I moved to the back of the queue with my new friend, laughing at the ridiculousness of this game. If I won, it would seriously be the easiest five hundred bucks I ever made.
"Girl, do you happen to have a tall, blonde, jealous type boyfriend who wouldn't want you participating in this contest?" my new friend asked me, pointing through the crowd.
I turned to look and spotted Fox storming across the terrace with his gaze locked on me and murder in his eyes. Oh hell no. He was not gonna cash block me.
"I'm next!" I yelled as a blonde girl finished getting drenched and moved off of the stage.
I hurried forward - stumbling a little but not too much thanks to the cherry things - then pushed the next guy in line aside and moved out onto the stage.
The crowd all started cheering as I put my hands in the air, my white shirt riding up to expose my midriff as I locked eyes with Fox who had made it half way towards me.
"Rogue," he snarled, a clear command in his tone.
"Come on then boys!" I called loudly, smiling at the two men holding the hoses. "Make me all wet."
I bit my lip as I looked at Fox again just as the two hoses were turned on and aimed at me. I made a good show of squealing and bouncing about, flicking my rainbow hair like I was making a noughties music video and thought I was Rihanna with that Umbrella or Usher singing U Got It Bad. I probably looked like a total jackass, but the crowd were cheering and I had a nice buzz going so I was pretty much living my best life.
Or at least I was until I was attacked by a mad man who lifted me off of my feet, flung me over his shoulder and yelled something about heads rolling when he figured out who had let this happen before carrying me away.
Mutt was barking and Fox cursed in response to what I was fairly sure were little dog teeth in his ankle which made me love the little critter more.
The crowd cheered even louder as I was hauled all the way around the side of the club to the parking lot and out of sight while I laughed and enjoyed the ride.
Fox dropped me down to sit on the hood of his truck and placed his palms flat either side of me so that he could snarl in my face.
"Oh, hey Badger, I didn't know you were here," I said brightly, winding a finger through a strand of wet, pink hair as I looked up at him innocently.
"Are you purposefully trying to make me angry?" he demanded, glaring at me with fury in those green eyes of his.
"Why would you think that?"
"Because you're actively going out of your way to draw the kind of attention I don't want on you. I don't like other men looking at you like that. I don't want anyone to see-"
"Do you remember when we went down to Sinners' Playground and climbed all the way to the top of the Ferris wheel during that lunar eclipse?" I asked him, leaning back onto my elbows and looking up at him with my wet shirt sticking to my skin and showing my black bikini top though it.
"What about it?" he grunted, but the way his eyes lit said he knew exactly what I was talking about. They lit even more as his gaze slid down over my transparent top with a fierce hunger that made my breath catch.
"You brought me a rose."
"I found that on the pier," he muttered, almost exactly the same way he had when he'd given it to me. But I’d known it was bullshit even then.
"I left that thing in a vase until it dried out and turned all crispy. I didn't even throw it out after that. I kept it between the pages of a book by my bed,” I mused. Of course, I’d lost it alongside pretty much everything else I’d ever owned when I’d been dragged away from my home and tossed away like last week’s garbage but I wouldn’t have wanted to keep it then anyway.
"Why are you telling me that?" Fox asked, seeming to have been thrown off of the tirade he'd been about to embark on by my story which was what I’d been aiming for. I was so over the lectures already and I always had been the best at making him break away from them.
I shrugged. "I had the strangest idea that you were going to kiss me that night," I said in a low voice, my gaze dropping to his mouth for a brief moment.
"Did you want me to?" he asked, seeming way too keen to hear the answer to that question.
"Yes. And no."
"What does that mean?" Fox demanded.
"That you used to make my heart race and my skin tingle whenever you touched me. That sometimes I dreamed about what a kiss from you might taste like."
Fox made a low noise in the back of his throat, shifting closer to me so that his legs pressed to mine and I parted my thighs to let him move to stand between them.
"But I used to be so afraid of that too,” I added. “Because if I kissed you - any of you - I was almost certain everything would change. And I was more afraid of that than anything in the world. The four of you were everything to me."
"Rogue." Fox's throat bobbed and I watched the movement like I was hungry for it, just the way I had that night sitting up in the little carriage watching the moon turn deepest orange above the waves.
"Maybe I shouldn't have held back," I replied. "Maybe I should have found out if a kiss from you would have been as sweet as I dreamed it would."
"I copped out," he said. "I got you up there all alone, didn't tell any of the others, brought you a flower and then when it came to it...I guess I wasn't man enough yet. But I don't have that problem now."
He leaned towards me with intent but I shook my head. "The problem is, I'm not that girl anymore. And you're not that boy. I wanted you then because that was when I thought that you and the others were my whole world. It was when I could look past every shitty, crappy thing in this place and see all of you and know it was going to be okay because I'd always have you. So I guess I should be thanking you really. You opened my eyes to the reality of my life. My worth. You taught me not to live on prayers and wishes and to accept the shit that was thrown my way. You taught me not to rely on anyone."
"We need to talk about what happened when you left," he growled, gripping my arms and pulling me upright so that we were nose to nose. "There are things I don't think you understand. Reasons-"
"Excuses, you mean," I interrupted. "Because that's all they are. But if you want to try and plead your case with me then I'm all ears. I'd just love to hear what made my boys throw me away like last week's trash. I'd love to understand why I never heard from you again. Why you sent me to that woman. Why none of you ever even tried to come look for me-"
"We were trying to protect you," Fox said in a low tone. "We were trying to-"
"I hate you, Fox Harlequin," I hissed right in his face, almost close enough to touch my lips to his and let him drown me once and for all, but that wasn’t going to happen. "I hate all of you unlike I've ever hated anything. And you know why that is?"
"Why?" he asked, his voice rough, fingers curling tight around my waist, gripping the bare skin beneath my dripping wet shirt like he never wanted to let me go. But it was too late for that.
"Because you were all I had. And you knew it. When I killed Axel, you wiped the blood from my skin and promised me you'd make it right. All of you did. And then you kicked me to the curb and forgot all about me."
"We never forgot you, Rogue. We lost you. We-"
"You took away the only chance I ever had to be happy when I needed you most. It doesn't matter how you justify it. There were a hundred ways that whole thing could have gone and you chose to destroy me when I was at my lowest. And now you stand here telling me what I can or can't do, laying claim to me like I'm some sort of possession and expecting me to forgive you when you haven't even tried to apologise? Please. You might have ruined me, but I'd take a thousand years of misery over a single moment as one of your toys."
The look Fox gave me made my heart twist in a way that had my eyes prickling with memories of the tears I'd cried over him and the rest of my boys, but I fought them back with fierce determination. I would never cry for them again.
"Let's go back to the house and talk about this," he demanded. "Maybe then you'll understand how we-"
> "I hear the hot girl with the unicorn hair won the wet t-shirt contest and somehow I missed out on the show," JJ called as he rounded the side of the club and approached us.
I looked over at him just as he tossed me a roll of cash and I caught it automatically.
"Thanks," I said, pushing forward so that I was pressed up against Fox and making him back up to let me stand. "Can we get the fuck out of here now?"
"I'm not done talking to you," Fox demanded. "We need to discuss this. And I'm not letting you get away with this little stunt either. It's past time for us to set some fucking ground rules and I'm done with playing nice about it."
"Fine," I snapped. "Let's all lay our cards on the table and find out where we stand."
"I'll text Chase and get him to meet us back at the house," Fox replied, moving to open the door beside me. "Get into the truck, Rogue."
"I'll ride with JJ," I replied coldly. "He was always my favourite anyway."
JJ grinned broadly at that and moved forward to wrap an arm around my shoulders as he steered me towards his orange GT. Mutt got the hint and leapt inside with a happy woof.
I slipped into my seat wordlessly, only looking back at Fox once I'd clipped my seatbelt into place and was reclining in the plush leather. He was already in his truck, shades on and his mouth set in a firm line as he backed out of the space and shot away towards the road.
"Well," JJ said as he slid in behind the wheel and gave my wet shirt an appreciative look. "This is going to be interesting."
F ox messaged me to meet him and JJ back at the house and I left the gym in my grey wifebeater and jeans, walking over to my Suzuki motorcycle and swinging my leg over the saddle. Call me an asshole, but I didn't always bother with my helmet. The pavement would break my fall if I came off today and I'd lost the will to give a shit a long time ago. I was pretty sure that was around the time Rogue had ripped my heart out, Luther made me into a killer and my life got turned on a dime.
I wasn’t suicidal, obviously. But I drank in the pleasures of this world like they were fast going extinct because now I knew how quickly the good stuff could be torn away. From the moment I’d realised I should have told Rogue how I felt about her before it was too late, I swore to never fucking make that mistake with anything ever again. So nowadays if I wanted it, I took it. And if it gave me a thrill or made me hard, I took it even quicker.
I tore down The Mile, the wind rushing over me and carrying the scent of the sea and the latest fishermen's catch as adrenaline pumped through my blood. I loved this fucking town. I loved the waves and the pier, the cliffs and the fishes. I even loved the blood spilled at night and the danger lurking in the shadows. Sunset Cove was a dreamer’s paradise and a coward’s nightmare. And it was my favourite place on earth.
I sped past Sinners' Playground, my gaze drawn to the Ferris wheel out on the end of the hulking pier as the sun glinted off the metal. There'd once been talk of the mayor demolishing the whole thing and me and my friends had begged Luther Harlequin to save it. He'd said it was on us to deal with it, and that had led to our very first high end bribe. It felt good to have rich assholes in my pocket. I'd once had nothing but sand in there and now I was keeping a whole collection of powerful motherfuckers alongside a wad of cash. I’d once have traded every penny that had passed through my hands in the last ten years to make Rogue Easton mine. Not anymore though. Now she needed to return to wherever she came from before she fucked up the good thing we finally had going here.
I'd thought my wounds had turned to faded scars when it came to her, but now I was faced with her again and it turned out those wounds were pulling open, starting to bleed. And I knew the longer she stayed, the worse it was going to get. I wasn't going to have my heart broken a second time and I sure as hell wasn't gonna watch as she broke Fox and JJ's again either.
I pulled up at the main gate to Harlequin House and Rodriguez and Piston nodded to me, opening it up. I accelerated along the drive and into the garage, kicking down the stand as I dismounted and combing a hand through my curling hair to flatten it a little. I jogged upstairs, pushing through the door and voices reached me from the kitchen.
I walked down the hall, stepping into the room and my jaw locked at the sight of Rogue there. And not just because she looked fucking breath taking, but because she was back in this house. Again. In the heart of our home. Our group.
JJ was making Margaritas like this was some kind of women's book club and my teeth started to grind. I folded my arms, raising an eyebrow at Fox for an explanation.
"We're going to tell Rogue the truth," he said in that bossy tone of his then pushed a Margarita across the island toward me.
I looked to Rogue and she stared back, waiting for me to make a fuss. But I wasn’t going to this time. Because that idea actually made a lot of sense, so I grabbed the drink and took a long sip, unable to take my eyes from her in that tiny black bikini top. Rogue waved off JJ's offer of a drink and poured herself a glass of water before Fox jerked his head and walked outside onto the patio. Obviously expecting us to follow.
JJ headed outside with the pitcher of Margaritas and his own glass and I was left with Rogue for a moment, realising her cheeks looked slightly flushed. I knew that sight from the past and exactly what it meant.
"You've been drinking," I deadpanned.
"And?" she asked in that give-no-shits tone which was fast working its way under my skin.
"And are you sure you can face this conversation without a clear head?"
"My head's crystal clear, Chase, don't you worry your little socks about it." She tossed her hair and headed outside with her glass of water and her little dog at her heels, leaving me scowling at her back. And her ass in those short shorts. And then her back again where my gaze drank in the view of the angel wings she had tattooed down either side of her spine, right the way down to her ass again. For fuck’s sake.
I stalked after her, my heart thumping unevenly. I was more than happy to tell her about the night she'd left and diffuse her attitude problem. And I was hoping it would do us all a favour and remind Fox and JJ of just how torn up they’d been and make them remember the shit we'd had to face because of her.
Fox was sitting at the circular table under the large cream umbrella with JJ at his side and Rogue sat opposite them with the mutt curled up under her chair. I dropped smoothly down on Fox's other side and took my smokes from my pocket before lighting one up.
JJ hooked the packet off the table, lighting one up too and I frowned at him.
"I'm gonna need one for this conversation," he answered my questioning look and I couldn't really argue with that. Though he didn’t often smoke anymore, so I guessed he really must have been worried about how this was gonna go. Not me though.
"So what do you want to know?" Fox asked Rogue and I immediately sat up straighter, shaking my head.
"No," I growled before Rogue could answer. "This conversation isn't on her terms. She needs to know what we went through."
"Oh yeah, how hard it must have been for you to cut me off and ignore me while settling into your new life as Harlequins," she said icily, her glare just as cold as her tone.
Fox cut me a shitty look and I stared right back, my temper starting to rise.
"Let's just lay out all of our cards," JJ said, trying to diffuse the tension in the air. "This doesn't need to be a who-got-butt-hurt-the-most contest."
I pressed my tongue into my cheek and Fox inclined his head.
"Fine," Fox said, leaning back in his chair and taking a sip of his Margarita. "You’d better start then Chase, as you clearly have so much to say."
I fought the urge to bite back at his pissy tone, taking a long drag on my cigarette before pointing at Rogue with it. "You only see things one way. And I get why. I'm not an idiot. You think we cut you off and left you to rot in whatever new world you ended up in. But it wasn't like that."
"So what was it like?" she asked, not sounding annoyed at me for once just curious, her eyes nar
rowing as she pinned me in those baby blues.
"It was like...hell." I thought back on the events that had led to her leaving town, my heart bunching up into a fist at the thought of the secret I still held inside. What I'd seen, what I knew and no one else did. Because if I'd ever breathed a word of it, I would have broken my friends further. So instead, I'd just broken in silence, eventually realising that her leaving town was probably the best thing that ever could have happened to us. But that didn't change how I'd felt back then. How fucking cut up I’d been over everything that had happened.
A day before we kicked Rogue out of Sunset Cove, she’d been in serious trouble, attacked by some asshole called Axel who worked for Fox's dad and lived along the street from her group home. He'd dragged her into his house and tried to rape her, but our brave girl had hit him with a fire poker. One clean, hard fucking shot to the head and that had been it. She'd killed him. And we'd all gone running to help clean up the mess the moment she’d called.
I remembered the fear of that night, of peddling on my push bike all the way to that motherfucker's house, picturing the worst, that by the time she'd killed him, he'd already gotten his hands on her. But thankfully, it hadn't been like that. So me, JJ, Fox and Maverick helped get rid of the body, dumped it in the ocean, having no fucking clue what we were doing, but just trying our best to keep Rogue out of trouble. Because Luther Harlequin had an unwavering rule when it came to anyone who killed members of his gang; those responsible died in payment for it. And our Rogue was responsible. My little one, my fucking girl. Back then, we all would have done anything for each other, but for her we would have fought the devil himself and placed his head at her feet.
So we fed that rapey bastard to the sharks and hid her secret as best we could. But we were dumbass kids who'd dumped his body just as the tide was coming in, not weighing it down, not leaving chum for the damn sharks to find. Nothing. So the fucker came back to bite us in the dick when the corpse washed up in the cove the following morning and when Luther heard about it, he was out for blood.
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