Dead Man's Isle (Harlequin Crew #2)

by Caroline Peckham

  “I’d have figured it out,” Chase muttered, shrugging his shoulders.

  “At least the five of us would have still been together,” I bit out and Rogue squeezed my fingers. She was unusually quiet and I guessed my father had had a lot to say to her, I just wondered exactly what that was. If he’d known she was here, why hadn’t he shown up while we were here too, why had he snatched her away from my goddamn house and scared the life out of me? Oh right, because he’s an asshole.

  “Bullshit,” Luther hissed. “You all lived in a fantasy world back then, and I let ya because you were young. But you had to grow up sometime and face reality. And the fact is, kids in this town end up one of two ways; broke and miserable or broke and dead. You think I wanted either of those things for you? For any of you? Being a Harlequin is about more than just about being in a gang, it’s security, safety, family. You will always have a home so long as you’re one of us, and you have people who’ll watch your back, help you out when shit gets rough. There ain’t no price you can put on that in this life.”

  “But you didn’t have to send Rogue away,” I said bitterly, resentment clinging to my heart. “You say there was nothing for us out in the world, but you still sent her off into it alone, didn’t you?”

  “I was the sacrifice, right?” Rogue guessed with disdain. “Get rid of me and you could save the rest of them.”

  Luther nodded in admission and my hackles rose. “That’s the long and short of it, yeah. It didn’t have to be that way, but you made your beds when you tried to pull the wool over my eyes. I’m a reasonable man, but I’m still the king of this crew and there are things I have to do even if I don’t like ‘em all that much at the time.”

  “You’re full of shit.” I shoved out of my seat and pointed to the door. “And I’d like you to get out of my goddamn house.”

  Luther gazed at me with a hint of pain in his eyes as he slowly got up and I stared him down, not flinching from that penetrating gaze of his which used to cause me so much fear.

  “Son…” he tried. “You need to let go of the past.”

  “I’m fine holding onto it thanks,” I ground out. “And you may be the king of the Crew, the king of me and the king of the whole fucking world for all I care, but you gave me this house and said it was mine, so I think I’m within my rights to ask you to leave it.”

  Everyone’s eyes swung between us as tension made the air thick.

  “Fine, I’ll leave,” Luther conceded. “You can have today to process all this, but tomorrow there’s work to be done and I won’t stand for any subordinance, kid.”

  “I’m not a kid,” I bit at him and his eyes moved over me for a long moment.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” he sighed like he was sad about that, then nodded to the others in goodbye and headed for the front door. I didn’t move until it clicked shut, then I snatched Chase’s cigarettes off the island and strode out of the room, heading for the back door.

  I unlocked it, stepping onto the wooden porch that overlooked our private stretch of sandy beach. Rain hammered down on the roof of it and the sea churned and roiled like an angry beast as I lit up a cigarette and stared into its murky depths. The boat out on the jetty rocked and bounced on the furious waves that were rolling in to shore, looking exactly like the turmoil of my life right now.

  The others spilled out onto the porch then gathered around me and we all just smoked and watched the storm in silence, taking some peace in the closeness of each other.

  I dropped my arm around Rogue’s shoulders as she stood at my side, and she leaned into me with her arm around my back, her rainbow hair dancing in the wind.

  “Fuck your dad,” Chase muttered on my other side, releasing a line of smoke from his lips.

  “Fuck him up the butt with a coconut,” Rogue added.

  “Fuck him sideways with a spiky dildo,” JJ offered from beside Rogue and I finally cracked a smile.

  “Fuck you!” I hollered into the wind and they all started shouting it too, our voices dragged away into the storm.

  After a while it didn’t even feel like we were saying it to Luther anymore, we were saying it to the world, our fate, to fucking Shawn, and to Rosie Morgan and every other fucker who wasn’t one of us. I wanted everyone and everything to just fuck off and leave the four of us here together, to give us time to heal our wounds and find a new way to love each other.

  For a moment, it was just like it always had been, though I couldn’t ignore the carved out chunk of my heart where Maverick had existed. I’d missed him every day for the past ten years, but I knew that feeling didn’t relate to the Maverick who lived out on Dead Man’s Isle.

  I missed the brother I’d grown up with, the boy I’d learned to surf with, the one who’d punched me when I did stupid shit and laughed with me over nothing until our stomachs hurt.

  I remembered him out on this very porch when we were kids, carving our names into one of the wooden posts with the new penknives Luther had given to each of us. He’d accidentally given me the one with Maverick’s name etched into it and my one to him. But we hadn’t switched them back, we’d decided we liked the idea of stabbing our enemies with a blade marked with our brother’s name, because back then, we would have killed for one another. But now…we only wanted to kill each other.

  ***

  We took a couple of days of downtime and no one said it, but I was pretty sure we all just wanted to be around each other. We ate every meal together, even when we didn’t say much and my heart finally started to settle over what had happened. I was far from forgiving my dad for his bullshit, but I had to admit I was fucking relieved to know he wasn’t out for my girl’s blood anymore. It was a heavy relief after an endless stretch of fear. She was home, and she could stay. And that was the only thing I’d ever truly wanted in ten years.

  I headed into JJ’s room in the morning while he was sleeping, trying not to disturb him as I sought out book two of the Twilight Saga. I’d been trying to implement more of the Edward Cullen tactics, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t working.

  The click of a gun sounded and I wheeled around, finding JJ squinting at me from his bed as he pointed his handgun at my head.

  “Da fuck are you doing?” he asked sleepily as he placed the gun on his nightstand.

  I waved Twilight at him. “Looking for book two. And by the way, I don’t really understand what you expect me to learn from these books. I do everything Edward does from the following her around, to the protecting, even the watching her sleep and Rogue still doesn’t want me.”

  “You still watch her sleep?” JJ growled and I shrugged, shoving Twilight back on the shelf.

  JJ jumped out of bed, grabbing it from where I’d put it with a scowl. “It doesn’t go there, it goes here with the others. And dude, you’re totally missing the point. If you wanna learn from these books, you should’ve asked me for guidance.”

  “Well what am I doing wrong?” I growled. “You said these stories are what women want and shit, so why am I failing so hard with her?” I folded my arms and he shook his head at me.

  “Edward Cullen is a fantasy, but you don’t wanna be Edward Cullen,” he said like that made perfect sense. Definitely didn’t.

  “I’m confused,” I said and he sighed.

  “Edward’s like the ultimate wet dream, he’ll be obsessively in love with you, protect you from all evil, die for you yada, yada, and that’s great as a concept, but in real life? Not so much.” He looked through his books, considering each one. “You wanna have elements of Edward, but you also need to be Jacob with a little sprinkling of Charlie.”

  “Bella’s dad?” I wrinkled my nose, confused as fuck.

  “Yeah,” he said. “And forget Bella, we’re talking about Rogue, and also about any girl reading Twilight, see?”

  “No, but go on,” I encouraged.

  “Edward’s love is obsessive and he’s sexy as fuck, but Jacob is her best friend and Charlie’s the mature one who knows when to step back and giv
e a woman her space. So you gotta be all three as and when Rogue needs you to be.”

  “And how do I know when to be Jacob over Edward?” I frowned.

  “Look, it’s not about being anyone else. You’re great, dude,” JJ said in exasperation.

  “But you just said-”

  He grabbed a book with a gasp then rounded on me and slammed it into my chest with a huge grin. “Holy shit, I’ve got the answer.”

  “To what?”

  “Just read this,” he commanded in a growl and I looked down at the book as I took it in my hands. The cover had a lilac haired girl on it wearing a black dress, looking all mysterious and shit. The title was Dark Fae.

  “Is this fantasy?”

  “Yeah, the sexy kind. It’s like Twilight if everyone was fucking and killing each other all the time. It’s got gangs and enemies to lovers and you’ll get a boner every other chapter.”

  “Um, okay,” I agreed. “And this will help with Rogue?”

  “Definitely,” he said. “Just focus on Leon’s character. He’s got the answers.” He looked seriously excited about something, but I had no idea what it was.

  “Alright,” I said, my mood brightening a little as I hoped this could really help me out with Rogue. I was determined to make her happy and maybe this book could be the one to up my game. Because seriously, it was embarrassing how useless I was with her. Was I always this bad with women or was it just because it was Rogue Easton and she made me want to tie her to my back and carry her around everywhere I went just so I could be sure she’d never leave town again?

  JJ clapped me around the face. “Now fuck off, bro, I wanna go back to sleep.”

  I laughed, heading out of the room and moving across the hall to jimmy Rogue’s lock. I was soon into her bedroom and I sat down in the chair by her bed as I tossed Mutt some treats and started reading, my gaze flicking from the pages to her peaceful face as she slept. It was very fucking distracting.

  After a couple of hours, I was firmly on team Gabriel in the book and didn’t know what JJ had been talking about when he said to take notes from Leon. Gabriel was the girl’s one true mate and he knew it, sure he was acting like an asshole, but I was guessing he’d figure it out sooner or later.

  I left the book in my room while I showered and came up with a plan to spend some time with Rogue this morning. I dressed in some swim shorts and packed a bag for us before heading down to the kitchen and preparing some fruit and muesli for when the boys got up. Then I packed up Rogue’s Jeep with our surfboards, put my bag in the front and headed back upstairs to get her.

  She hadn’t appreciated the kidnap move before so this time I’d try something else…

  Mutt yapped as I entered the room and I didn’t bother to shush him with treats as I walked up to the bed and waited to see if she might stir. Nope.

  I grabbed hold of her comforter and whipped it off of her in one fluid movement, throwing it on the floor. She tucked her legs to her chest, but didn’t wake and I snorted a breath of amusement. She was wearing a Rolling Stones t-shirt which I was pretty sure belonged to JJ and I wondered if I should start leaving my own shirts around for her to steal. I’d sure like to see her walking around in my things, but she probably wouldn’t do it just to spite me.

  “Morning, hummingbird,” I called, but she didn’t respond. I stepped up onto the bed, standing either side of her then started jumping, making her bounce on the mattress.

  “Earthquake,” she murmured. “Run, Mutt.”

  I dropped to my knees and sat on her, making her wheeze out a breath as her eyes fluttered open.

  “Badger,” she croaked. “Why are you sitting on me?”

  “Because we’re going out.”

  “Nooo,” she groaned, covering her eyes with her hand dramatically.

  “I have pastries,” I said. “And if we don’t go now, we’ll miss the tide. Don’t you wanna surf?” I said temptingly in her ear and she shivered beneath me.

  “I want an ice cream sundae, with sprinkles, and chocolate sauce,” she murmured, keeping her eyes shut as I peeled her hand away from her face.

  “It’s eight in the morning.” I frowned.

  “And this girl doesn’t get out of bed before nine for anything less than three scoops of ice cream, Badger.”

  I snorted. “Fine. We’ll pick one up on the way. Get dressed.” I kissed her forehead then stepped off the bed and waited for her to get up.

  She immediately started breathing softly as she fell back asleep and I shook my head at her, grabbing the edge of the mattress and flipping it up so she went tumbling onto the carpet. The t-shirt she was sleeping in slipped up to reveal her bright pink panties and she growled as she crawled her way to the closet, grabbed some clothes and kept crawling into the bathroom, kicking the door shut behind her.

  I smirked, picking up Mutt and heading downstairs with him to wait for her while I gave him his breakfast.

  She eventually appeared in a lemon sundress with a hot pink bikini peeking out from underneath it and JJ’s sunglasses on her face. Her hair was twisted up into a knot on her head and little tendrils of coloured locks tickled her neck. A neck I wanted to kiss and bite and mark and – focus.

  I smiled, offering her my hand, but she just walked past me toward the garage.

  “Ice cream,” she said like a zombie and I smirked, following her closely, happy to enjoy the view of her ass as her sexy little dress swung around her tanned thighs. We walked downstairs and I led the way to her Jeep, tossing her the keys.

  “I’m driving?” she asked in surprise.

  “That a problem?” She hadn’t used her car for ages and I hadn’t gotten it for her just so it could sit here and rot. I mean, I hadn’t been letting her out of the house so that might have had something to do with it, but that wasn’t the point.

  She snatched the keys, jogging around to the driver’s side and leaping in, apparently more awake now. I got in the passenger’s side with Mutt on my lap, putting on Rogue’s seatbelt for her as she started up the car. My fingers brushed her waist and she looked at me as I remained close to her, the heat of her body drawing me in.

  “We could always skip the surfing and you could ride me instead of the waves?” I offered with a dirty grin and she smacked my arm, shoving me back, but a smile played around her mouth.

  “I’ll take the waves, Badge. I won’t owe them anything after I’m done with them.”

  “You won’t owe me shit,” I said as she drove out of the garage and I waved at my men as we approached the gate so they let us out.

  “Wrong,” she sang. “If we fuck, you’ll think I really am your girl.”

  “You are anyway,” I pointed out.

  “Don’t piss me off, Badger, I might become a flight risk again,” she warned and I rolled my eyes, rubbing Mutt’s head as the road sailed by outside the window.

  We stopped off at a café to get Rogue’s ice cream and I bought myself a chocolate sundae too because why the fuck not for once? After our sugar-filled breakfast Rogue drove us down to the beach near the cove where the best surfing waves were found and as we stepped out of the Jeep, Mutt went running off toward the water, snapping at the waves and barking happily.

  I pulled my shirt off and tossed it onto my seat, my gaze hooking on Rogue on the other side of the Jeep as she pulled her sundress over her head and dropped it onto the driver’s seat. She adjusted her little pink bikini bottoms over her hips while I took in every perfect inch of her body, a possessive need to be closer making my heart thump erratically.

  I moved to unload the surfboards and she grabbed her own from me when I tried to carry it for her.

  “I’m just trying to be a gentleman,” I said.

  “Well try being a gentleman somewhere else.” She wafted her hand in the vague direction of a seagull. “I’m busy being a badass and your grandad vibe is killing the mood.”

  Grandad vibe?

  She kicked off her sandals and went running down the beach towards the
sea as the morning light made her tan glow. I locked up the Jeep and followed her like a hound on a scent, catching up as she waded out into the waves. Mutt watched us from the shore, wagging his tail before heading off to sniff his way along the sand.

  We paddled out beyond the break and Rogue’s eyes sparkled with excitement as we turned our boards around and eyed the waves rolling in behind us. There were a few other surfers out and they were all bobbing in the water on their boards as they waited for a big wave to catch.

  The water started swelling behind us and I shared a grin with Rogue before we began paddling our arms hard to pick up speed, the once familiar feel of surfing with her sending a rush through my body. We’d done it thousands of times when we were kids, and yet the high never lessened. The look in Rogue’s eyes reminded me I needed to let her come down here more often. It wasn’t like I wanted to lock her up, but with Shawn in town all I wanted to do was put her in a tower and bolt up the doors. I wasn’t saying I was on the side of dragons who guarded princesses in towers or anything, but yeah, okay I was.

  The water rose beneath my board and I paddled harder before jumping up and riding the wave as it hurtled towards the shore.

  Rogue whooped as she popped up too, bending low as her board cut diagonally along the wave and I followed her with my eyes on her ass and my mind well and truly distracted. And because I was distracted, I didn’t see the asshole coming directly for her on his surfboard, the guy shouting for her to get out of his way instead of just dropping into the water.

  My gaze narrowed and she screamed as he collided with her, the two of them tumbling into the water and crashing under the waves. I dove off of my board, swimming for her as a snarl tore from my lips.

  She came up for air, rubbing her shoulder and I pulled her close, inspecting the skin as a red mark started to blossom already.