Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3)

by Caroline Peckham

  “It’s Maverick’s tunnel, let him go first,” he said firmly, like he thought I might have laid a trap down there.

  “It’d be a pretty convoluted plan to lure you all out here and kill you underground,” I pointed out. “I could have shot you ten times by now with how often you lowered your guard.”

  “Then how come when you had the chance to shoot me at Harlequin House you missed?” Fox taunted and words spilled through my head that had no business showing their little lettery faces. Because I didn’t really want you to die.

  “I was untrained,” I said coolly. “But that ain’t a problem for me anymore.” I grinned psychotically just to remind him that I was always the danger in the room, but he just rolled his eyes at me. Asshole.

  Rogue swept past us, heading straight down the steps into the dark. “I’m bored of you dickwads,” she called back. “I’m gonna go save Miss Mabel myself. Come on, J.”

  Johnny James jogged after her and I cursed as I stepped forward to follow, my shoulder bashing against Fox’s as he did the same. We shoved and pushed our way down into the dark, fighting to get ahead, but every time I got a step forward, the motherfucker gained it back until we were both marching along the tunnel side by side as pissed off as two hungry lions.

  “Hold up, Rogue,” I hissed as we made it to the end of the passage and reached the stairs that led up to the fountain.

  I bumped into JJ in the dark and muscled my way past him to catch Rogue’s hand, pulling her tight to my side.

  “We gotta be smart about this,” I muttered.

  “Well I wasn’t planning on being dumb about it,” Rogue shot back and a breath of amusement left me.

  “We need to take the darkest route to the house,” Fox said.

  “Nah, I opt for the quickest,” I argued.

  “If we’re seen, we’ll lose our chance to get to her,” Fox said through his teeth.

  “And if we’re slow, there’ll be more time for us to be seen,” I pushed.

  “I say we take a vote,” Rogue said.

  “This isn’t a democracy,” Fox growled.

  “Well maybe it should be,” JJ piped up and we all turned to him as he glared at us through the light of my phone. “This is a family mission, not a Harlequin one.” He gave Fox a pointed look and Fox sighed, looking to the ceiling like some god above could offer him help. But if anyone was up there, I doubted they’d be paying attention to a few ruffians in a hole.

  “I’m not a part of this family, so I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I like,” I said stubbornly.

  “This isn’t about you,” Rogue snipped, poking me hard in the nipple. Ow, bitch. “It’s about Miss Mabel. And I say we’re voting or I’m going to go out there and get her myself.”

  “I’ll follow her if she does that,” JJ said simply. Fucking whipped, he was.

  “Fine, we’ll vote,” Fox decided and I clenched my jaw as the urge to go against anything he said rose in me.

  But then Rogue squeezed my hand and I sighed as I looked at her. “Fine,” I gave in. “I vote we take the quickest route.”

  “Darkest,” Fox said smoothly.

  “Dark is safest,” JJ agreed like of course he fucking would and we all looked to Rogue to make her choice. If this was a hung vote, I was gonna take her my way and they could go theirs, I wasn’t wasting anymore time down here.

  “Dark,” she chose and I swore under my breath, not missing the smirk on Fox’s face as he got his way.

  “Then lead the way, oh mighty king.” I bowed with a flourish and gestured for Fox to go ahead.

  JJ snorted under his breath as Fox walked by and headed up the stone steps.

  We followed, all drawing our weapons as he made it to the hatch at the top and pushed against the stone. It swung inward and he peeked out to check the way was clear before hurrying through it. We all kept close as we followed and I pushed the hatch closed half a heartbeat before a brand new, shiny motion-censor floodlight turned on and we were all lit up in a furiously bight glow.

  “Fuck,” I gasped, turning back and opening the hatch, but a shot went off and a torrent of men appeared, all aiming guns at us.

  “Drop your weapons!” one of them barked and my gut knotted right the fuck up.

  Me, JJ and Fox crowded around Rogue instinctively, jamming her between us as we all dropped our guns and raised our hands.

  Ah shit. Now what?

  S ome asshole wearing cheap cologne and a string vest jabbed a gun into my back and forced me to start walking.

  Maverick snarled insults at all of them as he closed in on my left side, his arm brushing mine while Fox moved in on my other side, the two of them effectively boxing me between them with JJ next to Fox as we were herded around the house.

  My heart pounded as I looked between the men who were corralling us towards the front of the manor, searching for a weak spot amongst them as I tried to think of a way out of this.

  "I'm gonna kill you first," Maverick said conversationally, looking at the guy who was still jabbing me with his gun. "I'm gonna take that gun you're so fond of poking my girl with and ram it up your ass before I pull the trigger and watch your insides go boom."

  "More like the three of you will watch while we all take turns with your girl here before you each eat a bullet," the man pointing a gun at Fox chuckled.

  I swear I could feel the tension that ran through my boys at that suggestion. JJ's spine straightened while Fox and Maverick exchanged a look which promised violence with so much certainty that I could taste it on my tongue.

  "New plan," JJ growled. "I'm gonna cut slices off of you and make you watch as I feed them to my pet starfish - he's got a real taste for human flesh now, but it will still take a good few weeks for him to get through your gristly ass."

  The men all laughed and I could practically hear their death tolls ringing on the breeze. We just needed a moment to figure out our next move and I was sure their blood would spill before Kaiser even made it out of bed.

  We made it around to the front of the house where a set of wide wooden steps led up onto a porch which ran along the entire front of the huge property.

  The men holding us captive shoved us apart, forcing us to our knees with guns jammed against the backs of our heads as the door to the house swung open.

  My heart leapt up into my throat as Shawn stepped out wearing a pair of black boxers with an embroidered silk purple smoking jacket hanging open across his bare chest which was so tacky it had to belong to Kaiser. He had a cigarette lit in one hand and held his shotgun propped against his shoulder in the other.

  "Well looky here what the cat dragged in," he crowed, throwing his head back and laughing like a triumphant asshole as he drank in the sight of us all forced to kneel before him. "I caught me a Harlequin prince, the king of The Damned Men and a juicy little Harlequin side piece to boot," he said, looking between the three men who kneeled at my sides, his gaze raking over them like all of his Christmases had all come at once. But as his gaze zeroed in on me, that smile on his lips grew impossibly wider and he started to advance slowly down the stairs. "Not to mention my very own, pretty little whore, back down in her favourite position on her knees for me."

  Fox snarled ferociously as Shawn reached out to touch my cheek, lurching forward with a yell of warning which Shawn answered by swinging his shotgun around to point directly into his face.

  "Down boy," Shawn commanded, hesitating with his fingers mere inches from my skin as I held my breath and tried to fight off the terror I felt at being forced beneath him like this after knowing everything he'd done to Chase. "If any of them makes a move towards me while I'm talking to my sugarpie, you will shoot them," he added to his men and I swallowed thickly as they closed in even tighter around my boys.

  Shawn reached for me again, the cigarette still smoking between his fingers as he grazed them along my cheekbone in the exact same spot as the red cut I’d put on his face.

  "I think I owe you a little payback, don't you, sweet
cheeks?" he asked, smirking at me like the cat who'd got the cream.

  "What's the matter, Shawn? Don't you like looking in the mirror and remembering the way I beat you?" I glanced at his bare chest where the gown he wore hung open, smiling at the still bandaged stab wound I'd given him. "Though I have to admit, I was hoping you'd bled out in a gutter somewhere after our little altercation."

  Shawn grinned at me, but it didn't reach his eyes and he leaned in closer to speak just to me. I noticed one of the men to his right shifting his weight, recognising his second or third or who knew what in command, Travis, as he frowned at me slightly before flattening his features again.

  "I'm gonna enjoy breaking you again, sugarpie. I'll take great pleasure in watching you crack for me, beg for me, and come crawling on your knees in hopes of satisfying me. I'll have you so turned around and twisted up that by the time I give you what you want and make you into my little whore again, you'll be singing my praises and thanking me for the attention."

  "In your fucking dreams," I snarled.

  "Every god given night," he agreed, winking at me and straightening up again. He removed his hand from my face as he took a drag from his cigarette, the cherry glowing in the soulless depths of his eyes as he drank in the sight of me. "Question is, what way shall I start up this game between us again?"

  "Where's Kaiser?" Maverick barked as Shawn's gaze stayed glued to me, making my skin prickle with a feeling of being unclean. "We want to speak to the master of the house, not his fucking watch dog."

  "Oh, haven't you heard?" Shawn asked, clutching his chest and feigning shock. "Dear old Kaiser fucked up bad. See, he was looking after a little treasure for me. A pretty, pretty treasure with one beautiful blue eye - but he went and let it go. Now, I'm a fair man. All I ask is that people don't let me down when they make me promises. But Kaiser broke his promise, so in reparation for his mistake, he signed this big old house on over to me."

  "You're kidding," Fox spat. "Why the fuck would he do that?"

  "You'd be surprised what a man might do when he's being given an ultimatum at the end of my shotgun," Shawn said, swinging that gun onto Fox. "For example, if I was to ask you to pick between your life or the life of one of the people kneeling here next to you, I get the feeling you'd be fast enough to sell one of them down the river. If not all."

  "I'd die first," Fox said without a glimmer of doubt in his words and Shawn's eyebrows went up.

  "Well shit, I think you might actually mean that, don't ya? Even the traitor?" He swung the gun towards Maverick and my heart lurched with every movement of the fucking thing.

  "I gave you my answer," Fox replied firmly. "I'd never save my own skin over any of theirs."

  “Even though he’s been sticking his filthy Damned Men cock into your girl? Oh – I hope I haven’t just shattered your little heart with that truth, but I did see them with my own fair eyes. Practically humping each other right out in the open, they were,” Shawn pushed, smirking greedily as he waited for Fox’s reaction.

  “I told you,” Fox replied firmly, not letting a flicker of emotion show on his face to that taunt. “I’d die before choosing a single one of them to take my place.”

  Shawn seemed a little taken aback by the fact that Fox clearly already knew about me and Rick, but he covered it fast enough as he went on with his endless talking.

  "Huh. And there was me thinking men like you and me were all the same. But I know full well I'd sell out every fucker and their dog to save my own ass if it came down to it, so I guess we aren't so similar after all. Aside from our taste in women."

  Shawn's gaze fell to me again and he inhaled deeply from his smoke before flicking it at JJ's chest.

  "You didn't actually say where Kaiser was," Maverick said loudly, drawing his attention again and I knew he was doing it for my sake, trying to buy us some time and keep Shawn's focus away from me as much as possible.

  "Oh, where are my manners?" Shawn said dramatically. "If you just look up, you will see the former residents of the Rosewood estate - at least the ones who took exception to my new position as lord of the manor. Plus a couple who just pissed me off."

  I tilted my head back automatically at his direction, knowing I didn't want to see whatever was up there but unable to stop myself from looking all the same.

  I blinked at the four lumps of meat which had been impaled on the balcony railings above us, some small piece of me recognising what they were even though they'd clearly been left out to rot in the baking sun for days since they'd been put there.

  "Christ," JJ cursed as my stomach roiled and the urge to vomit overwhelmed me.

  "It's a little hard to tell, but that central one up there is Kaiser's smarmy head," Shawn explained casually. "The scrap of hair to his left was his dear wife - there wasn't much head left to display sadly."

  My lips parted as I just stared between the heads he'd impaled there, their features entirely unrecognisable, the skin sloughing from their skulls and rot and animals clearly having gotten involved in their decomposition already. But as my gaze shifted to the head at the end of the line, I sucked in a horrified breath, tears prickling the backs of my eyes as I spotted the white hair, my stomach lurching with grief as I realised who else must have been up there with Kaiser.

  Shawn had killed every last member of the Rosewood family. And we were already too late to rescue Miss Mabel.

  "So back to the matter at hand," Shawn said, drawing my gaze down to him as I tried to focus on the present instead of falling into the pain of that discovery. Because if this all carried on the way it was going, there might be four more heads up there before long. "We have already established how far the Harlequin prince will go for his merry men. But I'm not all that interested in muscular blondes, I have to admit. And I can't say I'm much in the mood for dear old daddy to come charging in here with all his men, fucking up my house in some vicious attempt to rescue his boy from my basement. So I guess the only option left to me is death. I'm just trying to figure out where to start."

  My heart leapt as he swung his shotgun back and forth along the line of us, his eyes sparkling with the game as he bobbed the barrel between each of the boys one at a time.

  "Stop," I demanded, a sob catching in my throat. "Don't hurt them. Just tell me what you want. We can figure this out."

  Shawn released a low whistle, his gaze narrowing in on me as a wicked joy lit within his blue eyes.

  "What I want?" he asked curiously, rubbing at his jaw as he considered that. "Well, now that you mention it, this has all been a little easy. I was only getting into the swing of this game when you bunch of dumb fucks just came and landed yourselves in my lap. And yeah, it's tempting as fuck to blast all of your heads off and win myself a war in one fell swoop - but it's just so fucking easy that I can't say it's all that alluring."

  "Spit it out," I growled, my hands fisting at my sides as I dared a glance to my right where Fox and JJ knelt, their gazes both locked on me. Shawn seemed to notice that I held their attention too and he smiled slowly as he raked his gaze over all of us.

  "How about we stick to my former offer, sugarpie? You bring that fine ass of yours over here and throw your lot in with me and I'll let them go. Just like that. Poof. Ready to fight another day."

  "You'd seriously let them leave?" I demanded while all three of my boys protested angrily, the men surrounding them swarming closer and waving guns around to stop them from moving out of their positions on the ground. "All you want is me? Why do you even give a fuck about me anyway? You can't seriously need to get laid that desperately."

  "It's not about fucking you, sunshine," Shawn purred, stepping up in front of me again and taking hold of my jaw. "I could point a gun at any one of these assholes and command you to suck my cock in payment for their freedom and I know you'd do it. You'd part those pretty lips of yours and swallow me down like a good little whore. But I don't want to force anything from you like that. I want you on your knees for me because that's where you want to
be. Where you need to be. If you agree to come back to me, I'm not gonna tie you up and fuck you whenever I want. That would be too easy. What I want is so much better than that, sugarpie." He tugged on my jaw and drew me up to my feet, keeping his gaze fixed on mine as he drank in my fear and swallowed it whole. He leaned closer, whispering in my ear so that only I could hear him. "I want to smother that fire in your eyes. I want to tame that spirit. I want to be your entire world, sugarpie, and only when I am, when you're begging on your knees for a taste of me again and I know that you'll die if I don't give it to you - only then will I take your body and own that too. And believe me, sweetheart, when I do you'll love every single moment of it."

  He drew back and smiled at me, his mouth so close to mine that I could taste his breath washing over my lips as I suppressed the shiver of fear that ran through me at his words. It wasn't even the threat of them that terrified me. It was the brutal truth of them. I knew him. I knew what it was to be his and I knew how close he'd come to owning me that way once before. He hadn't managed it then because I didn't have enough good left in me for him to corrupt. But now? With my boys back in my life and my heart beating for the taste of freedom all four of them had been offering me. I knew it wouldn't be the same. And I knew he wouldn't be the same. If I agreed to this, he really would own me. And I had no way of knowing how long it would take for him to destroy me just the way he was promising to.

  "So what's it to be, sugarpie? Your soul or your sinner boys? Because I'm going to be taking at least one from you tonight."

  My pulse thundered as I bit my tongue on the answer I knew I was going to give. The only one I could give. Because when it came down to me or them, I knew who held more value. And it wasn't the girl no one ever wanted to keep. It wasn't the one who had already escaped death once before and had stolen a taste of happiness she'd never been owed. In the question of me or them, it was always going to be them. After all, they were the only things in this world that had ever held any value to me anyway. And I would never trade them for anything.