Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,60

of me, taking the cigarette between my fingers and blowing out a heavy breath of smoke. "Look, man, don't take this the wrong way, but she's your kryptonite. All of our fucking kryptonite actually. And instead of telling her to get fucked, you offered her a cosy bed in our house. In a house we don't normally let anyone into unless we all approve it."

Fox sighed, pushing a hand into his dark blonde hair and turning his back on me. "She's different. She's already one of us."

"No," I growled, striding after him and pressing a hand to his shoulder, making him look at me. His brow was furrowed and I suddenly felt like a jackass for ignoring his texts. I just wasn't in a good headspace lately and now Rogue had turned up, it had sent me into a tailspin. But it came from a good place. Mostly. "She's not the same girl we grew up with. Just like we're not the same boys who grew up with her."

His mouth pressed into a flat line and he took in my expression like he was trying to hear me out, but his alpha instincts were fighting against him too hard. I knew how he felt about Rogue. We'd all fucking been there. I'd cared for her too once, but we couldn't just let this new version of her back into our house without even a single background check. I’d been avoiding the chick like she was lava creeping in my back door since she’d arrived. And my instincts said that wasn’t far from the truth.

"I'm not sending her away," he said, his tone firm, allowing no room for negotiation. "I'm not going to let her go when I just got her back." There was a possessive undertone to his voice that got my blood boiling.

"Listen to yourself," I snapped. "She's doing it already, getting in your head, making you weak. You wanna be in a position like we were after Maverick got out of prison?"

"It won't be like that," he snarled dangerously and my heart pounded furiously. "We were taken by surprise then, no one can touch us anymore. And you can't tell me you didn't feel something when she walked through that door, Chase. She's part of us. That hasn't changed."

"Well maybe not for you," I said, sneering. "But to me, she's just a stray who JJ dragged in off the street who we know nothing about. For all we know she's here to gut us in our sleep. I know you wanna protect us, Fox. You always have our backs. So why are you taking this risk for the sake of some chick?"

He scrubbed a hand over the stubble on his jaw like I was exasperating him. “JJ found her in town and she ran the hell away from him. Not to mention the bruises all over her face that some fucking deadbeat asshole gave her. You think that sounds like she’s after something to you?” he pushed, his eyes daring me to keep fighting him on this.

My heart twisted uncomfortably at his words, but I had to stick to my gut. I knew being a stubborn ass wouldn’t get me anywhere with my argument, but the thing about being a stubborn ass was that I couldn’t even talk myself out of a decision once I’d made it. And when it came to Rogue Easton, I was fully decided that she was trouble with a capital everything.

“She didn’t come to Sunset Cove for our help then did she, Fox? So what did she come here for?” I demanded, desperate for him to see reason.

He gritted his jaw, shaking his head then walking away, clearly done with this conversation. “We’ve got work to do, and the dog had your dinner so you can make yourself something when we’re done.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered. Fox cooked every Sunday and his food was like a slice of goddamn heaven on my tongue. Now the girl’s mutt was apparently eating better than I would be tonight.

“You made your choice not to be here this evening,” he said coolly, reading my damn mind.

He rounded the light wood stairway and led me up to our office on the second floor. JJ was at the desk inside, his bare feet up on the surface, a mojito in his hand, and a cocky look on his face.

He looked to me, arching a brow. “Well look who finally showed up, el gruñón.” He kicked out of his seat,