Devil's Gambit

Chapter 7

The kitchen was filled with the usual boisterous activity as Harley shuffled down the stairs, rubbing at his eye with the back of his hand.

"Oh, Harley! Come here," Axel stood suddenly, his chair scraping against the linoleum as he rushed over to usher Harley to the table. "I have someone I want you to meet."

Harley blinked at his older brother in confusion, then scanned the kitchen table for unfamiliar faces through his sleep fogged brain. His eyes eventually landed on the woman he saw the night before, who shared the sofa and a very intimate space with his brother.

This must be the girlfriend then.

She waved at Harley, her cherry red lips in a big smile as she greeted him, the golden bangles on her wrist clinking as she extended her arm towards him. There was a cloud of really sweet perfume surrounding her, and while it was a bit intense, it didn't smell particularly heinous. As he took her hand in a firm handshake, nodding slightly towards her, he was afraid he would hurt her with how delicate everything about her seemed, especially her slender fingers and soft skin. Maybe that was just women in general, Harley wouldn't exactly be the expert there.

"I'm Jackie, pleasure to meet ya," she hummed, retracting her hand as Harley's eyes followed it, mesmerized at the multitude of various rings on each and every finger. Everything was made of gold.

"Harley. It's nice to meet you," he replied softly, taking his seat. Axel stood behind them, watching carefully with a proud smile on his face as two of the closest people to him interacted. The look on his brother's face was starting to creep Harley out a little, so he focused intently on grabbing his toast.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Axel take a seat between him and Jackie, talking with her softly as he wrapped an arm around the back of her chair.

Of course Axel would end up with a girl as stunning and elegant as Jackie.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to remember that Harley even shared the same blood as Axel.

Harley was so focused on attempting to decipher some of Daniel and José's conversation in Spanish using his limited knowledge of the language from high school, that he hadn't noticed the footsteps padding down the stairs until the individual was pulling a chair up to the table.

He looked at Lucas in mild surprise as he cozied up in the tight space right in between himself and Elijah, despite a larger space being available between José and Elijah.

"Oh yeah, just shove yourself into the tiniest spot at the fucking table, Lucas," Elijah huffed, gripping the sides of his chair and hopping over slightly to regain some breathing room.

"Aw, thanks man," Lucas feigned an expression of gratitude, before purposely knocking his elbow into Elijah's head as he reached across the table to grab the butter. Harley felt himself tense at how close Lucas was, could even feel the body heat radiating off of him. There was a faint, natural scent to him that Harley gravitated towards unconsciously.

"Lucas, come on man, just ask us to pass it to you," Axel huffed in exasperation, grabbing the butter to hand it off.

Harley was picking at his toast, bringing a small piece of the crust to his mouth as he stared at the small cross hanging from Lucas' neck on a golden chain, swinging gently over the pile of toast in the middle of the table. As Axel moved to hand over the butter, Lucas looked to his left directly at Harley, a small smirk playing at his lips.

"The bread's getting a very special perspective here," he said lowly, before returning to his seat and focusing on preparing his food. Harley felt his cheeks burn, not realizing he had been spacing out on Lucas. God, how embarrassing.