Page 103 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
“Yeah, I’m Bernadette Blackbird … Hael’s girlfriend.” Our eyes meet as I shake his mom’s hand and end up pulled into a hug instead. She squeezes me tight and then invites me to dance with her for a moment. I’m no good at it, but it makes me laugh anyway.
Hael hauls himself up to sit on the countertop, looking years younger than I’ve ever seen him.
“Qu'est ce que tu prépares?” he asks, his voice teasing. She slaps at him when he reaches over to snatch a package of cookies that’s sitting on the counter. The atmosphere in here is so disturbingly normal that I’m not quite sure what to do with it. I lean my shoulder against the cabinets, a genuine smile resting on skeptical lips.
“Après le dîner, Hael,” Marie chastises, and even if I can’t understand French, I can guess what she’s saying, and I laugh. No cookies until after dinner, Hael. As if her son doesn’t fuck like a porn star and kill people in the dead of night.
“Wow, Hael Harbin being told no dessert before dinner,” I tease, and our eyes meet from across the room. There’s a tension there that makes him curl his fingers around the edge of the countertop.
“I always save my dessert for after dinner,” he tells me, voice dropping in invitation. His mom slaps at him again and chastises him in sputtered French, kicking us out to set the table.
After dinner, I get to see exactly what he means.
“Your mom is nice,” I tell him, studying the same comic books that I looked at last time I was here. The collection gives a nice, little insight into the man standing behind me. The tortured superhero, the story with a twisted narrative, the redeemable villain. It’s all here, contained in ink and glossy paper. The most important story that it tells, however, is the one about Hael himself.
Just as I find myself wishing I could believe in impossible things, things like justice and peace and goodness, so does he. It’s all a bunch of fairy-tale crap, but it’s nourishing to the soul.
“She is,” he agrees finally, but he doesn’t sound entirely happy about it. “Too nice.”
Hael rests his hands on my hips, but not before sliding them underneath the hem of the hoodie dress so that they’re pressed into my skin on either side. When I exhale, the fog from my breath obscures the image of my panties in the window.
“You want to get her away from your father?” I ask, and I can see Hael nod behind me.
“She’s a grown woman though, so what can I do? I can’t lock her up; I can’t make her leave.” He pauses, and we both know what he means by that. He could theoretically do those things; with Havoc, he has the power. But he wouldn’t. That’s what he’s trying to say. “I figure I’ll stay here either until graduation or until I can figure out a way to get rid of my father.”
“Considering all the things we do, I bet we could find a way to make that happen.”
“We’re racking up a big body count,” Hael says contemplatively. “I just don’t want to get caught. If that happens, we’ll never see each other again.” His voice sounds distant for a second, but then his hands are roaming up and he’s leaning down to kiss the side of my neck. “I hear you brought heels?” Hael asks, and I nod because I don’t have the voice to speak right now, not as he drags his hot fingers down my belly and teases the edge of my panties.
“Slutty ones,” I add, and he laughs, pushing his fingers under the panties and then into me. I’m so slick and wet that he’s able to put three in like it’s nothing. “Oh, Blackbird baby, you’re so ready for me and we haven’t even started. Must’ve liked Mama’s cooking, huh?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I whisper, leaning back into him. I think about Brittany, but only for a minute. Just long enough to be glad that she isn’t carrying Hael’s child. Then I close my eyes and let Hael work his magic with steady fingers while he sears the side of my neck with his lips. “Can we get to the garage?” I ask, thinking of the Eldorado parked inside of it. What’s left of the cherry-red Camaro is outside and under a tarp. I wonder if Hael’s going to be able to fix it?
“Why the garage?” he asks me. “You want to see your car that badly?”
“I wanna see you shirtless and under the hood,” I breathe, leaning into him even harder as my knees get shaky and I find myself having trouble standing. Hael releases me without an orgasm and then licks his fingers in just such a way that I get chills when I turn around and see him doing it.
