Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Thirteen

Being allowed to choose her own clothes was something of a novelty. Dax had become increasingly distant since they’d made love here in the closet and during their time getting ready for the day. He made no noise about selecting her wardrobe today, so she went on and did it herself. She was used to him not being Mr. Chatty Small Talk, but there was something different about the frown on his face this morning.

‘What’s expected of me today?’ she asked, sliding on her shoe. ‘If Rita is here to take care of the chores, what is it that you want me to—‘

‘I have to show you the operation,’ he said.

‘How are you gonna do that? Is there a secret meth lab bunker somewhere on the property that I haven’t yet seen?’

‘We’re going out,’ he said, fastening the buttons on his jeans then departing the closet.

The concept of leaving this house stunned her and for a few minutes she didn’t move or speak while she processed the idea. Now that she was being let out she would have a better opportunity to run, to escape. Doing that, achieving her goal of liberty, would mean forfeiting all prospect of a future with Dax. Unless she could convince him to come with her. If he was open to joining her then they could leave here today, without raising suspicion, and just never come back.

Rushing out of the closet, Ivy was ready to put the possibility to him, except Bruno was in their bedroom and the two men were engaged in conversation. This space was becoming a common room and she didn’t remember either her or Dax authorising that, but maybe she hadn’t been privy to that conversation.

‘Morning,’ Bruno called to her as though she was a hundred feet away instead of ten. ‘You’re going on an adventure today.’

‘So I understand,’ she said, clasping her hands behind her back and taking her foot off the floor to curl it behind the other. ‘I’m a little… nervous.’

‘Dax will look after you,’ Bruno said, slapping his shoulder. ‘He’s done right by you so far, hasn’t he?’

‘Yes,’ she said, trained to respond to all questions.

Bruno and Dax whispered to each other, then Dax reached behind him toward her, outstretching his hand. Ivy crossed to take the offering and went with the men out of the room. In the living room there was no sign of Rita. Bruno went off towards the back deck without saying goodbye and Dax took Ivy straight toward the front door and out they went. He led her across the drive to the convertible awaiting them in the covered car port.

He opened her door, but didn’t wait for her to enter the car, he just left the door swinging and rounded the hood to get in his own side. He’d got in, turned on the engine, and donned his sunglasses, and she still stood on the driveway, staring into the open car. Stretching an arm along the back of the seat, he waited.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘I… I don’t know, but…’

‘What?’ His impatience was showing. ‘Do you think I’m gonna run off with you? Don’t worry, we’ll be back before dinner.’

The very idea that he was laughing at was the one that she was going to suggest to him in their bedroom earlier. It was laughable now, because if she struggled with the idea of getting into a car, how would she survive on the run?

‘It just feels… peculiar.’

‘It will,’ he said. ‘You’ve been in that place for nearly two months.’

Had it been so long? Yes, as she considered it and all she’d been through, it had been that amount of time. Ivy had believed that she’d been spared from the brainwashing that Bruno and Dax were supposed to visit on her because Dax hadn’t applied the same stringent rules as Bruno did. That window Dax provided gave her a reprieve; time to centre herself again when she was in his company. But a part of her knew that she wasn’t allowed to leave this place, and that part of her overwhelmed her now.

‘I’m not going to get in trouble, right?’ she said with an awkward and very self-conscious laugh.

‘What kind of trouble?’ he asked. ‘I’m your Master, remember? Your owner, or did you forget?’

‘Ok,’ she said with a stunted smile, but no moisture returned to her mouth. With shaking fingers she took hold of the door and with one wavering step she slid into the warm leather of the seat.

‘Are you nervous about being punished for leaving here? Or worried about what will happen to you out there?’ he asked, bobbing his chin in the direction of the great wide world, without taking his attention away from her.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise that I felt this way.’

‘It’ll all come back to you. No one will punish you for leaving here, I’m the guy in charge and you’re with me.’

‘And out there?’ she asked.

‘Nothing I haven’t faced before,’ he said. ‘Like I said, you’re with me.’

That did actually make Ivy feel better because he wouldn’t abandon her; as much as because she was still needed for something, though she hadn’t figured out what yet. The journey started off quietly. Breaking the silence, Dax began to fiddle with the stereo until he found a tune he wanted to hear.

‘It will take about an hour to get into the city,’ he said, putting both hands onto the wheel. ‘Just relax and enjoy the ride.’

‘You are a good ride,’ she said and he afforded her a smile then handed her another pair of shades that he produced from somewhere on his door side. The sun was shining but the breeze was cool, this was a perfect California day. She let him get into his groove with the driving and the music before she tried to probe him. ‘Have you got any more fights lined up?’

‘You are not coming to see me fight. Mauri would never have it.’

This gave her the perfect opener. ‘Am I going to meet him?’

‘Today? No. Today I’m taking you on my rounds. It’s about time things got back to normal.’

‘You don’t usually do rounds,’ she said. ‘Do you?’

‘Before you I did,’ he said. ‘I do actually have a job, I don’t just sit around holding women prisoner all the time.’

‘That’s reassuring,’ she said. ‘So what do you do?’

‘You’ll see today,’ he said. ‘Have you ever been arrested? Any probation or outstanding warrants I should know about? Have you been involved in anything criminal?’

‘Nothing serious,’ she answered. ‘Have you?’

‘Don’t be surprised if Mauri knows everything that there is to know about you when you do meet him.’

He hadn’t answered her question, but his statement about Mauri was enough to make her forget about her concerns relating to Dax’s exploits. ‘How would he—‘

‘Mauri’s family have made a lot of money doing what they do, so he has the resources to do pretty much anything he wants. If you filled out information for that phony job, they’ll have your full name and social security number. The rest is just leg work, and most of that can be done at a desk these days.’

She hadn’t considered the personal information that this family had about her. ‘Why would they want to know about me?’

‘Because they chose you,’ he said. ‘And Mauri is particular about knowing everything about people he welcomes into his family. He’ll want to know if you’re bringing any trouble with you.’

‘The only trouble I’ve been around recently is you.’

‘And they know all about that,’ he said, squeezing her thigh then sliding his hand further up under her sundress.

‘Just how much do they know?’ she asked. ‘They know that we’re sleeping together, but do they know the details of that? How does Bruno fit into all of this?’ It was great to finally feel free enough to ask all of the questions she’d been too afraid to ask while in the environment of her captivity.

‘Mauri and Bruno have been friends for years, they worked together for Mauri’s old man when they were kids. Bruno knows everything that Mauri does… just about.’

‘And you? How do you fit in?’

‘I’ve been working for Mauri since I was a kid. He caught me trying to pickpocket him, which was amazing in itself because I was pretty good. I’d been doing it to feed myself for years. Stealing from spectators at fights then getting in the ring to fight for money, that’s how I kept myself alive. Mauri caught me, pinned me down, I thought I was dead. I had no idea who he was.’

‘Did he hurt you?’

‘Took me home with him and fed me, asked about my family, my history, and kept on asking until he knew everything about me. After that, I never left, I grew up in the mansion, not out front with the Stark boys as an official member of the family, but in back, with the household staff. They trained me up and looked after me. As soon as I could, I started to graduate through the ranks of Mauri’s team.’

‘Doing what?’ she asked.

‘Anything he wanted of me, I sold, I couriered, I did everything.’

‘And now you do this?’

‘I do what Mauri asks me to,’ he said, and he must have sensed her aversion.

‘Why didn’t he send you out here alone to deal with me? How many other women have you beaten into submission for him? Do you treat them all like you treat me? Or do you follow Bruno’s methods?’

‘You’re the first, I mean it’s the first time I’ve ever been involved in anything like this. I enforce a lot, and I do interrogate for information and that can take days, sometimes a week. But like this, a woman, no, I’ve never done this.’

‘But Bruno has?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. I am trusted in the family and I know a lot of their secrets. But there’s no way I know everything, that’s for damn sure.’

‘So why now?’ she asked. ‘Why did they get you doing this now? Why not just leave me out here with Bruno if he’s more trusted than you are? He’s obviously more sadistic.’

‘Your purpose is unique, so to the best of my knowledge no one has ever had to do this before. As for Bruno, I told you, he can’t get a hard-on.’

‘So your purpose was purely sexual? You were selected because your dick functions?’

He shrugged, still watching the road. ‘Best I can figure, yeah, and because they trust me. I’ve had Trystan’s women before, so it’s not like the punk will get queasy about it, you know?’

‘Trystan’s women?’ she repeated and his jaw ticked. ‘What has he got to do with this?’

‘Trystan’s the guy you met in Vegas.’

‘Yeah, I know who he is,’ she said, picking up his hand by the wrist and tossing it back to his own lap. Twisting in her seat, she pinned her glare on his profile because from the prickle encircling her spine, she didn’t like the trajectory of this conversation. ‘I figured out that he was the one who wanted me snatched, but I’m not his woman. I haven’t even seen him for the whole time we’ve been out here.’

‘He’s in Europe,’ Dax said. ‘He has been since the day we brought you here. He’ll be back in a week or so.’

‘The deadline,’ she said. ‘The deadline for going back to the city?’

‘What are you talking about?’ he asked, flashing her a frown.

‘I overheard you and Bruno talking, he said that we were going back to the city, that after we went back we’d be off the hook. I thought you were here against your will too, that they were forcing you to do this.’

‘Forcing me to fuck you? Yeah, it was a hardship.’

‘Dax, be serious, what is going on here? I thought you were teaching me a lesson. I thought that Trystan wanted us to go through all of this so that I would be taught a lesson, just like you said about him holding a grudge.’

‘He does,’ Dax said. ‘He picked you because he felt disrespected by your rejection in Vegas, he wouldn’t stop going on about it.’

‘And the deadline? I thought that by then I was supposed to have learned my lesson, that I’d be turned free.’

When he did a double take, she knew she’d misinterpreted. ‘Freedom is subjective,’ he said. ‘At some time we will get the call to take you back to the city.’

‘And then what?’

‘You move into the mansion.’

Her chest tightened and she shrank back against her side door. ‘No,’ she exhaled. ‘Am I supposed to service his men? Be another Rita who will follow the commands given by anyone in that place?’

‘No, Rita is sport, a Stark employee there for the guys’ pleasure, or whatever,’ he said. ‘Everything that you were told is true. You’re going to live a life of luxury and privilege.’

‘And you? What are you going to do?’ she asked. ‘We move into your room in the mansion and then what?’

But he was already shaking his head. Breathing grew more difficult for her as panic began to take hold. ‘I don’t live in the mansion.’

‘Wh… wha… why not?’ she stuttered.

‘Because I’m a grown man and Mauri isn’t the only guy I work for. I couldn’t live like Brad and Trystan do, in the mansion, always under supervision.’

‘So you’re going to take me to the mansion and just leave me there? What am I going to be? Some kind of homecoming gift for Trystan?’

‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you yet,’ he said, clearly he wasn’t ready for this discussion and it was getting away from him. She couldn’t believe that she’d been kept in the dark about this when they’d been sharing a bed for weeks.

‘You’re not considering leaving me there,’ she said. ‘What about all that crap about caring about me? Didn’t you mean it?’

‘I meant it,’ he snapped. ‘But this isn’t as easy as—‘

‘I already told you to make a choice,’ she said. ‘And I’d appreciate you telling me up front if that choice isn’t me.’

‘Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m gonna figure this out.’

‘How exactly?’ she asked, crossing her legs away from him. ‘And how many times will I have to swallow his spunk before you do that?’

The car jolted forward when he sped up in what appeared to be an involuntary motion. ‘He’s not gonna lay a finger on you, and you’re not gonna let him if he tries.’

‘Forgive me, but isn’t that how we got into this mess?’ she asked. ‘I’ve been playing the role of brainwashed Manson girl in front of Bruno because I believed I was doing both you and me a favour, biding my time until I was getting out. I didn’t even mind being your fuck-bunny, it was fun, and you’re incredible in the sack. Screwing you sort of broke up the monotony of what I went through downstairs, but all this time you were playing with me?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Why would I do that?’

‘Maybe because it would be fun to see what Trystan would do to me when he found out I wasn’t as obedient as you and Bruno made out to him I would be? Was that the point of this? To make me so pliable that you could just hand me over to him? What was your plan? Were you going to tell me to do whatever Trystan asked of me just to save your hide? Did you expect me to do with him all of the things I do with you just because, why? I’m such a slut?’

‘You’re no slut. I’ve been around sluts all my life and you’re sure not one of them.’

‘Don’t change the subject or try and flatter me now,’ she said. ‘I want to know, were you expecting me to go to him willingly just to do you a favour?’

‘This isn’t my ideal scenario either, Minx. Do you think I planned on falling for you?’

‘So what did you plan?’ she asked. ‘You’d just steal some woman, fuck her up as much as you could and then hand her over to that pervert?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Maybe. I don’t know. Do you know how long it’s been since I cared about anyone? Or even really cared about myself? You go through the motions… you just… you…’

‘Survive?’ she sighed, remembering what he’d said to her about breathing in and out. He’d been following the orders of Maurice Stark for so long that he never wasted the time to stop and consider if those orders were moral or if he even agreed with them.

‘Look, the way I see it, you’re fine until Tryst gets back. We’ll get this worked out before he’s back on US turf, ok?’

‘Great,’ she said, not feeling very reassured. ‘You’re not the one with the prospect of a lifetime of rape hanging on the horizon. I’m telling you now that I won’t submit to him, no, I won’t. I don’t care if they get pissed at you because you didn’t do your job right. I will not have sex with him, not voluntarily.’

‘Good,’ Dax said. ‘I don’t want you to. If you ever find yourself in that situation with him, or with any other guy, then you fight your damndest, babygirl. This is mine.’ He grabbed her knee and digging his fingers into her he hauled her toward him. ‘From the tips of those toes to the roots of your hair, Minx, even that damn clever mouth.’

‘So that’s your strategy? I fight them off? Wow Dax, you’re really not a planner, are you?’

‘You’re giving me a hard time?’ he asked. ‘I’ve kept you safe and let you off the hook. I could’ve taken you down to that basement anytime and given up on you, but I didn’t.’

‘While you were getting your balls played with you had no reason to,’ she said. ‘Now that you’re being held to account it’s not so much fun, is it?’

The car was going faster now, but being stopped by the cops wasn’t going to do her any harm, only him. ‘I have time,’ he said. ‘We play it cool and keep it together for just a while longer. I’ll talk to Mauri and he’ll see—‘

‘What? That you want to play with the toy a little bit longer? Then he’ll tell you that it’s nice to share, Dax, and you’ll do what your surrogate daddy tells you to and I’ll be the one sailing down the river on my own.’

‘I’m not going to let that happen! I’m going to keep you safe!’ His outburst was so abrupt that she was stunned into silence and they must have covered five miles before she spoke again.

‘You want us to keep doing what we’ve been doing,’ she said, trying to be logical and not let herself be conquered by fear. ‘I’m supposed to trust you and one way or another you’re going to keep me safe, is that it?’

‘Yeah,’ he murmured. ‘That’s it exactly. Just give me some time to figure this out.’

‘Ok,’ she said, resolved to the fact that as angry as she was, she didn’t want to walk away from Dax. ‘I’ll give you three days, after that, if we’re not safe together, I’m on my own.’

‘Ok,’ he said. ‘That’s fair…. You’re not going to run now? You’re not just saying this to keep me from…’

‘From what? Tying me down?’ she asked. ‘No, I’m not just saying this. But if you don’t trust me anymore then I have no reason to trust you.’

‘I trust you,’ he said.

‘Then we’ll both have to have some faith in each other, or else we’re going to cause the demise of each other.’

‘So we stand together or we die,’ Dax said. ‘Can you play the game for a little bit longer, Minx?’

‘My stamina is better than yours.’

He laughed. ‘Now we both know that’s not true, but there will be time to prove it later.’

‘If I let you,’ she said, wondering if they were going to turn into Bonnie and Clyde.

‘You’ll let me,’ he said. ‘I know how to work you now, Minx. I know all of your buttons.’

‘What we have, Dax...? Is there a future?’ If there was no future then hanging around for another three days wouldn’t be worth it.

‘I don’t want you to go anywhere,’ he said. ‘Having you around is… cool.’

‘Cool,’ she said, taking her eyes to her window. ‘Typical man speak for not wanting to reveal too much of yourself. Fine. Let’s just get through today.’

‘Mauri will understand,’ he said, skimming his hand to her inner thigh. ‘I’ll talk to him and work this out and then we’ll be together.’

‘And Trystan?’

‘He’ll be a little shit because he always is. But Mauri will keep him in line.’

She didn’t know if that was true, but she didn’t know the dynamics of the family. All she had to rely on was Dax’s word. With the knowledge that she wasn’t ready to leave him came her own realisation of just how much she cared about him. Fitting into life with the Starks’ as Dax’s girl might be difficult, but she’d rather do that than try to fit into it as Trystan’s girl, as far as she was concerned, that would never happen.

Chapter Fourteen

Dax had driven her to the Stark mansion, but she hadn’t seen anything except a broad wooden gate. Knowing its location seemed to be the goal, and maybe he was trying to make her more comfortable with the idea of spending time there. But when he offered to take her inside and show her around Ivy refused without any hesitation. If she went into that place then she had no guarantees that she would ever get out.

After a brief spell parked outside Dax drove on and they eventually ended up in an industrial area, pulling up alongside a grey concrete warehouse on a lot that appeared to be vacant.

‘What’s this place?’ she asked when he turned off the engine and got out of the car.

‘This is where we prepare our product. Come on, get out.’

‘I don’t want to go in there, Dax,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Who is in there?’

‘No one who will hurt you. There’s nothing you have to worry about, I already told you that. Come on, you have to know what it is that we do.’

‘Why? Why would Mauri want me to know this?’

Dax came around the car and crouched down, resting his forearms along the top rim of her door. ‘Because as far as he is concerned you’re gonna be part of the family and he has to be sure that we can trust you. He also thinks that you’re gonna be the mother of his future grandchildren who will one day take over the family business.’

‘I’m supposed to give birth to felons,’ she said. He backed away and opened her door, then took her hand to help her out of the car. ‘I’ve heard of planning for the future, but that idea takes the cake.’

‘Do you want kids?’ he asked, leading her towards a dusty brownish red door on the side of the building.

‘I don’t think that now is the time to talk about this, tough guy. We could get our heads blown off at any second.’

He laughed. ‘I do this almost every day. Any guy who takes a shot at me will have his kneecaps removed. These guys aren’t going to hurt me.’

‘That’s you,’ she said, looking all around, worried that there may be some kind of sniper or security guy who might take a disliking to her. ‘I’m just some chick that they don’t know.’

‘The guys in here aren’t what you’re expecting,’ he said, pushing open the door and taking her inside.

There was noise and the air was pungent, but it was the humidity, or rather the lack of it, that she noticed first. The space they entered was almost empty. He took her through into another room that was some sort of recreation space, except now it was empty.

‘We’re at the end of a shipment, everything was taken out last night. We’ll get another one in a few days, there’s been a bit of a hiccup, but Mauri’s sorting it out.’

‘Thank goodness for that,’ she said, absorbing the details of the well-kept space. There was air conditioning in here, it was cool and she saw a fridge in the corner. There was a series of mismatched couches and a wide screen TV. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if they could hang out here together, alone, for a while. A far door opened and a guy came in, he was tall but quite weedy. He certainly wasn’t the thug that she had been expecting, just as Dax had warned her.

‘Hey, Zoom,’ Dax said. ‘You need to be quicker off the mark. You don’t have company back there, do you?’

Dax sounded severe, it wasn’t exactly anger in his tone, but an aloof authority that carried an unspoken warning – just like in Vegas when he’d threatened her without using negative words.

‘No,’ Zoom said. ‘Wasn’t expecting you today… I called Serg.’

‘Why?’ Dax asked. Zoom’s statement carried some sort of weight that she didn’t understand.

‘One load wasn’t picked up,’ Zoom said, scrutinising her, then letting his attention flick back to Dax before it came back to her. ‘Who is she?’

‘Not a perk for you,’ Dax said, leaving her to march forward and grab Zoom by the shoulder. ‘Who was it? Who missed it?’

‘I… I gave Serg all the details, you said, you said to report to him while you were… I would’ve called you but—‘

‘You did the right thing, but I’m here now and I’m going to follow up. It’s just sitting back there?’ Zoom nodded. ‘Ok. You don’t do anything until someone is in touch. Stay here.’

Dax let go of his shoulder and Zoom tried to smile. ‘I never go anywhere else.’

Apparently unamused, or maybe just uninterested, Dax stalked back to her and grabbed her hand to tug her back outside and into the car. ‘What is that place?’

‘It’s where we cut the coke,’ he said, starting up the car again. ‘It’s cut and packaged there and it’s supposed to be picked up once it’s divided.’

‘But someone didn’t pick up their share?’ she asked as he manoeuvred out of the industrial site they had not long ago arrived at. ‘Why would that be?’

‘Someone is lazy, scared, or dead, those are the only three reasons,’ he said.

‘Serg works for Mauri too?’

‘Yeah, he’s an all right guy, once you get to know him. He’s been running things for me while my attention has been split.’

‘So that means that you trust him?’

Dax glanced at her and then the road. ‘With the product and the job,’ he said, and one side of his mouth turned into a smile. ‘Not with my girl.’

‘Another rapist friend,’ she said. ‘You know you should really expand your social circles, baby.’

‘What do you think that you are?’

‘I’m a refreshing experience,’ she said. ‘It remains to be seen whether or not you’re beyond the point of redemption.’

‘If I got any better, babygirl, you’d have died and been sent to paradise.’

He didn’t often make jokes and they were almost always dry, but she was getting used to his more genial side though that didn’t stop her from goading him too.

‘If I was in heaven you wouldn’t be the one delivering me to ecstasy,’ she said. ‘I heard you’ve already paid your room deposit in hell.’

‘A room with a view,’ he said, flashing her a smile. ‘I might be able to talk to my peeps if you’re interested in the lot next door.’

‘I thought I belonged under you? Is that lot still vacant?’

‘Not anymore,’ he said in a deep purr that made her tingle.

He left her to consider the implications of what he’d said while they rode to the next location. She would take the isolated warehouse any day over the place that they went to next. Parking in the street, Dax came around the car to take her out of it like last time, this time without the pep talk.

Graffiti covered the walls of old tenement apartment blocks, broken windows and fences surrounded groups of youths in baggy pants wearing cheap jewellery and calling at each other. This was what the “wrong side of the tracks” looked like.

Instead of going into the front of the building they were at, Dax took her through an open chain link fence beside it. Moving around the back, they passed a barking dog tethered to a side wall and a group of heavy, tattooed men on a picnic bench. Nothing affected Dax; he carried on through a swing door at the rear of the building and into a short corridor.

‘Dax,’ she said, hoping for an explanation, but he didn’t stop just reached back and locked his fingers in between hers.

His long calloused digits with their bumps and scars were so unique that their thickness was enough to offer her some reassurance. That comfort lasted until Dax shoved aside the strands of a metal-link curtain that covered a room full of jeering men who sat around a long table.

The smoke filled room reeked of cigarettes and greasy food but as soon as Dax walked in the half a dozen men shut up.

‘Boss, man,’ a blonde at the head of the table said and got up.

Though her eyelids stretched apart Ivy managed to hold in her gasp. The blonde guy had to be nearly seven feet tall.

‘You’re letting the place fall apart, Serg,’ Dax said. ‘What are you doing sitting on your ass when we’ve got a hold up at the factory?’

‘I’m on it.’

‘Apparently not,’ Dax said, unintimidated by this man’s bulk.

None of the men here appeared like the sort to mess with. They were varying grades of thug and hooligan and she recognised one or two from the party at the beach house.

The phone in Dax’s back pocket rang before he could give Serg further orders. While striding into the corridor to maintain his privacy, he dug out the cell-phone and answered it, leaving her alone with the goons.

Ivy’s initial discomfort dissipated when a thug on the right hand side spoke. ‘Are you the boss’ new slut?’

Although aware that she was supposed to be the submissive slave in front of Bruno, Ivy found herself unable to show such weakness in the face of this new intimidation.

‘If I am then you’re taking a risk in speaking to me like that,’ she said.

‘The boss has never brought a girl here before,’ another said.

‘You’re more likely to find your nose embedded into the back of your skull than you are to find yourself freed of your ignorance if you insult me,’ she said.

The men can’t have been expecting such a retort from her, if they expected any at all, because when Dax came back in they were all still suspended in silence.

‘I’m getting out of here,’ Dax said, if he noticed the atmosphere in the room he said nothing about it. ‘Get over to the warehouse. I’ll join you there in a while, Serg… Minx.’

She took his statement of her pet name as an indication that she should follow him when he departed. When they were in the outer corridor he linked their fingers again, and held them against the small of his back.

Outside, they passed the inked group again without a word and eventually got back to the car.

‘What was that place?’ she asked.

‘Out front is a bar, it’s where most of the guys hang. It’s a good place to check if you’re looking for anyone.’ She didn’t know who she would ever be looking for, but didn’t point that out to him.

‘Where are we going now?’

‘Back home,’ he said.

‘But you said that you’d go back to that warehouse. You already drove me out here and now you’re going to drive back to the beach house just to drop me off with Bruno? It seems like an awful long way to—‘

‘Bruno’s on his way to the restaurant where Mauri is eating.’

‘So I’ll be alone? Is Rita going to be there? What will she and I talk about? The only thing that we have in common is your penis… I suppose we could talk about that for an hour or two.’

‘She’s never seen my dick,’ he said with a flourish of a smile.

‘She did this morning.’

‘Never before that,’ he grumbled.

‘So you screwed her in the dark every time?’

‘Are you jealous, babygirl?’ His hand was back up her dress at her inner thigh. ‘I’ve watched Bruno put his hands all over you.’

‘And Trystan too,’ she said, curious as to how he felt about the night they first encountered each other.

‘We’re not going back to the beach house. There’s been a change of plans, Mauri wants you at the mansion today.’

All good humour and joviality drained out of her, just as she was sure the colour did too. ‘What? Why?’