Fighting Back (Harrow #2)

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘Mr Stark is expecting you,’ the blonde said.

  Ivy was pleased that the attendant didn’t appear any worse for wear, but the night was young, and the more Trystan indulged, the more unbearable he became. Her experience with Trystan Stark obviously hadn’t prompted management to make any changes – like to ensure that when Trystan was here only males were allowed to act as private attendant.

  Though Trystan would probably request a female attendant, and when a guest was willing to pay the kind of money that Trystan did, management would cater to their every whim. Trystan knew it too, which was how he got away with his abominable behaviour so often.

  The rounded window of this suite living room provided a space for couches, which were arranged to face each other. The private attendant pointed to the furthest couch. ‘If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll tell him that you’re here.’

  The attendant left by way of a side door, behind the bar area of the suite, which Ivy knew led to a bedroom. Dax threw an arm around her and took her to the couch, seating himself in the corner and keeping her pressed to his side.

  Scrutinising every detail of the room, Ivy’s attention eventually came to land back on him. ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘You’re sitting exactly where you were the night I first saw you.’

  ‘Don’t think about that night,’ he said, yanking her closer so that he could kiss her head.

  ‘Trystan might have been a jerk that night, but I am sort of pleased things played out like they did. Being with you is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, I had to go through all the crap that I did in life so that when I found you, I would truly appreciate you.’

  Bringing her hand to his face, Dax lowered his lips to hers. While this wasn’t the time or place for fervent romance, she wouldn’t shy from loving her husband just because Trystan might take exception to it.

  It took a lot for Dax to be open with her, and Ivy savoured each time he trusted her and showed her affection, as he was doing now. Spoiling her with gifts and soppy words wasn’t where Dax excelled, he excelled in these moments where with the slightest touch he conveyed to her just how much he valued her.

  A door opened, signalling that someone had come in. The private attendant appeared first, she nodded and then disappeared out of the suite giving Trystan the time to make his entrance. Trystan came in wearing a hotel-monogrammed bathrobe, strutting and displaying a smile that conveyed his pride in his actions.

  He was a handsome guy with sand coloured hair and a square jaw. His cheekbones were sharp and still graced with the scar of where she had taken a bite out of him to free herself from his assault. But that mark, and the bruise he’d received at Dax’s hand, didn’t dull his striking looks.

  Trystan was taking his time to observe her and Dax, maybe he was trying to intimidate them into speaking first, but he’d never out intimidate Dax. Now that she had the time, Ivy tried to pick out any of their host’s features that might match Dax’s. Carina’s story had opened so many possibilities, but Ivy didn’t want to raise them with Dax until she could reach a decision on the veracity of Carina’s claims herself.

  Hearing that he might be blood-related to Trystan would devastate Dax, and he was still dealing with the idea that Bruno was his father. Adding anything new to the mix would send him into turmoil, and there wasn’t the time for him to fight his way out of that now.

  Finding out if the men were related was irrelevant because Dax would still despise Trystan just as much if it were a proven fact. But Ivy didn’t like to withhold information from Dax so she would have to tell him that the possibility existed. She’d have to pick an appropriate moment to discuss it with him, and this sure wasn’t the environment to be thinking about it.

  ‘Well Mr and Mrs Harrow, what a surprise,’ Trystan said as he strolled the width of the room.

  ‘You called us,’ Ivy said, not missing the chance to show him up.

  ‘I heard you were in town, and we are all family, aren’t we?’

  Trystan settled his focus on Dax, Ivy glanced around to observe the frost Dax returned to his surrogate brother. They would try to stare each other to death all night if Ivy let them. It was about as violent as Trystan would get with Dax, he wasn’t quite crazy enough to believe that he could conquer Dax in a fight.

  ‘Where’s Rosie?’ Ivy asked.

  ‘Still asleep,’ Trystan said. ‘We had quite an eventful night.’

  When Trystan had emerged from the bedroom in his robe, Ivy had feared what that meant, but the glint in his eyes confirmed her suspicions.

  ‘You had sex with her?’ Ivy asked.

  Dax’s hand closed around hers, he must have sensed her desire to leap across the room and throttle the smug bastard.

  ‘What can I say?’ he grinned. ‘She wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

  On coming here Ivy had worried that Trystan would irritate Dax, but she hadn’t given full merit to how much he’d grate on her. Getting any kind of rise from another person as a result of his behaviour was what thrilled Trystan and Ivy was his chosen target tonight.

  Dax body blocked her when they both rose at the same time. Breaking her view of Trystan was a relief but that didn’t quench her need to see him exposed for the cruel coward that he was. Ivy looked forward to the day that would happen, and she hoped to have a front row seat.

  ‘Since we’re all here,’ Trystan said. ‘What do you say to a swop? Hmm? Yours for mine, Dax?’

  Grabbing for Dax’s waist, it was Ivy’s turn to hold him in place, silently reminding him not to rise to Trystan’s bait. ‘Not a chance,’ Dax said.

  ‘You were happy to do it before, when dad suggested it. You were happy to give up your wife to me then, just so you could stay in the family.’

  Dax started to move forward, but Ivy wrapped her arms around his torso and pressed her breasts into Dax’s spine. ‘He wants to upset you,’ she murmured into him.

  ‘You didn’t tell her that?’ Trystan asked. The smile in his voice was the sugar meant to make the poison slither down their gullets. ‘Yeah, Ivy, it’s just one of those things, you know, Stark men share women all the time.’

  So she had recently heard, if Carina was right, then Mauri shared his wife, though he might not have known it at the time. ‘It’s a good thing that Dax isn’t a Stark then, isn’t it?’ she said, loosening her grip on Dax to slink around his body and into Trystan’s view. ‘He’s nothing like you. He’s a better man than all of you.’

  ‘No way for you to know that unless you agree to the swop,’ Trystan said. ‘Rosie’s in the bedroom, all warmed up for you, Dax. Don’t you worry about the wife, I know just how to get her going.’

  ‘Going? Yeah, if you touch me I am likely to leave you in my dust, just like I did the first time you tried to touch me, remember that? Does anyone ever ask you about your scar?’ She pointed toward his face though he was still a good twenty feet away. ‘Do you tell them that it’s there because you tried to touch what wasn’t yours?’

  ‘I can have any fucking thing that I want,’ Trystan asserted. His smile was long gone, he didn’t appreciate it when the shoe was on the other foot, and he was the one in the spotlight being irritated.

  Leaning forward, her ass pressed into Dax, and his hands slid onto her hips. ‘You can’t have me,’ she murmured and widened her smile. ‘You are a sick fuck who seduced my sister because you thought it would be like having me, didn’t you? But it’s as close as you will get, Trystan. You will never have me. I will never want you. And you will live the rest of your life knowing that you’re far inferior to the street rat who your daddy always preferred over you.

  ‘Dax was Mauri’s number one, and now he’s mine too. No one wants you, and no one ever will, because you are a spoiled, pathetic mess still living off your daddy. Women want a real man, and you are a joke, you can’t provide for a family or protect them. Why would any woman choose you?’

  ‘Your sister did,’ he snapped.

  ‘While she was dr
unk and possibly high, we know what you’re like. You love to drug your women and then take advantage of them. You are a child stuck in a man’s body. What are you going to do when Mauri isn’t around anymore to protect you?’

  ‘You’re a fucking bitch,’ Trystan snarled. When he stormed toward her, she didn’t recoil, she didn’t have to because Dax sidestepped and inserted his body in front of hers.

  ‘You think about touching her and you’ll regret it,’ Dax warned in a guttural tone. ‘I’ll take you to pieces, I’ve been looking for an excuse to do it for years.’

  ‘And how will you explain that to Mauri?’ Trystan barked. ‘You can’t touch me.’

  ‘I’m not on Mauri’s choke chain anymore, Tryst,’ Dax said. ‘For years I put up with your shit because I didn’t think that there was another way. Now I know that there is.’

  The tone of his last sentence was a threat. Just like he’d done on the night they met, Dax had managed to make a threat without using a single negative word. Touching her lips to his arm, she grazed her fingertips down the back of his hand.

  ‘Mauri would take you apart,’ Trystan said.

  ‘You won’t have him to hide behind forever,’ Dax replied. ‘You shouldn’t be hiding behind him now. Ivy’s right, you’re spoiled and pathetic. Brad won’t tolerate you risking his operation. He’ll have far less patience for you than Mauri does. You’re going to find yourself in the street without anyone to watch your back.’

  ‘I don’t need anyone to—‘

  ‘Yeah, you do.’

  ‘Dad will look after me, when the will is read—‘

  ‘You’re going to get a shock,’ Dax said. ‘He’ll provide for you, but Brad will have the power and then what will you do?’

  Trystan didn’t have an answer for this and Dax was happy to remain silent and let the truth sink in. When Mauri passed away, he might leave money for Trystan, but Trystan would have no control of the business or the house and other assets. Mauri had offered Dax what he would never give to Trystan.

  The youngest Stark was too irresponsible to be trusted with anything that mattered. Maintaining the business and reputation of the family was what mattered to Mauri and Trystan wasn’t capable of that while his father was living and around to guide him.

  For years, all of his adult life, Trystan had proved that the only thing he cared about was himself. His antics had jeopardised the family more than any of their business dealings. Being spoiled and selfish, Trystan was happy to push boundaries and keep taking what he wanted without considering the consequences, or how it would affect the Stark name.

  ‘I should go to Rosie,’ Ivy said. ‘I have to wake her so that we can get out of here.’

  ‘You’re welcome to join mine and Rosie’s party, I won’t say no to sisters in my bed,’ Trystan said. ‘I can handle two of you at once, piece of cake.’

  ‘Dream on,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m going in there to get my sister back. I’ll wake her up and get her dressed, then we’re going to get the hell away from here, away from you.’

  ‘She won’t want to leave,’ Trystan said. ‘She came here with me, and she’ll stay here until I’m finished with her.’

  ‘Until you’re finished with her?’ Ivy said, remaining behind Dax. ‘Do you think that we’ll just walk away and let you hurt her? You’re forgetting who you’re dealing with. We know what you’re like. I won’t let you pass her around to your friends after you get her high.’

  ‘You can’t stop it,’ Trystan said, trying to regain the upper hand, but the arrogance he’d maintained when he came in was waning. ‘She’ll want to stay right here. I can show her a good time.’

  ‘A good time? For as long as it suits you,’ Ivy said. ‘We came here to get her away from you, and that’s what we’re going to do.’

  Trystan wouldn’t take on Dax, so Ivy left her shielded position to stand at Dax’s side. The tension radiating between the men was so charged that she told herself to hurry in retrieving Rosie. A brawl wouldn’t end well for Trystan, and she didn’t know how they’d clear up the mess that would be left if Dax started on Trystan.

  Proving her previous point, Ivy walked forward and passed Trystan with her head held high, and he did nothing to stop her. Ivy went to the bedroom but paused before entering to look back at the men. Dax and Trystan were frozen in their stare off again, if so much as a hair twitched they were going to snap and start working out some of that conflict burning between them in typical male fashion.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pushing into the bedroom, Ivy closed the door behind her to make sure that Trystan wouldn’t be able to sneak up on her without at least some warning.

  The huge room had a full wall of windows displaying the glitz of this artificial city in full widescreen. But it wasn’t the vista that interested her, Ivy was focused on the centrepiece of the bedroom.

  Crossing to the white and gold sheets, which gathered in waves on the bed, Ivy began to pull them aside to uncover her sister’s naked body.

  Slumbering with her face pressed into a voluminous pillow, Rosie was out cold. Being in a slumber this deep made Ivy believe that her sister must have been high last night. ‘Damn it,’ Ivy said, giving Rosie a shake. ‘Come on, Rosie, wake up.’

  The room was a mess, and she scanned around to see if any of the scattered items might belong to Rosie. Clothes were strewn across the floor, so Ivy left the bed and began to sweep up Rosie’s garments. The mess wasn’t Ivy’s to tidy, but it was a reminder of just how inconsiderate Trystan Stark was.

  Empty champagne bottles clattered around, hitting each other every time Ivy lifted something to check for Rosie’s clothes. Ivy found her sister’s underwear, but couldn’t find a dress or skirt to go over the top of it.

  ‘Rosie!’ Ivy called out, catching sight of the white powder scattered on the dresser nearest the bed. So cocaine had been on the menu last night, as had lobster and something with a red sauce that was smeared into the carpet beside the fallen room service tray.

  A flash of green near the bed drew Ivy across the room, and she fell to her knees to try and pull out the fabric, which was tangled in an electrical cable under the bed. ‘God damn it, Rosie!’ Ivy said, still fighting the cord for the dress. ‘Get up, get out of bed!’

  A mumbling reply came from the bed, so she was reassured Rosie had heard her. But she had to wrestle with the dress for another minute before it came free. Exhaling, Ivy came out from under the bed and fell back to sit on her feet. Bra, panties, and the dress, it was a start. She would look for Rosie’s shoes while Rosie was getting dressed.

  For that, Ivy would need her sister to be fully awake, so that she could comprehend what was going on. Using the bed for support, Ivy climbed onto the mattress, coming at her sister from the other side she had initially sat on.

  Shaking the slumbering form again, Ivy pulled Rosie onto her back. Her sister groped around for the sheet, so Ivy pulled it away from her reach. ‘No, Rosie, you are not going back to sleep. You have to wake up, we’re leaving.’

  Rosie’s eyes opened the smallest amount. ‘You’re not Trystan.’

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘In the other room with Dax,’ Ivy said. ‘You have to get dressed.’

  Putting Rosie’s arms into her bra, Ivy slipped it up to her shoulders, but Rosie rolled onto her front again. ‘Go away, Ivy, we’re having fun.’

  ‘Doesn’t look like fun to me. You trashed this place and if Trystan ducks out and leaves you with the bill, how do you plan to pay for the room and all of this mess?’

  Ivy didn’t think that Trystan would do that, he had the funds to pay for whatever he wanted, and he liked to fritter that money away any chance he got. But making the accusation was enough to make Rosie flip onto her back.

  ‘He wouldn’t do that,’ she said.

  Ivy smiled, pleased that Rosie’s eyes were open now though her face was smeared with makeup. ‘Get your clothes on and then we can go out and ch
eck that the men are still here.’

  Rosie sat up, and Ivy handed over the clothes she’d gathered from around the room. Leaving the bed, Ivy went to the bathroom and moistened the fluffy white face cloth she picked up from the vanity.

  ‘You should never have run off like that,’ Ivy called, wringing the water out of the face cloth.

  ‘Don’t start lecturing me,’ Rosie grumbled.

  Ivy came into the bedroom to see that Rosie was in her bra and panties, but the dress was proving to be more of an ordeal.

  ‘I’m not lecturing you,’ Ivy said, sitting on the bed beside Rosie. Using the face cloth, she rubbed away the traces of last night’s makeup marring her skin.

  Rosie put up no fight and flopped down to lie flat, she closed her eyes and let Ivy wash her face. Glad as she was that Rosie was accepting her help, Ivy recognised how tired her sister was. All the indicators suggested a come down, which led Ivy to believe that cocaine wasn’t the only drug they used last night.

  ‘You know, you should be careful,’ Ivy said, holding Rosie’s face as she washed it.

  ‘Trystan isn’t as bad as you think,’ Rosie mumbled.

  ‘He is,’ Ivy said. ‘But I’m talking about your recovery. You didn’t use drugs at all when we were at the beach house. You shouldn’t use them just because Trystan asks you to.’

  ‘He didn’t ask me, he offered them and I’m sorry, Ivy, but I like to have a good time.’

  ‘This is more than that. You can have a good time without running away with random men who you don’t know and using drugs again.’

  ‘He’s a good guy, and he’s not a loser, he has money and—‘

  ‘Just because he has money doesn’t mean that he cares about you. He’s using you.’

  ‘Using me?’ Rosie said, opening her eyes. ‘Using me for what? Sex? I don’t think so. We had sex at his father’s big fancy house, and Trystan still called me the next day.’

  So after what had happened in the mansion bedroom, when Dax knocked Trystan out, Trystan had woken up and then gone on a mission to seduce Rosie. It shouldn’t surprise Ivy that he would be as callous as that, but she didn’t like to see her sister reduced to a piece on a game board.