Fighting Back (Harrow #2) (25 page)

‘I will,’ Ivy said, giving her sister a hug. ‘If you want to wait in the car, Dax and I will—‘

‘No,’ Rosie said, shaking her head and curling her fingers around her purse. ‘I can find my way home.’

Rosie didn’t have to be treated like a child, so Ivy let her go. For all the years that they hadn’t seen or heard from each other, Ivy had assumed that her sister was savvy and could take care of herself. The sad thing she had learned today was that Rosie struggled with her self-respect.

Making herself into whatever her man of the moment wanted her to be took its toll on the once beautiful and vibrant woman. After this was over, Ivy would take the time to reconnect with her sister because Rosie needed to be reminded that she was a worthwhile person who had several wonderful qualities.

Now with Rosie and Trystan gone from the room, Mauri went to the armchair closest to the fireplace and sat down. She had first met him just a few months ago, and while he didn’t exactly look feeble today, he did have a less imposing stature and that was as much to do with his attitude as his build.

‘These events have upset everything,’ Mauri said. ‘I wanted you to come back to California to embrace your role in the family, Dax. Having you at the helm is the best way to ensure that the family name remains respected. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing reintegrating you into the family.’

Dax still had his arm around Ivy, and he guided her down to sit on the couch she had previously occupied with Rosie. ‘You said that you had Ivy’s things,’ Dax said.

She might have expected him to leap straight onto what Mauri had said and disclose what the marital couple had discussed about Dax not taking up a role in the Stark business. Instead, he had asked about her things, which told Ivy that he wanted to be sure they had everything before he pissed off Mauri again.

‘Yes,’ Mauri said and pressed a button on an electronic panel, which was resting on the table.

Almost straight away, the bedroom door opened, and a steward came out carrying a blue backpack, her blue backpack. Showing how eager she was to have it returned to her, she stood, her legs acting of their own volition. The steward paused beside Mauri, but he pointed to Ivy.

‘Return it to Ivy,’ Mauri said, and the steward crossed to hand it over.

The relief at having it back, at seeing what she feared she never would again, was enough to relax her. She sat back down at Dax’s side, tucking herself between her man and her bag, Ivy placed a hand on each.

‘Won’t you open it and let us know what it contains that was so important to you?’ Mauri asked. At the party, he had implied that he already knew which item Ivy valued the most and she was not going to put on a show for him.

‘No,’ she said, hoping that her simple answer would be enough.

‘She’ll open it later,’ Dax said. ‘And if anything is missing—‘

‘Nothing is missing,’ Mauri said. ‘Now would you like me to arrange to have Ivy taken somewhere safe while we discuss business?’

‘Somewhere safe is at my side,’ Dax said. ‘You’re not taking her anywhere.’

‘You know that we mean her no harm. I would think that returning her possessions was enough to win your trust and show you that we are serious about having her in the family as well. We will all have to learn to trust each other if we are to move forward and make progress—‘

‘We’re not going to move forward,’ Dax said. ‘Ivy and I have already discussed everything that you said to me.’

‘You discuss business with your wife?’ Mauri asked.

‘I discuss everything with my wife,’ Dax said. ‘Which is why I don’t need you to usher her out of the room every time you want to say something to me that you don’t think she’ll like.’

‘I have a feeling that I am not going to like what you’re going to say to me,’ Mauri said, pushing back in his chair.

‘Probably not. I’m not coming back, Mauri. It’s not going to happen.’

‘Simple as that?’

‘Yeah,’ Dax said.

‘We can’t accept that, rejection is not an option. The Stark family needs you—‘

‘But I don’t need them,’ Dax said. ‘It sounds like a great opportunity, and you know that this time last year I’d have jumped on it. I’m sorry that you’re sick. But Brad will never accept my—‘

‘I can deal with Brad. I will talk to him—‘

‘And as soon as you’re gone we’ll start butting heads,’ Dax said. ‘I won’t take orders from him. I never respected him because he never respected me. I’m tired of Trystan, he’ll cause more problems when you’re not around. Brad can’t control him, and I won’t be his babysitter anymore. And Bruno—‘

‘Is no longer around.’

‘Because of me,’ Dax said, sitting forward. ‘He doesn’t like me, doesn’t respect me, and the feeling is mutual. He has the means to ruin the family, he might not do it when you’re here because he still has respect for you. But I guarantee that as soon as you’re not here, we’re going to be dealing with blackmail and extortion. He knows all of the family secrets and unless we give him a position of power or a load of money, he can blow the whistle to the cops or start in-fighting among the men.’

‘You’ve thought about this.’

‘I used to take orders, do what I was told because I respected you, and I wanted your approval. I don’t need your approval anymore, and I don’t need any part in what you do. Brad lives to run the business, and Bruno can be his problem. There’s no incentive to come back.’

‘You will have financial security for life.’

‘I’m an easy fall guy, if that’s not your intention now then it will be Brad’s when he’s tired of hearing my input. We don’t need you, Mauri, any of you.’

‘You need us now, we can offer protection for Ivy against these bounty hunters out looking for their money. She is in serious danger, and you have to keep her safe, it’s your job as—‘

‘I know what my job is,’ Dax said. ‘I’m not going to stop looking for the person responsible for the bounty, and I know how to keep my wife safe.’

‘You don’t have the resources that we can offer you,’ Mauri said. ‘You can stay here at the house, and you know that Ivy will be unharmed. At the beach house, we proved that Ivy’s wellbeing is important to the Starks, our security men—‘

‘Let Trystan come in and take her sister away,’ Dax said. ‘Your men are loyal, and they follow orders. But they don’t know the history. You would never let anyone know what you did to Ivy, what Trystan and Bruno did, what I took part in. That would bring shame to you and the family and despite all that he’s done, you still defend Trystan.’

Mauri’s cool expression switched to her. ‘You have changed him,’ Mauri said.

‘He did all the work himself,’ Ivy said. ‘And he’s not changed, he’s just a better version of himself.’

Dax had learned not to follow orders without question, being with her had taught him that he was more than what Mauri and the other Stark men saw him as. Dax knew now that he was valuable, just for being himself. He didn’t have to work for her, or run any operation well enough to make her proud.

‘You are very lucky,’ Mauri said to Dax. ‘I’m surprised that you found something real and sustainable in such oppressive circumstances.’

‘He didn’t oppress me,’ Ivy said. ‘Dax embraced who I was just as I embraced him. You wanted him to change me, to make me a different person, to break me. But he didn’t.’

‘I never even tried,’ Dax said, bringing his focus to hers. ‘No one changes you, Minx.’

‘Can’t mess with perfection,’ she smiled and rested her mouth on his arm. ‘Dax has kindness and modesty under that hard-ass, arrogant-as-hell exterior, and those are things that he didn’t learn from you or what you do. We have a new life together, and it’s one that won’t involve any of this.’

‘I’m curious,’ Mauri said. ‘If he had wanted to return, would you have allowed it?’

‘You’re asking if she’s the only obstacle to my agreement,’ Dax said. ‘She’s not. I told you that I wanted nothing more to do with you before you ever made this offer.’

‘So why did you come back?’

‘Brad said you were sick, and it seemed like the right thing to do. I was curious too about… I always thought that meeting you at that fight, where I pickpocketed you when I was thirteen, I thought that was an accident and to find out that you were looking for me, that you meant it… You lied to me through my whole life.’

‘Bruno didn’t want to accept you,’ Mauri said. ‘He saw you as a threat though I didn’t know why. I wanted him to embrace fatherhood, I thought it would change him, make him realise that there was a softer way to be; he’s often too heavy handed and impulsive. Having a child makes a man reconsider his life, at least it did for me.’

‘Didn’t work for Bruno,’ Dax said. ‘I’ll never accept him as my father, but I would like to know how you found out about me.’

‘When Carina was pregnant, she kept it to herself at first. She told Bruno, and when he reacted in a negative way, she fled. At the time, I didn’t know that she was pregnant, I found out later.’

‘How did your wife die?’ Ivy asked. The worst he could do was refuse to answer the question and his answer was an evasion.

‘Trystan was only five,’ Mauri said. ‘It was a long time ago.’

‘You found out about her affair with Bruno,’ Ivy said. Though she could feel Dax’s stare, she kept her attention on Mauri.

‘I see that locking you in a house with Carina was not a wise decision,’ Mauri said. ‘Why did she tell you?’

‘I wanted answers to Dax’s questions,’ Ivy said without admitting that she and Dax had not discussed what his questions were. ‘Carina kept evading my questions, and I put it to her that she couldn’t expect trust if she didn’t show honesty.’

‘So she told you?’

‘Yes,’ Ivy said. ‘She didn’t know if you knew.’

‘I didn’t at the time.’

Locking her fingers between Dax’s, she filled him in. ‘Carina caught Bruno sleeping with Mauri’s wife at around the same time she found out she was pregnant. Bruno didn’t want the truth to come out and by that time he was beating her regularly. He didn’t want to have a baby with her, which is why Carina left, to protect you.’

‘How long did the affair last?’ Dax asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Ivy said, shaking her head and turning to Mauri.

‘I don’t know when it started,’ Mauri said. ‘I wasn’t aware that they were together at first. I discovered them together not long before Winnie, my wife, died.’

‘Did you kill her?’ Dax asked without any of the tact or hesitation that Ivy had felt. ‘Did you kill her for sleeping with your best friend?’

‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘Bruno killed her.’

That was unprecedented, if questionable, honesty. ‘Why?’ Ivy asked. ‘Why would he do that? Carina believed that he was in love with her.’

‘Maybe he was, but it was Winnie who confessed to me that Carina had been pregnant. When Bruno found out that she had broken his confidence he was angry, and it was after that, when they were resolving their differences, that I found them together. Winnie asked me to cast him out, he was violent and unpredictable. When Bruno heard that she had turned on him, he turned on her. He was angry and holding a gun…’

‘He shot her?’ Ivy asked.

‘Only one of them could have survived in my inner circle,’ Mauri said. ‘Bruno knew that.’

To speak of the death of his wife without emotion was chilling to Ivy, but Dax seemed to understand. ‘It was one or the other,’ Dax said. ‘You forgave him?’

‘It was that or lose him too,’ Mauri said. ‘I told him that we had to find his child, and we spent years tracing you. Bruno was never interested, but he listened to me and by the time we found you, most of our issues had been resolved.’

Bruno might have loved Winnie, but it didn’t seem that Mauri loved her very much. Maybe he had in the early years, or maybe he only stood by her because she was the mother of his children. But now facing his mortality, he made no apology for covering up the murder of his wife. Men in his line of work had to be detached, but Ivy was pleased Dax wasn’t cut from the same cloth.

‘This is why we should remain together as a family,’ Mauri said. ‘There is a rich history between us all, and it’s one that Ivy will be a part of now too.’

‘Ivy and I want to build our own family, not be a part of anyone else’s,’ Dax said, rising from the couch, taking her and her backpack with him.

Mauri sprang up portraying panic through his expression. ‘You cannot just leave here.’

‘I can, Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘Thanks for… I have a lot of respect for you, and I’m sorry that you are sick. This is a time when you need to embrace your family and I’m not a part of that anymore. Ivy is all the family I need.’

‘We can give you money and security and—‘

Dax skirted the couch and took Ivy to the door, which he opened before he looked back at Mauri. ‘The Stark trade will carry on without you and without me. Fate will decide how it works out. Take care, Mauri.’

Ivy stayed quiet when he led her out of the room and through the house to the exit. The Starks were no longer a part of their life, they would never have to come here again.

The car was still in the drive when they got there, Dax took their things out of it and left the car keys on the front seat. Looping her purse up over her head and putting on her backpack, Ivy smiled when her husband put an arm around her.