Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,66

him from sending Maverick down."

"He went to prison for what I did?" she gasped, her wide eyes telling me this definitely was news to her.

I nodded stiffly, not feeling bad about that anymore because fuck him. "Maverick wanted us to give him an alibi, but Luther was hanging you over our heads. Said he'd kill you if we didn't do what he said. We couldn't help Maverick any more than we could help you, or ourselves."

I could see her swallow from here, but she said nothing, waiting for me to continue.

"He went down for six years – eighteen months in juvie and the rest served as an adult - and when he got out, he could never forgive us for abandoning him. Then some bad shit happened and...well he's gone now. He lives on Dead Man’s Isle, runs his own gang. The Damned Men. We're at war with them every fucking day. We don't go beyond The Divide and neither do they."

"What's The Divide?" she breathed, her voice like velvet and so familiar that a part of me wanted to keep her talking just so I could bathe in the feel of hearing it again. I just wished I could cut that part out of me and drown it in the pool.

"It's where our turf meets theirs. It's a war zone. We claim an inch of their territory and they reclaim it back the next day, it's an endless cycle. A blood bath. Don't ever fucking go there," the warning slipped from me before I could even consider it. What did I care if she went prancing off to The Divide? She'd end up dead and that would be my problem solved. But shit, even as I thought that I felt a sickness I couldn't shake. No, even after all this time, I had the urge to protect her. It was why I wanted to destroy the asshole who'd bruised her face and why I'd become a living hurricane since she'd arrived. But that didn’t mean I was above sending her away again. I could do that. I would do it.

"Anyway, point is, if you've come back to get the keys, you've got no fucking chance, ghost." I got to my feet, moving forward and standing over her so she had to lean back and look up at me.

"I'm not here for any reason that concerns you, dude," she said smoothly, but I tutted, knowing she was lying. I was always good at reading people, I just wished I'd been better because maybe then I would have figured out who she wanted out of us a long time ago and it could have saved me the heartache before I fell for her.

I lowered down to a crouch, swigging my rum as she was cast in my shadow, the light from the house blocked by my body. "Well I'll just spell it out in case you get any stupid ideas. You wouldn't be able to find my key, or Fox's, or JJ's. And if by some miracle you did manage to get your hands on them, then it wouldn't help you anyway. Because Maverick took off with his key and I'm sure it's buried in his fortress somewhere. You'd be shot a hundred feet from the outer fence if you went there. So good luck with the little plan that you think I can't see working behind your eyes, ghost. But I suggest you cut your losses and get out of Sunset Cove. I'll even give you the cash to set you up somewhere else. Anywhere else."

"I’m good right where I am, Chase," she said, her upper lip peeling back.

I leaned down, cupping her chin and ignoring the rush of heat that ran to my cock as my gaze wandered to her full lips. "I knew you couldn't forget my name, little one. It's carved on the inside of your skull just like yours is carved on the inside of mine. The five of us did a real number on each other, huh? But it all ended in tears. Did you cry for me, or did you only shed tears for the one of us you always planned on choosing?" The rum made my tongue loose and I brushed my thumb across her lips, unable to help myself.

She sucked my thumb into her mouth and my dick turned to iron, letting me know just how much I still hungered for this girl. She bit down hard and I cursed, yanking it