Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Nine

Ivy had her doubts that Maurice Stark would deliver for them, but Dax was confident that he would. Dax had been conditioned from a young age to have utter faith in his mentor, that kind of unshakable trust confounded her.

After witnessing Dax’s turmoil when Mauri failed to accept their relationship, she worried that Dax would crash if he was disappointed again. During their early days, Dax had been convinced that Mauri would embrace their marriage once he knew how much they cared for, and loved, each other. It hadn’t worked out that way at all.

When she requested that they stay in Vegas for the week instead of rushing back to LA, Dax had yielded. It gave them time to relax and enjoy themselves without the watchful eye of the Stark network.

But on the Saturday of Maurice Stark’s party, they flew back to California with Ivy’s possessions in tow. Having her clothes and knick-knacks back was great, but what she really wanted was the bag Mauri had promised would be at the party tonight.

They hadn’t been back at the apartment for very long. Dax had gone straight into the shower, leaving her to deal with the unpacking and laundry. Now in the bedroom closet sorting through their apparel, she heard him come out of their bathroom and move into the bedroom, so she called out to him.

‘Are you ever going to tell me what happened?’ she shouted just loud enough for her voice to carry through the open closet door.

When he came into the doorway, he was already clothed though his hair was still damp. ‘Tell you about what?’ he asked, clipping the metal strap of his watch closed.

‘What happened between you and Mauri at that midnight meeting?’

‘That was months ago,’ Dax said. ‘The meeting when I told them to go to hell then spent seven weeks trying to find you?’

‘Yes,’ she said, folding a clean tee-shirt into a drawer, she closed it then set her sights on him. ‘You saw Mauri alone then you came back here to tell me that he had commanded us to go to a meeting at midnight at his mansion. I told you that Mauri would want you to hand me over to Trystan, so you let me leave here, to escape from them. But you went to the meeting by yourself, and it was something that happened at that meeting which made you walk away from them. You followed me across the country after that. Why did you come after me?’

‘I figured out that I loved you.’

‘You already knew that you loved me,’ she said, hooking her hands onto a shelf behind her. ‘You had already married me.’

‘Yeah, but I hadn’t lost you yet. I only married you so that he couldn’t.’ At least at the time, that was what Dax told himself, Ivy would never have married him if she hadn’t been sure that he reciprocated her feelings.

Dax turned to leave, but she sprang forward to hold him back. ‘You went to that midnight meeting, you told me that you did.’

‘Yeah,’ he said.

‘What happened?’

‘I told them to go to hell, told them that I wanted to be with you and that I didn’t care about them anymore.’

‘What did they say to you?’ she asked. His countenance betrayed that there was something he didn’t want to share, he got irritated, and his attention went everywhere except to her. ‘Please, tell me, it will sound better coming from you, whatever it is, I’d rather know. Was it about me? Were they disrespectful? Do you think that you’re protecting me?’

‘I am protecting you,’ he said. ‘You know everything that you need to know.’

Removing her hand from his arm, Dax continued out into the bedroom, and she trailed after him. ‘Just like that,’ she said. ‘You expect me to just accept that?’

‘I expect you to keep your mouth shut. I don’t answer to you.’

‘Oh, so you’re going to get defensive and start snapping at me? Yeah, that really tells me that nothing happened. Dax, we’re going over there tonight, and I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get there.’

‘It’s a party,’ Dax said, taking his phone and his wallet from the nightstand to stuff them into his jeans pockets. ‘There will be music and dancing and food, it’s a fucking party.’

‘This might be easy for you, but I am going back to a place that… the last time I was there they were fitting me for a wedding dress, remember? I was locked in a room and told that I was expected to be part of the family, to be Trystan’s wife. Has all of that slipped your mind?’

‘You’re not in danger when I’m around,’ he said.

‘Really? Because I seem to remember you telling me that you’d take care of everything and we ended up hightailing it out of there on your motorcycle, hoping that no one would catch us. You took me to Vegas and married me because you were too scared to stand up to Mauri.’

‘Except I’ve done it now,’ he said, heading for the door. ‘I’m going out.’

‘What about the party?’

‘It’s not for a few hours. I’m going to the bar to talk to Serg. I’ll pick you up at nine.’

‘Nine,’ she muttered because he was already storming out, slamming the front door behind him in the process.

Going back to the Stark mansion did set her on edge. This wasn’t easy for either of them, but being married to a man as masculine as Dax meant he wasn’t the type to sit and talk about his feelings. She didn’t need his reassurances, what Ivy needed were the facts. Something had happened at that midnight meeting, and it was something he’d always hidden from her.

Dax was a straightforward guy under normal circumstances. When he wanted something, he took it or found a way to get it. Ivy had been living the easy life with him back east, they went to work, came home, enjoyed each other, and then did it all over again the next day.

When it came to his upbringing, or their day-to-day lives, Dax had no trouble sharing with her. What had happened at the midnight meeting was the only thing he refused to talk to her about.

The meeting must have been difficult for him, Dax went into the mansion to explain her conspicuous absence and he must have assumed that Mauri would accept his explanations. Except Mauri was a master manipulator, he’d managed once to convince Dax that the relationship was a sham and that Ivy had used Dax to ensure her own safety.

Regardless of that, Dax had let her walk away alone, so he hadn’t gone to the midnight meeting expecting to cut ties with the Starks. If he had, then they could have arranged to meet up somewhere safe after it instead of going their separate ways.

Something went on that night and she was completely in the dark as to what it was.

Right on time, Dax came back to the apartment at nine o’clock, and although she smelled liquor on him, Ivy didn’t begrudge him needing the courage. He took a shower and she was ready by the time he emerged, dressed, from the bathroom.

Seeing him in a suit made her smile. ‘What are you smiling at?’ he asked as she put in his cufflinks for him.

‘You’re not usually so put together,’ she said. ‘Seeing you like this reminds me of Vegas.’

‘When we got married I was wearing jeans.’

‘Not then; the night we met,’ she said, finding his eyes. ‘You were dressed up that night, sitting in the corner of that couch, you kept looking at me.’

‘You were the one who couldn’t take your eyes off me, babygirl,’ he said, resting his fingers around her hips.

‘You weren’t like any of them,’ she murmured, stroking down his arms. ‘They were all drunk idiots, but you… I could tell that you didn’t want to be there. That your purpose wasn’t to get drunk and laid like Trystan’s.’

‘I used to babysit him all the time, parties like that were a normal affair for him.’

‘And how many other hotel employees did he violate?’

His intense gaze exuded a pain when she asked that question. ‘I was in deep. You were right when you said I was desensitised to what they had me doing. Trystan’s a jerk, and I promise you that you’ll never be in that position again. I won’t let any man harm you, I promise you, babygirl.’

‘I know,’ she said, levering up to kiss him then wiping the gloss residue from his lips.

At nine fifteen, a limo, sent by Mauri, pulled up outside their apartment. It remained parked outside until they went down about twenty minutes later. Neither said much in the back of the car, Dax poured her a flute of champagne, but he didn’t have anything to drink himself. He probably assumed she’d need some courage too, but she didn’t really want any alcohol, still, she sipped it throughout the trip.

By the time they drove through the open Stark gates, Ivy had finished about half of her drink, but she didn’t mind putting it aside when Dax took her hand and helped her out of the limo.

The mansion was as imposing as it had been the last time she was here. But with the glittering white lights around the driveway and marking the entrance, it did seem warmer than it had when she was imprisoned here. During that time, she hadn’t seen very much of the interior.

Once they were inside, she was given another glass of champagne in the entrance foyer, while Dax refused a drink. There were plenty of people milling around, but Dax didn’t wait to speak to anyone. Instead of being taken up the stairs, as she was the last time she was here, Dax took her down a corridor and into a grand double-storey space filled with people.

Women wore beautiful gowns and glittering jewels that drew her eye. These people wanted to be admired, they wanted to be respected and revered, but Ivy felt no sense of wonder.

Ensconcing themselves in a far corner, they separated themselves from everyone else. Ivy tightened her grip on Dax’s hand to get his attention. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

‘I want to go home.’

She wasn’t even sure where home was, she had started to think of her home as the man as opposed to any specific location. Dax had told her that they belonged next to each other, and that was right, but this was the enemy lair, so relaxing here was nigh on impossible.

‘We just have to stay long enough to be seen,’ Dax said.

Turning to observe the room behind them, his frown remained static. He kept her back to the wall to shelter her from the false smiles and handshakes which accompanied the string quartet in the opposite corner.

This was a crazy scenario, the Starks were crime bosses, meaning that everyone else in the room was either a criminal or turned a blind eye to the glaring fact that everything here was bought with dirty money. Did these people know how Maurice Stark made his fortune? Or did they believe that the companies built in the Stark name to launder drug money were legitimate?

Dax certainly didn’t seem interested in talking to anyone, and his permanent scowl didn’t speak of a comfortable man who was happy to be here. When his expression got even harder, she peeked around him to see that Trystan was striding over to them.

‘Shit,’ she said and gulped at the champagne.

‘You don’t have to say a word,’ Dax muttered into her hair and kissed her temple as he turned to face Trystan while placing a hand on the small of her back.

‘Well, hello!’ Trystan declared loud enough to draw attention to them. ‘It’s the happy couple, fancy that!’

‘What do you want?’ Dax hissed.

‘I came to offer my congratulations,’ Trystan said, snatching Dax’s hand from his side to shake it.

Dropping Dax’s hand, Trystan leaned in as if to kiss her cheek. Threatened by his proximity Ivy recoiled and gasped. Her reaction prompted Dax to grab Trystan’s lapels and pin him to the perpendicular wall.

Pressing his forearm across the width of Trystan’s chest, Dax got in his face. ‘You stay the fuck away from her,’ Dax hissed.

‘Oh, the jealous type,’ Trystan said. ‘I thought it worked out that we shared everything. Isn’t that how you ended up stealing her from me?’

Ivy didn’t budge from the wall where Dax had put her, but murmurs from around them caused her to peek beyond her husband. The mumbling party guests were catching glimpses of this unfolding display.

‘Dax,’ she whispered, stroking his upper arm.

‘Yeah,’ Trystan said. ‘Listen to your little woman, you’re causing a scene, you know how my father feels about that.’

Attention was what Trystan craved, so ignoring the others in the room, she gripped Dax’s elbow. ‘Why don’t you knock him out, maybe crack a few of those veneers, then we can go home?’ she said.

‘With pleasure,’ Dax said. But his fist didn’t have the chance to rise more than a couple of inches before Maurice materialised with a beautiful woman on his arm.

‘You boys will need to learn to get along,’ Mauri said. ‘Trystan go away from here, I have business with Dax and his wife.’

Dax twisted to shove Trystan back toward the party guests, but once he’d recovered from his stumble, Trystan walked backwards smoothing out his suit. ‘Guess you can’t teach class,’ Trystan said then widened his grin again to disappear into the throng.

‘I’m sorry about him,’ Mauri said to her. Being addressed directly caught Ivy off-guard and she wasn’t quite sure where to look. The only time they had spoken in the past, she had lied to him and pretended to be something that she wasn’t.

Dax returned to her side and flopped an arm around her to haul her body into his. No, he wasn’t particularly refined, but he did know how to put his mark on her, and Ivy loved that about him.

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

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

‘A gift?’ Dax said.

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

‘Ok,’ Dax said. ‘Show me.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter Ten

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

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

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

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

‘Not in the party mood?’

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

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

‘Excuse me, sir.’

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

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

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

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

‘I don’t give a fuck.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘You want to stay?’ Dax asked her.

‘Yes, she does,’ Mauri said.

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

‘Your wife is very beautiful.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘I’m expendable,’ Ivy said.

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

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

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

‘Then I might have said no.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘What is your offer?’ she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

‘We’ve made it this far,’ Ivy said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘You mentioned an offer,’ Ivy said.

Dax rested back on the couch, lifting one ankle to the opposite knee. Ivy twisted her body toward him to address Mauri and Brad and pressed her hands into his thigh. ‘You’re not interested in their offer,’ Dax said to her.

‘No, I’m not. But they said we had to hear it, then I could get my things and go. So the sooner we hear it…’

‘We want to offer you the chance of a vacation,’ Mauri said. ‘Two weeks in the California sun.’

‘Why would you want to—‘

‘We can afford our own vacation,’ Dax said.

‘We want you to spend two weeks at the beach house, with your relatives,’ Mauri said, glancing over at the silent women, Dax didn’t follow his eye line.

‘You want to facilitate some big reunion?’ Dax asked. ‘Sorry, we’re not interested.’

‘You have to be,’ Brad said.

‘If you do this, you’ll have the time to consider the offer that I made to you before,’ Mauri said. ‘Then if at the end of it you choose not to agree, we’ll provide you a million dollars, no strings attached.’

Dax didn’t like the way that Ivy shifted. He wanted to throw the offer back at Mauri without any hesitation. But the offer of money did bring clarity about why their relatives had come. ‘How much did you offer them?’ he asked, bobbing his head in the direction of the other two women. ‘That how you got them here?’

‘Financial incentive is effective,’ Maurice said.

‘What’s the point of this?’ Ivy asked. ‘What do you expect to happen?’

‘Family is important, I’ve always believed that, but it’s become more relevant to me recently. When I’m gone, Dax won’t have that parental figure in his life anymore. He and Brad have always tolerated each other, but we know what his relationship with Trystan is like. I don’t want him to be alone in the world.’

‘And you thought that bringing my relatives into it would tempt me to coerce him?’ Ivy asked. ‘I don’t have the influence over Dax that you think I do.’