Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,257

found a tree with thick branches hanging low enough to climb and hauled myself skyward until I made it up to the top of the fence.

I eyed it warily as I wondered whether there was any chance they had a backup generator. Because if they did, I was about to find out just how powerful the voltage on this thing was.

With a deep breath, I jumped from the tree to the fence, catching hold of it and heaving myself over the top with a grunt of determination.

Luckily, my ass did not get barbecued and I grinned as I lowered myself down on the other side into the graveyard. I glanced around warily, hoping the CCTV was also off the grid now that the power was down before darting between the family graves to the squat stone building in the centre of the fenced off space.

The crypt was just as I remembered it with the stone statue of a weeping angel leaning over the doorway. His wing was draping forward to create a small archway that I could stand beneath as I reached out to trace my fingers over the ring of keyholes set into the stone door.

I knew whose was whose. The locks that matched the four boys' keys surrounding my own in the centre.

I took my key from my neck and slowly pushed it into the lock, my heart thundering as I slid it into place and resisted the urge to turn it. My breaths came more heavily as I stood there, feeling how solid the stone was, appreciating the fact that this was still here, our secrets still concealed within. And one secret in particular which I was going to lay claim to to exact my revenge on the boys who had destroyed me.

It didn't even feel like a choice anymore. More like the desperate plea of my heart to seek retribution for what they'd stolen from me before I could ever even consider the idea of trying to find happiness again.

In fact, I was certain I wouldn't be finding any of that.

But maybe I could find a little peace if I could just make them hurt the way they'd hurt me. And maybe that would have to be enough.

I hunted the whole of Sunset Cove before I finally found my car parked up on the curb near Sinners’ Playground. Someone had tossed three ice cream cones on the hood which a bunch of seagulls were currently tearing into and leaving scratches on my fucking new paintwork. And by someone, I meant Rogue. And by tossing one look at the shady looking ice cream vendor down the street who was giving me the side eye, I also meant him.

I didn’t even care to try and chase the birds away as I started running down onto the beach toward the pier. I was just relieved she hadn’t skipped town already. Maybe it was a weak hope to think she might not still be planning to go though. Maybe she’d dumped my car and jacked herself a new ride somewhere along the seafront, but my gut told me she was in our old stomping ground. And I had to see her. I didn’t know if I could convince her to stay because I couldn’t erase every shitty thing that had happened to her because of us. But I’d fucking try.

I climbed the beam up to the railing on the pier, swinging my leg over and dropping into the park. I strode between the old shops, casinos, checking through the windows to make sure she wasn’t there. My heart was thrashing like a wild beast in my chest and I knew it wouldn’t rest until I found her again. Please be here, pretty girl.

“Rogue!” I called, figuring if she wanted to run from me I wasn’t going to stop her anyway.

But maybe if she knew I was here, I could convince her to talk to me. Convince her that…fuck, I didn’t even know. That I wasn’t an asshole? I was. That I hadn’t meant for any of that bad shit to happen to her? Well fucking duh, but how did that make it any better? She was right. When we’d exiled her from Sunset Cove, there wasn’t a chance she was going anywhere good. But staying had equalled death. And we’d only meant for it to be temporary. She wasn’t meant to run. We were supposed to contact her, find her. But when we’d tried…hell, I hated to even think of