Choosing to check into the hotel where she and Dax shared their wedding night, she knew this would be one of the first places that Dax would look for her if he wanted to look. She checked in and went to dinner, giving herself time to formulate a plan for what she wanted to achieve.
Vegas was a city that came alive at night. After dinner, she headed for her old neighbourhood and started to ask around for Trudi to see if she still worked the streets in the area. Ivy had expected people to clam up, or that she would never find where Trudi was at now, but she did.
Word was that Trudi was working for one of the call girl agencies that operated throughout the city. Office blocks were the premises that pimps used to deal from. Girls answered phones and promised johns that their requested piece of ass would come direct to their hotel room, or wherever else they requested the girls go to. Escorts came into the office, got the address then went off to do their thing. When they were done they came back to the office or called in to get a new address, sometimes they saw several men in one night.
Giving the agency a bullshit story, Ivy had managed to find out that Trudi had been requested to come to this nightclub to spend time with her customer. Ivy had no qualms about interrupting Trudi while she was working, chances were that was the only way that her ex-roommate would talk to her.
When Dax called, she’d hadn’t yet seen Trudi, but Ivy went out into the club hallway to talk to him in a quieter space. She stowed her phone away and found herself reluctant to go back into the crush of bodies to try and locate a woman who was no doubt squirreled away in a darkened corner with a john.
If surprising Trudi on a date wasn’t going to work out, then she had another choice, but she’d have to be in her hotel room for the second option to work.
Getting out of that nightclub was a relief, if she had to stomach one more guy assuming that they could put their hands on her or slobber all over her, she might have turned to Dax’s method of conflict resolution and brained one of them with the nearest solid object. Her hotel wasn’t too far from the club, so she went outside and started her walk back.
Dax was angry, his tone on the phone had been unmistakable, but it wasn’t like he’d given her much of a chance to open up to him about why she needed to be here. He was happy to be running around with Serg damaging people. As unhappy as he might be with her for taking off, she didn’t think he’d worry about their relationship. She was pissed about his landing Serg on her at lunch, but not pissed enough to leave him.
After her experience in that nightclub, she found herself missing him. No man would have touched her if Dax had been with her, none of them would have even approached her. On buying her drink and seating herself at the nightclub bar, she had scanned the room, hoping to find Trudi. It hadn’t taken a full minute before the first guy approached her.
After the third tried to hit on her, she got up and began to weave her way around, not remaining in the same place. It wasn’t like the male interest was even a testament to how attractive she was, it was Vegas, men came here wanting to get lucky – one way or another. And with enough liquor in them to drown an elephant, their confidence soared, and they’d hit on anything with a pair of breasts, believing themselves irresistible.
On getting back to the hotel, she was sorry not to have Dax in her room waiting for her. Fighting with him was so counterproductive; they had already faced such adversity and they’d always overcome it. They were going to be together, and nothing would prevent them from finding a future together.
When he had chosen the Starks over her before it didn’t end well; it ended up with them apart and him chasing her across the continent. Prioritising each other was the only way that they were going to survive as a couple.
Stripping out of her clothes, she took a shower and slid into her empty hotel room bed. Dax was her husband and even when he was a jerk, he still loved her. Pulling up the sheet, she turned off the lamp and brought her purse onto the bed to fish out her phone to write a text.
I’m safe, back at the hotel, tucked up in bed alone.
I love you, you arrogant jerk.
She wouldn’t hesitate to show him her wrath when they were back in the same room again. But while this was going on, she didn’t want him to lose himself to the Stark mentality again. Reminding him that they were together, and that he wasn’t that person anymore, might be the only way to ensure that they came out the other side of this together. Her phone made a noise, so she rolled over to grab it from the bedside.
You’re not going to be able to sit for a week by the time I’m through with you, Minx.
You better damn well be alone.
Well, it wasn’t a declaration of undying love, but it gave her some reassurance that he was alright. Being back out there, enforcing, was dangerous. It might have been something that he’d done for years, but all it took was one mistake, one prick with a weapon, and she might lose the only purpose she’d ever had in her life.
Being pissed in the same house as each other was very different to being pissed at each other in different states. So with a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried her best to sleep. They would fix this, she’d explain to him how his behaviour was unacceptable, yet the truth was it had sort of worked out for her.
Serg distracting Dax had given her the opportunity to take care of her past without awkward explanations to Dax. She would have to explain, but doing it after the fact would be easier than doing it before when he might want to be a part of the resolution.
This was something she had to do herself, but now that Dax knew where she was, the clock was running. He could show up at any second, so she had to get this done and fast.
Chapter Six
Ivy found out the next morning that Dax wasn’t the only person who knew where she was. Knocking on her hotel room door brought her out of the bathroom after her morning shower. Because he could get the name of the hotel from his credit card statement, and because the timing was right depending on whether or not he finished up with Serg before driving or flying to her, she was convinced that the only person who could be at her door was Dax.
Wrapped in only her towel, Ivy opened the hotel room door with her hair still dripping from the shower and prepared herself to face her husband’s anger. But it wasn’t Dax at the door at all, the six-foot tall visitor had light brown hair and a smile that could melt the panties right off a woman. But his brown eyes didn’t captivate like Dax’s did, and Ivy knew just how false an impression that smile gave. Its disarming nature would make a woman believe that this man was harmless, Ivy knew different.
‘Saul,’ she said.
‘Hey, baby,’ he said, ducking to kiss her cheek. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?’
‘How did you find out?’ Backing off, she tucked in her towel and let him enter the room.
‘I heard you were in the old neighbourhood,’ he said, sauntering in and scrutinising the details of the room. ‘Where’s the hubby?’
‘California,’ she said.
Saul spun around to land her in his sights. ‘It’s finished already?’
‘It’s not finished, he’s working,’ she said. ‘I came here to tie up my loose ends.’
‘Am I on that list?’ he asked, sinking down to sit on the end of the bed. He stretched his legs out and relaxed back on his hands.
‘Actually yes,’ she said. ‘But I hadn’t gotten to you yet.’
‘Now I’m here,’ he said, leaning forward to tug on the flap of her towel. ‘Just in time to show you a good time.’
Her smile flared. ‘No fun,’ she said, stepping over his legs to head back toward the bathroom. ‘You wait out here, I’ll talk to you in a minute.’
She hadn’t locked a bathroom door in months, but she did it now, which just proved how little Ivy trusted Saul Haynes. Saul was a great friend to everyone who met him, he was a guy who knew how to get things and networking was one of his best assets. Saul knew everyone, she had never known a person with so many connections. So it shouldn’
t have surprised her that he knew she was back in Vegas, what did surprise her was that he’d come here looking for her.
After drying her hair and pulling on the clothes she’d selected for the day, Ivy went into the bedroom to find Saul standing in front of the window with her wallet in hand. Her purse was on the small round table beside him, next to the proud lamp also located there. Without an ounce of shame, he slid her credit card out of its slot.
‘Harrow,’ he read.
‘That’s right,’ she said, crossing the room to take both wallet and credit card away from him.
‘Don’t know him.’
Putting her purse back together, a smile tilted her lips. ‘I thought you knew everyone.’
‘Everyone in Vegas,’ he said.
‘You used to say that you knew everyone on the West Coast.’
‘Does he have siblings? Who does he work for?’
‘You don’t know him,’ she said, unwilling to reveal too much of who Dax was.
‘I might, maybe I’d know him if I saw him.’
Placing her purse back on the table, she squinted up. ‘Does it upset you that there’s a stranger out there? Someone you don’t know?’
He shrugged and sat down in the tub chair angled in the corner near the table. ‘Not really, I know him now, don’t I? You can introduce us.’
‘He’s in California,’ she said. ‘Did you not hear me say that a few minutes ago?’
‘Yeah, but we’ll cross paths eventually. You’re not planning to cut me out of your life. We’ve shared a lot… is he the jealous type? Possessive? If he’s controlling—‘
‘No man can beat you on that score, can they?’ she said, leaning away when he snagged her skirt.
‘You loved being my girlfriend,’ he said. ‘We had a lot of good times.’
‘Yeah, but not exclusively,’ she said.
‘That why you ran off and married Harrow? You looking for payback?’
‘I left you, Saul, don’t re-write history, and I did it months ago.’
Ivy met Saul on one of her few nights out in Las Vegas, and he had pursued her with zeal. But after six months together the sheen had definitely faded. By the time she encountered Trystan Stark in his GoldSpring suite, she and Saul had been broken up for around five months.
Breaking up with Saul had been such a relief for her and for a time she had worried that he wouldn’t let her go. But when he moved on to another busty brunette, Ivy was quickly forgotten.
One thing that Saul was not short of was female attention, or any kind of attention. His attention span was notoriously short, but he didn’t just drop people once he was bored with them, they got shifted onto his periphery.
Saul liked to be adored, he liked to do people favours and to be seen as a good guy, and he could keep a secret too. Somewhere along the way he had learned that a part of winning people’s confidence meant having a reputation for being discreet, another thing that Saul excelled at.
‘Do you want to go to a casino?’ he asked. ‘Your choice. We could take in a show if you want, I made dinner reservations for—‘
‘You’re that eager to impress me all over again?’ she quipped, folding her arms. ‘What were you doing in my purse? You’ve never been short a few bucks.’
‘Your phone made a noise, and I was curious,’ he said.
He would never have offered that information without her prompt, sometimes he enjoyed keeping secrets a little bit too much. Taking her phone from her bag to see why it had made a noise, Ivy saw a message from Dax, one that Saul had read.
Just got in. Going for a nap, then we’re going to talk.
‘Sounds like there might be a little bit of trouble,’ Saul said, he slid down in the seat and patted his thigh. ‘Come sit down and tell Daddy all about it.’
‘Yeah, right,’ she smiled at his tease, then responded to Dax’s message.
Going to breakfast with my ex-boyfriend. Call me when you wake up.
She was still getting used to texting. Before Dax, she hadn’t had a cell phone because devices weren’t a priority and she didn’t have the expendable income. Being unreachable was one of the things that Saul had hated about her. When Saul bought her a cell phone, she’d thrown it right back at him because she knew it was a tool meant to increase his control over her and her social calendar. Dax got her one out of concern and he knew better than to manipulate her with it.
Texting Dax had become a habit while they were both working on the East Coast. He would text her when he was bored at work, or when he was at home waiting for her to come home from her job. Because they worked opposing shifts – he on the night and she on the day – texting each other when they woke up, got home, or were about to go to sleep, was part of their routine.
One thing they never did was ignore each other’s calls or texts. More than worrying about appearing rude, they knew that a lack of response would cause the other to be concerned, which was justified given their history.
When there was no immediate reply to her text message, she put the phone away. Dax had to be asleep by now; that was the only explanation for her message not prompting an instantaneous retort telling her that she was going nowhere with an ex-boyfriend. But she wasn’t keeping any secrets from Dax.
‘Dinner is out,’ she said. ‘I’m not going on a date with you, Saul. But you can take me to breakfast.’
‘It’s a start,’ he said, leaping out of the chair and going forth to open the bedroom door for her.
It was almost eleven AM, so it was closer to lunchtime, but Saul had done her a favour without any hesitation when she asked him to, so the least she could do was share a meal with him. She would do it out in public and wait for Dax to call because she was pretty sure his reaction to her text wouldn’t be immediately understanding.
Having Saul back in her life turned out to be fortuitous. When Ivy relayed her plan to get hold of Trudi, he jumped right on it and offered to help. A male voice would be more convincing than a female one, so Ivy accepted his assistance. They arranged to meet in her hotel room that night, at ten PM, to put the plan into motion.
Eager as she was to have Trudi where she wanted her, Ivy was preoccupied with Dax. He hadn’t called her. She knew better than most how much Dax loved his sleep. The man could sleep like the dead, and he could do it indefinitely. He’d had a long night talking to Mauri and making love to her, then met up with Serg and had another long night of enforcing. So she assumed that if he hadn’t gotten home until eleven AM there was a chance that he would sleep for about twelve hours, to make up for the sleep time lost over the previous two nights.
‘When is she coming?’ Ivy asked when Saul hung up the phone.
‘She’ll be here in an hour,’ he said, his triumphant smile brought him to his feet. ‘Where’s the mini-bar?’
‘You’re not getting drunk in here,’ she said.
‘Come on, it’s on your old man’s dime, right?’
‘You can leave,’ she said. ‘You’ve done your bit.’
‘Oh,’ he whined. ‘You’re not going to let me stay and watch the show?’
‘No, I’m not. I’m not hanging out in a hotel room with you to wait for a hooker.’
‘We’re not using the hooker, we’re luring the hooker.’
‘I am luring her, I could’ve done this without you. I told you that you didn’t need to come back, you offered to come and make the call from the hotel room because it was more convincing. Trudi probably heard that I was looking for her, and I’d guess she’s not desperate to see me.’
‘No,’ he said, standing up from the bed where he’d been sitting to make the call. ‘Probably not. Were all the stories true? That you were kidnapped and—‘
‘We can talk about that tomorrow,’ she said. Grabbing his arm, Ivy pulled him towards the hotel room door. ‘You need to get out of here because if Trudi sees you then she’ll assume I’m not too far behind.’
‘Just like the old days,’ he grinned.
With her palms
planted on his back she pushed him forward and reached around him to open the hotel room door. ‘Get out of here, Saul.’ Except when she opened the door, there was a man right there on the other side of it. A man with an expression on his face that the devil would envy. ‘Dax…’
Still half tucked behind Saul, she came around him to stand between the two men, except Dax swept her aside and grabbed Saul to haul him out and pin him to the hotel corridor wall. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’ Dax demanded.
‘No, no,’ Ivy said, trying to pry Dax away. ‘You can’t do this here, Dax, come on, baby, let him go.’
‘I do know you,’ Saul said, his face reddened as recognition grasped him. ‘Oh shit.’
‘That’s right, buddy,’ Dax said, pleased that he’d been identified. She didn’t know how the men knew each other, and right now, she didn’t care.
‘Please let go of him, baby,’ she said, pulling on Dax’s arm. ‘Nothing happened, he didn’t touch me.’
‘Oh, God, no, no,’ Saul said, and she was surprised that he was acting like such a pussy. Usually he would happily fight with any guy who brought an argument to him. But from his hurried breathing and distressed expression, she would guess that he knew Dax wasn’t to be messed with. Saul’s focus fled Dax’s to land on her. ‘You married the goddamn Ravager, why the fuck didn’t you tell me that?’
‘You’re disrespecting my wife?’ Dax asked, pulling him forward to slam him back against the wall again.
‘No! No, no, no I’m Ivy’s friend, I was just helping her out, I—‘
‘Yeah,’ Dax said, yanking him forward then turning to toss him away down the hotel corridor. ‘Get the fuck outta here and don’t come back.’
Snatching hold of Ivy, he pulled her against him to pin her under his arm, then took her back into the hotel room. As soon as they were inside, he slammed the door and shoved her forward, out of his embrace.
Fighting Back (Harrow #2) Page 6