Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (10 page)

‘You should’ve kept him locked up,’ Dax said to Mauri. ‘We won’t be staying long if that’s the way your guests behave.’

‘I will have another word with him,’ Mauri said, then he whispered something to the woman on his arm and she melted away, leaving the three of them alone. ‘I told you that I had a gift for you.’

‘A gift?’ Dax said. 

‘My plan to persuade you,’ Mauri said, he kept smiling at her, and Ivy wasn’t sure she understood or appreciated the attention. ‘I have a gift for both of you. You can consider it a belated wedding gift.’

‘Ok,’ Dax said. ‘Show me.’

‘It’s next door, in the social drawing room, will you join me?’

Mauri started to walk out, and Dax followed, keeping her pinned to his side. Departing the ballroom, they moved down the corridor and stopped upon reaching the next door. Mauri paused to look at Dax but neither man spoke, then Maurice opened the door to enter with them in tow.

A large window took up one wall of this new room, and book cases lined the two side walls. But it was the two women in the room, standing in the centre of a large square rug, which was surrounded by four couches, who were the focal point. Maurice crossed to stand between the women, leaving Ivy and Dax at the door. Neither of the women said anything, but Ivy recognised the one to Maurice’s left.

‘Rosie?’ Ivy asked. Dax’s arm had loosened enough to let her take a step forward, but when his arm left her shoulders, she grabbed for his hand. ‘That’s my sister.’

Her sister grinned, but she didn’t move. ‘Ivy! Oh, wow, look at all of this you have now!’ Rosie exclaimed.

Maurice lifted the hand of the second woman. ‘This is your mother, Dax,’ Mauri said. ‘She can verify everything that we told you. It’s true, son.’

Ivy hadn’t seen her sister for a long time, but that was nothing to Dax, who hadn’t seen his mother since he was still in diapers. It was unmistakable though, Ivy recognised those piercing blue eyes because they matched her husband’s. Ignoring her sibling, Ivy turned around to see how Dax was reacting to this bombshell.

His frown was more of a glare now, his nostrils flared when he inhaled, then without a word, he turned around and walked out of the room alone.

Mauri had just presented Dax with a threat that he couldn’t beat out of his way. Given Mauri’s penchant for reuniting family members, it shouldn’t be a surprise to Dax that he’d pulled this stunt, but his mother was the last thing he’d ever think of as a gift.

Storming out of the family filled room, Dax began to head for the exit but stopped mid-stride in the entrance foyer to spin around. Ivy. She was still in that damn room, and he couldn’t walk out of here and abandon her in this place. She hadn’t even wanted to come to this party, but he had insisted nothing untoward would happen, how wrong he had been.

‘Hey,’ Brad said, rushing over to Dax, who was staring at the end of the corridor he’d just come from, hoping that Ivy would emerge. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Fuck off,’ Dax said. If Ivy wasn’t following him, then he had no choice except to go back for her.

‘Not in the party mood?’

In need of an outlet for his anger, Dax hauled Brad up, off his feet. Rushing his adopted brother backwards until he hit the nearest wall, a crystal statue beside them wobbled and fell to the floor. The smash of crystal was accompanied by the squeals and gasps of party guests, but Dax didn’t give a fuck about their audience or the decor.

‘You knew about this?’ Dax asked. ‘You fucking cock-sucking, bastard. You didn’t give me this piece of info before asking us to jet back over here?’

‘Excuse me, sir.’

Someone touched his shoulder and Dax whipped around, landing a punch on the security guard, knocking him flat out. That one move alerted half a dozen other security men, and they all began to rush through the guests toward him. Great, Dax actually smiled and widened his stance as he pulled off his tux jacket and ripped the cuffs of his shirt open. Ivy could take as much time as she wanted in that room with her sister. Dax would just pass the time out here.

The men running at him were nearly on his position, he was braced and ready to take them on. ‘No!’ Brad said, skirting around Dax, he blocked the men from reaching him.

‘Get the fuck out of the way,’ Dax growled. ‘I’ll take them all at once, I need the workout.’

Brad’s head twisted, but he kept his body as a barrier. ‘You’ll murder them, you asshole. You think that’s smart with this many witnesses?’

‘I don’t give a fuck.’

‘You want Ivy to come out here and find this?’ Brad asked.

The party guests were forming a wide arc around him, Brad, and the poised security guards. Still, Dax couldn’t bring himself to care about the shock on their faces. ‘Ivy won’t give a fuck.’ She knew who he was, knew about his skills, and loved him despite the harm he’d caused others in the past.

‘I think she will in front of your mom and her sister.’ So Brad did know what Mauri had set up. ‘Go back to your posts,’ Brad said to the security guards. ‘Apologies everyone, my brother is just a little riled. He’ll calm down now.’

The chatter returned, and the security guards did as they were told. Brad turned around and put a hand on Dax’s arm, which he shrugged off. ‘Don’t fucking touch me!’

‘Ok,’ Brad said, lowering to pick Dax’s jacket up off the floor. ‘Do you want to go back to your wife now?’

‘I want to go downstairs,’ Dax said. The gym in this building was state of the art, but all he needed access to right now was the punching bag.

‘Ok,’ Brad nodded. Dax hadn’t expected him to agree. ‘Let’s go.’

Brad again tried to touch Dax in order to guide him, but Dax lifted his arm away and didn’t move in the direction Brad wanted him to go. ‘What’s going on? What is Mauri playing at?’

‘You’d have to ask him that,’ Brad said. ‘All I know is that bringing these people together was important to him. He doesn’t have much time, Dax, and tracing those women sapped a lot of his energy. He was very hands on with making this happen, he had to be. Your mother was reluctant to come here.’

‘Good,’ Dax said. ‘She can fuck off then. Go in there and get Ivy for me.’

‘My,’ Brad said, wearing a smile that Dax wanted to rearrange. ‘Dax Harrow isn’t afraid, is he?’

‘Afraid? No, but I’m done with the games. Mauri couldn’t have done a worse thing, Ivy was already against coming back here, and you’ve just given me the excuse that I need to walk away.’

‘Walk if you want to,’ Brad said. ‘But Ivy doesn’t appear to be as eager to get out of here, does she?’

That could have been Mauri’s goal, he wanted to tempt Ivy by bringing these women back into their lives. Ivy might change her mind now that her family could be a part of their supposed new life. Coming to Mauri’s call had been a mistake, Ivy had been right all along.

‘Get out of my way,’ Dax said, sweeping Brad aside to march back to the room he’d left his wife in.

Going back down the corridor, he tossed open the door but didn’t venture much more than a foot into the room. ‘Move,’ he said to Ivy.

All of the women were in here, seated in the wood framed couches arranged in a square formation. Mauri was alone on the head one in front of the window. Their relatives were seated together on the couch to Mauri’s right. Opposite, Ivy sat on a third couch with a man who hadn’t been here before, a man that he didn’t recognise.

‘Dax,’ Mauri said. ‘Come in and join us.’

‘No, thanks,’ he sniped, keeping his focus on Ivy, who hadn’t said a single word though her attention was trained on him. ‘What’s the matter with you, Minx? Move.’

‘I think that Ivy wants to stay,’ Mauri said. ‘You should join her.’

‘You want to stay?’ Dax asked her.

‘Yes, she does,’ Mauri said.

Releasing the door handle, Dax came another couple of feet into the room while remaining in the shadow of the door. ‘You keep your fucking mouth shut, old man. My wife has a tongue in her head, and she’s very capable of using it.’

‘Your wife is very beautiful.’

This unfamiliar female voice drew his eye for a second, but the words had come from the woman Mauri claimed was his mother. Dax wasn’t going to entertain her because that was exactly what Mauri wanted. ‘Minx?’

Ivy’s lips parted to speak, ‘I…’ her body jolted an inch, and her feisty eyes snapped around to the man at her side.

Taking in the scene again, Dax kicked himself for not sensing the danger sooner. ‘Take your fucking hands off her,’ Dax said, striding toward the man beside his wife.

The drawing room door closed, but he didn’t bother looking to see who had closed it. It should have been obvious to him that Ivy sitting on the couch without expressing a word or opinion was wrong. His mind was mangled by Mauri’s revelations. But at least now he had some legitimate danger to vent his frustration on.

Before Dax got to their position, the man rose and hauled Ivy up to her feet, keeping her body pulled into his side. The gleam of a gun barrel was pressed under her ribs.

‘Now everyone calm down,’ Mauri said, rising from his seat. The man holding Ivy began to inch back until they were aligned with Mauri.

Dax paused next to the couch they had been seated on and made eye contact with Ivy. ‘I should’ve fucking known.’

‘Not your fault,’ Ivy said and managed a smile. She wasn’t saying much and was maybe a fraction paler than normal, but she didn’t have fear or tears in her eyes. ‘They took exception to me wanting to come after you… apparently there’s more that they have to tell you.’

‘We didn’t want to resort to this,’ Mauri said. ‘All we want you to do is hear us out.’

Us. That was a joke. Mauri was a puppet-master who tugged on everyone’s strings whenever he wanted, and Dax had just got his Ivy embroiled in the old man’s sick theatre.

‘Do you think that threatening my wife is going to tempt me into agreeing with you?’ Dax asked.

‘Who would you rather we threaten?’ Mauri asked. ‘She has you hypnotised.’

‘Pissed that I stopped dancing to your tune?’ Dax asked. ‘Ivy doesn’t give me instructions and expect them to be followed blindly. She taught me respect, something you never showed anyone.’

‘You’re lashing out, I understand that,’ Mauri said, glancing at whoever was behind Dax.

He didn’t want to take his focus from Ivy and the weapon in the room, but as it turned out, he didn’t have to because Ivy acted as his eyes for him. ‘It’s Brad,’ Ivy said. ‘He doesn’t have a weapon though. I trust that you can take him.’

‘Like he just tried to take half a dozen security guards in the lobby,’ Brad said. ‘The guests know something is going on.’

‘We don’t care about them,’ Mauri said. ‘Everyone we care about is right here.’

‘Trystan might take exception to that,’ Brad said.

‘Oh, let him, the boy is nothing but trouble,’ Mauri said. Dax had seen him annoyed before, but this was more than that.

‘He’s giving you a run for your money now,’ Dax said. ‘You thought Ivy could get him to shape up before you died, doesn’t look likely now.’

‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘But he will be your problem when I am no longer here.’

‘He’s his own problem,’ Dax said. ‘I don’t give a fuck about your empire or your family. You let mine go, and we’ll be out of the state by sunset.’ Turning to Ivy, he held out his hand. ‘Come here.’

She tried to move forward, but the guy at her side wrenched her back, prodding the gun deep into her side making her wince. Dax’s upper lip twitched with the angry revulsion taking him over. He would remember every detail of that motherfucker’s face, and if he ever saw the guy again, he would make sure that he never drew another breath.

‘Is this what it’s like to have two men fighting over you?’ Ivy quipped.

‘He’s not going to hurt you,’ Dax said, taking a step closer. ‘You think that Mauri would take the risk of hurting you, babygirl? It won’t happen.’

‘I’m expendable,’ Ivy said.

‘Not to me,’ he said. ‘That diamond cost a small fortune.’

‘Well I want to be buried with it, so you’re out of luck,’ she said, smiling again. ‘No refund or return for you.’

‘Damn. I knew I should’ve gone with the zirconia.’

‘Then I might have said no.’

‘You’re not going to say no now, are you?’ he asked, elevating his hand. ‘Come here.’

The guy with a hold of her looked at Mauri when Ivy began to move away from him. The threatener didn’t yank her back, but he kept his hand on her arm.

‘You don’t want Dax to get over there, dad,’ Brad said to Mauri, prompting the guy gripping Ivy to let her go. She bounded forward and put her hand into Dax’s.

‘I’m disappointed, Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘You should follow your own advice. Never bluff in life, someone’s always bound to call you on it.’ Rounding, he went for the door, ready to get out of this house and away from all of these people forever.

‘Your possessions are upstairs, Ivy,’ Mauri’s voice sounded solemn.

Dax kept walking but had to stop when Ivy did. ‘What?’ Dax asked her.

‘I told you not to let them know how important that was to me,’ she murmured then let go of his hand to turn back to Mauri. ‘Where?’

‘There’s a bedroom ready for you and your husband upstairs, next door to the one being used by your sister. If you will hear our offer, we will take you there, and you will be free to have all of your possessions back, and I suspect there’s a particular object of importance to you up there.’

‘What is your offer?’ she asked.

‘We don’t care,’ Dax said, taking her upper arm. ‘Come on, we’re leaving. What’s up there can be replaced, I’ll buy you a new one.’

‘You can’t buy me,’ she said, wrenching her arm back and landing him with her ire. ‘I didn’t marry you for your money.’

‘Why did you marry him?’ Brad asked, and he lowered to sit beside his father. The man who had threatened Ivy went out of a side door, but Dax knew it wasn’t over, he would take care of that guy at the first opportunity.

‘I married him because I love him,’ Ivy said, folding her arms. ‘Is there another reason that a woman would marry a man?’

‘Dozens of them,’ Brad said. ‘You were sure it was love?’

‘We’ve made it this far,’ Ivy said.

Dax came up behind her and brought his lips to her ear. ‘Stop engaging him.’

‘What’s the worst that they can do?’ Ivy asked. ‘They’ve proven that they’re not going to hurt us, even if they threaten it, we know it’s not in their best interest to try and scare us.’

‘You didn’t appear to be scared at all,’ Brad said. ‘Even with a gun aimed at you point blank, you didn’t blink. Most women would be weeping and pleading.’

‘Ivy isn’t the weeping type,’ Dax muttered.

If they were going to be stuck having this conversation until Mauri relinquished Ivy’s possessions, then they had better be comfortable doing it. So Dax led his wife to the couch she had occupied when he entered and seated them both. As long as he maintained his focus on Brad and Mauri, he could just pretend that the other women weren’t here.

‘There was nothing for me to be afraid of,’ Ivy said. ‘That’s the great thing about being married to a man like Dax. Few people take the risk of threatening my life because the consequences would be grave for them.’

‘As we’ve just highlighted,’ Mauri said. ‘I am sorry that we had to take such measures. But if we had allowed you to run after Dax then you would not have heard us out.’