Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (24 page)

Ivy ignored him and kept Rosie’s hand to lead her over to Dax and Serg. ‘Is this normal behaviour?’ Ivy asked. ‘For Mauri to intervene like this.’

‘No,’ Dax said. ‘Never heard of it.’

‘You’ve never heard of it because you were his check on the jerk,’ Serg said. ‘Mauri didn’t have to police him when he had you doing it for him.’

That made sense to Ivy. Dax put an arm around her, holding her body into his. She felt like an anchor though she was unsure about what he was trying to hold onto – his anger or his restraint.

‘Get him dressed,’ Serg said to his men who dragged Trystan into the bedroom.

Being told what to do was Trystan’s worst nightmare, and although he swore out his objections to how he was being manhandled, he did little to fight the men. That behaviour exhibited his true colours, he’d get physical with a woman who he could overpower, but with men who were stronger and meaner, his true cowardice flourished.

Dax’s phone rang, he let her go and walked to the window to speak to whoever was on the other end.

‘I want to get going,’ Rosie said to Ivy.

‘We’ll wait for Dax,’ Ivy said. With Serg showing up to cart Trystan off, they didn’t have to worry about travelling separately. Ivy had the car keys, but wouldn’t use them until she had her husband at her side.

‘I’m going to check on Trystan,’ Serg said and left them to go into the bedroom.

‘He’s a giant,’ Rosie muttered, watching Serg go. ‘Do you think he’s giant everywhere?’

Drawing her eyes to her curious sister, Ivy laughed. ‘Have you not learned your lesson about strange men? And they don’t come much stranger than him.’

‘Stranger than who?’ Dax came back to them, putting his phone in his pocket. Ivy raised the keys and dropped them into his hand.

‘Who was on the phone?’ Ivy asked.

‘Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘He wants us back at the mansion too.’

‘He snapped his fingers and thinks that we’ll jump? What did you tell him?’

‘That we were in Vegas and Serg had shown up to take Trystan home. We have to go back to California anyway, so I told him we’d stop at the mansion.’

‘We don’t have to go back, why do we have to go back?’ Ivy asked.

‘Because he says he has your things from Kay’s place and until we find out who is behind the bounty and put a stop to it, you’re in danger. I want this over before we go back home. Do you want to put our friends in danger?’

Appealing to her about their friends’ safety was purely for her benefit. Dax would sacrifice anyone, all of their friends and acquaintances, before he would let anyone harm a hair on her head.

‘Ok,’ she said, taking his hand and turning to Rosie. ‘We’ll give you some money, enough to get you wherever you want to go. I guess you’re free now.’

‘No,’ Rosie said. ‘I want to come back with you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I want to know that you’ll be safe,’ Rosie said. ‘You came all the way out here to protect me when it could have cost you your life. Please, Ivy, let me see how this plays out.’

‘Ok,’ Ivy exhaled and glanced at Dax. ‘Let’s go back to California.’

Dax now had responsibility for two women, but it didn’t seem to perturb him. Ivy knew that he’d rather have her and Rosie to worry about than deal with his mother again. So at Mauri’s command, they headed out of the suite and down to the car in the GoldSpring parking lot.

It had been their intention to go back to the beach house anyway. It was impolite to use Mauri for his safe haven and then refuse to look him in the eye. Ivy tightened her grip on Dax’s hand at the thought of going back there, not because she was fearful of her safety, but because she feared what Mauri would ask of him this time.

‘Every time we drive up to this place I feel sick,’ Ivy admitted, watching the Stark mansion expand in her view as they drove closer. Rosie leaned between the two front seats from her position in the back to see the house that Ivy was sneering at.

‘I don’t know why. You’ve never been harmed here, have you?’ Dax asked.

‘Never been harmed here?’ Ivy said. Her head snapped to the side, taking the mansion out of her view and bringing her husband front and centre. ‘Are you crazy? The first time you brought me here, you spanked me in the driveway in full view of the house.’

‘You tried to run from me, and it worked, didn’t it? You’ve never run away from me again.’

‘Except those seven weeks you spent chasing me across the country, are we forgetting about that?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, bringing the car to a stop parallel to the front portico. ‘We are.’ He turned off the engine and gave her the car keys again.

‘Why do I need them this time?’ she asked but put them into her purse.

‘I don’t know what Mauri wants, and you’ll feel better if you have an escape route.’

‘I’ll feel better or you will?’ Ivy asked him.

Twisting, he blocked Rosie out by resting his elbow on the shoulder of Ivy’s chair, which forced Rosie to return to her slouched position in the backseat. The back of his fingers met Ivy’s temple and he stroked his thumb down her eye socket to her cheekbone. ‘You really don’t want to go in there?’

‘I hate what they do to you,’ Ivy said. ‘I don’t want you going in there. I don’t want either of us to be here. I would rather be at home, thousands of miles from here, with this in our past.’

‘We can’t run away now. If we do, then the trouble will follow us.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘But that doesn’t make me any happier about this.’

‘We hear what Mauri has to say and then we split,’ Dax said.

‘So we can keep the spankings private?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, leaning over the centre console to kiss her. ‘You ready?’

‘To play the little woman again, yeah, ready as I’m ever going to be.’ He kissed her again, then fled the car, and Ivy turned to address Rosie. ‘Keep your mouth shut in there. Mauri prefers to be the one doing the talking.’

‘I know it,’ Rosie said. ‘He gave Carina and me money just to keep quiet on the night of the party.’

Bribery obviously worked, because the two women had been silent even as Ivy had been threatened. Her door opened, and she flipped around to see Dax waiting for her.

‘Hurry up,’ Dax said. ‘Stop yapping.’

‘I am not yapping,’ she said, getting out of the car in time with Rosie.

Dax snatched Ivy’s hand, so she snatched Rosie’s, she wasn’t going to leave her sister here alone. Trystan would be home by now, and Ivy doubted that he was pleased about what had gone down in Vegas.

Security didn’t blink when Dax brought these two women into the mansion, so Ivy supposed their arrival had been anticipated. This was Mauri’s home turf, and he’d had time to prepare for his guests. Despite the fact he’d never raised a hand to her himself, Ivy knew what Mauri was capable of, she didn’t trust him and she never would.

The route Dax took them on through the house wasn’t one Ivy had been on before. She had been downstairs at the party and in a couple of bedrooms, as well as in Mauri’s office. This time they went up to the third floor and along a deep red carpet to a set of double doors with gold inlay and matching handles. Dax knocked and then stepped away.

‘Where are we?’ Ivy asked.

‘This is Mauri’s private suite of rooms,’ Dax said. ‘Usually he doesn’t see people up here. When I was growing up, this part of the house was off-limits unless you were personally escorted. Since we’ve been back in LA this time Mauri has seen me in here several times.’

‘He’s keeping to his room,’ Ivy said. It was so easy to forget that Mauri was dying and didn’t have the strength that he’d wielded once upon a time. Regardless, Ivy didn’t plan to underestimate him.

‘I think he’s getting weaker, he looked tired the last time I saw him here,’ Dax said.

Her husband wasn’t a guy who gave away a lot of insider information about his thoughts and feelings. But she could tell by his averted gaze that losing the man he’d considered a father for many years was taxing. Bringing her body into his side, she rested her head on his shoulder. Comfort wasn’t an easy thing to give while they were in enemy territory, but she offered it nonetheless.

The door that Dax had knocked on opened and Serg came into the hall. ‘Go on in,’ Serg said.

‘Tryst give you any trouble?’ Dax asked him.

‘Yeah, but it’s what he’s good at, right?’ Serg said.

‘Is he in there?’ Ivy asked before Serg could leave.

‘They’re talking in the bedroom.’ The giant blocked out the females to get back to business with Dax. ‘I’ll follow up on that thing we were investigating.’

‘Thanks,’ Dax said and then Serg walked off.

‘What thing?’ Ivy asked.

‘Later.’

This was all Dax said because he was already leading her and Rosie into the drawing room, which was currently empty. An unlit fireplace was the focus of the room and the large portrait above it appeared to be of Mauri, nothing like a narcissist to decorate a room. It seemed more likely that Mauri was Trystan’s father as they both shared that trait.

Two armchairs to the left of the fireplace had a small table between them. There was a couch opposite the fireplace, and it was here that Dax took her and sat her down.

‘Stay here,’ Dax said and pushed Rosie’s shoulders so that she sat down as well.

‘Where are you going?’ Ivy asked, watching Dax cross past the two armchairs.

‘To the bedroom, I’ll be back.’

He knocked again on a different door this time but didn’t wait for a reply, he just went straight in and closed the door behind himself. Ivy and Rosie sat quietly until Rosie spoke.

‘Do you think that Trystan will be pissed off?’

Ivy couldn’t care less about Trystan’s mood. ‘Why do you ask?’ Ivy asked her sister.

‘I don’t want a guy like that annoyed at me, what if he comes after me?’

Ivy wanted to tell her sister that she should’ve thought of that before running away with Trystan, but she figured that she’d given Rosie enough grief about that choice already, at least for today.

‘Trystan isn’t a fan of hard work,’ Ivy said. ‘Without Dax and other minions around to do his work for him, he shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Dax is on our side, we’ll be fine.’

But Ivy knew that Trystan could hold a grudge and that when he did the consequences could be grave. Scaring Rosie wouldn’t get them anywhere, but Ivy would be talking to her husband about Trystan’s reaction to what happened in Vegas.

Rosie, Dax, and Ivy hadn’t had time to disrespect Trystan in Vegas, Mauri had got there first by having his henchmen burst in to drag Trystan home. Trystan wouldn’t go after his father. For one thing, Mauri would squish him like a bug if he tried. Father provided son with the money to go gallivanting around to suit himself and Trystan wouldn’t risk losing that income.

‘Dax is on your side,’ Rosie said. ‘I’m not going to be following you guys around forever.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she said, taking her sister’s hand. ‘We’ll talk to Dax later and see what he says about it. He knows Trystan better than I do.’

Dax had been the one to warn Ivy about Trystan’s tendency to hold a grudge. He’d been working for Mauri back then, so at the time his words were more of a threat than advice meant to protect.

The door that Dax had exited by opened. Ivy sprang to her feet when Trystan came in with Mauri in his wake. Much to her relief, Dax wasn’t too far behind but he looked more pissed than ever.

‘Hello, ladies,’ Mauri said, nudging Trystan along to stand in front of the fireplace. The two of them stood together, father smiled while son kept his head bowed. ‘I apologise for what has transpired over the last day or two. Trystan has something to say to you both.’

It took him a minute and a grumble, but he raised his chin an inch to speak. ‘I apologise for my behaviour.’

‘And to Rosie?’ Mauri asked.

Throwing daggers through his eyes, Trystan glared at his father, but eventually exhaled to concede. ‘I shouldn’t have taken you to Vegas.’

‘I went willingly,’ Rosie said. ‘I thought that we were… that there was something between us.’

Trystan exhaled such a callous scoffing sound that Ivy glanced to Dax, ready to sic him on the disrespectful bastard. ‘You were easy, Rosie, that’s all I wanted. I spouted off a few cheesy lines, and you fell for them, talk about desperate. I don’t know you, and I definitely don’t care about a cheap piece of trash like you. You were a way to piss off your sister and that bastard over there. I used you, and you made it easy for me. The sex was just a bonus, though it was hardly worth the effort from what I can remember of it.

‘They treated me like shit, so I gave it right back. Except even when I treated you like shit, you still lapped it up. I don’t give a fuck about you, and I never did, never would. Why would a guy like me want anything to do with a tramp without class?’

‘Trystan,’ Mauri warned. ‘That is an unacceptable way to talk to a lady.’

‘What? I’m just being honest. She’s no lady. You wanted me to stand here and apologise, fine, I did it. But that doesn’t change the fact that Dax and his bitch were the ones in the wrong.’

‘We were in the wrong?’ Ivy said, her urge to lash out overpowered her. ‘You are a twisted bastard who tried to rape me, you attacked me, not the other way around. You’re insensitive and unfeeling; a selfish prick who thinks of nothing but himself. All of you, you were all wrong! Trystan, Mauri, Bruno, all of you! You hurt me, your friend, Bruno, beat me! You locked me up in that beach house for weeks like a zoo animal because I fought you! Because I said no, you thought that you could treat me like—‘

Dax was at her side, pulling her away from the others. Ivy tried to twist her arm out of his grip, but he kept hold of her and dragged her to the far side of the room. ‘Keep your mouth shut,’ he growled from the back of his throat. ‘This is not the time to—‘

‘It will never be the time,’ she hissed, jerking herself free of him. But he snatched her waist and propelled her back to the wall. With an arm resting beside her face, he used the other to hold her in place by pressing it along her diaphragm.

‘Listen to me, Minx. You won’t get justice here. At the push of a button, Mauri can have a dozen guys in this room. You don’t want me to be fighting my way through them while you and your sister are up here. There’s no quick way out and while I’m occupied you’re exposed.’

‘Fine,’ she said, pushing his arm off her body. ‘I’ll be quiet.’

‘Good,’ he said.

When he began to turn away, she grabbed his face and hauled him close to force his mouth down to hers. Sticking her tongue into his mouth, she used his return caress as a way to get out some of the anger that she wanted to aim at Trystan and Mauri. Arguing with the Starks might be crazy, Dax was right about that, and Ivy didn’t want her husband to be hurt just because she had to state her case. But pushing more of herself into this kiss, she reminded him of the future they had, because she didn’t want his past to try and steal him back.

Pulling away, Ivy gasped in a breath and smiled at his confusion. ‘I told you that they couldn’t have you. Don’t forget who you belong to.’

‘Like I could,’ he murmured.

He tossed an arm around her shoulders and yanked her into his side, the more relaxed pose set her at ease. His frown was still there, but he was showing them that he was proud to be owned by her and that lessened her need to rebel against the men standing on the hearth rug.

‘Trystan apologises for his behaviour throughout all of this,’ Mauri said when she and Dax came to stand beside where Rosie sat. ‘There have been trials faced by all of us over the last year and Ivy, I am sorry that many of the experiences you have had with the family have been negative. You are right. You were treated poorly.’

That was an understatement, but Ivy had told Dax that she would be quiet and so she would. ‘Why did you need us here now?’ Dax asked Mauri.

‘Trystan, leave us now,’ Mauri said.

The still huffing Trystan stormed out of the room, probably relieved that he wouldn’t have to uphold the contrite façade anymore. Trystan didn’t know how to be apologetic, he felt no contrition because to do that he would have to first feel humility and compassion, neither of which were in his repertoire.

‘Rosie, I apologise to you too, for my son’s actions and for his disrespect,’ Mauri said.

Rosie had been very quiet since Trystan’s outburst. ‘I’m going to get out of here,’ Rosie said, getting to her feet.

‘Rosie,’ Ivy said, trying to console her sister by taking her arm. ‘I’m sorry that you’ve been through all of this.’

‘No, it’s my fault, Trystan was right, and you were too. I shouldn’t… I should never have come here. These people have been horrible to you and it’s not safe. I’m going to leave but call me and let me know that you’re ok.’