wasn’t ready to lead missions. He doesn’t have any of the ancient blood in him, which means he’s not as intuitive as the others.”
I ignored his chatter in favor of watching as the redhead on screen turned and began shimmying herself toward an open office window. Her front view was fucking spectacular, and the back was damn near as good, something I had a full picture of when she bent in half and slid through the small opening.
Unable to keep my mouth shut I blurted, “Who’s the girl?”
“I knew you’d get into it! Tabitha Goss. She’s the oldest vampire—”
I cut him off. “Jesus, Q-ball, pay attention. I’m asking who the actress is.”
Q was so engrossed in the show that he didn’t even look my way. “Emery Bellerose,” he answered.
“Emery,” I repeated, barely loud enough to be heard.
Elvis chose that moment to start cawing again, rocking side to side excitedly. In between squawks, he’d peck at my arm or tap his head against my shoulder, like he had something very, very important that I needed to know. Poor guy—I wished I understood peacock.
“I’m right here, little man. Everything’s cool.”
“Oh. My. Gosh!” Kaya squealed from behind me. “This is the absolute cutest thing ever. Nobody move from the couch until I take a picture.”
Turning, I saw that Kaya and Alejandro had come into the back by way of the side yard. Standing side by side, they seemed just fine, but I knew my brother well enough to see that he was still amped up from the stress of what had gone down earlier. Kaya, however, was beaming at me, Q and Elvis on the couch like we’d just done something extraordinary.
With how much time she and Elvis spent together I was kinda surprised she thought him watching TV with me and Q was a big deal, but considering the day she’d had, I wasn’t going to rain on her parade. Turning away, I focused back on the TV where Emery Bellerose was looking at a computer screen in front of her as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Behind me, the camera on Kaya’s phone clicked several times in quick succession. “Mommy’s going to love this, Elvis!” she called out. “How’d you get them to turn it on you little rascal?”
Making a note to watch Bytes from the beginning without anyone around to interrupt, I turned to shoot a confused look toward my brother’s possibly crazy girlfriend. “Is Elvis that into the TV? I didn’t think he cared that much.”
I mean, we’d watched our fair share of Jerry Springer, but he hadn’t seemed all that enthusiastic about it. He just liked to hang out wherever I was.
“No,” Kaya laughed. “Just this one show in particular. That’s his mommy up there.”
I almost got whiplash I turned back to the screen so fast. Sure enough, Emery Bellerose was still the only person on the screen.
“She’s my dude’s mom?”
“Sure is,” Kaya laughed as she and Alejandro came onto the porch and chose a spot on the sofa to sit down.
I turned to Elvis and found him staring at me smugly. “Is this what you were trying to tell me?” I asked quietly.
I swear he thought the word duh as he blinked at me.