“Come out here, pretty eyes,” Shawn called.
I picked up a fallen lump of masonry, weighing it in my hand as Shawn drew closer and the wall against my back shook violently. “Where’s my little whore gone? I’m not leaving here without my pound of flesh.”
His voice drew closer and I held my breath, ready to end this asshole once and for all. I needed to get that gun from him, turn it on his head and pull the trigger. No fucking pressure or anything.
“Oh, pretty eyes?” Shawn sang, just a few feet away and his boot crunched on some glass just beyond the wall I was using for cover.
I remained entirely still, focused, ready to do what I had to. But I drowned myself in thoughts of Rogue and my boys one last time just in case this was it. The closing curtain, the final fucking bow. But at least the encore would be sweet.
Shawn stepped into view and I swung the lump of masonry at his arm, smacking it so hard that the gun went flying from his grip, banging loudly as it went off.
He roared in pain and his other hand swung at me, his knuckles impacting hard with my face. I stumbled back, swinging the masonry at him again and going for his head. He ducked it, lunging at me and the floor shuddered beneath us, making me lose my footing as he collided with my chest and took me to the ground, my weapon bouncing away across the floor as I lost my grip on it.
My back impacted with the floorboards and his fists crunched against my ribs in furious blows that stole the breath from my lungs.
But I wasn’t going down easily. This man had caused Rogue unspeakable pain, had tried to put her in the ground on our land. I was one of her boys, her protectors, and I had to prove that I could fight for her and win. I threw my forehead up, smashing it down on his already bloody nose and he screamed to high heaven, falling off of me as he clutched his face.
I got up, running for his gun but a tremendous boom blasted above before I got there and the ceiling came down ahead of me, burying the gun and making my ears ring so loud I was deafened.
I stumbled away as debris continued to fall and strong arms wrapped around my legs, knocking me to the ground. Shawn crawled up my body, waving his phone in my face and showing me the screen so that I could see he still had a few more bombs left to detonate as he started fucking monologuing at me and I was kinda glad I still couldn’t hear anything. Though as his fist cracked against my face, my hearing cleared and his voice drove into my head.
“-because I’m a god here on earth and nothing can take me from this world until I’m down with it. So where’s my girl, pretty eyes? Where’d you stash my prize? Where’d you stash that sweet, sweet pu-”
I got my hand up and throat punched him, before following up the blow with a fierce punch to the head. I rolled us over, tasting blood in my mouth as I knelt either side of him and turned into nothing but a wild beast as I punched and punched and swore to kill this motherfucker here and now.
“She’s not yours!” I roared. “And she never was!”
He growled as he fought back, his fist slamming into my kidney then he pulled a knife from his belt and I lunged off of him to avoid the swipe of it.
I grabbed a piece of piping from the ground, wheeling around and swinging it at him. He ducked back with a curse, side stepping again and again as we moved in a circle and I tried to land a hit on him.
He whistled low, raising the knife in one hand while tucking his phone into his pocket. “I don’t lose, boy. That’s a fact you’re gonna need to learn real quick.”
“You’ll lose today,” I promised as the ceiling trembled above us and my heart didn’t even quake with fear. Worst case scenario, I’d keep him here long enough to die with me when the building came falling down.
“Hey boss! There’s a way out up here!” someone called and I turned my head, praying it was a Harlequin, but finding a fucking Dead Dog there instead with two more at his back.
Shawn grinned victoriously and I lunged at him with the pole in a last desperate bid to end him, but those three assholes rushed me, wrestling the weapon from my grip before I got close.
“Keep hold of him, boys,” Shawn commanded and his men forced my arms behind my back, immobilising me.
Shawn smiled through the blood pissing from his nose and coating his teeth. “Told ya.”
“Shall we kill him, boss?” one of the men asked, placing a cold gun to my temple.
My heartbeat quickened and fury pounded through my aching limbs at me failing my girl once again. Useless fucking waste of space.
A roaring, groaning noise sounded from somewhere above us in the Dollhouse and I knew we were out of time. This place was coming down, right fucking now.
“No,” Shawn decided. “Take him. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
They turned, dragging me along and I fought as hard as I could to get free, but the assholes wouldn’t let go. They forced me into a run as lumps of the roof came crashing down and I forced my legs to move around several twists and turns, knowing our time was almost up. But then they led us out of a back door and I turned my head in panic as they dragged me towards a white SUV parked up in the dark lot.
The Dollhouse gave one final beastly groan and the remainder of the roof collapsed, followed by the top floor and the one after that.
I was dragged away, my throat burning as I shouted my family’s names and panic tore me apart from the inside. Rogue was in there, my brothers too. And I couldn’t live in a world without them in it. They had to survive this, they had to, and I just prayed to any fucking god who was listening that they’d protect them.
I was shoved in the trunk of a car and everything went dark as Shawn slammed it shut and before I could even begin to try and fight my way free, I was being driven away to an unknown fate with terror in my heart over what I might have just lost from this world forever.
I was taken to somewhere cold and dark, left with a linen bag over my head for what I guessed was at least an hour, maybe more. My body was bruised and battered and I was in desperate need of water as I sat with my hands bound behind me and my head hanging low.
I thought of Rogue, Fox, JJ, hell even fucking Maverick and I prayed that the safe where I’d put Rogue had been strong enough to withstand the building coming down, but who really knew? The not knowing was even worse than being tethered to this wooden chair at the mercy of Shawn Mackenzie, because I didn’t much give a shit about what happened to me. I’d already faced the worst fear of my life by being outcasted from the Harlequins, banished forever to live a life alone. Nothing came close to beating that, but if they were dead, I would gladly die here at Shawn’s hands, no matter how long he took carving me up.
Footsteps eventually pounded this way and I focused on keeping my heart rate steady as the bag was tugged from my head.
“Hey, sunshine,” Shawn purred, standing in front of me looking freshly showered in a white wifebeater and jeans, his nose all patched up from the break with white strips taped to his skin. There were plenty of bruises on him which I’d put there, though it wasn’t much of a consolation prize.
I looked around, finding myself in what I guessed was a basement, a leaky pipe in one corner apparently the source of the dripping that had been pounding into my skull ever since I got here.
Shawn twisted a thin knife between his fingers, drawing my attention to it as he pulled up his own wooden chair and sat in front of me, putting his booted feet up on my knees.
“Have you heard any news about the Dollhouse?” I demanded. “Did the Harlequins get out? Rogue?”
“Nope, I’m afraid they’re all dead,” he said with a smile and my heart crushed to dust as panic seized me and made my head go into a tailspin. He boomed a laugh. “I’m just kiddin’. I don’t know shit, they’re still diggin’ survivors outa the rubble. You’re my backup plan though, pretty eyes.”
“How?” I spat.
“Well, ya see, if Fox crawls out from the bones of that building, then he’s gonna be missing one of his right hand boys who knows everything about him.�
� He leaned in closer, cupping his hand around his mouth. “Or should I say boyfriend, eh?”
I shook my head at him with a sneer. “You took the wrong asshole, Shawn. Fox kicked me out of the Harlequins for betraying him. He wouldn’t pay a penny to get me back.”
Shawn smiled wickedly and the look sent a trickle of dread into my gut. “I don’t want pennies, boy,” he said and his mouth fell flat. “You’re gonna give me every single detail you have in that pretty head of yours about the Harlequins’ routines. And if Fox is worm food, then I’m sure you have plenty information on Luther that’ll satisfy me, hm?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” I snarled.
Shawn took his feet from my lap, gripping the sides of his seat and dragging it forward so his knees were pressed to mine. He leaned close so he was looking me dead in the eye, no hint of mirth on his face. “Oh you will, Chase Cohen. Because I’m gonna peel you apart piece by piece if you don’t. You’re gonna scream so loud, the kangaroos on the other side of the world will hear ya. But no one will come, no one but me with my shiny knives. So would you like to change your answer, boy?”
My jaw clenched and fear slithered under my skin, but I wouldn’t break no matter what this asshole did to me. I’d lived in a house with a monster worse than him, who could twist my very heart beneath my flesh. But this monster could only break me on the outside and he was asking the one thing of me which I would never, ever give up.
I’d already lost all there was to lose, and now I would stand as a wall between my family and this piece of shit for all eternity. If this was what it took for me to have some worth in this world, then I’d suck it up.
“My answer is final,” I told him with no hint of a waiver in my voice and I leaned closer to speak right into his face, showing him he didn’t intimidate me and that my demons were far darker than his. They’d already seen what hell looked like and they could face it again and again. “I’m not going to tell you anything,” I repeated.
He stared at me for a long moment, leaning back an inch with a sigh. “That’s a real shame,” he muttered then raised his knife to point it directly at my right eye. “So which one of your pretty, pretty eyes can you live without, Chase Cohen? Is it the lefty or the righty?” He swung the knife between them, back and forth like a metronome and acid built in my throat, my fingers locking into fists behind my back. I’m not afraid.
“Can’t choose?” Shawn pushed, that twisted smirk of his lighting his lips. “Sure is a tricky choice. They’re both my favourite shade of blue. But you’ve pissed me off quick, boy, and I can’t let you get away with that.”
He continued to swing that knife side to side and I held onto every scrap of good in my life as I retreated to the sunshine of my past, listening to the birds sing and my friends laugh.
“Sure you don’t wanna choose?” Shawn pressed, but I zoned him out, retreating further and further into a place where he could never touch me. A place full of hope and freedom, where five kids had days and days in the sun stretching out endlessly ahead of them.
“Okay then, you leave me no choice,” Shawn chuckled. “Eenie, meenie, miney...”
_______________________
Need to discuss that wild, paaaaaainful end to Dead Man’s Isle?? Come and join the discussion group on Facebook here.
__AUTHOR NOTE__
Soooooo, a little birdie told us (actually several little birdies) that our recent cliffhangers ‘weren’t too bad’. Now I don’t like to point fingers, but you know who you were. So in thanks we decided to end this book like this. And I’m sure that you’re all cool with it. Just like the characters are cool with it. And the universe is cool with it. And most importantly of all, fucking Shawn is cool with it.
…
Still here? Sure you don’t hate us too much? Oh, I do love a nice glutton for punishment such as yourself!
So far as the writing of this book goes, all I can really say is that it was a whirlwind. Rogue and her boys swept us away and the words just flowed like lava over a village of happy little lambs who never saw the eruption coming. Two weeks. Two motherfucking weeks, one trip to a farm (because the shitting world is only opening up from freaking covid at last in the UK - woohoo) and a whole lot of drama on the page and that’s what it took to get us here.
But don’t worry, we won’t leave you hanging long – we will be back to Sunset Cove VERY SOOOOOON. But if you need to come scream at anyone then you should do so in our reader group where all the best people we know come to talk books and yell at us when necessary, so if you’re not there already then come join the us :)
Love you dude, from Susanne & Caroline x
Also by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep
(Bully Romance RH Contemporary Series)
Kings of Quarantine
Kings of Lockdown
Kings of Anarchy
Queen of Quarantine
The Harlequin Crew Series
(Enemies to Lovers RH Contemporary Series)
Sinners’ Playground
Dead Man’s Isle
Dark Empire Series
(Dark Mafia Contemporary Standalones)
Beautiful Carnage
Beautiful Savage
The Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Series
(Paranormal Romance Reverse Harem Series set in the world of Solaria)
Dark Fae
Savage Fae
Vicious Fae
Broken Fae
Supernatural Bullies and Beasts
(M/F Bully Romance set in the world of Solaria five years after Dark Fae)
Zodiac Academy: The Awakening
Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae
Zodiac Academy: The Reckoning
Zodiac Academy: Shadow Princess
Zodiac Academy: Cursed Fates
Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne
Zodiac Academy Novellas
Origins of an Academy Bully
The Big A.S.S. Party
Supernatural Prison for Dark Fae Series
(Paranormal Romance Reverse Harem Series set in the world of Solaria ten years after Dark Fae)
Darkmore Penitentiary
Darkmore Penitentiary: Captive Fae
The Age of Vampires
(Complete M/F PNR/Dystopian Series)
Eternal Reign
Eternal Shade
Eternal Curse
Eternal Vow
Eternal Night
Eternal Love
Forbidden Fairytales
(Complete M/F Fantasy Series)
Kingdom of Thieves
Kingdom of Wishes
Kingdom of Shadows
Cage of Lies
(Dystopian M/F Series)
Rebel Rising
Tainted Earth
(Dystopian M/F Series)
Afflicted
Altered
Adapted
Advanced
The Vampire Games
(Complete Paranormal Romance M/F Trilogy)
V Games
V Games: Fresh From The Grave
V Games: Dead Before Dawn
The Vampire Games: Season Two
(Complete Paranormal Romance M/F Trilogy)
Wolf Games
Wolf Games: Island of Shade
Wolf Games: Severed Fates
The Vampire Games: Season Three
Hunter Trials
The Vampire Games Novellas
A Game of Vampires
The Rise of Isaac
(Complete Fantasy YA Series)
Creeping Shadow
Bleeding Snow
Turning Tide
Weeping Sky
Failing Light
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Dead Man's Isle (Harlequin Crew #2) Page 54