Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (13 page)

The man could be that deluded. Though it wasn’t much of a delusion, Dax had shown a precedent for believing what Mauri said. Mauri probably believed that he could talk Dax into just about anything and without Ivy there to keep him balanced, Dax might just be broken enough to let the old man win.

‘I’m gonna find out,’ Dax said.

Spinning around, he set his destination as the Stark mansion where he was determined to get answers. If this was Mauri’s bidding then Dax would find a way to have him call it off. Except word was still spreading, and it would take twice as long to call off the minions who would chase Ivy down.

Before getting on his bike, he took his phone from his pocket. He couldn’t tell Ivy what was going on, not over the phone, and not before he had all of the information. But she was in danger and liked to defy his authority, so she could be out on the streets now, a walking target.

Dax called the apartment and was relieved to hear that the line was busy. If she was home then she wasn’t outside presenting an opportunity for every psycho with a gun. Opening his texts, he typed in his commands.

Stay home. No messing, Minx. Danger outside. Stay in the apartment.

He expected her to call as soon as she read the message and sure enough before he had started the engine of his bike his phone buzzed. For a few seconds, he debated with himself as to whether or not he should answer the phone because he wanted to get to Mauri and get some answers of his own. But if he ignored her she was likely to ignore his message, so he picked up.

‘What kind of message is that?’ she asked before he had a chance to speak. ‘Are you being a dick?’

‘I just got some information,’ Dax said. ‘There’s trouble.’

‘What kind of trouble?’

‘The kind that means you have to stay inside.’

‘Since you asked so nicely and all—‘

‘I mean it, Minx,’ he said, throwing a leg over his bike he kicked away the stand. ‘Just stay inside.’

‘Tell me what happened,’ she said.

‘I can’t. I don’t have all the facts yet. I’m going to find out what’s going on, and then I’m going to come home, hear me?’

‘Dax,’ she exhaled. In bed, she could say his name like she was worshiping an idol of pleasure. But that breathy whimper was absent now, this was a wife with a gripe she wanted to complain about.

‘Yeah, I know you’re pissed, babygirl. But I’m keeping you safe, I’ll explain everything when I get home and then you can bitch at me all you want.’

‘We didn’t talk about what happened last night, and now you’re giving me more questions without any answers. We can’t keep going like this, you have to trust me and hear me out. You can’t just issue orders and expect me to follow them without any kind of explanation.’

‘Yeah, I can,’ he said. ‘Because I’m not going to give you half of a story, which might scare you, while I’m not there to reassure you. I don’t care how pissed you are. I’m telling you to stay inside for your own good. I could’ve said nothing at all and just assumed that you’d stick to what you told me earlier, but I wanted to let you know that something serious was going down… I will explain, babygirl. Just trust me, stay in the apartment and don’t let anyone in.’ When she didn’t say anything, his concern burgeoned. ‘Ivy?’

‘Ok, I’ll stay inside, but when you get back here we are not doing anything else until you fill me in on everything, and I do mean everything, Dax Harrow.’

‘Ok. You got it.’

She didn’t hide her anger, but that was one of the things that he loved about her. When Ivy was happy or aroused, she just glowed. But when she was pissed off, like she was now, she made no secret of it.

She accepted who he was and had never tried to change him, although she had. The changes that he’d gone through had been those he chose for himself, and he preferred the man he was now to the one he’d been before. Except without Ivy, he wasn’t sure there would be anything left of himself worth saving.

Dax didn’t wait to be announced. He went into the mansion and up the stairs to head for Maurice’s private suite. The old man liked to be the man behind the curtain, so even if there was business to conduct he would leave Brad to deal with it. Mauri only came out for the important matters, and it had been that way for a few years now. That didn’t mean that his influence was any less, he still pulled all the strings. But he didn’t tire himself by dealing with those lower than him, which included pretty much everyone.

Security was tailing after Dax through the house, they were paid to take down any threat to Mauri. But it had been so long since anyone had threatened this man in his own home that security had become complacent about their role. As a result, Dax was able to enter the outer room of Mauri’s suite, with its fireplace and red upholstered armchairs, while the two security men were still running toward him along the corridor he’d just traversed.

‘Mauri!’ Dax called out.

If he had to go into the bedroom, then he would. But if he went in there he was likely to end up murdering the man, and he couldn’t do that, at least not until he’d called his dogs off Ivy. The security men burst in at his back, and Dax spun around to defend himself. Taking one out with a punch, the other lunged at him and he got hold of the guy’s arm, twisting it around and up his back, using it to toss him back out into the hall. The first security guard got up again, but Mauri’s voice stalled the action.

‘No more!’ Mauri declared and despite a few growling glares, the security men receded, closing the door to give Mauri and Dax their privacy.

‘You—‘

‘I heard,’ Mauri said. ‘We found out about the bounty an hour ago, and we’re doing our best to trace it.’

Mauri was calm, but Dax couldn’t hear himself think beyond the blood gushing at high speed through his body. ‘You expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with this?’

‘What would we gain? You lose your wife and blame me for the rest of your life? I want you with us and that means working together.’

‘Convenient.’

‘If this was my order then I wouldn’t be making you the offer that I’m about to,’ Mauri said. He stayed where he was in front of the bedroom door and for now Dax was happy to keep his distance and maintain his position near the exit.

‘What offer?’

‘Take Ivy to the beach house, she will be safe there, no one will approach it without us knowing. I can post security outside, they will make sure that she is safe.’

‘And she’s supposed to live the rest of her life there?’

‘She can remain there until we uncover who is behind this. We neutralise the threat and then she can move freely again. You know yourself that it will take a day or two to trace this to the real source, chances are he’s using a middleman, we find that middleman and then we coax the information we want out of him.’ Dax would enjoy the coaxing part. ‘Once we know, we take him out.’

‘It will take time to spread the word that she’s not to be harmed,’ Dax said. Once the word of a bounty was out there, it spread, and putting the genie back in the bottle was no easy feat.

‘She can stay in the beach house for as long as she needs to. You know that we can easily stock the place, and she can hole up there for months if she has to.’

Ivy would despise the idea of being back there and of hiding out, but Dax couldn’t come up with anything better. Moving her to Nevada or North Carolina wouldn’t necessarily mean her safety, it just meant that it would take longer for the crooks to find her. Until they could stop the threat at the source, it would remain. They didn’t know the threat’s motive for wanting Ivy dead or if he could be reasoned with. It was just as possible that whoever had started this would rather die than retract the bounty.

‘I can hide her,’ Dax said, trying to think of where he could take her and look after her alone while still trying to trace the threat.

‘You can’t do it alone,’ Mauri said. ‘You can’t hide the girl and ensure her supplies remain fresh, you will lead the hunters directly to her. You’re not naïve. You will be the first person others try to get to in order to find her. If she’s at the beach house, then you can stay with her. It doesn’t matter how many people follow you there, my security will keep them out.’

Mauri had resources and manpower, which were two things that Dax didn’t have. ‘I have to find out who is doing this.’

‘And you can do that while my security men keep her safe. If you stick her in a cabin in the woods, you can’t stand sentry twenty-four hours a day alone. You can’t keep her in your sight and find out who has put up the bounty at the same time.’

‘No, I can’t,’ Dax said, his rage was cooling. Every word that Mauri said was correct, these were thoughts he’d had himself.

‘You will have all the men that you need to look after her, and you can use my help in uncovering who this heathen is. You know that Starks stick together. We’ll find out who is doing this, and we will take them down, together.’

‘She won’t want to go,’ Dax muttered. Mauri was coming closer, but he posed no physical threat, so Dax remained loose while he considered his options.

‘I appreciate that the location may not hold happy memories for her. But you two found your love there, didn’t you? She may appreciate a chance of a break and some peace, it is certainly preferable over the alternative of being on the run or hidden somewhere alone. This is just like the vacation I suggested to you last night, you can sell it to her that way.’

His head came up. ‘The others, her sister and…’

‘They are both there,’ Mauri said. ‘They travelled to the beach house this morning… Ivy would probably like to have some company while you are out hunting down the threat. She and her sister haven’t seen each other for a long time.’

Ivy had worried about Rosie being close to Mauri and staying in his house. If Ivy had time with her sister, she might be able to explain her concerns. ‘Ok,’ Dax said. ‘We’ll leave tonight, that should give me time to talk her round.’

‘Good, I will prepare everything and send a car for you. It will be safer that way. I’ll make sure that there is a full security team out there. We will keep her safe.’

Safe from what, Dax had to ask himself. This morning they had been certain that they were leaving the Starks behind, and now they were about to walk straight back into Stark territory.

Murder was nothing to trifle with. After the shock of what Dax had told her subsided, Ivy was faced with the horrible truth that someone wanted her dead, and they were willing to pay big money to see her corpse. She didn’t want to die and wasn’t stupid enough to think that she could defend herself against everyone who would now be looking for her.

Only now their freewill had been taken away. One of Mauri’s lackeys was now standing outside the apartment, he had arrived not long after Dax had come home. But by the time she found out that the lackey was there, Dax had revealed what he knew, and she was still languishing in the news.

Dax had tried to question her, but she needed time to absorb the development. His questions had been about her enemies, about anyone who might wish her harm, anyone that she’d upset or angered recently. After some thought, she came up with a big fat zero. The only people she’d had run-ins with recently were the Starks, and they were apparently going to act as saviours.

She had made dinner, but they’d eaten in silence, and now she was packing up their things to go on this forced vacation.

‘Are you pissed?’ Dax asked, loitering in the bedroom doorway. ‘I can’t get a read on what you’re feeling.’

She folded a sundress from the pile of clothes they’d dumped on the bed. She placed it into the suitcase open beside the mound of clothes. ‘No,’ she said, carrying on with the folding to pack everything into the case.

‘You’re not saying much,’ he said, coming a few feet into the room. ‘If you want to get out of here… I mean if you would rather I protect you alone—‘

‘You and Mauri figured it all out,’ she said. ‘I don’t want anything happening to you either, so it makes sense to take advantage of Mauri’s offer. I would prefer one of his thugs take the bullet than you.’

‘Not so long ago that I was one of his thugs,’ Dax said. ‘He’s not doing this just out of the goodness of his heart. He wants something.’

‘He wants you.’

‘I don’t think that’s it.’

‘Are you willing to bet our future on that?’ she asked, placing his shorts into their luggage. ‘We’ll just go out there, play nice, and think of it as a vacation, just like Mauri said. We stay there for as long as we need to and then we get the hell out of there.’

‘Ok.’

She carried on packing, and he sauntered toward the closet, he went in and came out, then retrieved some things from the bathroom before going back into the closet. Ivy kept turning over her questions in her mind, letting her thoughts grow until they reached critical mass, and she dumped an unfolded top down.

‘You know what? I am pissed,’ she confessed.

‘There’s a surprise,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t it feel better just to say it?’

He left the closet and strolled out of the bedroom, leaving her to gape at his disappearing act. Not one to let him get away easily, she followed and found him in the kitchen retrieving a beer from the fridge.

‘You can’t ask me a question and then walk away when I answer,’ she said.

Lowering the bottle from his lips, he took a breath. ‘I think I can. Do you want a beer?’

‘No, I don’t want a beer. Don’t you want to ask me why I’m pissed?’

‘I would think that was obvious after the night we’ve had,’ he said. ‘But if you want to rant at me I guess you’re entitled.’

‘Rant at you?’

Leaving the kitchen, he went to the couch and picked up the TV remote. But before he could turn on the television, she rushed over and grabbed it from his hand. ‘I guess you want my attention while you rant,’ he said, flattening his hands on the couch at each of his sides. ‘Go for it then, babygirl.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that Bruno is your father?’

With everything that he’d revealed that day she guessed that he wasn’t expecting that question. Ivy knew how to get his attention, and she had it now. He’d picked up the remote because he expected her to shout at him for getting her into this mess. But she didn’t blame him for the actions of the crazy person who wished her dead. She blamed him for concealing information that he had, for lying to her by saying that nothing had happened at the midnight meeting all those weeks ago.

‘That is why you’re pissed?’ he asked after he got over his surprise. ‘I come home and tell you that someone is trying to have you killed, and that we’re going to a place where you were held against your will for months, and you’re pissed that I didn’t tell you something?’

‘Trystan said—‘

‘And you believe what he says?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘That’s why I’m talking to you about it. I want you to know that I know. And I want to know why you didn’t tell me.’

‘Because it’s embarrassing,’ he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees so that he didn’t have to look her in the face. ‘It’s disgusting. It’s a fucking joke, that’s why.’ Dax got up, looming close to her now that their bodies were both upright. ‘That sick motherfucker had his hands on you and if I think about—‘

‘Ok,’ she said, his fists clenched, so she stroked his arms until she saw them loosen. ‘I understand why you’re upset. But if this was what Mauri told you, how do you know that he wasn’t trying to upset you? Now, at the beach house, you’ll have the chance to talk to your mother and—‘

‘Do you think she’ll be honest?’ he asked. ‘We don’t know her, we can’t be sure that anything she says is the truth. I don’t know anything about her.’

‘We can find out who she is. Trust takes time to build, so I guess Mauri is giving us a chance to do that. I doubt that you’ll get to know her enough to trust her in the short time that we’re at the beach house with her.’ She hoped it was a short time. ‘But… it’s a start.’

‘You’re into this?’ Dax asked. ‘You want me to let her into our lives?’

‘I think it’s worth taking this opportunity. Yeah, we were going to turn our backs on it, but things have changed, and now we’re in it whether we like it or not. We might as well make the most of it.’

‘You don’t have a great relationship with your mom, you haven’t seen her since you were a teenager. Why do you think my mom will be different?’

‘We’re talking about two separate things,’ she said. ‘We don’t know that our mothers are the same. Besides, I’m not talking about having cosy Christmases together, all around the tree in jammies opening presents. I’m talking about having a conversation and finding out the truth about your past from the horse’s mouth.’

‘Keeping you safe is number one, babygirl,’ he said, placing his hands on her waist. ‘How do you feel about going back to the beach house?’

‘I think that explaining the jail cell in the basement might take some dancing.’

‘Mauri knows that we’re going, he asked us to go there last night. He would have assumed that he was getting his way so would’ve set the place up to receive guests. That cell wasn’t always there. So don’t be surprised if it’s gone now.’