P anic burned along the inside of my bones as I stared at Rogue, seeing the fight go out of her, seeing her accept the offer Shawn was making. But fuck that. I’d die before I let her walk into that house with him. And if that was really what it was going to take then so fucking be it.
The men pressing in around me, Fox and Maverick were stifling, hot bodies and guns everywhere. But I’d clocked the grenade clipped to the belt of the sweaty dude whose face looked like a granola bar the moment he’d appeared and now he had his machine gun pressed to my side, I was ready to go all in on my death wish.
“Rogue!” Fox called to her. “Don’t agree to anything.”
“I’ll stay here so long as you let them go,” Rogue said and panic cut into me.
“No!” I barked.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, sugarpie. Take her inside, boys,” Shawn called, jerking his chin at one of his men and they caught hold of Rogue’s arm, dragging her toward the door.
“Let them go - that was the deal!” she shouted at Shawn.
“Yeah, yeah, lemme just say goodbye first, sugarpie,” he said, strutting towards us with a smirk. “Hey boys, so this is what a winner looks like.” He did a twirl and his men chuckled like he was hilarious.
The sweaty guy’s eyes slid to him and I acted in that single second of opportunity, yanking the grenade from his hip and pulling the pin in the same moment.
I threw it at Shawn as hard as I could and the motherfucker snapped out a hand, catching it from the air before launching it away from himself with a curse.
“Move Killian!” the sweaty guy cried as the grenade flew towards a man standing beside Shawn’s white SUV and Killian tripped over his own feet as he tried to escape. The grenade hit the car window and exploded with a boom, destroying the car and engulfing Killian in a huge blaze of fire that spiralled up towards the sky, the blast knocking us all flat to the ground and making my ears ring.
“My baby!” Shawn wailed over his car.
I’d been ready for the explosion, recovering faster than most and snatching the sweaty guy’s gun, turning it on all of the men surrounding us as I unleashed a spray of bullets with a roar of fury.
One asshole aimed his handgun down at Maverick’s head and Fox kicked his wrist as he lay on his back, sending the weapon flying just before I gunned the asshole down and he hit the dirt in a pool of blood. Fox dragged Maverick up by the scruff of his neck and all three of us twisted around with stolen weapons in hand, hunting for Shawn and our girl. I couldn’t see our enemy, but Rogue was being dragged behind a truck while the rest of Shawn’s men ran from the blaze and tried to pull the injured out of the way of the growing fire.
I sprinted in the direction Rogue had been taken, rounding the truck just as the guy tripped backwards over a body on the ground and Rogue twisted out of his hold in a flash of movement. She grabbed the gun from his grip, turning it back on the asshole and firing three rounds into his skull with a shout of utter fury.
Now was definitely not the time to get a boner, but fuck, Johnny D had a mind of his own.
I grabbed Rogue’s hand, whipping open the door to the truck and pushing her inside, finding the keys stuffed up in the sun visor.
“Fox – Rick!” I called, spotting them taking cover behind a stone statue of some ancient Rosewood guy with medals on his chest.
Chunks of stone were blasted off of it as several Dead Dogs closed in on them. My boys returned fire, but it looked like Fox was out of bullets and I cursed as I shoved the truck into drive and slammed my foot to the accelerator.
“Stay down,” I commanded Rogue and she ducked her head as a stream of bullets shattered the front window. My heart rioted as I kept as low as possible, somehow avoiding the bullets blasted this way as the truck bumped over dead bodies.
I made it to our boys and shoved the door open beside me in urgency.
“Hurry!” I barked and Fox clambered inside but as I whistled for Rick, he just waved us away.
“Fuck,” I hissed as Maverick leapt over the hood of the truck and took the guy in the string vest to the ground, rolling him over and jamming his own gun against his ass before pulling the trigger.
“Rick! Get in the truck!” Rogue screamed, grabbing the machine gun from my lap and aiming it out the window.
She started firing at anyone close to Maverick, the rat-tat-tat of bullets bursting from the gun as she shot anyone who dared poke their head out from where they were taking cover.
“JJ we gotta go,” Fox said frantically, pointing back at the house where more men were pouring out of it with guns in their hands.
I caught sight of Shawn poking his head out of the doorway, pumping his shotgun and firing a round into the side of our stolen truck with a grin on his lips like he was having the time of his life.
“You sure keep me on my toes, boys!” he called, clearly enjoying the mayhem.
I hit the gas as a line of men started firing at Maverick, slamming into two of them and knocking them down beneath the wheels of the huge vehicle.
Maverick took the opportunity to run to the gate, jamming his thumb down on a button beside it so they started opening then he took off again. But he didn’t run towards us, he ran over to a gleaming black Harley Davidson parked to one side of the drive. He swung his leg over it and I turned the truck towards the gate as we all kept low in our seats and Rogue fired at any motherfucker stupid enough to still be out in the open or who dared point a gun in Maverick’s direction.
“You’ll come crawling back soon, sugarpie!” Shawn hollered as we made it to the open gates. “I’ll make damn certain of it!”
Maverick accelerated off the property on his bike and I tore after him, turning sharply down the road as gunfire ripped through the back of the truck. Somehow, by some miracle, it didn’t look like any of us had gotten shot and I had to think we were seriously fucking lucky.
We raced through town, following Maverick as the three of us sat up straighter, the only sound between us our furious breaths falling from our lungs.
Fox pulled Rogue close, his arm locking around her shoulders and she clutched his shirt as she held onto him, grief lining her features.
“Miss Mabel,” she whispered, tears gleaming in her eyes. “She’s been locked up in that fucking place for years and now she’s dead and who knows what Shawn did to her before she died.”
My own heart squeezed painfully and Fox stroked her hair, looking full of rage and hate over the loss of the old woman who’d once been so good to us.
“I’m sorry, baby,” he murmured.
“I’m gonna kill him,” she growled, her lip turned back in a wolf’s snarl. “And I’m gonna cut him to pieces before I do.”
“We’ll all be there to do it, pretty girl,” I vowed and Fox nodded, sharing a dark look with me as the roar of Maverick’s motorcycle filled the air. “Blood for blood. When he dies, the only thing he’ll remember of this life is the meaning of the word pain.”
T he adrenaline was still scattering through my veins as we arrived back at Harlequin House and through the rush of the escape we'd made, I'd barely even taken a moment to fully grasp what that meant.
We were home. Safe. But Shawn now held a stronghold in the Cove. Worse, he was in a prime position to head into that graveyard and find all of our most valuable secrets buried in that crypt.
But beyond the danger and threat which had taken root in that place thanks to Shawn killing Kaiser and stealing his estate from him was the soul crushing grief of what had happened to the one and only woman who had ever given a fuck about me when I was a kid. I’d called Chase to fill him in while we were racing through the streets of the Cove so that he would stop worrying, but I was desperate to see him in the flesh, confirm that all of my boys were alive and well.
Fox and JJ were in a whirlwind of rage and phone calls, arranging a meeting at The Oasis with Luther to discuss what this meant now that they knew exactly where Shawn was hiding out. They were talking about launching an offensiv
e against him or even calling in reinforcements from the cartel, but I didn't care about any of that.
All that kept replaying in my mind were the words that Shawn had spoken to me. The threat still hanging over me and the men I kept close to me. I knew he wasn't going to stop with this now. Shawn Mackenzie was like a wolfhound on the scent of an injured deer when he fixed his mind on something.
He lived for games and power and now that he'd decided to come for me, I knew he wouldn't just let the idea drop. Worse than that, I knew he would only keep coming at the Harlequins harder and harder for every day I spent refusing to play his twisted games. And if he was attacking the Harlequins then he was always just one step away from ripping my heart from my chest anyway.
I refused the offer to go to The Oasis with Fox when he asked, not wanting to be a part of whatever plans the Harlequins cooked up against Shawn.
I needed time to think about all of this. I needed time to process what we'd just learned and I needed time to decide on my next move. Because if I could end this war by giving myself up to the man who kept striking at us, then didn't I have to consider that? Didn't I have to put aside my own fear and think about what was best for Fox and JJ? Maverick too. If I could stop this fight then they would be free of it. This threat against them would disband and at least I'd know they were safe.
JJ and Fox left and I headed upstairs to fill Chase in on what had happened, Mutt scampering along by my heels.
I knocked on his door but I didn't get an answer so I let myself in, finding him asleep in the centre of the bed with the lights on overhead, his brow furrowed and his eyepatch missing.
My gaze trailed over the scars that marked his right eyelid, the savage X that cut through his eyebrow and ran onto his cheek. The lines of it were still red but a lot of the anger had gone out of the wound now and I could see how the scar would look once it was finished healing.
He'd always bear that mark now and he'd never regain the sight in that eye, but somehow there was beauty in that. In the way his scar showed on the outside instead of being hidden away on the inside where no one could see like mine were.
I considered leaving him in peace, but Mutt scampered over to his bed, hopping up and curling himself in a little ball by Chase's feet, so I followed his lead and moved further into the room instead.
I slipped into his bathroom, snagging one of his band tees as I went and taking a quick shower to wash the feel of Shawn's touch from my skin before I went to him.
I left my clothes in his hamper, tugging on the tee and padding back across his room on bare feet before crawling into his bed with him.
I laid my head down on the pillow beside his, drinking in the sight of his face and the brief moments of peace it held in sleep. But that didn't last long as tension lined his features once more and a grunt of anguish escaped him, causing me to shuffle closer and take his hand in mine.
He gripped me tightly, drawing me even closer, his forehead pressing to mine as he drew in a long breath.
"Stay," he murmured and I nodded, my mouth brushing against the stubble on his jaw and my lips aching for a taste of something I knew I shouldn't have hungered for.
"I'll stay," I swore in a low whisper but he stilled, that soft noise enough to rouse him fully and his eyes opening as he found me there in his arms.
I met his gaze, my heart racing as I took in the damage to his right eye which had turned a much paler blue thanks to the slice of the knife that had cut into it, the pupil opaque and unmoving.
Chase seemed to realise what I was looking at, cursing as he closed his eyes again and tried to roll away from me, muttering about his eye patch cutting into his face if he slept with it on.
I caught his shoulder and tugged on it firmly, stopping him as he tried to roll further from me.
"Don't hide from me, Ace," I breathed, shifting towards him and gripping his arm tightly. "You know me. You were there when I got my first period. You were there when I stole my first car. You were there when I cried because I missed parents I'd never even known, and I cried because you hated the ones who you had. You know me. So look at me. And tell me I'm lying about this." I pushed my fingers into his hair, fully exposing his damaged eye to the light of the room and making sure I didn't hide a single piece of what I was feeling for him as I let the love I held in my heart for him and the relief I had over finding him alive mix with the pride I felt for how strong he was while working to recover from all that Shawn had done to him. I wanted him to see all of that in me and to know with complete certainty that I didn’t care about scars or any of that shit, because all I cared about was him.
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to that damaged skin and his arm moved to my waist as he drew me closer with a soft sigh.
"This isn't something you should be ashamed of," I told him. "You should be proud of it. Not for some bullshit battle scars reason or any of that. But because you're Chase fucking Cohen. And you've never given a single fuck what anyone thinks of you, so why the hell would you start now? You're the scariest motherfucker in the room. Not because of your scars, but because you can beat any man bloody without breaking a sweat and everyone knows better than to fuck with you."
Chase groaned needily, his grip on me tightening until he was propelling me up and onto him so that I straddled his waist and his hands locked around my hips.
"You always could destroy me with that smart mouth of yours, little one," he growled, his hands travelling up my sides until he pushed his fingers into my hair while my forehead remained pressed to his and we hid inside the rainbow locks that surrounded us.
"That's our problem, isn't it?" I murmured. "We find it all too easy to destroy each other."
His cock was hard between my thighs and suddenly this tension between us didn't feel like a game anymore. With JJ here and a few drinks in my system it had all seemed so simple. He'd wanted this, I'd wanted it, we'd just been following the call of what our bodies needed, but this, me and Chase on our own was something different. Something that burned hotter, angrier, was gilded in lies and betrayal and so much heartache that it seared me when I looked at it straight on like this.
He was the boy I'd always wanted to rescue but now the darkness he was running from had found its way within him and I didn't know how to fight it off. I didn't even know if I should be trying or if I should just let myself fall into it and be consumed by it. Or maybe I should match it with some demons of my own and let the whole world burn for us.
"Do you love him?" Chase asked me, his throat bobbing as his hand slid from my hair to my cheek, his thumb teasing my bottom lip like he was committing the shape of it to memory. "JJ."
"Chase..."
"It's okay," he said, his fingers drifting onto my neck as he inhaled deeply. "You make him smile in a way I haven't seen since the day you were taken from us. I thought being a Harlequin broke that in him. I thought what we did to Clive that night out in the woods was the end of those smiles. But it was never about any of that. It was you. It's always been you for all of us. And I want him to get his happily ever after when I'm gone. I want him to have you."
I jerked back as his words hit me and he let his hands fall to my waist as I sat upright, replaying them in my mind and wondering how I was supposed to explain what I felt for JJ to him. What I felt for Rick and Fox and him too. They were my boys, and I was their girl, but I was also the cause of so much bad for all of them. I was the divide in their group, I was the reason for at least as much pain in them as I'd suffered myself while we'd been separated. And now I was a target on their backs, dragging the devil I'd collected along my journey to their front door and hoping they could stand against it while holding the key to drawing it off in my fist.
"Shawn said he'll stop the war on the Harlequins," I said, not answering his questions because none of that mattered. Or it was all that mattered. I wasn't even sure, but what I was sure of was that I could do something to end this violence. "He had us all on our knees tonight, Chase. He could have killed al
l four of us as easy as breathing and the only reason he held off was because it didn't suit his twisted idea of fun. But I know it won't be that easy next time. And I also know how to stop him."
"How?" Chase demanded, his eyes flashing with violence as his fingers gripped my waist tightly.
"I just have to give him what he wants." I shrugged, trying not to taste the bile that coated my tongue with those words or feel the shiver which danced its way down my spine as Chase shook his head beneath me, knowing what I was going to say before I had even uttered the word. "Me."
"Never," Chase snarled, his fingers biting into my skin like he thought holding onto me tight enough would be all it took to keep me there. "I would die a thousand times over, suffer every day of my life in his torture, do whatever the fuck it took to make sure that never happens, little one."
My heart leapt at the furious dedication in his gaze but I shoved his hands off of me, moving to climb off of the bed as I refused to let him sway me from what I was thinking.
Chase caught my wrist before I could make it to my feet, yanking me down onto the mattress beside him and throwing his weight over me as he pinned me beneath him with a grunt of pain as he clearly jarred his leg.
"Swear to me that you will stop thinking what you're thinking," he snarled. "Promise me you're not actually considering letting that monster have you for the sake of our stained souls?"
"I could end this!" I shouted, losing my cool and shoving my palms against his chest as I tried to force him back, but Chase might as well have been a slab of rock for all the good it did.
"You think leaving us again would end it? You would destroy us, Rogue. Fox would fall apart completely and Johnny James would be devastated. Who the fuck even knows what Maverick would do, but he'd probably rip the entire world apart in vengeance. I won't let you even consider it. It's madness and you know it. Look at me - look at what that animal is capable of!"
Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew Book 3) Page 41
