Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (21 page)

Saul thought about this for a second then lifted his hand and growled out loud. ‘Ok, fine, damn you, stay if you want… Let me go and talk to Brittany.’

‘Ok. I’ll get his mom.’

She turned, but Saul snatched her shoulder to pull her back. ‘Whose mom?’

‘Dax’s,’ she said. ‘It’s a long story and not important right now.’

‘You want to move in here with your mother-in-law?’

‘I’m not moving in, don’t be dramatic. We just need somewhere to freshen up and make phone calls. It would be great to sleep for a couple of hours too. But the sooner I find out where Rosie is, the sooner we can get out of here.’

‘The sooner, the better,’ he said. ‘And don’t accuse me of being dramatic, you’re a fucking wanted woman, I’m one step away from harbouring a fugitive.’

‘Don’t be stupid, the cops aren’t looking for me.’

Saul folded his arms. ‘Yeah? So this bounty, someone wants you dead, right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Is it a big bounty?’

‘Half a mill.’

Saul whistled. ‘So every gangster and his bitch are going to be looking for you… I’d rather hide you from the cops.’

‘They won’t look here. I’m wanted in LA.’

‘Yeah, ‘cause that’s a million miles away.’

‘Go and talk to your woman and then call the GoldSpring for me, find out if they have a reservation for Stark.’

‘I’m playing secretary again?’ he asked.

‘Not so much fun when someone else is calling the shots, is it?’ she asked and spun around to get Carina from the car.

Saul was being nice, and he didn’t have to be. He could’ve kicked them out, though what she had said about Dax was true. If she got hurt in an unsafe place because Saul hadn’t offered a sanctuary, then Dax would visit his wrath on the nearest person and her husband was just looking for an excuse to beat on Saul anyway.

After retrieving Carina from the car, Ivy took her into the spare bedroom and set her up in the adjoining shower room. While Carina was busy freshening up, Ivy sat on the bed and opened the first message on her phone.

I’m thinking about collecting the bounty myself. Are you fucking insane? Where are you?

Someone had to have told Dax that the cars had left the beach house. Either he was told by phone while he was investigating in LA, or he showed up at the beach house and got the skinny when he discovered that the place was empty.

Much as Ivy knew he’d be mad no matter how he found out, she hoped he’d been called in LA. If he’d gotten all the way to the beach house before he was told it would be worse for everyone involved. He would already be tired and hoping to slip into bed with his willing wife, so finding out that everyone had fled would have riled him.

She was holding her breath when she opened the second text.

Vegas. Again? On my way.

So what she had said to Saul had been right on the money: Dax was on his way, and he was pissed. She fired off a quick message to tell Dax where she was; he’d been to Saul’s before so he knew the route to get here. Holding her phone, Ivy waited for it to ring, Dax wouldn’t be happy that she was hanging out with an ex-boyfriend.

The timestamp on Dax’s second message was two hours ago, meaning he was probably still a couple of hours away if he was driving. Through the wall, Ivy could hear the muffled voices of Saul and Brittany. Ivy decided that if her cell phone hadn’t rung, she’d give the couple another two minutes then she would go through and apologise to Brittany, hopefully distracting her for long enough to let Saul make the phone call that Ivy needed him to make.

If Saul confirmed that Trystan and Rosie were at the GoldSpring then Ivy could ride over there and persuade her sister to come back with her, meaning that by the time Dax arrived the problem would be resolved, and they could all go back to LA as one happy family.

As Ivy predicted, her cell phone began to buzz in her hand, and she widened her smile before she picked up.

‘Hey, sexy man, how are you?’ Squeezing her eyes shut, Ivy braced herself for his reaction.

‘You know I could do a lot with half a million dollars,’ Dax said. ‘Maybe I’ll kill you myself and pick up the bounty, then I could find myself a nice easy woman who’d be happy to stay chained to my radiator for the rest of her life.’

‘You’re a true romantic at heart, Dax,’ she said.

‘I can’t fucking believe that you did this. I told you that you wouldn’t be safe in Vegas.’

‘We don’t know that. I came to Saul’s because no one will look for me here. We’ve figured out that whoever put up the bounty knows me through you, through the fighting circuit, so there’s no way that they’ll know anything about Saul.’

‘He’s an ex, all they have to do is ask a few questions and—‘

‘We had to come. I couldn’t leave Rosie here with Trystan, you know what he’s like…’ Ivy got up and wandered to the bedroom window, which looked out on Saul’s pool and shed. ‘Who told you we’d left?’

‘I was at Mauri’s when he got a call that security at the beach house had been left stranded. Someone had to go pick them up because someone else stole their car. That was when they said Trystan had come to the beach house and taken off with one of the women.’

‘You know what he’s like, Rosie was already drunk, and now he’s brought her here to Vegas. If he asks her to take drugs… I don’t want her to get mixed up in that again, he’ll drop her as soon as he’s bored.’ Ivy lowered her voice. ‘Rosie only came here, only met Trystan because of us. God only knows what he’ll do to her, she’ll have sex with him, Dax, and he’s never struck me as the missionary position type.’

‘I get why you’re worried,’ Dax said. ‘Why didn’t you call me?’

‘You’re already dealing with one drama,’ she said. ‘I knew you would tell me not to follow her, but this is my sister, Dax. I can’t leave her to a guy like Trystan, I had to act. You don’t have to come out here to Vegas, I appreciate that you’re on your way, but I can handle this. You stay in LA and—‘

‘And what? Track down the person who wants to kill you?’ Dax asked. ‘Keeping you safe is the priority, remember? I could only be sure that you were safe at the beach house because security was there keeping an eye on you. But you ditched them and took off, again! Not every mess can be fixed, and I’m sorry, but your sister getting fucked up because she screwed the wrong guy is not my problem, you are my problem.’

She smiled and returned to the bed. ‘You’ve told me that before.’

‘And nothing has changed,’ he said. ‘I am coming there, to you, stay where you are, don’t go outside—‘

‘But Trystan—‘

‘Is a problem that I will take care of because you’ve forced my hand, understand? You can’t go to The Strip, you can’t hang out in bars and clubs looking for them. Someone will see you, and you’re more recognisable there because you lived there, people in Vegas know you. All it takes is for one person to say your name and you’ll have every criminal in the state parked on Saul’s front lawn, get me?’

‘I know you’re worried about me, but you’re overreacting, I know that I’ll be safe here—‘

‘Ok. Fine. If you think you’re safe at Saul’s, then stay at Saul’s until I get there. I’ll come and check on you, get the story and then I’ll go after Trystan. What are you planning to do with him anyway? Do you think that he’ll just hand over your sister and admit defeat?’

‘What if she says no to him?’

‘You just told me that she wouldn’t,’ Dax said. ‘She’s a party girl, so she and Trystan are a perfect match. She’ll be fine until I get there. I’ll go to the GoldSpring and find her then I’ll bring her back to you. After that, I’ll be driving you back to the beach house and if I have to crack open the cell in the basement to keep you there, Minx, I will fucking do it.’

His worry might be understandable, but that wasn’t a threat that she took kindly. ‘Don’t even joke about that, Dax. I’m sorry that I upset you, but… that’s not funny.’

‘I wasn’t joking,’ he said. ‘I don’t give a damn about your memories or about your fears. If I have to do it to keep you safe, to trust you to be safe, then I will do it, and I don’t care how loud you scream. You’re my wife, and it’s my responsibility to ensure your safety. No matter what lengths I have to go to, I will keep you safe, Minx.’

Pushing up from the bed, she rolled her lips and tried to calm her seething, but it was no use. ‘You fucking jerk, you would, wouldn’t you? You would let me rot down there.’

‘No, I’ll come back for you when I’ve taken care of the threat. But it’s the only place I know where there are chains attached to the concrete foundations.’

‘I won’t go, I won’t go back there if—‘

‘If you go to Trystan now alone, he’ll bait you. He’ll ask you inside and rile you, he’ll take pleasure in seeing you upset. He’ll ask you to have a drink, you’ll say no, but he’ll make you a deal, you drink, and he’ll send Rosie home with you.’

‘Fine, then I’ll have a drink.’

His laugh startled her. ‘That’s what he wants, then it’ll be “have another drink, take a line of coke, take off your shirt, dance,” where do you stop? You gonna get naked for him? Kiss him? Suck him off?’

‘Stop it,’ she hissed. ‘I won’t do any of that. I can’t stand the guy. I wouldn’t be able to touch him or—‘

‘Then he’ll force you, you’ve seen it before. You’ve fought him off once.’

‘And I’ll do it again if I have to, Dax,’ she said.

Angry as she was, she knew that facing Trystan would be difficult for her, and she wouldn’t hold up well if Trystan tried to ruffle her. Having Dax at her side was the only way to be sure that she would come out of the scenario intact and unviolated.

‘I don’t know what drugs he has, he could have anything,’ Dax said. ‘If he injects you with something then he could do whatever the fuck he wanted with you while you were unconscious. Do you want that?’

‘No,’ she whispered.

‘For all I know he’ll kill you and collect the bounty for kicks, you don’t know him like I do, Minx. Please, just wait there, and I will deal with Trystan.’

‘And if he hurts you?’

‘I’ve been looking for an excuse to kill the guy for a long time, maybe today he’ll give it to me.’

‘I don’t want you to kill anyone,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait here, and then we’ll go over there together.’

‘Wait there,’ he said. ‘That’s what I want you to do.’

Whether or not they went over there together was a fight they’d reserve for when he was here. For now, Ivy had given him what he wanted, and they would both have time to recharge their batteries and rethink their arguments before they were together again.

‘Drive safe,’ she said, worrying that Dax on the road in a rage might not end well. ‘I’ll be here, at Saul’s, I won’t go anywhere, I promise.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘Try not to get into any more trouble.’

‘I’ll try my best.’

They hung up, and Ivy returned her phone to her purse. She wouldn’t go looking for trouble, but for some reason it always managed to find her.

Although she hadn’t intended to, Ivy had fallen asleep on the bed in the second bedroom after she’d enjoyed her shower. A hand pushed her bare shoulder, she moaned in protest, but it kept on shaking her.

‘Dax,’ she said, throwing out an arm to toss aside the one prodding at her. She blinked up at the person sitting on the edge of the bed to see that although she’d still been asleep her subconscious had guessed right.

‘What the fuck do I do with you?’ Dax asked, but didn’t expect an answer. Whipping her towel out from beneath her, he stood up to throw it aside, then pushed her onto her back. ‘I know you like to challenge me, but for fuck sake, Minx.’

‘Can I have my towel back?’ she asked, stretching. ‘Anyone could walk in here.’

‘Saul told me that Carina went for a walk, and he’s tied up with the piece of ass he picked up last night. So that gives me some time to teach you a lesson.’

Digging a hand under her shoulder, he rolled her onto her front and smacked her ass. ‘Come on, Dax we don’t have time for this.’ Much as she complained, it was nice to be together again. The sting of his hand on her ass warmed more than just the flesh he’d touched.

Climbing onto the bed, he knelt over her thighs and rested his weight on her. Despite her trying to hit him, he got hold of her wrists in one of his hands and held her imprisoned hands against the small of her back. Leaning down, he swept her hair away and licked the back of her neck, around to her ear, where he whispered to her.

‘We have all the time I say we do, Minx. You ran away from me, again, came here to this place and put yourself in danger. You want to be hurt, you want to be punished, it’s the only way I can figure it.’

Sitting up on her thighs, he spanked her again, then rubbed his flat palm up and over the globes of her ass. Pushing her still locked wrists higher, he smacked the other cheek then leaned down again, urging the thick length of his erection, which was still enclosed in denim, into the mounds he was punishing.

‘I came to help my sister,’ she said, biting into the pillow to try and stop herself from whimpering out the pleasure it gave her to be dominated by the man she loved. ‘You would’ve done the same thing.’

‘The only thing I care about is you,’ he snarled and smacked her one more time.

Rising on his knees, Dax released her wrists and flipped her over, while keeping her inside the triangle formed by his thighs and the mattress. ‘I’m safe. You can see me, there’s nothing wrong with me. Nothing happened to me.’

‘It’s about to,’ he said, throwing off his tee-shirt, he unbuckled his jeans and took himself out of his underwear. ‘You think that you can lie around naked in other men’s houses and I’ll just let it slide?’

‘I fell asleep after my shower, it’s been a long night.’

‘No more excuses,’ he said.

Still holding himself, he showed her two fingers then lowered them to her crotch. Massaging her clit as he passed it, Dax parted her lips and eased his fingers into her. There was no hiding her enjoyment now, it was coating the digits that he worked in and out of her.

‘We don’t…’ she exhaled. ‘We don’t have time for this.’

Bowing down, he caught her lower lip between his teeth then licked her upper lip before he delved his tongue into her mouth and kissed her. Their breathing was loud, each desperate breath was needed to maintain the fervour of this joining.

Her hands caressed his body, working their way around to his ass, which was still half in his jeans. He hadn’t gotten naked, but already he was pressing the head of his dick into her. Widening her legs, Ivy elevated her hips, begging him to move into her, to fill her now.

Just when she was giving up hope and believing that he wanted to tease her, he eased himself inside, and she smiled at him, touching her fingertips to his lips. His lips parted, and he caught one of her fingers in his teeth. He bit her with just enough force to be uncomfortable, but he didn’t break the skin, then he opened to free her fingers and concentrated on pumping his dick in and out of her pussy.

A quick fuck was all they had time for, and he was on his way to climax already, bringing her along with him.

‘Yes, Dax,’ Ivy gasped out. ‘Oh, yeah.’

This wasn’t their house, and they weren’t alone, but Dax wasn’t asking her to be quiet, and she had no intention of subduing herself. With her eyes locked to his, Ivy matched his thrusts, his depth massaged each secret crevice within her sending flames licking up through her womb, to her abdomen and into her heart.

A steady moan pulsed out of her as he took her closer, then just when she was on the edge of the precipice, he kissed her, swallowing the cries of orgasm she released into him. With a few more thrusts, he was right there with her, finishing himself and filling her with his precious nectar.

While she was still glowing and twitching through the aftershocks of orgasm, he rolled off her and flopped down onto his back beside her. ‘They’re at the GoldSpring,’ Dax panted. ‘I called before I got here. They’re not in their suite now, so I’ll have to keep trying. You’re staying here until I’ve got Rosie, and then I’ll take you both back.’

‘She won’t go with you,’ Ivy said, rolling to her side and supporting her head with her hand. ‘She doesn’t know you. Trystan won’t let you take her either. He’ll have plenty of snide jokes about you stealing another of his women.’

‘I don’t care about his jokes and Rosie will come with me, if I have to pick her up and carry her then she’ll fucking come with me.’

‘If you let me come with you then I can deal with Rosie while you keep Trystan at bay. We do make a good team, you know.’

‘You’re forgetting about this stupid bounty. I don’t want you out there because I don’t want you to get hurt.’

‘Word won’t be out here yet,’ she said, stroking her fingertips up and down his sternum. ‘It will be quicker if you let me come. You will draw attention to yourself if you take Rosie against her will. We can be in and out by tonight if we work together.’

‘You’re so sure that Rosie will come with you?’ Dax asked.

‘You can get us a room so that we have a key-card. If we take a car and park in the hotel parking lot, then we can take an elevator straight to their floor. Who will we come across in a hotel corridor? More than that, who would know to look for me there? No one in Vegas will have heard about the bounty yet. You said yourself that word takes time to get around.’

They were dealing with this drama caused by her sister and Trystan Stark, then they would have to go back to LA to deal with the bounty and with Maurice Stark. Ivy wondered when she’d have the time to talk to Dax about what Carina had told her. She would have to, but now didn’t seem like the time to bring up his mother and her history.

‘Fine. I’ll keep calling the hotel, and as soon as we know they’re there I’ll set up a meeting with Trystan.’

‘If they know that we’re coming, won’t they run away?’

Dax exhaled and raised his arm to put it over her head and around her shoulders, bringing her body onto his. ‘You’re missing the point. Trystan only went after Rosie because she was easy pickings and because he knew it would rile us. He’ll agree to a meeting. He’ll want to see us running after him and begging him for a favour. This is the kind of thing that Trystan does to amuse himself.’

‘He still hasn’t gotten over his grudge, has he?’

‘Doesn’t look like it,’ Dax said. ‘But don’t worry, we won’t have to deal with him ever again after this. I can talk to Mauri, he might send Trystan on a forced vacation of his own.’

Resting her head on his chest, Ivy enjoyed this moment that they had together; they were few and far between these days. She didn’t think that Mauri would be sending Trystan anywhere, not while he was sick and could go at any time. But she had to admit that the idea of Trystan taking a long walk certainly sounded like a good idea to her.

Ivy came out of the bedroom and closed the door. She had come to Saul’s place and brought Carina with her, yet she’d spent all afternoon in bed with her husband, and that wasn’t exactly polite of her. Making the effort to be social, she entered the living room and saw Carina was reading while Saul was seated on a second couch watching sports on TV. When Ivy came in, both of them stopped to make her their focus.

‘Where’s Dax?’ Carina asked, slipping a bookmark into her book.

‘Asleep,’ Ivy said. ‘I’ll wake him up soon.’

‘Glad everyone’s so comfortable,’ Saul muttered and switched off the TV.

‘Where’s Brittany? Do you want me to explain that—‘

‘That what?’ he asked. ‘That my ex-girlfriend showed up to track down her sister with her mother-in-law in tow? That my ex-girlfriend’s husband came to protect her against the bounty hunters but they ended up screwing in my second bedroom instead?’

Wincing against the obvious annoyance in Saul’s voice, she crossed to sit on the couch with him. ‘In his defence, Dax was still protecting me while we were having sex.’

‘And I can’t say a goddamn word that might upset you or scare you away ‘cause there’s a good chance your husband will kill me in my sleep if I do,’ Saul hissed.

‘Dax wouldn’t kill you while you slept, that’s like shooting a man in the back, it’s not sportsmanlike.’

‘I’m reassured,’ he said.

‘We appreciate this,’ Ivy said, reaching over to take one of his hands onto her knee. ‘And look on the bright side, you’re making a new friend. Having a guy like the Ravager on your side could prove to be advantageous.’

‘The Ravager?’ Carina asked, drawing their attention.

‘It’s the name Dax fights under,’ Ivy said.

‘He’s a pro on the underground fighting circuit. My ex-girlfriend married a man who knows a hundred ways to kill a man without making a sound.’

Carina didn’t exactly smile, but her eyes lit in amusement. Poor Saul was flabbergasted, but he could only accept his fate as it stood, because they needed him. ‘We’ll only be here a little while longer. Now that Dax is here, he’ll keep Trystan occupied while I talk to Rosie. I promise, we’ll be gone by tonight. Brittany will appreciate a man who treats women right, she wouldn’t like it much if you just tossed us out onto the street.’

‘I think she’d have liked that just fine,’ Saul said.

‘You didn’t even know her name this morning, it’s not as if I upset your great love.’

‘Maybe, we’ll never know now, will we?’ he asked then yawned, but it disappeared from his face when Dax walked in and made eye contact with her.

‘Time to go,’ Dax said.

‘Already?’ Ivy asked, leaping up off the couch and throwing Saul’s hand back to his lap. ‘How do you know that—‘

‘Trystan called, he wants to meet.’

‘You were right,’ Ivy sighed.

‘Right about what?’ Carina asked.

Dax didn’t acknowledge her, he wandered off in the direction of the kitchen, so Ivy answered. ‘Dax said that Trystan would want to show off, that he would want to invite us to the suite just to try and rile us.’

‘Brad is such a pleasant man,’ Carina said. ‘I can’t understand how Trystan turned out to be so obnoxious.’

‘He’s had a lot of practise,’ Ivy said, and Dax came back to the group.

‘Come on.’

‘What shall we do with Carina?’ Ivy asked, causing him to halt in the doorway.

‘She can stay here,’ Dax said as though Carina wasn’t in the room.

‘But if we’re taking Rosie home, we’re not going to come back here, are we?’

‘Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you brought her here where she doesn’t belong,’ Dax said.

‘It wasn’t like I had a lot of time to consider my options. I had to move fast.’

‘She’s taken care of herself for years, she’ll figure out how to get home.’

He disappeared from the room and the front door closed, signalling that he’d left the building.

‘What a sweetheart, no wonder you fell in love with him,’ Saul said, but Ivy ignored him.

‘Carina, you stay here. I’ll talk to Dax and—‘

‘He won’t let me in, will he?’ Carina asked.

‘Now isn’t the time to talk about this,’ Ivy said. ‘I need… time.’

She didn’t like to be rude to anyone, but this wasn’t the time to worry about Dax and Carina’s relationship. If she was honest with herself, Ivy still hadn’t figured out how she felt about Carina. She wasn’t yet sure if she wanted to use her influence over Dax to encourage him into a relationship that he didn’t want when Carina might be bad news.

Sure, she came across as quite sweet and innocent, but the woman had walked away from her child when he was still an infant in need of a mother. Carina hadn’t come back or followed up to see how Dax was. Anything could have happened to her son and what did happen to him wasn’t at all pleasant.

Realising that she hadn’t yet forgiven Carina for what she had done to Dax, Ivy left Saul’s house alone. Going into the thick heat of the desert, she crossed the drive to reach the car she’d driven here.

Dax was in a different vehicle parked behind hers. Though he was wearing his shades, he still managed to glower at her, and she glowered right back. Opening the trunk of her car, she unzipped the suitcase and pulled some bills from the wad of cash still nestled in her clothes. Ivy was heading back into the house when she heard Dax exit his car.