"Nah. I don't think I will." The blast of a gunshot sounded right beside my ear and I screamed in alarm as my brain fought to catch up to what had happened.
Luther fell back with a sickening thump, the flare of headlights illuminating him from behind as he collapsed on the road with a snarl of agony as he slapped a hand over the wound to his stomach and Shawn chuckled darkly.
"Well, this is a nice surprise," he purred, reaching out to grasp my chin and make me look around at him at last.
His blue eyes found mine, the hunger in him clear to see as a wild smile filled his face and he drank in the sight of me, drawing every inch of my pain out of me so that he could view it in full.
"Look at you," he breathed, his fingers biting into my flesh. "All fucked up inside and ready to come begging for my forgiveness. Tell me, sweet cheeks, did it hurt real bad when you made the choice to come back to me?"
I held my silence as fear took me captive but something so much more intoxicating than that pushed its way into me as well and I gave into the madness of it as I swung my gun around and jammed it against his gut, wondering if I could end this even more simply than I’d planned.
But the cold kiss of his gun against my temple froze me solid as his smile grew.
"Stalemate," Shawn taunted, pressing himself forward so that my gun dug into his abs even harder. "But I like my chances better if we both pull the trigger."
"So now what?" I asked, my pulse hammering as I forced myself to hold the gaze of the man who'd tried to kill me not so long ago.
"Now you're gonna drop that thing or I'm gonna take my chances with us both firing."
I almost took him up on that. My finger tightening on the trigger with the desperate desire to just do it, let him take me from this place and bring him with me to end this shit once and for all. But I knew the devil before me, and I knew a gut shot wouldn't be the end of him. Which meant my death would serve no purpose. And the sad thing was that even now, knowing the life I was giving myself to, I still couldn't bring myself to choose death over it.
I released my weapon with a shuddering breath just as a bullet tore through the air and the approaching car roared towards us.
Shawn collided with me, taking me out before I could fully grasp what was happening and gunfire echoed through the sky as the Harlequins in the car and the Dead Dogs at the gates all opened fire on each other at once.
Shawn crowed with laughter while crushing me to the ground as the Harlequins’ car skidded to a halt beside Luther who was pushing himself onto his hands and knees and they threw a door open to haul him inside.
More shots were fired our way and Shawn leapt up, taking cover behind a tree and firing pot shots from behind it while Luther snarled my name, his teeth gritted against the pain of his wounds.
"Rogue! Get your ass in this car right now!" Luther demanded.
I pushed to my knees as I looked right back at him, seeing the determination flaring in his gaze as he moved to get back out of the car and make a grab for me despite the bleeding wound in his stomach.
But I couldn't allow that. I wouldn't. Because as soon as I was back in that house with those boys, the cycle would just start up again. I'd never be able to break it and I'd only end up breaking them which was more than my heart could allow.
So with a yell of refusal, I raised my gun at him and aimed a wide shot his way to warn him back. But Shawn had the same idea, lurching out of cover and firing his own gun, which hit Luther square in the chest, knocking him back into the car with a cry of pain and closing the final door on my old life. Fear cut into my soul. I could never head back there now. I'd just committed the cardinal sin and every Harlequin worth his salt would be out for my blood in retaliation for what I'd done by striking at their leader.
With a final scatter of gunfire, the Harlequins whirled the car around as they hunched around Luther's body in the backseat with grief filled screams, tearing away down the street and leaving silence in their wake. Horror crept up my spine as the reality sank in. Luther Harlequin was most likely dead. And I’d brought him here, which made me responsible. Why couldn’t he have just let me go? Why couldn’t he have fucking listened?
A hand closed over mine and the gun was tugged from my grip as I just stared after the taillights, watching my last shot at the life I'd always hungered for tear away from me and cement this decision irrevocably.
"Well, well, well, it looks like you really are ready to start repenting for your sins with me, aren't you, sugarpie?" Shawn purred in my ear as he held out a hand for me, waiting for me to take it and let him lead me inside.
I gave myself one single second to feel it. My love for the four boys who had been mine for as long as I could remember. The joy I felt in their arms, the safety I found in their embraces and the pleasure they gifted my body. All of it made me ache and burn with need until I was sure I would combust with the heat of it.
I loved them so hard it hurt. It had been hurting for ten long, lonely years and now I knew why. Because it was too much and the cost of it was too high. I'd stolen a taste of something which I could never afford to keep and now it was time for me to pay up. The Devil didn't care for my money though, no matter how much I could steal. He just wanted my soul in payment for theirs and though it was a battered, broken thing, I was willing to sacrifice it for them. And all I could hope was that it would be enough.
With a deep breath, I cast aside my love for them and let the rain wash it from my flesh. It was beyond time for me to accept my lot in life and this was it. I was the girl who didn't get to claim love or live a pretty dream, I was the one no one wanted but too many craved. I was the stain on this place of sunshine and lost dreams. And now I was the sacrifice required for their chance at peace.
I stepped through the gates and placed my hand into Shawn's, sucking in a breath as he dragged me against his chest with a wide smile claiming his chiselled features.
"Oh, sugarpie, I've missed you so," he murmured, his gaze dropping down to take in the press of my nipples against JJ's shirt which the rain was making cling to my skin.
"Promise me you'll stop the war like you said you would," I growled, knowing I had very few chips to play with but banking on this one piece to be worth enough.
"Cross my heart and hope to die," Shawn swore, painting a cross over the void in his chest which should have held a heart. "So long as you play nice with me. So what do you say? Are you ready to be a good girl for me?"
A shudder ran down my spine as I forced all of my emotions and heartache away and gave myself back to the emptiness I’d existed in for so long before coming back here. I could be that girl again. I would do it for them. So as that numbness crept over me and I accepted my lot in the world once and for all, I nodded.
"Yes," I breathed, ignoring the fears which clung to my skin with the passing of that word from my lips. "I'm yours."
M y oh my, what a day to fucking rejoice. My sugarpie was home and ripe for the breaking. She was all sharp tongue and backbone these days and I’d been getting hard just thinking about crushing her spirit. Mia had been a fun toy for a while, but Rogue Easton was the Buzz Lightyear of toys and I planned on inking my name onto her foot, so she knew exactly who she belonged to.
For now, I’d bide my time, play the long game as I started to wear at her walls, find paths beneath her flesh again. It was a fine art, one I’d honed and crafted over the years. I always sensed the broken ones and their weakness for love. They had a desperate desire to be needed, to have a constant place to rest their heads and be part of something. And I provided that all while inching them toward a state of insecurity, making sure the only compliments they ever believed were the ones that came from my lips and knowing that I could strip down their confidence with nothing but a single cutting word.
Mm, yeah, I was gonna like having Rogue on her knees again. I’d break her fully this time, give her my undivided attention. When I’d had her before, I’d been busy building up The Dead Dogs and fucking anything tha
t moved when she wasn’t around. But now? My cock was aching to be buried in the subservient pussy of my greatest challenge. She wasn’t going to easily let me in again, but I knew how to play this. I’d be sweet and tender, mixed with nasty and cold. I’d make sure I was the hand that fed and the hand that took away. And when she realised I was the master of her universe, she’d come to heel.
Because I wasn’t all about destruction, I liked feeding pretty broken girls sweet words too. I liked seeing their eyes light up when I gave them my attention and I especially liked when they begged to please me. I’d make her happy just as soon as she realised I was her god, and the faster she got to serving me, the faster she’d get to enjoying it.
I adjusted my hard dick in my jeans as I walked out across the Rosewood grounds with a stick of good ol’ fashion dynamite in my hand and a celebratory cigar wedged between my lips.
I was wearing a couple of Kaiser’s gold chain necklaces and a silk red shirt that did wonders for my skin tone, thank you kindly. His wardrobe was eclectic to say the least, and I found I rather liked wearing my exuberance on the outside as well as the in.
I walked to the graveyard at the edge of the property and flicked my cigar butt away across the headstones as I started whistling. It was a beautiful night for disarray, the storm still thick in the air, though the rain had eased to a light drizzle now which clung to my hair. Thunder grumbled in the distance as I made it to the huge stone crypt and smirked at its grey walls.
Now that Rogue was home, it was time to set some more balls of destruction in motion. I’d been holding off on cracking into this place because I’d wanted to be in the right mood, and now my spirits were at their highest and I was feeling all kinds of ready to see what secrets lay within its walls.
I lay the stick of dynamite on the ground by the door, taking out Chase Cohen’s Zippo lighter and lighting up the dynamite fuse before backing the fuck up.
I sheltered behind a large headstone, ducking my head as the flame sizzled down to the stick and…boom!
“Woo-wee!” I hooted as the stone door was blasted to shit and rubble cascaded through the air.
I stood upright, taking my time as I swaggered into the dark space beyond the blasted door and used the lighter to see what was hiding in here.
There were bags of stuff stashed around the tomb, but my gaze hooked on a red ribbon poking out of a wooden box on top of the stone sarcophagus. I moved toward it, pinching it between my finger and thumb and gazing down into the box. The ribbon was attached to an old medallion with the symbol of the Castillo Cartel on it. My jaw went slack as memories stirred in my mind over that name and I gazed down at the other objects in the box with disbelief and utter fucking joy running through me.
Well my, my, fucking my. This is one helluva jackpot.
“You naughty, naughty kids,” I purred, smirking triumphantly at my prize. “I’ve got you by the balls now.”
I glanced back at the door, making sure none of my men were lurking on me out there, wanting to keep this little secret mine until I figured out what to do with it. This day was getting better and fucking better.
I was now the keeper of one very dirty truth. And it was mine to do what I pleased with. So help the motherfucking Harlequins, I almost felt sorry for them, because I was their goddamn apocalypse.
But oh, what a way they were gonna go out.
___________________________
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__Author Note__
Well, well, well, what do we have here? Looks like a reader cursing our names and wondering why you read our books again while priming yourself up for the next rollercoaster all at once.
Oh, sorry, I went a bit Shawn on you there.
Umm.
So what I meant to say was, heyyyy are you okay? I hope so. Because we get no satisfaction from gathering your tears into our jars of sustenance – although I will admit they do help fuel the next book, so maybe there’s a silver lining to all of the betrayal, heartache and general carnage we gifted you in this book.
Sorry for Chase’s eye.
Funny story about that – Caroline had this big secret plan for what she wanted to happen to him at the end of the last book and she refused to tell me what it was going to be, wanting me to give her the raw reaction so that we could decide if it was going too far or not. Then I was driving along one day, singing Disney songs with the kids as standard (Come challenge me to sing You’re Welcome one time and then you’ll see where my real talents lie btw) and it just occurred to me that Shawn would probably go in hard with someone he was torturing so I suggested to Caroline that he take an eye. WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE HER SECRET PLAN ALREADY!!!! Kapow. The sister mind meld strikes again. So of course at that point his fate was written, his eye was doomed and fucking Shawn won once more.
Then again, you did all say you wanted him to suffer hard following the end of Sinners’ Playground, so some might say you reap what you sow. Anywho, he clearly still hasn’t suffered enough and I guess he’s out there somewhere now, living a new life as a dairy farmer, hand milking cows and goats until his fingers cramp. Let’s hope he doesn’t cry into the milk and make it all salty though.
Speaking of salty, I wonder how the rest of the Harlequin boys are feeling right about now? Hmmmmmm….
Guess you’ll have to come stalk us for the next book to find that out. And don’t worry, the wait won’t be long, but if you want to be sure you’re the first to hear about the release of book 4 then sign up for our newsletter here and join our reader group here.
And most importantly of all – we love you, we thank you for reading despite our somewhat evil tendencies and we can’t wait to give you more of our words soooon.
Love 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
Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3) Page 51