Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,264

a shitty situation. But I wanted to be more than that, I just didn’t know how to be.

“Fox will probably be camped out in a bush outside your trailer right about now,” I mused, burying the pain in my chest and slapping on a smile. “I can deal with him for you if you want to go there?”

“You sure?” she asked hopefully.

“Course, pretty girl.” I took out my phone, shooting a text to Fox.

JJ:

I found her. But she’s gonna skip town if you don’t get out of her trailer and leave her in peace there for a while.

Fox:

Fine. I’ll give her a day.

JJ:

Three.

Fox:

Two.

JJ:

Done.

“You’ve got two days of peace,” I told her brightly and she pursed her lips.

“Aren’t you doing the boat job tomorrow?” she asked with a frown.

“Yeah, why?” I asked as we stepped off of the carousel.

“Just wondering.” She shrugged. “How much is it worth again?”

“I don’t recall me ever telling you,” I taunted and she smirked.

“Well I’m asking now.”

“Eighty grand. Half goes to Luther’s empire of course, but the rest is split evenly between the four of us who pull off the job. It’ll be a tidy ten grand each.”

“Four?” she questioned.

“Yeah, Chase is picking the fourth. There’s armed guards and the best way to pull the job is to come at the boat from both sides so we have a back up escape plan if needed. It’s safer to go in pairs, we can watch each other’s backs.”

“Well don’t die, Johnny James,” she said.

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me since you got back to town,” I said with a teasing grin and she jabbed her elbow into my side.

“Just don’t, ‘kay?”

I slung my arm around her shoulders, drawing her close, unable to resist the urge to hold onto her just a little longer. “’Kay, pretty girl.”

***

I met Fox down by the marina dressed in my fisherman gear, cap and all, looking real authentic. Fox was matching me, waiting on the small fishing boat along the dock and I jumped onto it with a grin.

“Well ahoy there, seaman,” I said brightly and he rolled his eyes. “Where’s our other fellow seaman?”

“Stop saying seaman like that,” Fox said sternly, taking out his phone and checking it for messages from Chase.

I dumped my bag of tools down in the back of the boat and glanced around at the other fishermen preparing their boats. It was early morning and we had fifteen minutes before the ferry left the shore. I could just make out the large white side of it further down the dock, La Mujer Bonita written in swirling red writing near the front. There wouldn’t be many people heading out on it this early, the tourist season was only just beginning so I was banking on a quiet vessel, but the armed guards were going to be our biggest problem. We’d had a tip off about them a couple of weeks back and tweaked our plans to accommodate them. They were there to protect the cargo from any shady passengers though. They wouldn’t be expecting anyone shady to climb aboard and rob them blind.

It sounded like there were more than those Cartier watches being transported now, but whatever valuables they were guarding we weren’t interested in them. Fox wanted the watches and nothing else. We could take them right out of the box with the code we’d all memorised and the police would never be able to figure out when they went missing. We had to get on the ferry, down to the hold and back off of it again without anyone ever realising we were there. It was going to be quick and dirty and I couldn’t fucking wait.

The minutes crept by and Fox tried calling Chase several times to no reply.

Anxiety bled into me and I pressed my hand to his arm as La Mujer Bonita sounded its horn and started pulling out of the dock.

“We’ve gotta go,” I hissed and Fox looked to me with fury etched into his face.

“Fucking Chase. This his goddamn job,” he snarled.

“Can we do it alone?” I asked and he ran his tongue over his teeth as he considered it.

Fox’s phone buzzed in his hand and I leaned closer so I could read the message from Chase.

Chase:

On my way. Get going. We’ll meet you on the water.

“This isn’t the plan,” Fox snarled.

“Come on, let’s go. If he says he’ll be there, he’ll be there,” I said and Fox nodded, giving in and moving to start up the