Sinners' Playground

by Caroline Peckham

  “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 engine. We had no choice anyway. The ferry was leaving and this was our one shot.

  We were soon out on the water, trailing behind La Mujer Bonita and my heart skipped and danced with excitement as we rode the waves behind it, holding back enough so as not to cause any suspicion.

  I gazed across the sea as I hunted for any sign of Chase. There weren’t as many boats out on the water as there could have been and I smirked at our good luck. So long as our brother made it here, we’d all be celebrating back at the house before ten am.

  We were heading out into the deep blue waters that stretched between the mainland and Ballena Island and I hunted left and right for my boy. Come on, asshole, where are you?

  A glint of white caught my attention up ahead and I spotted Chase driving a speedboat, cutting through the waves. Beside him, Rogue stood with a long, brown wig over her hair and my heart clenched in shock as Fox straightened beside me.

  “No,” Fox spat, but it was too late now. Chase had chosen the fourth member of our party and if we didn’t roll with it, we weren’t going to pull off this job.

  “It’s too late,” I muttered to Fox as my heart hammered out of control. “She’s in.”

  I bit my lip as I caught sight of Fox looking mad enough to shit a brick dressed up like a fisherman in a really bad porno. Like what would his bit even be? Let me come plunder your trout? I need to inspect your sea cave… No. Pass. I’d stick with the cover story me and Chase had come up with thanks. Billionaire newlyweds on our honeymoon.

  “Looks like Foxy isn’t too pleased with my choice of crew member,” Chase said, smirking at me as he drove the speedboat in a wide arc around to the far side of the ferry. He was such a dick sometimes. Why did I like that so much? I guessed I was probably a dick too.

  He’d let me style him as part of my agreement to join in with this shit – because clearly the ten grand pay out wasn’t enough incentive for me – and he was currently wearing a pair of cream chinos and a white linen shirt with half the buttons undone. And freaking navy boat shoes with white stitching. I cracked up every time I looked at him and he was smirking too despite his best attempts not to. He looked so fucking fancy, I just couldn’t take it.

  In return, I was wearing a pair of flouncy white and blue patterned harem pants with a matching crop top that had a French label in it with a designer name I couldn’t even pronounce. I’d coupled it with a long, brunette wig to cover up my rainbow hair and Chase had even stolen a pair of wedding bands for us to wear. Though I was pretty sure the addition of the rings was just to piss Fox off. Far be it from me to miss the chance to badger the Badger though, so I was happily wearing mine.

  When Chase had shown up at my trailer yesterday afternoon to offer me this job, it had seemed like I should just tell him to get fucked. But he’d pulled the stupid favour card on me without bothering to try and apologise or make me feel anything I didn’t want to, so I’d found it easy enough to agree in the end. I’d have been dumb to turn down that much cash anyway. So as I stood at his side and stole the cigarette from the corner of his lips to take a deep drag on it, I didn’t even care when he narrowed his eyes on me.

  “I bet you didn’t think you’d end up marrying me, did you, Ace?” I teased, watching the way the glow of the cigarette reflected in his dark blue eyes as he looked down at me.

  “Well it’s pretty obvious I wouldn’t be your first choice, isn’t it, little one?” he asked icily, taking the cigarette back to stub it out as we pulled around to the rear of the ferry, following in its wake.

  “What’s wrong, Ace?” I asked. “Are you really pissed because you think I’m gonna drive a wedge between Fox and JJ or is it something else?”

  “Like what?” he growled, his gaze running over me in my fancy pants clothes and enough unspoken words hanging between us to make the air thick.

  But before I could answer, the ferry’s engine fell quiet and the huge boat slowly stopped moving forward ahead of us.

  “That’s our cue,” Chase said, forgetting our conversation in favour of the more important task at hand as he directed the boat over to the side of the ferry. “Paulo has taken the ferry out of action, but we only have twenty minutes before they’ll get her up and running again and we need to be back on this boat by then.”

  My heart pounded as I looked up at the top deck, watching for anyone looking back our way as Chase moved the speedboat close enough to tie it off on the railings that lined the edge of the lower deck of the ferry.

  The moment it was done, I climbed up onto the edge of the speedboat and grabbed hold of the railing so that I could pull myself up. Apparently, I wasn’t moving fast enough for Mr Grouchy though because he placed a hand on my ass and shoved.

  I cursed him as I made my way up onto the deck and Chase followed right behind me, ignoring my offer of help as I held my hand out to him. He brushed past me before leading the way up a set of narrow maintenance stairs to the top deck and I followed while internally cussing him out.

  When we made it to the open space on top of the boat, we found Fox and JJ already waiting for us and Fox strode forward looking seriously pissed as he glanced around to make sure that there wasn’t anyone about to see us up here.

  "I should just call this whole thing off," Fox growled, glowering at Chase. “Go back down to the boat, Rogue. We can do this without you.”

  “Fuck off, Fox. You need four people and you got me, so suck it up.”

  Fox looked inclined to flip out, but JJ caught his arm. “Come on man, we don’t have the time to waste like this.”

  “What the fuck are you wearing anyway?” I teased, smirking at the olive green waders the two of them were dressed in.

  “We’re fishermen, because the only time anyone will see us during this job is out on the water,” Fox snapped. “What are you supposed to be?”

  “Newlyweds,” Chase said, grabbing my wrist and showing Fox the ring with a taunting smirk. “Seems like we might actually have a reason to be on a passenger ferry, unlike a pair of fishermen-”

  “No one will see us,” Fox cut me off impatiently.

  “Let’s go,” JJ insisted while Fox looked like he wanted to rip the ring right off of my finger despite the fact that he knew it was bullshit.

  I moved to follow JJ towards the front of the boat as we hunted for the stairs which led down to the hold and the others fell into step with us too.

  “I’m half tempted to say we should cut our losses now,” Fox growled as the four of us crept across the deck of the ferry.

  We headed between the shipping containers that had been placed up here for transportation before peeking out towards the part of the deck where the passengers were allowed to congregate.

  "Seems a bit dumb to me," I commented. "Because you'd just be cutting yourself out of the take."

  "If I decide to call it off, we'll all be leaving," he snarled, grabbing my wrist and tugging sharply to make me stop walking.

  "You don't hold any power over me, Fox," I hissed. "Not unless you lay your hands on me and force me to your will. Which is something you seem pretty damn fond of doing, might I add."

  My gaze dropped to my wrist where he was gripping me tightly and he blew out an aggravated breath.

  "Can we just get on with it?" Chase suggested, looking like this whole thing was boring him, but he had to have known the way Fox would react to him bringing me here.

  "Don't try to make out that I'm like that creep who tried to kill you," Fox said in a low tone, ignoring Chase entirely. "Every time I make you
do something you don't like, it's for your own good. And don't go pretending that you don't like the feeling of my hands on your body. You have that built in detection system after all."

  He reached out with his free hand and placed it over my heart against the thin fabric of my flouncy shirt. As he'd been hoping to, he found my heart racing beneath his palm, but I just narrowed my eyes.

  "I get off on the adrenaline rush of pulling jobs like this. Not your company. So if you want to get my heart pounding, I suggest you take your hands off of me and we all go steal some shit."

  JJ chuckled beneath his breath from his position to our right where he was keeping a lookout for any of the guards who were onboard. Luckily, for such a big boat carrying such expensive cargo, the security crew wasn't all that large. They were relying on their CCTV systems to keep them informed of anything important and Fox knew where all the cameras were so that we could avoid them.

  "Look, we're here now. Let's have this dumb little argument back at the house after we get our hands on those watches," Chase suggested.

  "Agreed," I said and Fox cursed as he released me.

  "Stay with me," he said, his gaze boring into mine as he swiped a palm over his face.

  We moved on, slipping out onto the upper deck which was thankfully abandoned due to the chilly morning breeze and heading towards the stairs that led down to the hold.

  My heart was pounding in the most delicious way as we went, my body tingling with the knowledge that we shouldn't be here, that we were doing something wrong. And it felt oh so fucking right.

  I swear, pulling high risk jobs felt better than sex when my adrenaline was flooding my limbs like this and my skin felt all hot and prickly. It was like the rush of an oncoming orgasm like no other. And pulling it off would always end in the most satisfying flood of ecstasy too.

  A hand slid over the small of my back and I had to stifle a gasp as I looked up at JJ beside me, his honey brown eyes twinkling with knowledge as he smirked at me like he could tell how worked up I was feeling and was getting ideas about how to help me release some of that tension.

  Okay, so pulling jobs like this felt better than most sex. But with him, that was a different story all together. Maybe we could celebrate together when we got back to dry land and have the best of both experiences one after the other…

  Once we were out of sight on the stairs, Fox passed out ski mass to all of us and I accepted mine with a grin as my pulse continued to pound, watching the guys as they pulled them on to conceal their features.

  Aside from the differing clothes hugging their muscular forms, there was hardly any way to tell the three of them apart, though I knew there was no way I'd ever get them mixed up. Still, there was something weirdly thrilling about the anonymity of the ski masks. The fact that they could almost be anyone beneath them. And it just brought to light how dangerous these men really were, too. Who they were to anyone on the outside. Something about that just made me like it even more.

  Fox and Chase moved ahead to check beyond the next corner and I pushed up on my tiptoes to whisper in JJ's ear.

  "You wanna keep that mask on when you sneak into my trailer tonight, Johnny James?" I asked him seductively and he groaned with longing, his hand grabbing my ass and squeezing tight for a brief moment as he dropped his mouth beside my ear too.

  "How about I tie you up and make you scream for mercy as well?" he suggested, diving into this fantasy headfirst without so much as the slightest flicker of hesitation.

  Fuck, that sounded crazy hot. I was definitely up for that and the look in his eyes said he could tell.

  I bit my lip, forcing myself not to turn my head and kiss him as I drew back. JJ Brooks was a mistake that I'd decided I was gonna just keep making over and over again until I left this place. He felt too damn good to deny myself and I was perfectly alright with some mutually beneficial using.

  Fox's low, sharp whistle forced us to move on, the two of us carefully keeping enough distance between our bodies to be sure that we wouldn't be tempted to act on the energy pulsing between us while we focused on what we came here to do.

  We made it to a dark doorway and Fox moved me back against the cold metal of the wall beside it with a hand on my hip, his fingers digging in just enough to make sure I didn't move while he poked his head through to get a look. My stomach knotted as the pressure of his hand on me increased and I had to wonder if he was holding me still because he didn't trust me to pull this off without constant supervision or if he was trying to protect me. Though knowing Fox, it was probably a combination of both things.

  When the coast was clear, Fox and Chase led the way into the hold and darted towards the left of the room where the shadows were thickest.

  I sped after them, my footsteps as silent as a cat's as I hurried across the metal floor.

  The space surrounding us was wide open, crates and boxes of every size and shape filling it and making it impossible to tell what was housed in each of them. My sticky little fingers itched with the urge to hunt for more things to steal, but I had to force that desire aside, knowing we needed to keep this job clean to make sure there wasn’t too much heat on us once the robbery was discovered.

  But Fox clearly knew exactly where we were headed as he moved through the darkened space and led the way between the closely stacked cargo as he began jogging towards the rear of the boat.

  I found myself beside Chase who tossed me a look I couldn't read as we kept pace with one another.

  Fox paused, raising a hand to stop all of us from proceeding and pointed ahead, placing a finger to his lips. I leaned around a tall box and peeked out, spotting a closed door ahead of us which seemed to be locked up tight. Chase had given me a rundown of the plan so I was guessing that was the door we needed to bust through.

  “I’m gonna have to pick it,” Fox breathed so low that I barely caught the words. “You three keep watch.”

  He didn’t wait for us to agree before heading on towards the door and the three of us spread out across the room to look out for the guards who were patrolling the vessel.

  The minutes ticked by as Fox worked on the lock, the odd soft curse spilling from his lips, letting me know that it was causing him trouble.

  I slipped away from the others, spying a low light down a corridor which led away from the hold area.

  I probably should have held back, but I always was a curious duck and as a man started laughing somewhere ahead of me, I just couldn’t help but creep closer.

  A little way down the corridor, I found a small room with the door ajar and two guards sitting at a table smoking inside. Their backs were to me and they were leaning together as they watched something on one of their phones. I eyed the security cameras behind them, taking note of their guard uniforms before my gaze caught on a set of keys hanging on a hook by the door.

  Jackpot.

  I reached out carefully and took the keys from the hook, holding them tightly in my hand so that they didn’t make a sound before backing away again.

  I crept towards Fox and as fast as I could while keeping silent, my heart pounding with the rush of danger as I moved behind him and he cursed as I touched his shoulder.

  “I almost had it then,” Fox growled irritably, like I was the reason he was struggling.

  “Oh, Foxy, why do you always have to do things the hard way?” I teased, hanging the keys from my finger and dangling them before his face.

  He gaped at me for a moment before the surprise in his gaze turned to excitement and he got to his feet, taking the keys from my hand and pressing me back against the door as he turned the right one in the lock.

  “I forgot how much I enjoyed getting into trouble with you, hummingbird,” he said as he pressed his body right up against mine until the door fell open behind me and I would have fallen if his arm hadn’t locked tight around me to hold me up.

  “So are you glad Chase brought me along?” I asked.

  “Fuck no. But I’ll enjoy it while it lasts because there
’s no way in hell it’ll be happening again.” He released me abruptly and the others hurried over as we headed into the room where the valuables were kept. Dick.

  "Here it is," Fox announced in a whisper, leading us to the rear wall of the space where several safes and lockboxes were lined up.

  He made a beeline for them, starting with the biggest, strongest looking bastard in the row as he hunted for the one which held the watches and I turned away from him to keep a look out as Chase moved to help him.

  The kids I'd grown up with couldn't crack safes. Hell, I had no idea where you even learned to do something like that. I'd stolen my fair share of shit over the years, but I liked to do it the easy way - pickpocketing, shoplifting or breaking and entering if I was really desperate. The only safe I'd ever broken into was one where some dumbass had left his lock combination written down somewhere that I could find. And that was only one of those little hotel things where the take hadn't been all that much anyway.

  If we pulled this off, I was going to get more money from my cut than I'd earned in the last year. It was almost enough to make me reconsider using the secret in that crypt to destroy these motherfuckers and to just stay here earning like this forever. Almost. But not quite. There were a few things I wouldn't ever sell in this lifetime and one of them was my heart. There may not have been much of it left, but I wasn't going to allow what there was to be destroyed again. And I knew that that was what would happen if I stayed in this town with these boys. I’d barely been here a month and it hurt too much already. There was no two ways about it.

  The sound of heavy footsteps made my heart leap and I exchanged a concerned look with JJ as we ducked down, hidden behind the door that should have been locked.

  "Hurry up," Chase hissed so low that I barely caught the words and I glanced over my shoulder just as Fox found the lockbox he was looking for and opened it using a passcode. So much for crazy safe cracking skills then.

  The two of them started grabbing the watches out, filling their bags and cursing as the sound of footsteps drew nearer.