Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,112

ears and my cigarette was getting a quick death as I toked it practically down to the butt.

"You saw them fucking?" Fox hissed.

"No, but...the way they were looking at each other, I could tell. They either had or they were about to. And I got the feeling it wasn't the first time." I shook my head, stealing a glance at Fox's expression and finding his eyes full of the endless kind of hurt I'd desperately wanted to save him from. It made my heart yank and I felt like a shitty friend for giving in and telling them.

"She chose him?" JJ asked in a tight voice.

"Yeah," I murmured, trying to swallow down the ball in my throat. "So, if she came back to town for any of us...I'm guessing it was him."

Quiet fell, but it was weighted with a thousand thoughts as Fox stared out the window like he was looking for his next murder victim.

JJ sighed at last. "Well it was ten years ago, bro, even if she did fuck him, it's not like she never cared for us."

Fox was descending into a dangerous silence that was making the hairs on my arms raise to attention. I was fully aware I'd just awoken the apex predator in him, but he'd pushed me and this was what he'd gotten for himself.

I switched off the headlights and rounded onto Cooper Street which would bring us up close to the lighthouse, driving alongside the far end of Sunset Beach which led into Maverick's new territory

"I'm sorry," I said heavily.

"You should've told us," Fox gritted out.

"I thought about it, but she was gone and it just seemed like the wrong thing to do. You guys were so...fucked up."

"So were you," JJ said gently. "You didn't have to carry that alone, Ace."

I shrugged one shoulder, glad to have least gotten it off my chest after all these years. And I hoped it would make them see things clearer at least. "So maybe we should send her off to the asshole she really wants."

"No," Fox snapped furiously, turning his murderous gaze on me. "She's not his," he growled like he was trying to make it so.

"She was," I tossed back, opening my window and flicking the cigarette butt out. "She made her choice."

"No!" Fox barked, refusing to accept my words.

"It was ten years ago," JJ reasoned. "Even if she did-"

"She didn't," Fox snarled ferociously. "She wouldn't have. I refuse to believe that fucking asshole took her virgi-"

A car slammed into the side of us and I cried out as we spun violently sideways and I jerked hard against my seatbelt as we were forced off of the road. My heartrate skyrocketed as our car whipped around onto the beach and I was already undoing my seatbelt and grabbing my gun before it came to a stop.

Bullets ripped into my car door and Fox shoved my head down as a few sailed in through the window.

Shattering glass cascaded over us from Fox’s side and I cursed, popping Fox's seatbelt as I turned my head to check JJ was okay in the backseat. The sound of return fire split through the air painfully close by and I saw JJ peeking out of his now shattered window, firing his hand gun with a continual pop of bullets.

Fox pushed off of me, shoving his door open and I crawled out after him, dropping onto the sand and tugging open JJ's door to give him an exit route.

"Fuck, how did they know we were coming?" I snapped.

"Maybe they got lucky and a patrol spotted us, I don't wanna consider the alternative just yet," Fox growled, moving to sit behind the wheel at the front of the car before returning fire over the hood. I took my phone out, dialling Merkle and he answered on the first ring.

"We’re already coming up behind them!" he called in my ear and a split second later a rattle of more gunfire carried from the road.

“Hurry,” I demanded and killed the call, peering through the Honda with my gun raised and shooting at a big asshole with a machete on his hip.

He hit the ground with a cry and the amount of blood that poured from him said he was a goner. Merkle and our guys were shooting from the alley behind them and the final assholes fell under their assault.

The night air rushed around me and I stood, peering through the battered car as JJ hurried to scramble out of it beside me. Three