Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3)

by Caroline Peckham

  I pushed off of the bed and headed for the door, sniffing loudly and swiping at my cheek as I went.

  "Wait," Chase called just before I could disappear and I paused with my back to him, a smirk on my lips as I waited. "Is this really that big of a deal to you?"

  "I'd give my right eye to go," I agreed, still not looking at him.

  Chase coughed a surprised laugh "Wow, you really are an asshole, aren't you?"

  "Yeah. But I don't think you'd want me any other way." I looked back over my shoulder, finding his gaze on me.

  "Fox won't like it," he warned.

  "He’ll hate it,” I agreed. “But you get off on going against him anyway."

  "So do you," he pointed out.

  "Well why don't we get off together then?" I teased. "Or do you prefer watching?"

  "Fuck you," he replied, his gaze skimming down my body and making heat rush beneath my skin as I thought about what the three of us had done the other night. Or what we’d almost done. I still hadn’t quite figured out if Chase had sent us packing because he wasn’t into it or if it was his insecurities showing. So for now I was playing it by ear but I seriously couldn’t have said I would have minded if he’d chosen to get a whole lot more involved with us than just jerking off while watching us together. Not that I was going to be telling him that.

  "Unlikely," I tossed back. "Not unless you get that parrot."

  Chase launched a pillow at me from his bed and I laughed as I made a run for it, escaping before it could hit me and charging downstairs.

  I grabbed the wheelchair Chase had come home with from hospital and half pushed, half tossed it down the stairs into the garage before somehow heaving the heavy as shit thing up into the back of my jeep. Then I reclined the passenger seat as far as it would go and stuffed a few pillows in the footwell.

  I quickly started up the engine then pulled the car out of the garage and parked it outside the front door, ignoring the Harlequins Fox had left manning the gates of the property as they shot me curious looks.

  By the time I made it back up the stairs, I found Chase dressed in the shorts I'd laid out for him and smirked as I let my imagination run over how he'd managed to pull them over his leg with his big ass cast stopping him from bending his knee.

  "Why are you smiling at me like that?" he asked.

  "Don't you like it when I smile?"

  "Not like that. You're clearly up to something."

  "Duh. We're heading out despite the badger's strictest warnings. Now come and ass bump down the stairs or we're gonna be late."

  "I'm not ass bumping anywhere."

  I smirked at the challenge that presented me with then darted into his room, snatched his crutches and ran to the window with them.

  “Rogue, what the hell are you-”

  Chase didn’t need to finish that question because I’d already thrown his window open and launched the crutches out of it. They fell into the pool with a loud splash and I slapped a hand over my mouth with an exaggerated gasp.

  “Oh my god, Chase, your crutches just committed suicide rather than listen to another grumpy word coming out of your mouth!”

  Chase gaped at me for several long seconds then finally broke a laugh. “Sometimes I dunno whether I hate you or love you,” he growled at me.

  “Loving me is way more fun,” I promised, skipping back across the room towards him as the weight of his gaze on me increased and I was pretty certain we were both thinking about those three little words I’d spoken to him when The Dollhouse was caving in. But today was about something far more important than our emotional baggage so I just gave him a nudge towards the door without mentioning it. "I'll ass bump with you. It'll be fun. Besides, I can't support your weight on the stairs and you know it. If you fall over there's no way I can hold your big muscly ass up, so bumping is the safest bet."

  Chase grumbled as I guided him down to sit on the top step, but I just knocked my shoulder against his and leaned in to whisper to him.

  "Last one to the bottom is a frigid duck." I shoved off the step, my ass hitting the next one down and Chase cursed as he fell for the game, grabbing my arm to stop my advance as he butt scooted past me.

  "Hey!" I complained, smacking his hand off of me while he snorted in amusement and took the lead.

  Chase kept bumping down the stairs and I smirked at him as I got to my feet and ran after him, leaping over his broken leg and landing at the foot of the stairs while he still had three to go.

  "I win," I announced, flashing him a grin as I held a hand out to him.

  "You fucking cheated," Chase said, taking my hand in his and letting me haul him back up onto his good leg.

  He stumbled as he tried to get his balance and I ended up crushed beneath his bulk against the wall at the foot of the stairs. His hard body was all muscly and tempting and I got way too carried away with my pirate fantasy as he pinned me there like a damsel who’d been found floating out at sea on a piece of driftwood, then hauled onto Captain Ace’s ship where he drove his plank into my sunken chest and-

  "Fuck. Sorry," he said, shoving against the wall to right himself and quickly running a hand through his hair so that it fell down over his eye patch in some dumb attempt to cover it up again.

  "Come on, hoppy, we don't have all day." I slipped my arm around his waist and let him lean on me as we headed through the kitchen and I guided him towards the front door.

  "How exactly do you plan to get us out of here past the Harlequins?" Chase demanded.

  "Those assholes out there? Easy. Just follow my lead and they'll be putty in my hands."

  Chase muttered something about that being highly unlikely and I shook my head at him as I whistled for Mutt and opened the front door.

  I guided Chase towards my Jeep, opening the door for him and he grabbed the roof bars, heaving himself up and into the car with a grunt which could have been from pain or irritation as I jogged around to get in behind the wheel.

  I helped prop his broken leg up on the pillows I'd piled in his footwell then leaned across him to fasten his seatbelt.

  "What are you doing?" he asked.

  "Keeping you safe. I'm not losing you again, Ace. Especially not to some dumb accident."

  He gave me an odd look and I tilted my head to one side as I looked back at him before reaching out to push the dark curls back from his face.

  "Don't," he snapped, quickly ruffling his hair and making it fall back down over his forehead again and I huffed in irritation.

  "Why are you so determined to hide?" I snapped right back.

  "Because I don't need the whole world gawping at me for being some one-eyed, scarred up freak."

  I sighed heavily, biting down on my bottom lip before climbing across the centre console and settling myself in his lap, my thighs straddling his as I took his jaw in my grasp and forced his gaze onto mine.

  "Fuck Shawn," I said firmly. "He doesn't get to do this. Tell me you're not going to let him. Because if he does, then he wins. And he isn't going to fucking win, is he?"

  "Him winning or losing makes no difference to how fucked up I look," Chase muttered, his blue eye searching mine as his hands tentatively rested on my waist.

  "So you're bothered about the one eye thing?"

  "I still have two eyes," he grunted.

  "Mmmhmm. Why don't you take the eyepatch off then?"

  "My eyelid still isn't fully healed," he said firmly though I was pretty sure that was bullshit because JJ had told me he didn't even really need the dressings anymore.

  "Do you trust me?" I asked suddenly, knowing that was a pretty big question between the two of us after the stunt he'd pulled abandoning me on that ferry.

  "Yes," Chase breathed eventually and I flashed him a big smile.

  "Okay. Close your eyes then - or eye. You know what I mean."

  He gave me a grumpy fucking look but did what I'd asked as I just stared at him, waiting him out. His grip on my waist tightened as he waited to see what I would do and I q
uickly turned and yanked open the glovebox, rummaging a bit before finding a silver sharpie in there.

  Chase still waited to see what I was going to do, so I leaned in and gently brushed my fingers down the side of his face which had taken on the new scars.

  "This is just flesh and bone, Ace," I murmured, trailing my fingers over the edges of the scars that peeked out from beneath the black eyepatch he wore. "And the scars on your body don't make you any less. They make you more. They show your strength."

  His grip on me grew firmer until he was reeling me in like I was a fish caught on a line and I let him because I wanted him to catch me, no matter how much fucked up juju had passed between us. He was still my boy. He leaned into my touch and I continued to caress his skin while gently drawing what I needed with the sharpie.

  "But if you're really that bothered about having two eyes, then fine. Now no one will know the difference and you can stop worrying about it,” I added triumphantly.

  "What?" he muttered, his good eye opening and pinning me with a stare for half a moment before his gaze landed on the sharpie I still held.

  "You have real pretty eyelashes," I breathed and he cursed me, tossing my ass back into the driver's seat and yanking the rear view mirror towards him so that he could appreciate my artwork while I laughed.

  He now had a pretty eye drawn on the material of his eyepatch to match the one that still worked. It was totally subtle. I doubted anyone would even notice he didn't just have his two normal, boring eyes.

  "Rogue, you asshole," he snarled at me as Mutt yipped at him from the backseat in warning and I started up the engine. "I'm not going out looking like this."

  "Wow, ungrateful much?" I teased, driving away from the house towards the gates so that he couldn't get any dumb ideas about trying to get out. I locked the doors for good measure.

  "I look fucking ridiculous," Chase said angrily.

  "So take the patch off if you're gonna be all pissy about it," I suggested, laughing as he lunged at me and snatched the Green Power Ranger cap from my head.

  "Fuck you," he muttered, putting it on and tugging the peak low to shadow his face.

  "Aww don't be a baby about it, Ace. You can draw a cock on my face if it'll make you feel better?" I offered him the sharpie, but he just snatched it and tossed it back into the glovebox.

  "How about I just get revenge some other time instead," he said and I grinned.

  "Bring it on, bad boy. I'll start sleeping with one eye open - unless you've got that covered already?"

  "Seriously? You're gonna make this a joke?" He pointed at his face angrily but I didn’t care.

  I shrugged because yeah, I would be making it a joke and he would stop being a bitch about it. Just like the time I fell off of Rick's bike when I tried to ride it and Chase told me not to be a bitch about my road rash. And that had hurt like a motherfucker.

  I was forced to stop at the gates as the Harlequins frowned at us in confusion but luckily Chase didn’t seem inclined to make a one legged break for it.

  "Hey," Basset said, moving to stand by my window and looking between me and Chase curiously. "I didn't know you were heading out today."

  "Emergency enema," I explained, jerking a thumb at Chase who looked a little less than pleased about my cover story.

  "Oh tell the whole fucking world then," he snarled, playing along despite the fact that he clearly wasn't happy about it. But we’d set the parameters for running cons back when we were eleven and the rules were clear: once someone started a story you had to stick with it no matter what. No contradictions, no changing it up.

  "Yeah well, I'm not the one who has a bunged up back door," I replied with a shrug, leaning towards Basset and lowering my voice. "I told him he was eating too much fibre. Or not enough fibre… I dunno. But there was a definite fibre miscalculation there because he's been squatting on the toilet all of yesterday and all fucking morning too, so the doctors told him I had to rush him in before there was a back up. Wouldn't want it to go bang, you know?"

  Basset nodded seriously, motioning for the others to open the gates for us and I flashed him a smile before heading on through.

  "Go bang?" Chase asked, half laughing while trying to maintain his broody, moody thing.

  "Yup. Poosplosion. Can you imagine?"

  "I'd rather not."

  "Good point. Shall we grab some food?"

  "What part of that visual made you hungry?" Chase demanded and I just shrugged as I headed towards the nearest drive thru to load us up on car snacks for the journey.

  "Dude, I was born hungry."

  "Everyone was born hungry. That's literally the only thing babies care about,” Chase pointed out.

  "I'm pretty sure babies care about all kinds of things. Like world domination and cute cat videos and generally trying to fuck with people whenever possible. Anyway, have you got your wallet to pay for all this food?" I asked.

  "No, I don't have my fucking wallet. This is your day out, not mine."

  "Oh, don't worry. I grabbed it on our way out of your room." I tugged his wallet from my pocket and gave it a little shake to show him as we pulled into the drive thru and I started eyeing the menu excitedly.

  "You're a fucking menace," Chase grumbled as I started picking out snacks for us, but I could see the corner of his mouth lifting just a little, so I knew he liked it.

  "And you're a buzz kill. But somehow it works, doesn't it?"

  I pulled up to the window and ordered us a shit ton of food on Chase and he just watched me like a weirdo the whole time until I was dumping the paper bag filled with goodness into his lap and paying for it on his card.

  "You're gonna have to feed me while I drive," I commanded as I pulled away again, heading for the highway and my GPR day of dreams.

  I opened my mouth for some fries and Chase cursed me out before shoving a whole handful into my mouth.

  I choked around my laughter as I started chewing them and for a moment I could have sworn that Chase actually fucking smiled at me out the corner of my eye.

  "Okay, would you rather be a bee who’s allergic to honey or an owl who hates rock music?” I asked.

  "You really wanna play that game?" Chase asked unenthusiastically.

  "Why? Are you chickening out of answering on round one?" I challenged in response and he groaned dramatically before answering.

  "The bee."

  "Seriously? That's fucked up, dude. What kind of loner bee life would you lead in that scenario?"

  Chase threw some more fries at me and I laughed as we sped onto the highway, leaving our troubles behind us while racing to meet my lifelong hero.

  ***

  It was after dark by the time we got home, and I was fucking exhausted. My Jeep was full of Green Power Ranger merch which had been surprisingly affordable with my five finger discount, and when Fox came storming out of the house to start laying into us for running off, I made good use of him by dumping a heap of sweaters, shirts and a limited edition sword into his arms.

  I grinned at him as I started telling him about our day and he didn't even bother to tell me off as he dutifully carried all of my new shit inside.

  JJ came out to help Chase into his wheelchair and I flopped down on the couch dramatically, surrounded by all of my new things.

  "So how was it?" JJ asked as he wheeled Chase inside and parked him up beside me.

  "Fucking epic," I said, smiling so wide my cheeks hurt.

  "You weren't saying that when we got there," Chase pointed out and my smile fell from my face.

  "That's because it was a fucking joke," I snapped, remembering my fury when we’d finally arrived at the plaza where the signing was taking place.

  "What was?" Fox asked, moving to sit beside me and my hoard, handing over a cup of coffee. I groaned as I drank some of it, letting Chase explain the drama.

  "The dude was wearing his White Ranger shit doing some talk on a stage," Chase explained.

  "White Ranger sucks ass," I growled, folding
my arms.

  "Yeah, I know. Because you yelled that out multiple times in front of all those kids who were trying to listen to what he was saying,” Chase added.

  JJ barked a laugh and I rolled my eyes.

  "The advert said Green Ranger, not White. I wouldn't have gone if it had been the fucking White Ranger."

  "They're the same dude though, aren't they?" Fox asked with a frown. "Didn't he just come back into the show wearing a different colour and-"

  "It wasn't the fucking same!" I barked. "Don't talk to me about GPR vs WPR, Fox, I swear I'll lose my shit."

  They all laughed at me and I just shrugged, digging my limited edition GPR helmet out of my pile of swag and putting it on. In fact, it was so limited edition that it hadn't actually been up for sale, and I'd definitely just stolen it while the dude was taking some photos with some kids.

  "Well, luckily he didn't stay wearing the costume for the signing part," Chase added.

  "No, he just wore stupid jeans and a normal person shirt for that bit," I agreed. Not that I was bitter. I mean, apparently he isn't in character every day of his life and that was fine. Lame, but fine.

  "So he signed some shit for you?" JJ asked, seeming genuinely interested in my day.

  "Yep. And we got to cut the queue because Chase was in his wheelchair," I added with a grin.

  "I felt very used," Chase agreed. "She literally pushed me through the crowd like I was a human battering ram yelling 'we need the disabled line!' until we were ushered to the front. I felt kinda like a terrible person for it, but also the line was like a nine hour wait, so I was down with it. But then Rogue told the guy I was near brain dead after getting hit by a truck and I had to play along.”

  “Oh don’t bitch, he signed your cast!” I pointed out the signature on it and Chase gave me a dry look.

  “Why does it say, ‘to Shelly Tithole’?” JJ asked as he leaned in to read it.

  “That was his cover name, duh,” I said.

  “Thanks to you,” Chase tossed back.

  Fox and JJ laughed and I tossed the helmet aside before plucking a GPR mug out of the pile and offering it to JJ.

  "I got you this to say sorry for Pikachu," I explained as he took it.