Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,218

him before shifting my gaze to Rogue.

“We lied to protect you,” I told her.

“You do a lot of shady shit to ‘protect me’ that I never ask for. And it always ends up hurting me worse, so how about you go fuck yourself, Badger. Or each other.”

“A thank you would be nice for picking your ass up out of the sea with a hoard of The Damned Men after you,” I growled, dropping back into my seat as we closed in on the shore. My temper was rising and teaching her a lesson tonight was starting to appeal again. She was a brat who needed to understand her place was at my side and following my orders.

“A thank you would be nice for giving you an in to hit back at Maverick too, but I don’t hear you singing my praises.” She turned her gaze out to the water.

“Thank you, pretty girl,” JJ said and I scowled at him.

“Don’t enable her,” I snapped before fixing her in my stare. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

“But I didn’t.” She shrugged.

“That’s not the point,” I gritted out.

“Isn’t it?” she sang. “Oh and FYI, Rick didn’t kill those guys of yours. He said he was sitting pretty in his castle. So it sounds like you have another enemy knocking at your door. You really have a lot of those, Badger, don’t you?”

I tsked, shaking my head. “He’s lying.”

“Why would he?” she asked and I frowned, sharing a look with my boys. “He said himself that if he’d done it he’d happily take the credit.”

“She’s got a point,” JJ said and Chase pushed his tongue into his cheek.

“Bullshit,” Chase said coldly. “He lied to her face because he wanted to make out he’s not a psycho, most likely to get into her panties.”

“Right, ‘cause that makes sense,” Rogue deadpanned but it did to me. Maverick had wanted her as much as we had. And he would have said anything to try and take my girl from me. I fought a smirk at the thought of her rejecting him and his head exploding when he found out what she’d helped us do.

“Well we’ll know for sure once our guys have finished going through the CCTV from tonight,” I said and Rogue shrugged.

JJ reached the shore, pulling the boat up alongside the small jetty that led out from the beach which backed our property. There was a guard standing on the end of it who helped us moor up then I led the way to the house as JJ and Chase flanked Rogue, marching her inside behind me.

Mutt came running up to greet us as I opened the door, yapping excitedly, diving past me and licking Rogue’s ankles. I turned, whipping him up into my arms and cursing as his teeth sank into my thumb.

“Hey, get off of my dog!” Rogue snapped, but I ignored her, heading upstairs and hearing her running after me.

I walked straight into my bedroom and the second she entered, I turned back, tossing the dog out into the corridor and shutting the door with her inside. I twisted the key in the lock and stuffed it into my back pocket.

“What the fuck?” She gazed at me incredulously and I yanked the blanket off of her, steering her into my bathroom.

I caught her elbow as I pushed her along, running my thumb across the cut there with a grunt of annoyance and she hissed in pain.

“Sorry baby,” I murmured. I hated seeing her bleed. It wasn’t deep, but that didn’t matter. “Did he touch you?” I asked in a growl, inspecting her in the bright light of the room, hunting for more marks.

“Only in ways I liked,” she purred and I spun her around to face me, my teeth snapping together.

“Did you fuck him?” I demanded, suddenly drowning in a sea of panic. Please fuck no.

“Contrary to what you think of me, Badger, I’m not fucking every man I come into contact with,” she said wearily. “I pissed him off good though.”

I grinned, hounding her into the shower as I pulled off my own clothes. When I reached for her bikini strap, she slapped my hand away with a feral noise and I rolled my eyes, stepping in behind her naked.

She continued to slap my hands away as I tried to wash her, keeping her back to me the whole time. When we stepped out again, she didn’t even let me wrap a towel around her.

“Just let me help you,” I commanded, but