Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,220

the display of aggression.

“What?” I barked, the alpha in me rearing his head.

Chase flicked some music on, falling down onto the couch and planting a cigarette between his lips.

“You know what,” JJ said, his eyes narrowing.

“I don’t get it.” I drank another measure of rum. “Why’s she acting like this? She doesn’t snap at you like that.”

“That’s because she actually likes me,” JJ said cockily and I sat up straighter, anger seeping through me at the insinuation. “Hear me out,” he went on before I could strangle him. “If you spent some time with her like I do, talked to her, listened to her, maybe she’d get along with you better. You know, like you always used to get along with her when we were kids?”

My lips pressed tightly together, but I supposed I could see his point. “So like…a date?”

“I didn’t say that. Why don’t you just be her friend and see how things go from there?” JJ suggested, but I ignored him, already planning out a date I could take her on. I could win her around. I just had to channel my inner whipped teenager. I used to love taking her places and giving her cute and pointless shit. If I wasn’t so caught up in her running out on me again, maybe I would have thought to do that sooner anyway. But then again, my dense teenage ass hadn’t won her either. So I needed to up my game. Combine future and past, become her perfect fantasy of me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I found an update from Kestrel waiting for me with a clip of the CCTV footage at the front gate when Maverick had attacked.

Kestrel:

No joy, boss. The assholes were covered up and the van they came in had fake plates.

I sighed as I watched the recording, the men in ski masks jumping out of the back of their van and killing our men fast before setting to work with leaving their fucking message.

I tossed my phone to JJ and he sighed as he watched it before passing it to Chase.

“Do you think there’s anything to what Rogue said?” JJ wondered aloud. “It’s definitely Maverick right?”

“Who else?” I gritted out.

JJ shrugged and Chase ran his tongue across his teeth.

“No one else would get this close,” Chase said and I nodded the same time JJ did, putting the matter to rest. “Have you told your dad?”

“Nah,” I said. “It’s not his business, besides he’ll only defend Maverick again. He’s fucking delusional.”

“Can we talk about what the fuck we’re gonna do when he comes home?” Chase asked. “Because if he finds Rogue back in town, let alone sleeping under our roof he’s not going to hesitate to kill her.”

“Do you think he’d recognise her?” JJ wondered. “We could give her a fake name?”

“Dad’s too savvy for that. If he didn’t recognise her right away, he’d figure it out fast.”

“Especially with the way you two are acting like she keeps your balls in her purse all the time,” Chase muttered and JJ picked up a pillow, whipping him around the head with it before falling into a seat of his own.

“Dad isn’t coming home anytime soon,” I said. “We’ll have warning before he does and then we’ll hide her.”

“Right, and is that your long term plan too?” Chase snarked. “Because if you insist on keeping her then sooner or later Daddy Harlequin is going to find out. And he’ll be even more pissed if he knows we all hid her and lied about it.”

“Well what do you suggest Ace?” I demanded.

“You know what my stance on this situation is,” he said, releasing a cloud of smoke up into the air.

“I’m tired of you acting like she doesn’t mean anything to you,” JJ said with an arched brow. “We’ve known you your whole life, and ever since she left, you act like your heart is a dead lump of flesh in your chest just so you never had to have it broken again.”

“Did you make that inaccurate assumption because you read it in one of your mommy porn books?” Chase smirked, but JJ just shrugged.

“To become every woman’s fantasy, it helps to do some research on what every woman’s fantasy is. You’d get laid more often if you took a dip in my library.”

“Yeah, but did you really need to buy that special cover edition of Fifty Shades of Grey on Ebay?” Chase snorted and I cracked a smile as JJ scowled.

“It’s a classic, man,” JJ