Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,30

now she was here, I fully intended to make sure that nothing ever happened to her again.

Chase was looking between us all with wide eyes and one hand clawing into his hair as I stormed past him with Rogue struggling against my hold. I stalked through the house, kicking doors open and sensing JJ and Chase hot on my heels. I knocked open a guest bedroom, striding inside and tossing her onto the bed so she bounced across it, spitting curses at me.

I locked the window, tucking the key into my pocket before heading for the door. Then I stepped outside, slamming it shut half a second before she collided with it and I twisted the key in the lock, pocketing that too.

“Motherfucker!” she screamed.

“Come on, dude, you can’t keep her in there,” JJ tried to reason with me, but I shouldered past him.

“I need to think.” I walked outside so I didn’t have to hear her kicking the door and calling me every dirty word in her vocabulary.

I paced outside under the glaring sun and Chase moved to my side, his arm brushing mine.

“We can just drive her back to wherever she came from,” he growled.

“What?” I snarled, rounding on him, my heart thundering at the mere suggestion of sending her away again. “Why the fuck would you say that?”

His jaw locked for a moment and lines of tension formed on his brow. “She’s not good for you, man. She’s not good for any of us.”

I shoved my palms into his chest, my teeth bared in fury. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that.”

“We searched for her and she nearly broke us because she was gone!” Chase shouted, his muscles flexing furiously. “I’m not watching that shit show again. We need to deal with this now before she gets her claws into any of us again.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” I said dangerously, getting up in his face. If he wanted to push me on this, he was going to regret it.

“Agreed,” JJ chipped in, but I didn’t look back at him. I glared at Chase, waiting for him to back down. And finally, he turned his cheek, tutting under his breath. He knew I’d win either way. This wasn’t a debate. And if there was anything in the world I was going to pull my King of the Harlequins card on him for, it was this. I was the boss, and she was staying. No one would tell me otherwise.

I drew in a steadying breath as Chase stood there looking like a wounded animal, then I turned my back on him and looked to JJ.

“Where’d you find her?” I growled.

“She showed up at the club. She was sleeping in a Jeep. Not hers. Looked stolen to me considering she had literally nothing with her but a ratty little dog.”

I started pacing again, the fury at knowing she’d been living like that making me too angry to function. But there was something far, far worse than even that gnawing at me. Something I simply couldn’t get out of my head.

“Who gave her those bruises?” I hissed, barely able to get the words past my lips. I’d plant every bullet I had in the motherfucker who dared hurt her. I would remove limbs, sever arteries, rip out every single organ-

“She won’t say,” JJ said, planting his shoulder against one of the struts that held up the awning on this side of the pool.

“Oh she’ll say alright,” I growled, marching forward to head inside again, but JJ held out a hand, pressing it against my shoulder to halt me.

His touch wasn’t firm, but I gave him my attention, knowing I didn’t always act rationally when I lost my head like this. Maybe I needed his voice of reason right now, because mine was long gone.

“Give her some time to cool off. You already locked her up, she’s gonna be as pissed as a caged bobcat right now.”

“And you think time’s gonna improve that?” I scoffed.

He moved closer, smiling but there was a storm swirling in his brown eyes. “Can’t hurt.”

I went to shove past him anyway, then paused, a thought occurring to me. “You mentioned a ratty dog…”

“It’s out on the porch.” He smirked as he caught on to what I meant and he twisted away from me, disappearing into the house in the direction of the front door.

“Don’t do this, man,” Chase begged from behind me and I glanced back at him. He was tapping a cigarette against the box in