Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 25 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Eight

When they were settled in Dax’s suite, she washed her face and changed her clothes, then Dax took her hand and led her to the sumptuous couch in the living room.

‘You’re going to give me the scoop, after that we’ll eat, then we’ll fuck.’

She had once accused Dax of not being much of a planner. Tonight he proved otherwise, he knew just what he wanted and when. ‘We didn’t have a room this big for our wedding night,’ she said, in an effort to delay her confession.

‘We took what they had available,’ he said. ‘All we needed was a bed, and I provided that, didn’t I?’

‘You always provide,’ she said, linking her fingers on her lap. ‘You’ve got money and influence enough to look after yourself and me too. I don’t have that. I’m not… I mean, I don’t have a skill that I can use to support myself like you do.’

‘You’ve got mad skills, babygirl,’ he said with enough teasing in his tone to make her smile since she’d said something similar to him once. He took her hand out of her lap and into his. ‘If you don’t start talking, I’m going to assume the worst, and you know that doesn’t end well for any of us.’

‘My job at the GoldSpring is about as good as my life got,’ she said. ‘And the live-in job at that Vegas house that I was setup for, so the Starks could lure me…’

‘Yeah?’

‘Trudi, my ex-roommate, the hooker downstairs, she was the one who recommended the job to me. Her pimp took a payoff to get the information to me and I walked right into it.’

‘Carlos?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, sagging back into the couch.

‘You were supposed to believe it,’ Dax said. ‘It has to be made to look good, believable, so that the victim will walk in and accept the setup without suspecting anything’s off.’

‘How many people did you set up?’

‘Whoever Mauri told me to,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I’ve taken part in gigs like that before. I won’t lie to you about my past.’

‘I had to come back to Vegas,’ she said. ‘Everything I own is here. I need to… it’s time to consolidate my old life with my new one.’

‘No better way to do that than to keep the new life at your side.’ He took her hand to his mouth and kissed it, but when he tried to let her go, she captured his forearm.

‘You can stay with me, here, in this room,’ she said. ‘But I need time alone to take care of… some things.’

‘Why? What are you so desperate to keep me away from?’

With half a shrug, she admitted the truth. ‘My ex-boyfriend.’

Dax tensed and twisted their joined hands to bring her body flush into his. ‘That loser I met downstairs? You’ll stay at my side. Why the fuck would you need to go near some loser that you used to bang? I’m here. I’ll take care of—‘

‘I’m not going there for sex. Saul and I didn’t have that kind of relationship anyway.’

‘You didn’t fuck him?’

‘I did. I meant it wasn’t just sex. He did care about me,’ she said, avoiding eye contact.

Saul had seemed like a good guy when they started going out and for a time he was besotted with her. But he always wanted to share in the next big thing and Ivy wasn’t interested in being a part of any scene. So their relationship was doomed to never work out, they wanted different things.

‘Is that meant to make me feel good? You were in love with the guy?’

‘Not like I’m in love with you,’ she said. ‘If you want to meet him again, you can. What you can’t do is invite him into the ring with you. You have to be nice to him, no threatening and intimidating him, he did me a favour when he didn’t have to.’

‘What favour?’

‘Nothing naked,’ she said, stroking the hairs on his arm. ‘I needed someone who could mobilise and disarm people, there’s no one better at that than Saul. He knows tonnes of people, and he’s so friendly, he can… he just knows how to work people I guess.’

‘So? Why did you need him to do that?’

‘The night I left here, our wedding night—‘

‘You went to your fucking ex-boyfriend on our wedding night?’ he shouted and shot to his feet.

‘No! No, I called him. I went to my old place, Trudi was working, I knew she would be, I packed up the rest of my stuff there and then went… to the house where I had the live-in job. But, there were new owners, the previous tenant was gone, and they didn’t know where he was.

‘So I was stuck there without cab money and no phone. I went to a friend’s place that was within walking distance and used her phone to call Saul, and we made an arrangement.’

‘An arrangement?’

‘He agreed to store my things for me, the stuff I’d picked up from Trudi’s. I hadn’t taken all of my possessions to the live-in job yet, I only took one bag. I didn’t know if it would work out, and I’d paid rent to Trudi for the month. I wanted to make sure that she was looked after. Funny, isn’t it? I was worried about her because I thought I’d landed on my feet with my new job. I was going to pick up the rest of my stuff from Trudi’s later, then you know, everything happened. So when we were back in Vegas to get married, I took the chance and went over to Trudi’s to pack everything up.’

‘Why did you go to the other house?’

‘I left something there,’ she said. ‘I wanted to get it back.’

‘Something, what?’

‘You won’t understand.’

‘Try me.’

‘You’re angry,’ she said. ‘I can tell when you bark at me like that.’

‘You went to an ex when we were together.’

‘I didn’t see Saul on our wedding night. I left my bags from Trudi’s at my friend’s place, and he picked them up the next day. I came back here to you.’

‘But you didn’t get that one bag? The things you took to your live-in job?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ she said, picking at her cuticle. ‘I was an idiot for going over there. I thought that… that Darryl Kay was a real person. He was probably made up. But I… I’m not ready to give up yet. If Trudi doesn’t know him, then there’s a chance that Carlos will. He’ll be able to tell me who his contact was.’

‘No, he won’t,’ Dax said, dashing her hopes. ‘We don’t leave contact details and transactions like that happen in the shadows, chances are Carlos never saw a face.’

‘How can you—‘

‘Because I’ve been that guy, the guy offering a payoff to someone for carrying out a simple task. You said Trudi gave you the info?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Someone went to Carlos with an envelope full of money and the details. He was told to give the information to Trudi and to make her pass it on to you. Carlos got his money and a piece of paper to be delivered to you, that’s it. He probably never saw the person before or since.’

‘Probably,’ she said, bouncing to her feet. ‘I have to take the chance. He might know. Trudi said she got the job details from a client. Maybe the person offering Carlos the payoff was a client, maybe he knew—‘

‘No,’ Dax said. ‘Being discreet is part of the job. Even if they were our guys, they wouldn’t have approached a hooker they used or her pimp. They might make a recommendation on how to get to you, but someone else would make the drop.’

‘Great, way to break the news gently, Dax.’

Seating herself on the couch again, she tried to think of other ways to get to Darryl Kay. But Trudi had been her ace, Ivy didn’t have any other link to that job.

‘Did you think about coming to me?’ Dax asked.

‘You?’ she asked. ‘You weren’t there. I would have remembered it if you were.’

‘Mauri kept me out of it because you and me interacted. But I have contacts of my own, I can find out how it went down.’

‘You can?’

‘Maybe,’ he shrugged. ‘Pinning down the exact guy who made contact with Carlos will be tough, we’re trained not to talk. But if he wasn’t a top guy, he might be sloppy. If he’s mouthed off to someone about working for Mauri, then I can find that out… though the chances are if Mauri’s heard that the guy has opened his mouth, then the guy won’t be around anymore, if you get me.’

‘I don’t need to speak to that guy,’ she said, springing to her feet and rushing over to her husband. ‘I need to find out what happened to my things.’

‘The bag you never retrieved?’

She nodded. ‘Everything that’s important to me is in it.’

‘Would Mauri have gotten rid of it?’

‘Probably, if you were any other mark,’ he said. ‘But your role was supposed to be at Trystan’s side, they might have sent your things to the California mansion.’

‘Damn.’

‘Damn? I thought that would make you happy, why does that disappoint you?’

‘Because if Trystan has my possessions then I’ll have to ask him for access to them. He’s never going to be nice and just hand them over. You know how he likes to play with people. He’ll want to question me or make me beg.’

‘You don’t have to do anything,’ Dax said, taking her hands to bring them to his shoulders. ‘If there’s anything that belongs to you in Trystan’s suite, I can get it.’

‘How?’ She wouldn’t ask Dax to beg for her, and she didn’t want either of them owing Trystan any favours; he was a sick, twisted man, who could not be trusted.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Dax said. ‘You should have come to me with this before coming here by yourself. What was the next part of your plan? Were you going to speak to Carlos alone?’

‘If I had to, yes.’

‘Men like that don’t talk to women; he wouldn’t have answered your questions.’

‘Do you know Carlos?’

‘No. I don’t have to know the specific guy to know what they’re like. Pimps like to exert power over women and are caught up in their own importance. Even if you did beg he still wouldn’t give you the information that you wanted. Who is Darryl?’

‘Darryl Kay is the guy who owned the house that I worked in, at least I thought he was, he’s the one that I worked for.’

‘That’s a good start. I can call Mauri and—‘

‘I don’t want us to owe them anything,’ she said, stepping back and dropping her hands. ‘If we ask them for help then they’ll expect us to do what they tell us to. I also don’t want them to know that this is important to me, it’s personal, and if they ask me to reveal… I don’t want them to have ammunition that they can use against me.’

‘I’ll deal with it,’ he said, reaching for her hand. ‘Your name doesn’t have to come up in conversation.’

‘So how will you get Mauri to—‘

‘To give up the man who tricked my future wife? Mauri teaches his kin young that disrespect is the greatest enemy. If I tell him that I want a face to face with the guy, Mauri will set it up. If he wants me to take over then he’s going to have to give me everything I ask for.’

‘Are you still considering taking over?’ she asked, hooking his belt loop to pull him back to the couch. ‘How did things go with Serg?’

‘It was… like old times.’

‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing?’

‘It felt good being out there again, I guess, you know, doing something. But once I knew you were here in Vegas, my mind wasn’t on the job.’

‘I told Bri I would call her and let her know that we arrived safely,’ she said. Though they had arrived in California days ago, Ivy’s newest friend had plenty going on in her own life, so she shouldn’t have spent too much time worrying. But Ivy did feel bad that she hadn’t phoned sooner.

‘Ok, you phone her. I’ll order room service then call Mauri.’

‘Can that wait?’ Ivy asked, climbing over him to straddle his lap. ‘I want you to myself for a night. Since Brad showed up, we’ve either been fighting or avoiding each other, least that’s how it feels.’

Her husband made no secret about the fact that he was on guard and distracted tonight. He hadn’t been in Vegas for long, and there had been plenty of drama already. She had to find a way to take his mind off the turmoil going on around them. Focusing entirely on each other might lead to a sleepless night, but it would be worth it.

Breakfast at the hotel was exquisite and far more extravagant than anything she’d had before. Waking Dax up had taken quite a while, but she was determined that they would share this meal together and then get to work. The food was delicious and the service impeccable, Ivy was disappointed to leave the table now that they’d finished.

‘Can we afford this?’ she asked when Dax handed her a takeout cup of juice that he’d had the breakfast staff bring them before they left the restaurant.

‘Sure we can,’ he said, raising the cup that she held up to his lips so that he could drink it while it remained in her grasp.

‘It seems so unnecessary, to waste this kind of money, we might need it someday.’

‘You’re the one who called this excursion our honeymoon,’ he said, throwing an arm around her. He dragged her body into his and slid his shades over his eyes when they walked out into the desert heat.

‘Is that why you bought the suite? Or are you overcompensating?’

He stopped, still under the hotel awning, and faced her. ‘You got a problem with the equipment you’ve been playing with?’

‘No,’ she said with a flash of a smile.

‘I’ll drop my pants and fuck you right here if you need the reminder.’

‘No, tough guy,’ she said, tucking herself under his arm, against his solid form. ‘I’m not talking about your dick. I’m talking about us going to visit my ex.’

‘I’ve got nothing to prove,’ Dax said, swaggering onto The Strip. ‘I know this loser doesn’t compare to me. He’s shit scared of me anyway, just like he should be.’

‘He used to give me foot massages after I’d spent a long day on my feet on a shift,’ she teased.

‘Hmm,’ he sort of grunted. ‘And since we’ve been married, have you been on your feet for a whole day?’

‘No, but—‘

‘Fuck foot massages, I massage the more interesting parts of your body.’ His hand opened over her breast and she nudged her hip into him.

‘I’ll take you over a foot massage any day,’ she said, kissing his arm. ‘Orgasms were hit and miss with Saul.’

Giving him that boost made her feel better because she knew when the men came face to face with each other again that the testosterone would fly. As grateful as she was to Saul for helping her out in her time of need, she wanted Dax to be secure in their marriage because there was no better man as far as she was concerned. Though she wouldn’t tell him that, his ego was already healthy enough.

‘I hit your mark every time, babygirl.’

Often more than once, it helped that their lives together served as constant foreplay. ‘Yes, you’re better in bed, does that make you feel like a stud?’

‘I fuck better than him and I fight better than him,’ Dax said. ‘Fuck yeah, I am the man.’

His arm came up to around her neck when she laughed, and she turned her mouth down to it. ‘Yes, you are.’

‘Now where is this lesser guy?’

‘We need to get a cab,’ she said. ‘And when we get there, I need you to say nothing, not a word.’

‘I do strong and silent better than other dudes as well.’

‘Yes. You’re quite the catch. I’d suggest that we run off together and get married, but…’

‘You’re too late,’ he said, wiggling his occupied ring finger in her face. He moved them off the sidewalk and hailed a cab. ‘Let’s get this over with then I’ll call Mauri.’

Dax was so eager to say goodbye to her past but at the same time he clung fiercely to his own. Letting go wasn’t so difficult for her, perhaps because she’d done it so many times before.

This Saul guy had a nice bungalow with a huge yard fit for entertaining. Dax had propped himself on a railing by the pool with a view into the concrete shed that Saul had opened for Ivy. Her things were in there, and she had gone inside to pick out her bags, so Saul had handed Dax an ice-cold beer and joined him in his wait.

‘You’re a lucky guy,’ Saul said to him.

Dax took a mouthful of the beer and watched Ivy’s ass as she bent into the shadow of the building to look in a bag. ‘Yeah,’ Dax said. Ivy had told him not to say much and that suited him, he had no intention of getting buddy-buddy with this prick who used to fuck his wife.

‘Ivy’s great,’ Saul said.

‘Yeah.’

They kept drinking their beer and Dax maintained his patient demeanour, but he was eager to get Ivy’s shit and get the hell away from here.

‘So… any fights planned while you’re in town?’

‘Nope,’ Dax said.

‘I could… you know, I could hook you up if you wanted…’

Lowering his chin, Dax peered over the top of his shades at this eager puppy. ‘You think I need help from a guy like you?’

‘No! No, I… I was just saying… I know people and I could… I could get you a good deal.’

‘Shit,’ Dax exhaled and didn’t hide his smile as he pushed away from the railing to cross to Ivy’s ass, which was still in the air. That skirt of hers licked the top of her thighs inviting him to whip it out of the way and slide into her real deep.

After all this time together, his dick shouldn’t react to her so impulsively, but it did. When he got there, he smacked her ass, and she immediately righted herself to peek over her shoulder. ‘Don’t do that in front of Saul.’

‘Why?’ Dax asked, happy that her body came to rest against him. ‘The guy’s a loser, what did you see in him? Forget it, I don’t want to know.’ The last thing that he wanted was to hear his wife talk about the positive attributes of her ex.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she said, bending again, this time she deliberately pushed her ass into him.

‘If you’d told me this needed to be done, I’d have sent guys over here. I don’t want you to be here.’

‘You don’t want to be here,’ she said.

Slipping a hand up under her skirt, he pressed the length of his cold bottle against her panties, and she gasped in a breath that reminded him of how she breathed in the throes of passion. ‘You’re not going fast enough,’ he said.

His body blocked hers from the view of the yard, and she was still half-in, half-out the shed, so he fingered aside her panties and touched her core with the condensation covered bottle.

‘Don’t do that,’ she said, but when she tried to stand up, he splayed his other hand on the small of her back and held her down.

‘Take a couple of steps forward, I’ll close this door and fuck you right here.’

‘We are not having sex at my ex-boyfriend’s place,’ she hissed.

‘Why not? Worried about upsetting him?’

‘No, but I am not a trophy,’ she said, groping around she found his wrist and pulled his hand off her back so that she could stand up.

But he took the opportunity to seek out her breast, which he fondled through her dress. Kissing along the scratch Trudi had left on her neck, he flicked her earlobe with his tongue. ‘This fucking heat, doesn’t it turn you on?’

‘No,’ she said, using her body to move his around, she remained flush with him but brought the pool into their view. ‘But I do think that we should get a pool.’

‘At the apartment?’ he asked.

As it stood, they didn’t have a fixed abode. They had been living in North Carolina, then they flew to his apartment in California, but Mauri wanted them to live at the mansion. Right now, they lived in a hotel in Vegas, so putting in a pool wasn’t an option.

‘Wherever we end up,’ she said.

He didn’t like the way she sighed as she spoke, she had to be fed up with his ties to the Starks, and he could understand that after everything they had put her through. Turning down Mauri should have been his first instinct, but he couldn’t be stupid enough to ignore the chance that Mauri was presenting. If they took over the Stark empire, then Dax would be able to give Ivy anything she wanted.

He had money from the many fights he’d taken part in over the years. But he wasn’t dumb enough to think that he could fight for the rest of his life, he would have to retire eventually, probably sometime soon. His bank account was healthy and would support them if they chose to live a modest life. But he wanted to take care of Ivy and living in the opulence of the Stark mansion would give her the luxury he felt that she deserved.

‘Why don’t you go inside and call Mauri,’ Ivy said. ‘I’ll finish up out here.’

All she was doing was transferring her things from several smaller bags into a larger one and a suitcase that Saul had given her to use. It shouldn’t take her too long, and she didn’t want to be party to his conversation with Mauri anyway.

Leaving her alone, he went inside, passing Saul without speaking to him, and picked up the phone to dial Mauri’s direct number. Few people had direct access to Mauri, Dax was one of the lucky ones.

‘Hello?’ Mauri answered the phone, he wouldn’t have recognised the number calling him so his suspicious voice was understandable.

‘It’s me,’ Dax said. ‘I need something.’

‘Anything.’

‘The guy Ivy worked for in Vegas, who was he?’

‘Darryl Kay,’ Mauri said. ‘He’s on his yacht, sailing in the Pacific now.’

Men like that didn’t own sailboats, they owned ships that were filled with luxuries. Staying in Vegas had no doubt been a step down for the man. ‘He owed you something?’

‘Several somethings,’ Mauri said. He had connections all over the world and kept a running tally of who he’d done favours for over the years. Maurice Stark had no shame in calling in a favour when it suited him. ‘What do you want with him? Did he touch Ivy? Hurt her?’

The concern in Mauri’s voice was no doubt meant to curry favour with Dax, but it hadn’t occurred to him to question what Ivy had gone through in the three days she’d worked for Darryl Kay.

‘He just did you a favour?’ Dax asked.

‘Yes.’

‘When did he leave Vegas?’

‘Not long after we took Ivy,’ Mauri said. ‘The man had a weak stomach.’

‘If Ivy left something in Kay’s place, where would it be now?’ Dax asked.

‘Is there something in particular—‘

‘Do you know the answer to my question?’

‘I can look into it,’ Mauri said.

Standing in Saul’s kitchen, Dax dropped his fist to the countertop. Mauri knew all the details of an operation like that especially one that involved his future daughter-in-law, as Ivy was supposed to be. There was no way that he had to “look into” anything, he already had the answer.

‘You’re forgetting who you’re talking to, Mauri,’ Dax said, lowering the bass of his voice. ‘If you want me to trust you, then you better show me some respect. I can walk any time I want.’

‘Yes, I know,’ Mauri exhaled. ‘I’ll have her things ready when you come to the party. I’ll find out where they are, and I’ll have them brought to your suite.’

Their room, so Mauri was expecting them to move into the mansion after the party. While growing up in the mansion, Dax had resided in the staff quarters, he had never had a suite in the main body of the house like Brad and Trystan did. Mauri was going to great lengths to make him feel special, Dax just hadn’t figured out why this was so important to the old man yet.

‘Good,’ Dax said. ‘You do that.’

After hanging up the phone, Dax remained in the kitchen. Keeping watch out of the back window, he made sure that Saul didn’t go anywhere near Ivy while she sorted through her possessions.

Slugging more beer from his bottle he fixated on her ass again, but knowing that Saul was also enjoying the view of her body irritated him. After this day, his wife wouldn’t go near any man who had touched her in the past, he would make sure that she knew it.