Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,115

shirt up to cover my nose instead as the smoke raked the back of my throat.

Fox stepped through the smoke splattered in blood as he tore his ski mask from his face and used it to wipe the gore from his knife.

My ears were ringing so heavily that it took me a second to realise JJ had stopped firing and quiet came from the stairs.

“You okay?” Fox asked J and he nodded, pulling his own ski mask off.

“You know I love surprise parties,” JJ panted and I chuckled, though I wasn’t letting my guard down yet.

I took a long breath, looking around at the carnage, spotting a trail of blood that led up to the glass door which gave access to a large balcony outside.

Fox walked over to it and pushed it open, raising his handgun as he stepped outside, his eyes ablaze as he followed the trail and I hurried along after him with JJ.

"Hey, Fox!" a familiar voice boomed which made my blood chill.

As we rounded the corner, we all raised our weapons at the man who'd once been a brother to us.

Maverick stood up on the edge of the balcony, the motherfucker holding a bloody head in his hand and a grenade in the other, the pin sticking out the corner of his mouth. He spat it over the edge of the lighthouse the second we slowed before him and he ran his tongue across his lips which were stained with blood.

Tattoos crawled up his neck and coated his muscular arms right down to his fingertips. Every piece of skin I could see was covered in ink aside from his face. His dark hair met with equally dark stubble on his jaw and his strong features were set in callous amusement.

My gut knotted as I realised it was Merkle's head in his grip, his face twisted in pain, fixed there forever in death.

"You fucking asshole," I snarled, pointing my gun directly at Maverick’s head as hatred coursed through me, but Fox held up a hand to stop me and JJ from firing.

"Clever boy, Foxy," Maverick said with a smirk. "You always knew how to follow the rules, huh?"

"Your men are dead," Fox snarled. "Surrender, asshole."

Maverick laughed coldly. "So are yours, brother." He gestured with his chin to the edge of the balcony and I side stepped towards the edge apprehensively.

A railing stood on top of the stone wall to stop anyone from falling over the hundred foot drop beyond it. I forgot to breathe entirely as I saw the butchered men hanging by their necks from lengths of rope tethered to it. Blood ran from their wounds, painting the white wall in red splashes that poured down towards the ground.

"You fucking piece of shit!" JJ roared, raising the assault rifle to point at our enemy.

"This grenade is going off one way or another, Johnny James," Maverick warned. "Pull that trigger and you'll take us all with you. Is my death worth all of yours?"

"What do you want?" Fox hissed, his gun pointed at Maverick as his upper lip peeled back.

Maverick casually tossed Merkle's head away from him and a sickening thump sounded as it hit the ground a moment later. "I wanna piss on your lighthouse." He lowered his fly, taking out his goddamn dick and pissing on the fucking floor in front of us. As he was still holding that fucking grenade, all of us just had to wait for him to finish.

He sighed as he tucked himself away, transferring the grenade from one hand to the other and making us all shift nervously and raise our weapons higher.

"I never wanted this heap of shit anyway." Maverick shrugged. "I just like the taste of your men's blood. Do you three taste as sweet, I wonder?”

"If you want us dead, then throw it, motherfucker," I dared him and Maverick met my eye with his midnight black ones. There was something inherently wrong in him now. It was impossible to see the boy I’d once loved. Whatever had happened to him in prison had fucked him up good.

"How’s your catch these days, Chase?" Maverick asked, then threw the fucking grenade at me before diving over the goddamn ledge.

I dropped my gun with a yell of alarm, catching the grenade and throwing it off the balcony with shaking hands. The whole thing exploded in the air with a deafening bang that made us all drop down to our knees and cover our heads.

"Please tell me he just committed suicide,"