Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3)

by Caroline Peckham

  “Fuck you, Maverick!” I bellowed, hatred seeping down into the depths of my being. I was violence brought to life and all I needed was freedom and my bare hands to rain down death on him like a plague.

  Rogue gasped just before Maverick cut off her moans, his fingers locking tighter around her throat. Desire flashed in her eyes as she free fell through the final waves of pleasure then Maverick slid his hand around the back of her head and pushed down to bring her lips to JJ’s cock. She took it between them without hesitation, still pumping the base as she worked to bring him to ruin. His eyes were hooded with primal desire as he watched her mouth running all over his solid cock and my upper lip peeled back as my own cock started to ache.

  Maverick took total control of Rogue’s movements, driving her head down over and over as he continued to fuck her with lazy thrusts of his hips. His gaze moved to the camera again and he fucking winked at me with that smug bastard of an expression on his face again. JJ was far too distracted to notice the show he was putting on and he came with a growl of pleasure, her lips closing tightly around the head of his dick as she swallowed down his cum without a flicker of hesitation.

  When she lifted her head, her lips were puffy and reddened, her eyelashes low and her gaze full of some eternal craving. She looked drunk, but not on alcohol, on them, and she somehow still looked thirsty for more.

  My lungs ceased to work as I just stared at that look on her face, feeling like I didn’t know anything about her wants and needs at all. Like everything I’d ever thought I could provide for her was just some foolish dream that she’d never even considered living out with me.

  All this time I’d deluded myself into thinking she could really love me. That I was the best thing for her. But I wasn’t even on her radar. She’d been fucking JJ and Maverick for God only knew how long – and apparently they were just fine with that messed up arrangement too.

  A creature had awoken in me far darker than any of the monsters I’d greeted within my body before. This was the Devil himself, and he was made of purest sin.

  My flesh was burning with a carnal ache for the girl in the arms of two of my brothers and my hands were twitching with the need to maim, hurt, and kill them. I was lust and wrath at once and my head pounded with conflicting thoughts, some of me joining them in that room and fulfilling the unmet needs I could still see burning in Rogue’s eyes, and the other part of me walking in there with a knife in hand which would soon redden with the blood of those two men.

  Maverick stole all of her attention again as he gripped her chin to make her look at him and started driving into her furiously so she had to brace herself on his shoulders. He stared at Rogue, seeming to forget all about me watching as he fixated on her like she was the only thing that mattered to him in the entire world before he grunted and stilled inside her, finishing deep in her pussy without any protection between them.

  A growl of fury ripped from my throat as I watched her sag against him, their lips coming together in a sweet kiss that he looked absolutely captivated by. JJ pulled his shorts back on and dropped his shirt over Rogue’s head as he tugged her to her feet. She moved into his arms, tiptoeing up and running her fingers into his hair as they kissed too, some shared sadness seeming to pass between them in that moment.

  “I’m not done with this. I want us both destroying you together, baby girl,” Maverick said as he stared at them hungrily.

  “Well I’m not the one who needs a recovery period,” she teased, kissing JJ again and making my chest knot up into a ball as she pulled her shorts and panties back.

  Maverick stood up, yanking his jeans back into place and yawning obnoxiously in my direction.

  Rogue had the bottle of tequila in her grip again, leaning on JJ as she swigged on it and he just held her as the light in his eyes started to extinguish once more.

  “Do you think we should start calling around motels again tonight? Maybe one of them will have seen Chase,” Rogue said and Maverick chuckled darkly.

  “You thinking of another guy already, beautiful? Insatiable you are. Would you take his cock as well as ours?”

  “Shut up, Rick,” she said with an eyeroll but my gaze snapped to her face as I hunted for the answer to that question. Did she want Chase too? All of them apart from me? The thought was somehow more hurtful than even the two of them having her. Because if it was all of them aside from me, then that made me the exception. The one she didn’t want.

  “Just curious, baby girl,” Maverick said as he approached her, running his hand up her spine. “Or is it Fox’s cock you’re missing at this party?”

  “Jesus, stop it,” she snapped. “Why are you being a prick?”

  “It’s his default setting,” JJ said, but when he locked eyes with Maverick they only smirked like they were the best of fucking pals. Great, how long had he been secret friends with Maverick for? Long enough to make a damn fool of me at least.

  “Foxy boy couldn’t handle this anyway. He’s too rigid. And too vanilla,” Maverick said with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure Luther shoved a stick up his ass at birth then he spoiled him rotten so he thinks he can have anything he wants at the snap of his fingers, and if people object he just crushes them beneath him.”

  I ground my teeth, looking to Rogue and JJ for their response to that and they seemed all too quiet on the matter, so I supposed that was agreement in itself.

  “Anyway, it’s better that he’s gone,” Maverick went on when they said nothing. “Maybe he’ll stay out of town and never come back, that’d probably be best anyway, am I right?”

  “Just stop talking, Rick.” Rogue pushed past him, moving to the couch and dropping onto it, taking another long drink of tequila as she stared out the window.

  JJ moved to join her, slinging his arm around her shoulders and running his fingers back and forth along her arm until she melted against him.

  “Oh come on,” Maverick said in frustration. “He deserves this. He tried to own you the second you came back to Sunset Cove, baby girl, he bosses you all around to no end. Then he exiled Chase while you were off at the carnival and took the decision out of everyone’s hands but his own. Again.”

  My throat closed up as I stared those truths in the eye, trying not to let his tone cut beneath my skin, but it did. I knew I was strong willed in my decisions sometimes, but I was always trying to do what was best for us all. Clearly my best was everyone else’s worst.

  I was so done with this game, with having to watch Rogue look like she was breaking apart. I’d burst their little bubble and now I was the bad guy, being punished for loving her too hard and not seeing the blindingly obvious truth right in front of me. That I wasn’t her end game.

  She’d told me herself, she didn’t want to be mine. And all along I’d just thought she meant ‘not yet’ when what she’d really been saying was ‘because I’m someone else’s’ - two someone else’s as it turned out.

  Maverick walked over, stealing the tequila from Rogue and taking a large mouthful before passing it back with his brow furrowed. It looked like his game wasn’t all that fun to him anymore and I stopped fighting against my restraints as I just felt the pain of my broken heart and hungered for a release in blood that wasn’t gonna fix anything.

  “Alright, alright, game over then,” Maverick said. “If you’re both gonna be all moody about it then come with me. I’ve got something that will cheer you up.” He jerked his head and they kicked their shoes back on as he led them from the room and they walked off camera out of sight.

  I hung my head as darkness trickled through my skull and blotted out all the light. It was an unending fog of pain and hurt and betrayal, sweeping through my body and leaving me lost.

  My pulse thumped unevenly as I suddenly heard footsteps coming this way and a minute later the door unlocked and Maverick stepped into the room.

  “Hey Foxy, did you enjoy the show?” he chuckled as a snarl peeled back my lips.

  “What?” Rogue gasped, pushing past him and comi
ng to a dead halt as she spotted me tied to the chair.

  Her gaze flipped to the screen I was aimed towards and she saw the bar they’d just been in staring back at her, horrified realisation dawning on her expression. I felt her pain in that moment, and despite her lies, I still hurt over that. She’d obviously thought that there was some good to still be found in Maverick, but now she could see exactly the sort of person he was. The kind to use her up, devour everything she had to offer and spit it back out like it was worthless.

  “What the fuck, Maverick?!” JJ barked, shoving past him and striding over to me in alarm.

  Maverick started laughing loudly. “He needed this. It’s exposure therapy. That was what I was giving him.”

  JJ tried to unbind me as I continued to stare at Rogue, my blood cold in my veins and murder singing Maverick’s fucking name in my ears.

  Rogue shook her head in disbelief at this situation, her eyes blazing with unshed tears that she refused to let fall. She rounded on Maverick, slapping him hard and he just laughed louder.

  “Oh come on, beautiful,” he tried but his laughter fell away at her volcanic expression.

  “How long have you been here?” JJ asked me frantically, but I didn’t answer, I didn’t even look at him, my gaze was hooked on Maverick as I waited to be set free. Because I was gonna kill this motherfucker once and for all. There was nothing but a bloodthirsty temper left of me and it needed an outlet.

  “Foxy washed up on my island needing rescuing. I may or may not have used his phone to keep you all from worrying,” Maverick admitted. “And to deliver a few home truths to dear old Daddy.”

  “You’re insane,” JJ snapped at Maverick who just shrugged.

  Rogue shoved his chest with a snarl on her lips. “You used me! You fucking asshole. How could you?”

  Maverick’s gaze moved back onto her and a flicker of concern slid into his gaze as he took in her hurt expression. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “What was it like then?” JJ threw at him, giving up on trying to free me and striding back over to Maverick with his shoulders squared. “Because it’s pretty fucking clear what you were doing, motherfucker.” He swung a punch at Maverick and he took the blow to his face, stumbling back a step and dabbing his lip as it split open.

  His eyes became two dark graves and he lunged at JJ with a roar, throwing his full weight against him so they crashed to the floor.

  “Fuck you, you piece of shit,” Maverick snarled as they rolled, punching and fighting with the savagery of wild dogs.

  Rogue’s took out the flick knife I’d given her, striding over as the name Maverick glinted on it and somehow I hated what that blade probably meant to her now. It had meant something to me too once, but fuck if I cared about it anymore.

  “How long have you been here?” She worked to cut the rope holding me down as pain blossomed in her eyes over me. And for a second, the crushing rage in my chest gave way to an ache in me that mirrored hers.

  She was cracking on the inside, this situation crushing her just like it was me. But as her gaze met mine, I looked away, turning my head as my jaw ticked. Whatever good had lived between us was broken, and there wasn’t a future where we could coincide anymore.

  “What’s it matter?” I muttered and a choked noise escaped her, but she didn’t answer.

  That was the worst part of this, losing her all over again, and this time knowing it was for good. There was no coming back from what they’d all done, the choices they’d all made. She’d chosen the boys she wanted and they weren’t me. So I had to try and pick up what was left of my pride and bow out, but I had a score to settle first. Maverick had wronged me, toyed with me in this room and there was a price to be paid for that.

  The rope finally snapped and I shoved to my feet. Rogue’s hand grabbed my wrist and the flick knife dropped to the floor as I looked back at her with a hard wall in my eyes.

  “I never meant for this to happen. We can fix it,” she begged and a seed of longing within me grew shoots, begging me to listen, to somehow find a way to forgive her. But there was a darker seed inside me that was growing into a vengeful beast, and it doused the other seed in poison, destroying it roots and all.

  “There’s no we anymore.” I yanked my wrist out of her grip and turned my back on her, striding over to where Maverick was choking out JJ on the floor and locking my forearm around his throat.

  I dragged him backwards off of JJ, hauling him tight back against my body as I used my other arm to lock him in the choke hold and squeezed as tightly as I possibly could. Maverick fought furiously against my grip and Rogue started screaming, throwing her weight at me and suddenly JJ was on me too, knocking me down to the floor so I lost my hold on Maverick.

  “Stop it!” JJ barked. “Let’s just talk about this.”

  He threw his weight onto me, letting Maverick get up and pace before me like a wolf hungry for the kill.

  “Get off of me,” I snarled at JJ, shoving him back but he fought harder to keep me down. I lost sight of Rogue as Maverick glared at me and venom slid into my blood.

  “What are you gonna do, Foxy? Kill me?” Maverick taunted. “That won’t make her want you, brother. It’ll just make her hate you even more.”

  “I’ve lost her anyway!” I barked. “So what difference does it make?”

  “You’ll break her heart,” JJ hissed, staring down at me as he flattened his palm to my chest. “Again. And don’t you think we’ve all done enough to that girl? Don’t you think she deserves more than this?”

  I breathed heavily through my teeth as his words worked their way into my head and I quit fighting so hard to get up. He was right, I didn’t wanna hurt her, but I did wanna kill Maverick and maim Johnny James. I stared into the dark brown eyes of my brother as betrayal and hurt splintered under my skin.

  “Why did you do this?” I asked in a low voice, needing an answer, though I didn’t think that there was a single one in this world which could make things any better.

  “Because he loves her,” Maverick dropped down beside me, his hand squeezing my cheek and forcing me to face him as his other hand pressed down beside JJ’s to keep me on the floor. “And you just don’t factor into the equation, Foxy boy.”

  “Rick,” JJ snapped, shoving his shoulder against his. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “I’m just saying what everyone’s thinking and making sure Foxy gets his just desserts,” Maverick said coldly then looked back at me. “You sent Chase away you piece of shit, who gave you that right?”

  I glowered at him, but was surprised by the pain twisting his features for a moment before he hid it away.

  “He left her on that fucking ferry. He almost took her from me all over again. But it turns out I should have been more worried about my other brothers doing that,” I spat.

  “Yeah, you should have. Shame you’re such a fucking idiot.” Maverick sneered.

  “Would you just shut the fuck up?!” JJ growled at him. “Are you just set on self-destruct mode all the fucking time?”

  “Something like that,” Maverick hissed back.

  I jerked against their grip on me, but they both shoved their weight down harder and a growl bit at my throat. “What are you gonna do? Tie me up again, continue fucking Rogue in front of me? Because it looks like she’s not interested in you parading her around like a paid whore any longer, you motherfucker.”

  Maverick’s fist cracked against the side of my head at those words and my skull smacked down on the floorboards.

  He forced JJ off of me and suddenly my hands were free and I was facing the fury of my hellion brother as he came at me.

  I relished the adrenaline surging into my veins as I lunged up to meet his rage, ready to rip him to pieces and leave his bloody corpse right here in this room. It was me against him, a fight that was long overdue. And I was finally ready to win and see him die.

  T he look of pain and betrayal in Fox's eyes was seared so deep within me that I was sure I'd nev
er get this feeling out of me again. I felt like all the dark and hurt inside me had been lying dormant there, festering and growing into this unbearable weight and the way he'd looked at me had been the key to setting it free. To drowning me in it all over again and forcing me to face the reality of my damage and all the hurt I caused with my presence.

  I'd done that to him. The boy I'd loved with all my heart had offered me his and I'd torn it from his chest and set the pieces ablaze.

  Maverick laughed darkly while Fox laid into him, enjoying Fox's pain and Fox roared insults and accusations at him for stealing the one thing he'd ever really wanted for himself while JJ yelled right back that I'd never been his to claim in the first place.

  They were fighting over me like a bunch of starving mutts with a bone, all the love they'd once felt for each other turned to poison by this divide. By me.

  I'd heard what JJ had said to me when I'd pointed this out before and I'd heard Chase too. But now here it was, staring me in the face, the results of my destructive influence on the four men who had once been closer than brothers.

  I closed my eyes as I tried to block out the sound of the hateful things they were saying and let myself fall back into our past, those precious days that I hadn't appreciated nearly enough at the time.

  "There's a handhold here," Fox grunted as he heaved himself further up the crumbling cliff face and my heart raced with fear for the four stupid, stupid boys who I loved so freaking much as I lay flat on my stomach and looked down over the edge at them.

  I didn't even know which one of them had decided that climbing the sheer cliff was a good idea with all of those jagged rocks below, but here I was, watching them do it while playing umpire to their dumb as fuck game.

  When they'd headed down to the foot of the cliff to start their climb, I'd laughed at them, laying down on the grassy bluff up here as I sunned myself, expecting them to change their minds once they got down there.