Sinners' Playground

This is the first installment in The Harlequin Crew Series, a reverse harem romance set in the fictional Pacific coastal town of Sunset Cove, where rival gangs carve up territory and violence is a way of life.

Rogue Easton wakes up buried alive in a shallow grave, wrapped in a potato sack. Her boyfriend, Shawn Mackenzie, the leader of a gang called The Dead Dogs, strangled her and left her for dead. She claws her way to the surface and stumbles to the beach at dawn. She recognizes Sinners' Playground, the abandoned pier and Ferris wheel in Sunset Cove where she spent her childhood with four boys she once loved. Rogue has not been in this town in ten years, not since those boys, the Harlequin boys, cast her out when she needed them most. She carries a key on a leather necklace, one of five that together open a crypt on the grounds of a nearby estate. Whatever is locked inside holds the power to destroy the Harlequin Crew, the gang that now rules Sunset Cove. Rogue resolves to find the other four keys, use the crypt's contents to bring the Harlequins down, and disappear forever.

She steals clothes, eats her first meal in days at a beach bar, and acquires a stray dog she calls Mutt. In Sunset Cove, she tracks down JJ Brooks at Afterlife, the strip club he owns. JJ, also a high-end escort, recognizes her instantly. She punches him and runs, but he catches her, stuffs her in his trunk, and drives her to Harlequin House, the fortified home he shares with Fox Harlequin and Chase Cohen.

Fox, the leader of the Harlequin Crew, is stunned by Rogue's return. He notices the fingerprint bruises on her throat and becomes consumed with finding the man responsible. He locks Rogue in a guest room and declares she is staying, overruling Chase, who argues she will destroy their brotherhood. Fox spreads word throughout Sunset Cove that Rogue is "his girl," meaning no one may touch, speak to, or look at her without risking death.

Rogue resists at every turn. She refuses to name her attacker and refuses Fox's claim of ownership. Fox tells her that his father, Luther Harlequin, is dead, removing the death threat Luther placed over her a decade ago. This lie gives Rogue the confidence to remain in town. Meanwhile, JJ coaxes the truth from her: Shawn choked her unconscious, told her he would miss her, and buried her alive. JJ and Fox are enraged but cannot act without a name she refuses to provide.

The boys eventually explain what happened after they forced Rogue to leave ten years earlier. When Rogue was sixteen, she killed a man named Axel after he attacked her. Luther discovered what happened and forced Fox, JJ, Chase, and Maverick, their adopted fourth brother, to murder Clive Anderson, a witness who had identified Rogue. Luther then threatened to kill Rogue if the boys ever searched for her, so they sent her away. After she left, Luther framed Maverick for Axel's murder, and Maverick was imprisoned for six years. Upon release, Maverick refused reconciliation with the others, killed several of their men, and established a rival gang called The Damned Men on nearby Dead Man's Isle. The two gangs have been at war ever since, fighting over a contested strip of turf known as The Divide.

Rogue responds with fury. She describes her decade of homelessness, exploitative relationships, and survival among criminals, telling the boys their betrayal was worse than death because it taught her she was disposable.

Despite her hostility, the dynamics between Rogue and the three men grow complicated. Fox oscillates between controlling behavior and vulnerability, giving Rogue a car and a surfboard, watching the sunrise with her, and stealing kisses she sometimes returns. JJ begins a secret sexual affair with Rogue behind Fox's back and finds himself unable to perform with his escort clients afterward, realizing his feelings run far deeper than attraction. Rogue insists their arrangement is purely physical. Chase maintains open hostility but reveals suppressed feelings through jealous outbursts, including attacking JJ when he catches them together. Chase also reveals a secret he has carried for ten years: The night before Rogue killed Axel, he saw her and Maverick together in what appeared to be an intimate encounter. Fox is devastated but refuses to believe Rogue chose Maverick over them.

Rogue encounters Maverick for the first time at The Dungeon, a club in Damned Men territory. He grabs her throat, bites her neck, and tells her he intends to take Fox's girl, break her, and return her ruined. When two of his men attack Rogue outside the club, she fights back and shoots them both. Maverick appears on a motorcycle, kills both attackers, then rides away. A chapter from his perspective reveals that he was brutally abused by corrupt guards during his imprisonment. He plays Russian roulette every night, interpreting his survival as confirmation that death will wait until he has destroyed every Harlequin.

Rogue's quest for the keys advances in stages. She infiltrates Dead Man's Isle and trades intelligence about the Harlequins' plans for Maverick's key. During this visit, Maverick reveals that Luther is alive, exposing the boys' lie and leaving Rogue devastated. She steals Maverick's phone and uses it to lure his men away from a cocaine warehouse, giving Fox, JJ, and Chase the opening to breach and burn it. She escapes the island by swimming into open water and is rescued by Fox. She also visits Rosewood Manor, the estate where the crypt is located, and finds the property now heavily secured by Kaiser Rosewood, the man who controls the manor. Rogue disables the security by crashing a stolen truck into the electrical pole, scales the fence, and confirms that the crypt and its five keyholes remain intact.

The climax centers on a heist. Chase invokes a favor Rogue owes him and recruits her as the fourth crew member for a job stealing Cartier watches from a ferry. The heist succeeds, but when guards pursue Rogue and Chase, Chase deliberately separates from her, runs to the upper deck, and dives overboard alone. His motivation is a conviction, nursed since he saw Rogue with Maverick a decade ago, that she will eventually destroy the brotherhood between the three men. He believes getting her arrested is the only way to protect his friends. Rogue races to the railing expecting a boat, but both vessels are gone. The guards seize her, and she is arrested on Ballena Island.

Back at Harlequin House, Chase lies, claiming the boat's rope came loose. Fox vows to bring Rogue home. But when someone posts Rogue's bail, it is not Fox waiting in the parking lot; it is Maverick. He tells her he intends to destroy her as a means of destroying Fox. Rogue tries to run, but Maverick catches her. The novel ends with Rogue trapped in his grip, betrayed by the Harlequin boys for a second time and now a captive of the man they are at war with, her plan for revenge unfinished and her fate entirely uncertain.