Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,10

on the diamonds around her throat a little too long before I focused on her blue dress. Nope, it was green. My bad. “You look edible, Casandra.” Like an over-cooked lasagne made by a blind hobo.

First rule of living in the baking pacific town of Sunset Cove; sunscreen. It really wasn’t that hard to grasp. But a lot of the pensioners in the upper quarter of town looked like deep-fried chicken after a lifetime here. And not the mouth-watering kind. The kind you suspected might really be deep fried rat. Harsh? Maybe. Rich people deserved a bit of ribbing in my humbly honest opinion though. They lived ten miles from one of the poorest places in the U S of A and those diamonds could’ve solved a helluva lot of problems for a helluva lot of people. Specifically, my problems.

“Get your motherfucking heads down and your wallets out!” a booming voice cut through the air and people started screaming as a guy in a ski mask strode into the restaurant waving a gun. Adrenaline daggered along my veins.

Casandra wailed as the guy strode toward us and I leapt up from my seat, grabbing the back of my chair and hefting it toward him with a heroic yell. He knocked it aside and it smashed to the ground, his gun whipping onto me as his dark green eyes flared behind his ski mask. He came at me like an oncoming storm, grabbing the back of my head and placing the barrel of the gun right between my eyes. My heart hammered madly as I dropped to my knees beneath him, raising my hands in surrender.

“Everyone fill the bag with your cash and jewellery or I blow pretty boy’s brains out!” he barked, tossing the linen sack at Casandra and she screamed, flinching full bodily so her sun-baked tits nearly bounced out of her dress. “Do it!” the gunman roared and she shakily took off her rings, dropping them into the bag before throwing her purse in too. The necklace - my necklace - followed next and the guy snatched the bag, tossing it to the next table along. Everyone hurried to fill it as the waiters and waitresses urged people to comply. When the bag was fit to bursting, he picked it up, hauling me up by the scruff of my neck and shoving me toward the door.

“No one moves until I walk out of here or I start shooting,” he warned and my heart thundered in my chest as he jabbed the gun into my spine and started marching me toward the exit with my hands clasped behind the back of my head.

The second we stepped through the glass doors, a warm breeze whipped around me which tasted of the sea, washed up Hollywood stars and green, green money. The gunman marched me across the street into an alley out of sight of any security cameras and I dropped my hands from the back of my head, glancing over my shoulder at him with a lopsided grin.

“Hey brother.”

“Let’s go, JJ,” Fox said firmly, lowering the gun and we started running side by side.

A wild laugh escaped me as we turned left down the next alley and headlights flashed to draw our attention to the beat-up blue Ford waiting for us. We tore toward it as I whooped and we dove into the back, crashing into one another as Fox slammed the door behind him and Chase put the pedal to the metal. We were pressed back into our seats as we made our getaway and my stomach hurt from my laughter.

Fox tore his ski mask off and his floppy, dark blonde hair fell forward into his eyes. I shoved it out of his beautiful damn face and kissed him on the forehead, thumping my chest in excitement.

Fox scruffed my hair and shoved me back with a smirk, tossing the heavy linen sack onto my lap and crushing my junk.

“Fucker,” I grunted, but I couldn’t be that mad when the weight of that bag meant we’d just scored ourselves a serious prize.

“Did you get it?” Chase called from the driver’s seat, the scent of smoke filling the car as he lit up a victory cigarette.

“Yeah, man. And a whole lot more to fucking boot,” I said, fishing the diamond necklace out of the bag and moaning as I wrapped it around my neck and clipped it into place.

“Back in the bag, JJ,” Fox commanded, ever the fucking boss, but I just