Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,101

earn some money you can pull a shift serving drinks, or-"

"No thanks," I said simply, glancing around at the mainly wealthy clientele and hunting down a few likely marks. "I have other ways to make money."

"Well, if they involve stealing from rich assholes then I'm gonna have to say no to that. You can rob them blind anywhere else, but we don't want this place getting a reputation for thieves. And believe me, I'm getting more than enough money from them in other ways."

"You're no fun," I groaned, dropping down onto a bar stool as I prepared myself for a long wait with not a lot to do.

"Bullshit. I'm all fun. You just can't afford to play with me right now."

"I'm never gonna pay for your dick, JJ," I warned him.

"Nah. I might just give you a freebie for old times' sake though," he replied with a wink, acting as if we hadn't even had that awkward moment over Maverick and I took my lead from him too as that seemed like the simplest way to deal with it.

"No thanks," I replied, damn near convincingly too. "I'll just take a free drink or two instead."

JJ grinned like that deal was acceptable to him and waved the bartender over. "The beautiful girl here eats and drinks for free. Okay?" he said and the girl nodded, offering me an intrigued look.

"I'll have one of those fancy ass cocktails with the cherries in it," I said, pointing at a woman who was drinking one beneath the shade of a palm while eyeing the wait staff.

When I looked back around at JJ, I found two men standing with him, eyeing me with interest. They were both of the heavily tatted, scowling, gangster variety and were kinda hard to tell apart aside from one being blonde and the other being dark. But they shared that same, low ranking gangbanger vibe that said they never stepped a toe out of line. Snooze.

"Rogue, this is Dan and Piston. They're gonna make sure you don't get into any trouble or accidentally run off while I go and deal with that special client I told you about," he explained.

"You got me babysitters?" I groaned as the two admittedly hot dudes gave me appraising looks. "And you didn't tell me about any client."

"Oh yeah, that's right, I didn't." JJ smirked and strode away from me without another word.

I silently seethed as he approached an older woman with a bright blue sundress on and dropped down into the seat beside her to talk, laying on the charm thicker than syrup.

"So," I said, taking a long sip of the cherry...thing and quite liking it. "Do you guys wanna get fucked up with me?"

"We can't really get shit faced while we're supposed to be looking after you," Piston said, shrugging apologetically and pushing a hand through his blonde hair and flexing his bicep. Dan just kind of glowered which seemed like code for I'm-a-miserable-fucker-so-don't-even-bother-asking.

"Great," I huffed, turning back to the bartender and ordering three more of the cherry things plus a shot of rum. No. Two shots of rum. And some cheese fries.

I tapped my foot impatiently as I looked around at the other people here who seemed to actually be having fun and envied them. Their lives seemed so gloriously boring.

After three cherry cocktail things, the two shots and the arrival of my cheese fries, I watched as JJ led the woman in blue out of the bar area and through a side door.

My stomach dropped as I watched them go and it took me a moment to realise that it kind of stung. He'd just been flirting with me, touching me, making me look at him in a way I hadn't meant to and now...he was just on to the next?

I knew I was dumb for caring about that and if it had been any other guy, I absolutely wouldn't have given a shit, but for some reason, I did. Just a little. Really, I should have been relieved to know he wasn't getting any ideas about something I absolutely didn't want to give him though, so I just turned the other way, grabbed my drink and got to my feet.

Mutt appeared, licking my foot before joining me as I headed off.

I strode out into the sun with my silent, brooding guard dogs following me and squealed with delight as I spotted Di standing off to the side of an open stage area right near the view which looked out over