Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,236

grin and JJ chuckled.

"Fine," Fox conceded. "Let's go do this dumb race then if you're so determined to earn your own money. But if I catch any more guys staring at you, I reserve the right to break their faces."

"Perfect,” I said ignoring the face breaking because that was up to him. “You and JJ can be a team. I'm with Chase."

"What?" they all asked simultaneously and I just rolled my eyes as I grabbed Chase's hand and tugged him after me towards the race.

"Everyone knows Chase is the only one who cares about winning this thing as much as I do. You two are dead weight I don't need to carry. If you wanna try and prove me wrong on that then feel free to team up and try to beat us. Just promise me you won't cry over it when we win.”

I tugged on Chase's hand harder to make him hurry up, ignoring Fox and JJ’s protests and slipping through the crowd before jogging towards the girl who was taking sign ups. She wrote our names down while Chase acted like he didn’t want to be here though not making any attempt to leave all the same and she directed us towards the piles of equipment they'd provided to build the rafts.

We moved down the sandy shore to the edge of the lagoon and stopped before a pile which contained four big, blue barrels, six long wooden poles, a bunch of old plastic bottles, other random bits of trash and a long coil of rope.

I bit my lip as I looked over our options, releasing Chase’s hand and trying to work out which would be the fastest method of putting a raft together while the other teams all did the same around us.

Thanks to our little run down here, by the time Fox and JJ made it to the line up, they were positioned six places along from us, but of course Fox just made the dudes beside us move with a glower and a death threat.

"I think we should try and make a small raft," I said, glancing over my shoulder and finding Chase placing a cigarette between his lips.

I huffed out a breath of frustration and whirled on him, plucking it from his lips just as he raised his lighter and tossing it away with a growl.

"Get your head in the game, Cohen," I snapped.

"It's a dumb raft and a couple hundred bucks," he said with a frown and a shrug that said he gave no shits about winning this thing, but fuck that. I knew him even if he wanted me to think he’d changed. Chase was the most pettily competitive motherfucker I’d met in my entire life, he just needed a little motivation to remember why he wanted to win so bad.

"No. It's the chance to beat Fox into the dirt and rub our victory in his face."

"And JJ's," Chase added flatly but there was the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.

I glanced at the douchebags in question and found the two of them discussing their own tactics. Despite their supposed lack of interest in doing this with me, they sure looked like they wanted to try and beat us now.

"Yeah. But we all know you like coming out on top," I taunted.

It might have been a long time since I'd been a part of the way these boys functioned, but I knew that much wouldn't have changed. Chase hated being told what to do and he always went at life like he had a damn point to prove.

"The prize is still bullshit," he muttered, but his gaze had shifted to the equipment we'd been given and I could see those little cogs in his brain working out how we should do this.

"What do you want to win then?" I demanded as the girl announcing the game finished blathering on about rules and started counting down from ten to signal the start of it.

"A favour," he said, his lips pulling up into an evil little smile.

"Done. But I'm keeping all the cash." I held my hand out to take his and he snorted a laugh as he slapped his palm against mine.

The whistle blew and we dove into action, grabbing barrels and kicking the empty bottles aside.

We made quick work of lashing two of the barrels between four of the wooden poles and we quickly tied off the ropes while all around us the other teams were working to connect