Sinners' Playground

by Caroline Peckham

  Rogue’s eyes flew open and I dove on JJ as realisation spread across his face. I threw my fist into his gut and snatched his wifebeater in my fist, forcing him back against a thick tree trunk. His knee came up into my side before he slammed a rib-crushing punch into my chest and I growled as I threw another punch of my own.

  “Stop it!” Rogue snapped, launching herself onto my back and slapping her hands over my face so I couldn’t see.

  JJ took the opportunity to sucker punch me and I ripped Rogue’s hands from my eyes, lunging at JJ again with a snarl. I tackled him down onto the sand and Rogue tried to heave my shoulders back as I laid into him, then she bit into my fucking neck like a damn vampire.

  “Get off me, ghost,” I snarled, reaching back and grabbing a fistful of her hair.

  JJ slammed another punch into my chest and I rolled over, crushing Rogue beneath me making her curse.

  JJ threw himself on top of me and Rogue yelped as our combined weight crushed her into the sand.

  “You’re hurting her,” I snarled, shoving JJ back and he huffed as he stood up, kicking me off of her before pushing his perfect hair back into place.

  “Well I’m glad that’s dealt with, bro,” he said and I smacked his hand away as he offered it to me, pushing to my feet and leaving Rogue in the sand.

  JJ moved to help her up and I scowled between them, my breathing growing shallow. I took out my cigarettes, lighting up another one as I broke eye contact with them, figuring out how to play this. Because now my instincts were wearing off, it was hard to cover for the reason I’d just acted like a fucking jealous asshole over him touching the ghost. It wasn’t like I gave a shit.

  “God, Chase, I landed on a thistle.” Rogue rubbed her ass and I shrugged, dragging down smoke into my lungs and avoiding JJ’s eye.

  “I had a feeling all this anger was an act, dude, thanks for clearing that up,” JJ said with a dark smirk, taking Rogue’s hand and stepping forward so he was half concealing her from me. The action made me want to rip his eyes out and feed them to a seagull. But that was the point wasn’t it? The exact thing I’d been worried about. Rogue had shown up and suddenly she was tearing our group apart just like I’d known she would the moment she picked Maverick. Well fuck that.

  I pushed my fingers into my hair, fronting this shit out as Rogue frowned at me. “You’re an idiot,” I tossed at JJ. “Fox will castrate you and make your balls into a necklace.”

  “Are you gonna tell him?” JJ growled and I pushed my tongue into my cheek.

  “No,” I said. “That’s on you. Ain’t my business.”

  Rogue scoffed and I glowered at her.

  “You kinda made it your business when you twat blocked me and attacked JJ,” she snapped. “What gives?”

  I took another long drag on my cigarette, ignoring the burning pain in my chest over her and him. “You show up here and fuck with my boys, that’s what gives,” I snarled then I turned to JJ with venom spreading over my tongue. “She’s playing you, man. This is what she wants. When Fox finds out, he’ll fucking kill you. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tells him herself.”

  “Watch your mouth,” JJ warned and I shook my head at him, unable to believe this shit.

  “Goddammit, J. She’s got you by the balls. She’s gonna fuck us all up, just like I said.” I shot her another dark look and she shook off JJ’s hand, marching toward me.

  “Shut your damn mouth, Cohen. You’re just being a jealous bitch right now.”

  I scoffed. “As if.”

  “I wasn’t born yesterday,” she said coolly. “You just laid into your best friend because you couldn’t stand seeing his hands on me.”

  I blew a cloud of smoke into her face and she blinked against it, grimacing, but not moving away. “I wouldn’t touch you if your pussy granted eternal life, ghost.”

  I sneered and she sneered right back, and all the while my heart beat like a drum in my chest and ached like she was squeezing it in her fist.

  My gaze shifted to JJ’s over her head and he gave me his puppy dog look.

  “We’re cool right, brother?” he asked intently and I drew away from Rogue.

  “Yeah, we’re cool.” I turned my back on them, feeling Rogue’s eyes digging needles into my back as I rounded the marquee and left them to their fuck fest.

  Fucking JJ. Didn’t he give a shit about what this was gonna do to our group? I mean, fuck Fox for laying a claim on her that he didn’t have a right to stake. I would have hate fucked her into next week given the chance, but it looked like JJ had gotten there first. Bitterness filled my gut and I grabbed a shot off of a cocktail waitress’s tray before stuffing a dollar bill between her tits, downing four more and heading back toward the party.

  I wasn’t gonna hate JJ for this. That was the trap Rogue was laying so screw her for trying it. My bond with J and Fox was unbreakable. But Fox was too hot headed, too possessive. If he found out that JJ was messing around with her, I feared what would happen.

  I wanted to leave, but then my gaze snagged on Rosie who was dancing with a group of her friends near a couple of bikini clad girls wrestling in a paddling pool filled with jello. I headed over to join them, pulling Rosie against me. She giggled in that high-pitched tone of hers I’d learned to tune out a long time ago and started grinding her ass back against my dick. The music thumped to a repetitive beat in my skull and I went to that deadened place inside me I’d cultivated a long time ago. Thanks to Luther. I had a lot to thank King Harlequin for in fact. Like the body count linked to my name, a healthy bunch of scars and an ice cold heart that made killing as easy as brewing coffee.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I took it out, my throat tightening as I found a message from my dad. It was a single X. The only thing he ever sent me. An agreement between us that if he ever desperately needed me and no one else in the fucking world could help, he could send me that message. Fuck.

  I shoved my phone away, unsure if I was going to ignore it or not.

  I didn’t dance with Rosie, but she sure as shit danced on me. One of her dudebro friends planted a beer in my hand and I gave him a look that told him not to be such a kiss ass before I downed it. My head started spinning and as Rosie openly caressed my dick through my shorts, my gaze hooked on JJ and Rogue returning to the foam party, starting to dance together.

  Rogue’s eyes swung my way, landing on Rosie with an acidic hate that heated my blood. I smirked at her in a challenge, gripping Rosie’s waist and pulling her closer. I’d seen my friend fingering Rogue and now I wanted a little payback. Seemed only fair.

  My gaze remained locked with Rogue’s as I dipped my head, driving my tongue between Rosie’s lips. She tasted of tequila and was vaguely appetising, but the thing that got me rock hard was Rogue watching us, trying to mentally drive daggers into our skulls. JJ tried to pull her away, but she didn’t go, just staring as I gripped Rosie’s ass and ground her against my cock.

  I kissed her the way I’d wanted to kiss Rogue, sliding my hand up and around her throat and squeezing as I drove my tongue into her mouth possessively. My heart splintered with every movement of my tongue, but a twisted satisfaction soothed it too. Rogue was still staring, her eyes full of hurt, confirming that her desire for me hadn’t been imagined. And that made me feel like lighting the world on fire just for her. JJ’s attention had been snagged by a couple of girls who were getting them to sign their tits, no doubt regulars at his club.

  I released Rosie from the kiss and she started sucking on my neck, murmuring Chasey into my flesh. She travelled lower, taking the path Rogue had taken earlier when she’d licked her drink off of me and it was all too easy to picture it as her doing it again. Rosie was suddenly on her knees, tugging at my shorts and I looked around, realising we’d gathered a decent audience of spring breakers. Plenty of whom were chanting suck suck suck suck.

  Rogue’s upper lip peeled back as I fisted Rosie’s hair, her palm eagerly squeezing my cock through my shorts. I don’t need Rogue Easton
. I don’t need ghosts who fuck my friends and forget I exist.

  I was drunk enough that I kinda didn’t care about a group of college kids watching me get sucked off and I let my eyes fall closed as I imagined Rosie’s hair was rainbow coloured before wrapping it in my fist. Just as Rosie started to shimmy my shorts down, she was yanked away from me with a yelp of alarm.

  My eyes flew open and I found Rogue there, throwing her fist into Rosie’s face and the college kids whooped excitedly.

  Rosie stumbled backwards, crashing onto her ass in the paddling pool of jello and the bikini clad girls ran for the hills. My lips parted as Rogue dove in on top of her, beating the living hell out of her as Rosie screamed like a groundhog being mauled by a coyote. I swear I got even harder as Rogue went full savage on the girl and I realised I probably should have been pulling her off of Rosie. But…shit. I was a slave to watching her, her fists pounding into Rosie’s gut, her coloured hair flying around her and a snarl on her lips. Ho-ly fuck, ghost is jealous.

  Fox suddenly appeared like a storm cloud descending on the party, dragging Rogue out of the jello pool which was gathering a seriously excited audience, most of which consisted of catcalling frat boys.

  “Are you insane?” Fox snarled at Rogue and she laughed wildly as if to prove that she was. And I liked that a whole fucking hell of a lot. My dick liked it even more, straining against my shorts and tenting them for her.

  Rosie scrambled to her feet behind Rogue, dripping jello with tears running down her cheeks. She ran to me, crashing into my chest and I patted her back vaguely as I continued to stare at Rogue.

  “Oh man, I turn away for one second and I miss you jello fighting with Rosie.” JJ appeared with a pout and Rogue giggled. Fucking giggled.

  She wants JJ not you.

  Venom seeped into my blood and I turned away from them, locking my arm around Rosie’s shoulders and marching her out of the party.

  “She a-attacked me!” Rosie sobbed, sniffing loudly.

  “Yeah,” I murmured. “And it was hot as fuck.”

  “What?” she gasped, looking up at me and I realised I’d said that out loud.

  “You were hot as fuck, Rosie,” I amended and she nuzzled into me.

  “She’s a psycho.” She sucked in a shaky breath, still crying.

  “Yeah,” I murmured. A hot fucking psycho I want to bend over and ram my dick into while she curses me with every colourful word she knows.

  I headed back to the road that led down to the lagoon, whistling at a cab driver who was sunning himself on the hood of his car.

  He jumped to attention and I threw a couple of twenties at him before pushing Rosie into the back seat of his cab. “Give us ten minutes.”

  He nodded, averting his eyes as I followed Rosie into the backseat and let her go to town on my cock to cheer her up. I was a saint like that.

  I leaned my head back against the seat as she slurped on my dick like it was a free lollipop and I shut my eyes so I could picture Rogue in her place. Rosie gave a decent blowjob, but her gag reflex was piss poor. When she’d made a song and dance over licking every inch of my shaft, I pushed her head down until she was choking, cursing as I thought of Rogue taking me all the way in and soon spilled myself down her throat. That’s one way to stop a girl crying.

  I pulled up my shorts and pushed Rosie out of the car, whistling for the driver.

  Rosie stared in at me through the window in surprise and I took my shades from my pocket, pushing them on before lighting up another cigarette.

  “I could come over later, Chasey?” she called through the window and I pretended I couldn’t hear her as the driver started the engine and turned the car around, leaving her coughing in a cloud of dust.

  Maybe part of me liked punishing Rosie for being a royal dick when she’d lived with Rogue in her group home as kids. Or maybe I was just an asshole and didn’t give a flying fuck if I hurt her feelings. She liked sucking my cock, and I liked having my cock sucked. Seemed like a win-win situation to me. Only her pussy was probably collecting cobwebs at this point. I hadn’t fucked her since…hmm. Definitely since before I’d fucked her friend Whitney anyway. And certainly since Rogue had returned to town. I hadn’t buried myself in anyone’s pussy since then. Maybe it was because hers was the only pussy I was craving lately, or maybe it was because sex always turned women into clingy criers. BJs were a halfway house that had clear boundaries. So call me an angel for saving girls’ hearts.

  “Where are ya heading, my man?” the peppy driver called.

  I considered the message I’d gotten from my dad and knew deep down that I was heading there anyway, even if I didn’t wanna admit that was the reason I’d left the party.

  “Nettle Grove,” I said, cracking a window to let the smoke seep out of it, but I was making one hell of an ashy mess back here so it was too late for tapping my cherry on the edge of it. I’d paid him enough for two trips to town though, so he wasn’t complaining.

  We were soon turning down the quiet road that led toward the beach and he parked up beside the overgrown shithole of a house which was where I’d been born and raised.

  “Have a good one.” The driver hopped out, opening the door for me like I was some kind of king and I flicked him a thumb’s up.

  I dropped my cigarette butt to the ground, crushing it beneath my heel before heading through the little gate toward the wooden house which looked a year or two from falling down. Hopefully it would take my dear daddy with it when it fell. Though that was probably too kind of a death for him.

  I walked up the steps onto the creaking porch, pushing through the door and wrinkling my nose at the stench of festering trash. The garbage can was overflowing with takeaway boxes and PBR cans littered the floor all the way up to it.

  I opened the fridge, finding it full of his beers and nothing else, tutting under my breath before making a slow passage deeper into the house. There were photos of him and my momma on the mantlepiece, but the ones of me had cigarette burns in the eyes or were gone completely. My dad had always blamed me for the bad shit in his life. I was his biggest regret, a mistake he couldn’t undo.

  “You here, Dylan?” I called.

  I’d stopped calling him Dad the moment I’d moved out of this house into Luther’s. Momma had hated it, smacking me anytime she heard me say it, but calling him Dad was like calling him an upstanding citizen. He didn’t live up to being either.

  “Up ‘ere,” his gruff voice came from somewhere above me and I moved through the grimy living room before marching upstairs.

  My gaze settled on him in the bathroom at the far end of the hall, the door wide, revealing the old man on the floor with his pants around his ankles in a puddle of his own piss and possibly shit.

  He was clutching his chest, his dirty white tank stained with what looked like several days’ worth of food, beer and cigarette ash.

  I rubbed my thumb over my chin as I slowly walked toward him, my footfalls heavy against the wooden floorboards.

  “Took you long enough,” he snapped at me. “You always were a layabout.”

  I clenched my jaw, moving to stand in the doorway and lighting up another cigarette as I gazed down at my pathetic father as he covered his dick up with a grubby towel.

  “What happened?” I questioned, though it was pretty obvious.

  “Fucking fell, didn’t I? My leg’s been givin’ me trouble again. Don’t just stand there. Help me up, you piece of shit,” he snarled.

  I took my time contemplating that request, tapping ash onto the bathroom floor in front of him as he glared at me, wheezing. He’d been chain smoking his whole life and that familiar rattle in his chest probably should have been a good enough reason for me to quit the habit. Only I wouldn’t be living into old age to wither away like this, all alone. That was not in my fucking future. I’d put a gun to my head before that ever happened.

  “Remember when you broke my foot with your baseball bat and told me a real man would walk himself to the hos
pital?” I mused like it was a heart-warming family memory.

  “A waste of space kid like you needed a firm hand,” he snapped, trying to use the shower curtain to get up, but only serving to rip it down on top of himself. “You coulda been somethin’ worthwhile if you’d listened to the lessons I tried to teach ya. Instead you’re some second rate gangbanger who gets bossed around by Fox Harlequin all day long.”

  It hurt more than I liked and I hated that he still had such a hold on me. But only his words could bruise me these days, not his fists. He’d lost the upper hand with me physically some time ago.

  I stamped down on his bad leg, making him roar with pain, a murderous hate filling me as I glared at this bastard who’d made my youth hell. I’d only let him live this long so he could rot away in this house, live out his lonely, pathetic life here missing my momma. She was better off dead than still sleeping in his bed anyways. He’d ruined her life and now I made sure to ruin what was left of his in return.

  I leaned down to speak in his ear, the scent of sweat and piss rising under my nose. “I should let you die here in your own shit,” I growled, letting him linger with worry for a moment as he sneered at me, wondering if I’d really do it. But I gripped his shoulders, hauling him to his feet and grabbing his cane which had rolled out into the hall. He gripped it tightly with grunts and groans while I yanked his pants up and cursed when my hands came away wet.

  “For fuck’s sake,” I hissed, washing my hands before taking out my phone and shooting a message to Mrs Bevlin who was his on-call carer. My dad was too proud to call for her help. No, when shit like this happened, he summoned his only flesh and blood who he hated with a passion, just so I could pick up the goddamn pieces. But he’d have to suck it up and let Bevlin help him today, because I wasn’t going to be washing the ass of a guy who used to beat me black and blue and had never said a good word in my direction. I’d have to stay and make sure he let her help him though. So it looked like my afternoon had gone from shit to shittier.