Carnival Hill (The Harlequin Crew #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,2

to find Rogue. She had mentioned she’d taken in a little stray, and I wondered if this was it. The dog didn’t seem to know what to make of me, but sometimes it crept closer to sniff at my heels.

Luther had been in a rage after Fox had told him Jolene had betrayed him, sold him out to fucking Shawn. His eyes had become steely and murderous, but when Fox had told him she was dead, he’d nodded and the darkness had lifted a little from his gaze. I only knew one bastard savage enough to nod satisfactorily to hear his own flesh and blood had fallen to their death alongside their husband. And that was him. She might have betrayed him, but fuck me he was coldblooded. Not that that was news to me. He hadn’t even blinked when their bodies had been hauled out of the rubble around dawn. He’d just stared at the broken body of his sister for several long seconds then spat at the ground beside her and gone back to digging.

“You don’t know that,” I snarled at Luther, throwing a huge lump of rock behind me.

There were men working to clear anything we tossed aside so the piles never got too big, but they stood pretty far back from me because it was a fucking hazard zone.

“She’s strong,” Luther said firmly. “And she’s smart too. She’ll have found a way to-”

“Don’t,” I snapped at him. “Stop wasting your energy, old man, and get digging.”

He nodded, moving closer to me and helping me shift the rubble. I didn’t tell him to fuck off because I needed the manpower and so long as he was silent, I could tolerate him for now. For Rogue.

We worked like dogs, our hands bloody and blistered, the hours slipping by and making worry burn a hole in my chest.

Where is she?

She can’t be gone.

My girl has to be here somewhere.

I’d spent too long living in a world without Rogue Easton in it and I didn’t want to go back to it.

Panic was desperately trying to set in, but if I fell apart I’d be no good to her. I just wished my body was even stronger, wished I could work faster. It reminded me of the helplessness I’d felt in prison and the darkness in my soul spilled out, infecting me everywhere until my mind was nothing but a cage of my worst memories.

I focused on her, bringing her to the forefront of my mind and tearing my way back through the past until I was riding my motorcycle through town with her on the back, her arms wrapped around me and her chin on my shoulder.

“Hold on, beautiful,” I called to her, taking a left turn down the street and loosing the throttle.

She whooped as I drove right over the sidewalk onto the beach and I smirked as I kicked sand all over a couple of lotioned-up lovebirds sucking each other’s faces off. They yelled at us as I drove away and Rogue laughed wildly as I raced towards the vacant end of the beach where Sinners’ Playground’s shadow was cast across the water.

“Faster!” she cried.

I gave her what she wanted, flying along the beach and she suddenly let go of me.

“Rogue,” I growled in alarm, turning my head and finding her with her arms stretched wide and her head tipped back. Her dark hair tumbled around her in the breeze and I was so captivated by her that I lost control of the damn bike.

We hit a bump and I cursed, slowing us down as much as possible as the wheels skidded out and the bike tilted sideways.

I twisted around, grabbing hold of her and pulling her off onto the sand before my motorcycle slammed down to the ground ahead of us with an angry crunch that said something had just broken.

I didn’t give a shit about that though, I rolled towards Rogue in fear of her being injured, but found her laughing her damn head off, making a snow angel in the sand.

“Fucking hell,” I chuckled, pushing my hand into my hair as relief swept through me.

“Is your bike okay?” She asked as she propped herself up on her elbows, looking over at it in concern.

“It’ll live,” I said with a shrug, reaching out to her knee which was reddening with a bruise. I rubbed my thumb over it, a pang going through me at putting her at risk. “Sorry, beautiful.”

“You’ll have to kiss it better,” she