BANE

CHAPTER SEVEN - BROOD (Part 1)

Holden groaned. It was the second time Corbin's cell phone had rang in the past ten minutes. "Again? Who keeps calling?"

"Sorry."

"Can you put it on silent or something? At least for the next half hour? We don't have a lot of time before Layla gets home..."

Corbin reached for his cell phone and flipped it over to see the caller ID. "Shit!" He rolled his body away from Holden's and answered the phone instead.

The blond stared at Corbin's back for a moment in disbelief that he'd forego sex for a phone call. He tried listening into the hushed conversation, but could only pick up individual words 'roommate' being one of them. He grabbed his pants from the floor and left the room in a huff.

Corbin found him in the kitchen ten minutes later, making coffee. "Come on..." He put his cell phone down on the counter and slid his arms around the taller man's waist.

Holden broke away. "You killed the mood. Who answers their phone while having sex? We're not some middle-aged married couple. Were you that bored?"

"If I didn't answer it, he would've kept calling."

"That's why you put the phone on silent and get back to them later. It was a huge turn off for me, so you're on your own," Holden went back to making coffee.

Corbin scoffed. "Fine. I'm going to take a shower."

Once he was sure Corbin was gone, Holden picked up his cell phone from the counter and checked the caller history. "Blake?" He didn't recognize the name at all, what could have been so important to warrant that quiet conversation?

******

At work the next morning, Holden was still bothered by the phone call Corbin had received the previous afternoon. They had barely spoken during their shift at the restaurant, and said only a quick goodbye before Holden left for his night shift at the lab. Another month had gone by and the communication between Holden and Corbin had improved slightly, but was still easily frayed at times like this.  "Hey, Gordan... Do you know anyone named 'Blake'?"

"I don't think so. Why?" Despite the rocky four-month start since their first meeting, Gordan and Holden had become fast friends once they began working together at the lab.

"Corbin got a few phone calls from someone named Blake yesterday and he was really secretive about it. He talked so quietly I couldn't even tell if he was speaking English."

"Another language? Oh wait, was he talking to their brother?"

"Do Corbin and Layla have a brother named Blake?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's his name now that you mention it. If it really was his brother, then they were probably speaking Japanese. Their mother raised them bilingual, but Corbin and Layla don't use it much. I think the older kids used to speak Portuguese too, so it could be that as well."

"Portuguese?"

"Their dad was from Brazil. Layla was too young when he died to remember anything, though."

Holden was stupefied by this new information. "I didn't know any of this. Neither one of them discusses their family much, especially Corbin."

"That whole family is intense. They're all more than a little screwed up... Though, who could really blame them after the murders? I've only met the other two surviving siblings once, they seem nice as long as you keep a bit of a distance... but still, I'm nervous about meeting them again."

"Again?"

"They're visiting on the weekend to celebrate Layla's birthday... You didn't know?"

"Apparently not..."