Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Once she had raided Dax’s storage unit, Ivy had enough cash to get her clear across the country. The ten grand that Dax had given her was still stashed in the lining of the ottoman in their walk-in closet upstairs at the beach house, but she wasn’t going back for that, not a chance. She didn’t know if Bruno was there, or any of Starks’ other men. Walking back into the lion’s den was just a plain stupid idea, even for that amount of cash.

Everything she needed should be here in the storage unit anyway. She had found a couple of grand, which should keep her going for a while. The car key she found in a boot in the corner of a closet, where she also found a sports bag with clothes in it. There were a few items of women’s clothing there, which she would rather not wonder too hard about. She changed her clothes, got water and other supplies from the unit then cranked the engine and set off across the country.

She tried not to focus too hard on what had gone on between her and Dax. They were still technically married, and that was something that she would have to address if they really were broken up for good. But it wasn’t like she was in any hurry to get hitched, she’d made that impulsive decision with Dax, and it wasn’t one she wanted to repeat anytime soon.

With no clear objective in mind she just drove, stopping whenever the mood took her. She spent a week here and a few days there. It was possible that the Starks were looking for her, though she doubted they would expend too much energy on resolving this humiliating episode, they would probably rather just forget about it. But that was the great thing about being a drifter. It was tough for people to find you when even you didn’t know where you were going.

Six weeks went by and then she hit ocean, she had driven from the Pacific to the Atlantic, not directly, she’d gone north, south, east and west, but this was where she’d ended up. Standing looking out over the crashing grey waves, with Dax’s car parked a hundred yards away; she sank onto the hard grassy ground beneath her and took a deep breath.

That was when the tears came. She sat on that cliff for hours wailing and staring, consoling herself about the love she’d lost and chastising herself for being pathetic enough to lose her heart in such a careless way. She cried for the humiliation of her kidnap, cried for every time Bruno touched her, cried for every time she wanted to give in and let them take the last of her, for every time she’d wanted to break.

Ivy was human, she had weakness just like everybody else, but one thing she did not do was show that weakness without good reason. The tears came and went, she lay on the grass and let her emotions ebb and flow with the motion of the vast brine spread out beside her. It didn’t make her feel insignificant as Dax had once asked her, it made her revere the opportunities. Such a huge area that was teeming with life living in harmony, experiencing the circle of life, depending on each other to survive.

Yes, they were insignificant, but they were supposed to be. The meaning of life was to get up and carry on, no matter what.

No one would be there to dry her tears, so she dried them on her own and took another deep breath. It was time to start again and she would, this time with a broken heart.

Dax would never give up his search for her, but he was beginning to wonder if it would ever be successful. His first step had been to find out where she went after she left his apartment, and that didn’t take long. He picked up his bike from the bar and took it to the storage unit thinking that it would make more sense to use the car to find her. He might end up needing a place to sleep and the car could carry more supplies.

But when he pulled up to the storage unit and pulled out his wallet there was no key. She was a clever girl and a smile crossed his lips when he realised Ivy was the only one who could’ve accessed it. After busting off the lock and seeing that the car was gone, and some of the cash he had stashed too, he knew that she was alright, at least for now.

Luckily, he had more than one stash of money in this locker and she had only found and taken one bundle. So he knew that she was in his car and how much money she had. Dax hadn’t gassed up the car after switching it out for the bike, so the first thing he did was trace which gas station she had used and which direction she’d gone in.

From there the search was just as incremental and every time he thought he’d found her it turned out he’d just missed her. He hit a few dead ends and had to retrace his steps, and even took a few massive detours in his misguided pursuit of her.

He’d gone clear across the country and still didn’t know where she was. Contemplating where her journey would have gone next, whether she would have turned back to go west or taken another route, Dax pulled into a motel and asked for a room.

The woman on reception was older, maybe in her late-fifties, with curly grey hair and pointed glasses that sat on the end of her nose. She gave him a check-in slip, which he filled out and returned to her, then he started digging in his wallet for a credit card.

‘Oh, two in one week, that’s funny,’ the receptionist said as she transferred the information from his slip into the computer.

He stopped, his thumb still in the pouch of his wallet pressed against his forgotten credit card. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘Your surname, I’m saying that we had another person with that last name this week. Do you have family in the area?’

‘What was her first name? Was it a woman?’

‘I can’t tell you that,’ the receptionist laughed and carried on typing, obviously not realising that the information she had could affect the course of the rest of his life. Dax considered turning on the charm, but then realised that he had none. He considered threatening her, but being arrested wouldn’t help him find Ivy. So he adopted an uncharacteristic plan, he told the honest truth.

‘I’m looking for my wife,’ he said, hoping beyond all else that Ivy was using her married name and this wasn’t some huge coincidence. The receptionist stopped typing and peered over her glasses. ‘I made a mistake, in California, and she left me six weeks ago, seven now actually. I’ve been looking for her ever since.’

‘You followed her here? All the way from California?’ the receptionist asked. ‘How did you know she would be in North Carolina now?’

‘I didn’t,’ he said. ‘Like I said, I’ve been looking for her and it seems I’m always half a step behind her. I need her back. I love her.’

‘You cheated on her?’ the receptionist asked with an edge of displeasure.

‘No,’ he said, desperate to ensure that she didn’t cast her own life prejudices onto him thus tainting any goodwill she may feel toward him.

‘Then what did you do?’ she asked him, removing her hands from the keys and swinging her chair around so that she could meet his eye. It might have been nosiness, but he was asking her for information so telling her the truth felt like quid pro quo.

‘I let my father—‘though Mauri wasn’t really his father at all. ‘I let my family come between us and she knew I wasn’t, that I wouldn’t… I had to choose her on my own, she couldn’t make the decision for me.’

‘And now the decision is made? You chose her?’ He nodded. ‘That’s a lovely story, Mr. Harrow, but I can’t really do anything to help.’ Anger rose, but didn’t depressurise because she spoke again. ‘Ivy left here five days ago, she got a job, somewhere local and they fixed her up with a place to stay.’

At least he knew that it was Ivy who had been here and she was using her married name. If she got a job then she was staying put, at least for now, and he doubted she’d have quit after five days. Though he knew that she didn’t have the best of luck when it came to employment, so there was a chance that she’d lost the job.

‘Can you tell me where? Did she leave any forwarding information?’

‘I could lose my job if I gave you information like that,’ the receptionist said. She didn’t sound particularly sorry and he wanted to shout that he didn’t give a damn about her job.

‘Maybe we could talk about something else,’ he said, opening his wallet and flicking through the bills that were there, hoping to see a reaction in her. He’d been bribing people all over the country for information on Ivy, he’d give his last now if it meant he finally caught her.

‘Oh no, no,’ the receptionist said, rolling her chair back to her computer to finish putting in the details from his check-in card.

The door seemed to be closed and he bit his tongue to prevent himself from cursing at the unassuming woman. It was dark outside though he didn’t know the precise time. Needing to vent, Dax wondered if there were any official, or unofficial, pick-up fights that he could get himself into.

‘You’ve driven all the way from California?’ the receptionist asked, finishing up with the typing and closing down his file.

‘Yes,’ he groaned, wondering how he’d find Ivy now that he knew she had stopped moving… at least for the time being.

She retrieved a key for him and came back to the desk, reaching for something else as she did. ‘That’s a long journey for one vehicle to handle. Maybe your car could use a service, just to check that everything is in working order, you know, before you carry on your journey.’

With the room key she also gave him a business card, which he read. ‘Warner Autos?’

‘They’re the best in town,’ she beamed. ‘Local… you understand?’

The way her eyes locked onto his was deliberate and her polished smile remained exactly where it was while she bobbed her head in the direction of the card. He wanted to leap over the desk and kiss the woman, not that he really did, but he’d never felt elation in his life. This was what genuine delight and relief felt like.

‘I understand. They’re open tomorrow?’

‘First thing,’ she said. ‘Though they’re busy they’ll fit in time for special customers, it’s not too far from here.’

‘Maybe I’ll take a ride over there in the morning.’

‘Like I said, the best in town, who knows, maybe after you see what they’ve got you won’t feel the need to keep on travelling.’

‘No,’ he exhaled, letting himself smile. ‘No, maybe I won’t.’

‘Well, enjoy your stay, goodnight,’ she said and walked away to return to the novel she’d put aside when he came in.

One night’s sleep and then he’d see her, he’d go over to that mechanic’s place and find out what Ivy was doing there. Her job didn’t matter though, what mattered was that he finally had the chance to lay eyes on her again, and that was the only thing that mattered.

‘Warner Autos,’ Ivy answered the phone in the back office of the garage as was her job. So far she’d been getting on very well with the owner of the garage, who was one of the busiest guys she’d ever known.

He didn’t say much when she met him, but he hired her and gave her an advance, so she was going to work her damndest for him. All her job consisted of was answering the phone, booking in cars, ordering parts, and basically just dealing with the day-to-day paperwork. It was nothing too taxing, but it made her feel needed because she was the only one dealing with the running of the place while Blase Warner, the garage owner, was absent.

When she got the job, Blase told her that he managed the apartment complex next door and he’d just had a unit become vacant. It turned out that the place housed other employees of Blase’s businesses and employees got a discount, so she jumped at the chance of the cheap, modest apartment. Most of the men who lived there were scary as hell, or they would be if she hadn’t dealt with her own share of thugs. The majority of the men were ex-cons and they worked here at the garage or as security in Blase’s nightclub.

The only people residing in the apartment complex who didn’t work for Blase were his family members and their girlfriends, who were the only two women there at all. Ivy was the only female living there alone, but she didn’t feel intimidated or scared. The Warners were all decent men, and her door lock was secure, so she was fine.

This was her, starting a new life. On reaching over to hang up the phone after the call ended, the diamond on her finger caught and reflected the light, as it so often did, and Ivy paused. Every day she thought about Dax and every day she thought about going back to him. She could just show up at his apartment, or at the Stark mansion, or at the beach house. But she still didn’t have any assurances that he wouldn’t turn her over to Trystan and his men.

One year. She had decided to give it one year and if he hadn’t returned to her by then it wasn’t going to happen; that had been her decision and she had to be firm in following it through. She couldn’t be weak and beg him to take her back, it had to be his decision to want her… or not.

‘Ivy!’

There was nothing delicate about the men around here and although she’d only been here for a week they were already starting to warm to her, and her to them. If she could make this work then this could be a place for her to belong; the thing she’d always wanted most. At least she’d wanted it most until she met Dax and then she had discovered what true craving was like.

Spinning around in her chair, she glanced through the Plexiglas screen which framed the upper space between her back office and the outer workspace. Men were working on various cars and the radio was playing, but all of that disappeared when she saw who was next to the worker who had called for her attention.

‘Shit,’ she breathed and flew up out of her chair.

The mechanic who was next to Dax didn’t look happy and they were exchanging words. Another mechanic saw this and alerted others. Ivy was terrified that this would turn into a brawl if she didn’t move quickly.

Getting out of her office, she dashed the length of the shop floor and dived in front of Dax. ‘I’ve got this, thanks, Pop.’

‘Dude says he’s your husband,’ Pop said. The tall black man was terrifying to look at from afar, but he had never given her a cross word.

‘Funny that,’ Ivy said. Groping behind her she managed to snag Dax’s wrist. ‘I’ll just… I’ll take him out of your way.’

Dragging Dax across the room, past all onlookers, she got him into her workroom then slammed the door, which was odd because this door was never, ever closed, except when the rest of the garage was.

‘Dax,’ she breathed. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘What the fuck are you doing working in a place like this?’ he demanded, closing in on her. ‘Those guys out there are dangerous.’

‘No one is dangerous, Blase assured me that—‘

‘Who is Blase?’

‘Blase Warner,’ she said. ‘He’s the owner of the garage, he gave me this job. He’s a really nice guy and—‘

Dax’s palm slammed onto the wall behind her. The startling action made her fall back against it. ‘Are you fucking him?’

‘Oh good god, that is your main concern? I haven’t seen you for seven weeks. The last time I did see you, you were ready to feed me to the fishes and the first thing you ask me is if I’m fucking my boss?’

‘Yes,’ he said with no shame or apology. Grabbing her hand, he jerked it up and squeezed her ring finger. ‘You’re wearing your wedding ring, and using your married name.’

‘So why would I be sleeping with another man?’

‘You’ve been faithful?’ he frowned.

‘You haven’t?’ Tilting her head, she folded her arms and waited for his answer. By bringing her limbs up she had eliminated the last of the space between them, so her folded arms were now pressed into his torso.

‘I haven’t had time to look at a fucking woman. I have spent the last seven weeks chasing your damn tail across the country. Why can’t you stay put, woman?’

‘I haven’t found my place to belong yet. When I do, I will.’

‘Your place to belong,’ he spat out. ‘There’s only one place you belong and you’ve spent almost two months running away from it.’

He caught hold of her face and hauled her up, forcing his mouth down over hers. Although she hadn’t expected the kiss that didn’t mean that she didn’t want it. Opening herself to him, she leaned into him and trailed her hands up to his shoulders

‘That’s right,’ he grumbled and hooked his hands under her ass to lift her up.

Turning to the desk, he sat her down and leaned over her to continue consuming her mouth. His fingers began to work the buttons on her blouse, though his impatient hand stopped its task to fondle her breast.

‘Dax, I’m at work,’ she said, leaning away from the kiss. ‘And people can see us.’ Turning to alert him to the transparent panel on the opposite wall.

‘Where’s your boss?’

‘Probably still in his bed,’ she said. ‘He owns a strip club, so he hasn’t been home for long. Why? What are you going to do? Find him and beat him until he fires me?’ Smacking both hands onto his chest, she made him move and got off the desk to put some space between them. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I thought that was damn obvious.’

‘You came here to get laid?’ she asked, folding her arms to try and conceal the drawn out movement of her breathing and the pebbles at the peak of her breasts that his kiss had managed to make itch.

‘Yeah, I walked away from my life and chased you across the country because I needed a tramp to ride my cock.’ When he moved toward her, Ivy tried not to tense or back away. ‘Are you crazy, babygirl? I came here for you. You’re out of options.’

‘Options?’

‘I told you that you’d never be free of me. That if you left their prison you’d be stuck in mine. I’m not gonna let you escape again.’

‘You left them? What about Mauri? What about—‘

‘We don’t have to worry about that anymore. I told them I was gone, that I was out and I wasn’t coming back.’

‘I thought you were going to make them see, make them understand about us, so that your life wouldn’t have to change.’

‘I was wrong.’

‘Wrong?’ she asked. When her shoulders loosened, her hands fell to her sides. ‘I told you that weeks ago, I knew that they would never let us be together and that it would come down to a choice.’

‘A choice I’ve made,’ he said, bringing his hand to her face. ‘I went in there, to that midnight meeting…’

‘What happened? How did you get out of there?’

‘You don’t have to worry about that,’ he said, that cool anger crystallised in his irises, but he tried to hide it with a smile and a swipe of his thumb along her jaw and up over her lips. ‘We’re not going back there.’

‘They let you walk away,’ she said and the smile on his lips twitched.

This wasn’t over and he knew it as well as she did. Dax would either carry around the loss and betrayal of his supposed family for the rest of his life, or that family would track them down and do everything in their power to get him back.

‘I don’t need their permission to be with my wife.’

‘You shouldn’t have come here,’ she said, shaking her head and averting her attention.

Ivy began to make her way toward the door, Dax shifted into her path, blocking her exit and forcing her to look him in the eye. They were right in front of the window and she knew that the mechanics wouldn’t be getting much work done while this drama was unfolding.

‘You belong to me. I’ll follow your tail for as long as I need to.’

‘I wanted you to follow me, to fight for me,’ she whispered. ‘I knew that we weren’t over, that I’d see you again. But if you can’t let them go—‘

He snatched her arm when she tried to get around him. ‘I’ve let them go. I don’t give a fuck about them.’

‘You do,’ she said. ‘You have to admit that what they did hurt you. You fought with me, Dax. You fought me so hard because you were convinced that they would let you be happy, that they would let you be with me. The fact that they didn’t… it changes everything about your relationship with them, they weren’t who you thought they were. They didn’t give you the respect that you—‘

‘What do you want?’ he snapped, tossing her arm away. ‘Do you want me to get the fuck out of your life?’

‘Yes, I’m using this horrible situation as an excuse to dump you, tough guy. If I wanted rid of you then I wouldn’t still be wearing my rings, would I? I wouldn’t have used your last name every chance that I got.’

‘Why did you do that?’ he asked, edging toward her. ‘Because you wanted me to find you?’

‘Yeah, because I love you and I want to be with you. But you can’t resent me for—‘

‘They made their decision,’ he said, scooping his hands up under her chin to hold her head. ‘They got the chance to accept this, they didn’t take it. Being with you was never a question for me, whether they wanted to be a part of it, that was the question.’

‘Dax—‘

‘Yes, babygirl, I love you,’ he said, answering the question she didn’t get a chance to ask. ‘We are the same and the only place either of us belongs is side by side.’

‘It’ll be tough, you don’t have a crime syndicate to run around after anymore and you won’t know where to fight and—‘

‘Are you kidding? I started my career not far up this seaboard, anyone that I don’t know in the underworld isn’t worth knowing.’

Smiling, she shook her head. ‘Not much of a smooth talker are you, tough guy?’

‘It’s not talk you need from me,’ he said, lowering to lift her off the floor and take her to the door, which was still closed.

Resting her back against it, they were no longer in view of the window. ‘We can’t have sex here,’ she said.

‘Says who?’ Closing his lips on her neck, he elevated her body and the rasp of his jeans opening boosted her heart rate.

‘My boss, we need me to keep this job, I have a place to stay and—‘

‘He owns a strip joint,’ Dax said, looking her in the eye. ‘And a car garage.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And manages the apartment complex next door. That’s where I stay. I think he owns it.’

‘Lot of money, lots of lowlifes on the payroll,’ he said, indicating the men on the other side of the door that he couldn’t see. ‘He’s a crook, Minx.’

She had been impressed by Blaser when she met him. He was sort of distant, which made her constantly curious about what he was thinking without saying. But he’d been kind to her, as had everyone else she’d met. But that didn’t mean his business was legit.

‘What does that have to do with having sex?’ she asked.

‘I’ll find a way to persuade him into understanding.’

And the smugness in his tone made Ivy relax and give in. ‘You think that you have some secret skill that he’ll need, which allows you to get away with screwing his employees while they’re being paid by him.

‘You worry about the secret skills I have that you need.’

But he didn’t need to use fancy tricks, she’d been anticipating what it would be like to be in his arms for weeks. Every minute that they’d been away from each other she dreamt of him coming after her to declare his love and devotion, which was exactly what he’d done and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

Her lips parted to release a yelp of hopeless desire and relief. The question in his eyes wasn’t going to be answered in words. Ivy joined their mouths and went straight in to seek out his tongue, curling around it, she tickled his muscle with hers. Losing herself in the emotion and sensation that accompanied this kiss, she didn’t consider the future, it was the past she thought about.

If their hand hadn’t been forced by circumstance then they were probably both stubborn enough that they would never have gotten into a proper relationship. Under other circumstances, they’d have danced around each other, goading and lying, neither willing to relent first and admit the potency of their desire, just like they had in that Vegas alleyway.

‘You’re staying,’ she exhaled into his throat. ‘This is your last chance, tough guy. If you let me walk away again—‘

‘Never gonna happen, you’re my prisoner.’

‘Or maybe you’re mine,’ she said, throwing her arms around him and locking their mouths together again.

The kiss only got faster, more desperate and hungry, his hands on her body and his lips on her skin didn’t alleviate the need burning in her crotch. The thick length of his erection teased her, pressing the path of its intended raid outside of her body when it should be charging into her.

He had already opened his jeans, so getting him out of his underwear was easy. Peeling her own aside, she was about to guide him in, when his hands stopped roaming and he moved her away from the door.

Fearful he was going to take her to the desk, where they’d be on view, Ivy stopped all action and tried to speak. Dax’s tongue passed her lips and muffled her words, which went unheard and forgotten when he took them down to the floor.

Ivy had to give him brownie points. If he started pounding into her on that door, the noise would carry into the echoing cavern that was the garage and her colleagues would have a second-by-second performance to listen to.

Keeping them by the door, so that no one could walk through it and interrupt them, Dax laid her on the floor and pulled off his tee-shirt, stuffing it behind her head and guiding the end of it around and into her mouth.

‘Things could get rough,’ he smiled. ‘You keep it down.’

Spitting out the tee-shirt tail he’d intended to dampen her screams, she grinned up at him. ‘I have to make some noise. How else will they know how well-trained you are in pleasuring me?’

‘I’m trained?’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘You’re the perfect husband now, my evil plan worked.’

‘Shame that mine didn’t. You’re untrainable, Minx, and still don’t know when to keep that mouth shut.’

‘I know when to keep it shut, I just elect not to.’

‘No one tells you what to do or how to be.’

‘That’s right,’ she said, tightening her arms around the back of his neck to bring his mouth into close alignment to hers. ‘But you’ve got a long time ahead of you to try it, tough guy. You better use your time wisely.’

‘I intend to,’ he said, consuming her mouth, sating her passion and reminding her that fate can’t be battled. Its plan may not be what you first think it is, but life will always turn out the way it’s supposed to in the end.