I headed down to the kitchen for breakfast, checking my phone as I shot a few texts to Rogue to check she was good, but I guessed they were all still sleeping because the group chat was dead.
Fox was in the kitchen in his boxers, eating cereal as he sat at the island and he looked up as I entered, pushing the box of Lucky Charms towards me. Fuck, I loved a bowl of Charms. I grabbed a bowl and some milk then sat beside him, eating the sugary goodness with large bites. The thing about dumping a dead guy in the water who'd harmed Rogue was that it should have been traumatising. But to me, it had been kind of invigorating. All that blood had been fucking exciting, especially when it had come from the head of a guy who'd tried to hurt my girl. I kind of wished I'd kept the poker. Was that weird? Seemed like it was okay to me, but maybe the guy who wasn’t bothered about dumping a dead body didn’t have it all together to decide on the weirdness of that.
"Wanna head to Sinners’ Playground soon?" I asked and Fox nodded quickly.
I pushed a hand into my hair, wondering if I should wash it before we left, but that thought died as Luther strode into the kitchen and stole all of my attention. He had a leather jacket and jeans on, his blonde hair pushed back away from his face and tattoos crawling up his neck.
"Morning, boys," he said crisply, his dark green eyes falling on his real son first then shifting to me.
I was grateful and all for him taking me in when I was a kid, but now I knew I wasn’t family it made a whole lot of sense. Fox was the only one of the Harlequins who treated me like I was his real brother, but I’d always gotten the feeling that Luther didn’t see me that way. I knew he thought I was worth less than him and for the most part I didn't give a shit. I’d stopped calling Luther ‘Dad’ the moment he’d told me I was adopted, even though he’d fought me hard over it. He’d taken me in when I was two years old after one of his men had died and I’d been left orphaned. If there were pictures of my real dad, I never got to see them. And I guessed I resented that on some level. The more Luther tried to make me a Harlequin, the more I resisted. And my nature meant I naturally butted heads with Fox which Luther didn't like so much. He liked to remind me where I was supposed to stand in the pecking order. Which, as far as I could tell, was firmly beneath the boots of him and his son.
"Hey Dad," Fox said with a tight smile as Luther pressed a hand to his shoulder then looked to me.
Luther Harlequin always brought a tense energy to a room. I guessed that was what it was like being the big bad wolf in town and I'd always been drawn to that about him, trying to figure out how he managed it. I was pretty sure it came down to two things: his reputation and his unpredictability. I had the unpredictability down but the only thing I had a decent reputation for so far was beating the hell out of assholes who threatened my friends. Though now I guessed I could add disposing of a dead body to the list…
"We have a problem." Luther moved to stand on the other side of the kitchen island and spread his hands on the surface as he looked calmly between us. But those dark green eyes which were the same shade as his son's weren't hiding anything. There was something wrong and my heart started to thrash in my chest as I waited for him to spill it. "Axel Phillips washed up in the cove this morning with his head caved in."
Dead, cold silence roared in my ears as he delivered that blow. I fought the urge to look at Fox, keeping my features neutral, making sure there wasn't a single flicker of guilt in my eyes for him to detect. I'd perfected my lying face a long time ago and Fox had it down as well as I did. We could have lied as an Olympic sport, and for Rogue, we'd win the fucking gold medal.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, sounding vaguely interested but not nearly interested enough for the guy who had personally stabbed that asshole in the gut in an attempt to make him sink to the bottom of the ocean. Why the fuck hadn't it worked? And why hadn't the damn sharks eaten him?
"Yeah," Luther said, his brows lowering sharply. "So I sent my boys over to his place and they said the house stank of bleach. They asked the neighbours some questions and it turns out one of the kids who lives at that group home down the street from him had an interesting story to tell."
My pulse was thundering in my ears and my breaths were fighting to come unevenly, but I locked it all down, cocking my head slightly as I showed enough interest. But not too fucking much.
"What kid?" Fox asked and though he said the words calmly, I could read him as well as I could read myself. He was hiding an inferno inside him and I knew exactly what was gonna happen when it was let out.
"Clive something." Luther shrugged. "But...funny thing is, he mentioned that girl you like to run with."
Fuck.
"Rogue?" I questioned, forcing a frown onto my face like I was confused. But I wasn't fucking confused, I was all too well enlightened. We were heading down shit creek without a paddle towards shit waterfall which would sweep us out to shit ocean. And I was not gonna let Rogue be drowned in shit.
"Yeah, that's the one." Luther took his time over his words, assessing our reaction. "But no one's seen her all night apparently. So you wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?"
Fox shook his head and I did the same.
"We went surfing with her yesterday morning, haven't seen her since then," Fox said with a shrug.
"Well maybe you'd do me a favour and give her call. Ask her to come over to the house so I can get her story," Luther said, his eyes cold and murderous. I knew in the root of my soul, that he already knew. That if he got his hands on our girl, she was dead. Just like everyone who crossed Luther Harlequin ended up dead. It wouldn’t matter that she’d been defending herself. She’d killed one of his men and the price of that was clear. A life for a life. No exceptions.
I was practically holding my breath just so I didn't explode, but every muscle in my body was trying to bunch up while I fought to keep it still. I was a coiling wire of knotted tension that needed an outlet. But I had to keep it together. Had to slow my breathing, uncurl my fists, fight the urge to hit Luther over the head with a damn stool and make a bid to get out of the house and get my girl.
"She broke her phone," Fox said, the lie smooth and effortless as I fought to maintain my composure.
My temper was getting to that dangerous point where all reason went out the window.
Luther's eyes whipped to his son and his lips tightened into a thin line. "Is that so?"
"We can find her," I blurted, my heart in my fucking throat. "We'll bring her here."
"You'd better." Luther smiled in a way that wasn't at all friendly then gestured for us to leave.
I strode from the room with Fox at my side and when we made it to the stairs we ran to get dressed, saying nothing as we split off into our rooms. I dragged on jeans and a navy shirt before kicking on my boots, grabbing my backpack which had the clothes I'd worn last night stuffed in it and jogged back out into the hall. Fox was there with an intense look in his eyes and we hurried downstairs together, heading into the garage and running to get into his truck. We didn't say a word until we were on the road and the heavy presence of Luther’s presence was far behind us.