Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,1

him out, pouncing on him and punching as they rolled across the jetty.

"Fuck you guys," I grouched, turning my attention back to the speedboat before diving into the sea and disappearing beneath the waves.

The water kissed my sun heated skin as I slipped beneath it, swimming for the boat and surfacing on the far side of it before heaving myself up and into it.

I ducked down low just in case any of Luther's men looked out and spotted me, then popped open the panel beside the wheel and started work on hot wiring this thing.

I grinned widely as the engine snarled to life and the boys all whooped in triumph as they raced to get onboard too, throwing more beers and snacks to me as Fox untethered the vessel and we were soon racing out towards the horizon with laughter colouring the air.

I stayed there on that boat with my boys laughing and the sun kissing my flesh.

I wasn't trapped here.

I wasn't finding it hard to breathe.

I wasn't going to die all alone in the dark.

I was drinking in the sunshine with a smile on my face and Otis Redding was singing again, and that's where I'd stay for as long as I could. In fact, I'd stay there forever if I had a choice in it. Because nothing good ever came of stepping out of that sunshine and back into the shadows of my reality. So I’d stay and stay and there would be love in my heart and laughter on my lips and reality couldn’t catch me because our speedboat was too fast and we were gonna chase the horizon forever.

“R ogue!” I roared, clawing at the rubble, throwing lumps of huge stone away from me as I fought to dig into the depths of the destroyed Dollhouse. “Call out to me, beautiful, show me where you are.”

The morning sun was beating down on my back, my shirt discarded and sweat clung to me as I gasped for water. But I wouldn’t stop. I’d worked like a madman through the night trying to get to her, and I wasn’t going to give up until she was back in my arms. I’d barely gotten out of the fucking place when the roof had fallen down, but by some miracle I’d made it to the balcony and dove off of it into the pool. And alright, fucking Fox and JJ had made it too. Not that I gave a shit about that.

A small, desperate voice in the back of my head kept whispering to me that Chase was in the depths of this rubble as well as my girl, and I may have hated that asshole, but somehow him dying here like this didn’t seem right. He was meant to die at my hands, dammit.

“Here.” Luther appeared, thrusting a bottle of water at me.

He was shirtless too, a mess of dust lining his tattooed chest as he worked alongside us. The whole of the Harlequin Crew were here digging and I just ignored them, keeping my distance from Fox and JJ who were working on the other side of the building along with half of the town who’d shown up to help. The fire department, police and goddamn sea rescue were here too, everyone battling to get the survivors out as soon as possible. Every time someone was pulled from the wreckage, a cry went up and my eyes went to their hair, my hopes rising only to be dashed to pieces all over again.

Where the fuck is she?

I knocked Luther’s hand away from my face with the bottle in it and he grabbed hold of my arm, shoving the water into my grip. I growled, not looking at him, but chugged the water all the same, drinking every last drop and figuring it was best I didn’t drop dead from thirst and heat exhaustion before I found her.

“That’ll need looking at.” He pointed at the wound on my arm which was clogged up with dust and dirt but I just returned to digging, throwing the water bottle back at him so it bounced off his abs.

“We’ll find her, son,” Luther promised and the little white and brown dog at his heels yipped like it agreed.

Luther had turned up with the mutt around half an hour after the building had gone down and it had been running back and forth between him, JJ and Fox all night, yapping and sniffing like he was as desperate as the rest of us