‘He wants to have sex with you because he knows it will hurt me. He’s trying to lash out at me and Dax. We have history that—‘
Rosie swiped Ivy’s hand away and sat up. ‘You think that a rich, sophisticated guy would only be interested in me because he wants you? Are you jealous?’
‘No,’ Ivy said.
‘Do you want Trystan for yourself?’
‘Trystan attacked me,’ Ivy said. ‘The night he and I met, it was right here, in this suite. He was drunk and high, he was having a party with a bunch of friends and I was working here, I was the private attendant.’
‘In this place?’
‘Yes,’ Ivy said. ‘He tried to get me to drink and take drugs, I refused. Then he… he pinned me down and tried to force me.’
‘And Dax saved you?’
‘Not even close,’ Ivy smiled. ‘I fought Trystan off and I ran. I lost my job here because Trystan told management to fire me. He holds a grudge, and he’s a bad guy. I know that you think you’ve struck gold, but he’ll dump you as soon as he’s finished with you. I don’t want to see you hurt like that.’
‘It’s not like I’m in love with the guy,’ Rosie mumbled and returned to fumbling with her dress. Maybe they weren’t in love, but Ivy could hear the hurt in her sister’s voice.
‘He won’t make you believe he’s in love with you, maybe he’ll try and make you feel special, I don’t know what he does. What I do know is that if there comes a time when you want to say no to him, he won’t hear it. If he wants you to take drugs, he’ll make you take them. If he wants you drunk, he’ll force you to drink. And if he wants to have sex with you… he won’t hear no then either. He could hurt you, Rosie, and not just in your heart, but that beautiful face too… You see that?’ Ivy tipped her head back and angled it to point out the nick of a scar on the underside of her jaw.
Rosie touched the mark and lowered her hand. ‘He did that to you?’
‘Yeah, he did,’ Ivy said, taking Rosie’s dress and untwining the various straps that were meant to hang loose over the back. ‘And the mark on his face, that’s how I got away.’
‘You left your mark on each other.’
‘Yeah,’ Ivy said, opening the dress with wide splayed fingers she guided Rosie’s head and arms through the correct holes. ‘Every time I see his face I think about that night and how grateful I am that I got away from him before he could violate me. I can’t walk away from this room and leave you with a man who I know to be dangerous. I just can’t do it, Rosie. If he hurt you… I would never forgive myself.’
Rosie wriggled the dress down and pulled her feet out from under the sheet to swivel around and sit on the side of the bed beside Ivy. ‘Why do you care so much?’
‘Care so much?’
‘Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we’re close or anything. We haven’t seen each other for years.’
‘Yeah, but you’re still my sister,’ Ivy said, putting an arm around her. ‘I want you to be happy.’
Ivy wouldn’t leave any woman in Trystan’s clutches, much less her sister. She was too aware of his capabilities and how quickly he could turn on a person. Trystan didn’t understand the word “no” and any woman he set his sights on would have a tough time getting away.
This situation was worse because Trystan could turn his hatred and frustration onto Rosie. It didn’t matter that it was Dax and Ivy who riled him, Trystan would see Rosie as a way of venting those negative feelings.
‘Dax, does he…?’
‘Dax would never hurt me,’ Ivy said. ‘He and Trystan have history of their own, which is why I don’t want to leave them out there on their own for too long. Are you ready to go?’
‘Trystan might not let me just walk out of here,’ Rosie said.
In the sober light of day, Rosie was far more reasonable than she was when she was drunk. Until all of this was over Ivy would have to try and keep her sister away from the liquor cabinet in case she changed her mind and returned to Trystan.
Ivy had left the beach house to retrieve her sister, all she could think about was keeping Rosie safe and getting her away from harm. Ivy was grateful for Dax now, grateful that he had followed her to Vegas. It was only because of him that she could smile at her sister as they joined hands.
‘Trystan can throw all the toddler tantrums that he likes,’ Ivy said. ‘Dax is here, and he will have no problem taking Trystan down if he has to. Do you have anything here that you need to take with you?’
Ivy stayed on the bed while Rosie darted around the room to collect her things, there were just a few makeup brushes and items of jewellery, no real luggage. Rosie found her purse in the bathroom and stuffed everything inside, then tucked it under her arm.
‘Ok, I’m ready to go,’ Rosie said. ‘Wait, where are we going?’
‘Back to the beach house,’ Ivy said, joining her sister near the door.
With Carina gone it would just be her and Rosie, but Ivy was glad they would have the chance to get to know each other again. They hadn’t had a huge fight, they’d just drifted apart, each doing what they had to in order to get by. Ivy would like to hear Rosie’s story, and now she had the time for it, thanks to Maurice Stark and some as yet unknown bounty hunters.
A clatter from the next room startled the women. Ivy had known that leaving Trystan and Dax out there alone for too long would lead to trouble. She wasn’t concerned for Dax’s ability to defend himself, but she didn’t trust Trystan not to try and get Dax into trouble with the cops for doing it.
Grabbing Rosie, Ivy dashed out of the bedroom and came up short in the living room. Dax and Trystan weren’t the ones fighting. There were three other men in the room, two of whom were wrestling with a cursing Trystan on the floor, the other stood by Dax having a conversation as though the pandemonium on the floor at their feet was normal. That man, the one with Dax, was unmistakable, his height and stature gave away his identity; it was Serg.
‘What’s going on?’ Ivy asked. Serg and Dax turned. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Mauri sent us,’ Serg said. ‘We didn’t know that your man was here.’
‘You thought that I’d come here alone?’ Ivy asked.
‘Is he a bad guy?’ Rosie asked, pointing at Serg. The note of awareness in her voice was apparent.
‘I don’t know what he is,’ Ivy replied. ‘He’s never hurt or attacked me like Trystan has, but I wouldn’t say he’s warm and cuddly either.’
‘Mauri heard about the beach house exodus,’ Dax said.
‘He checked out Trystan’s credit cards and traced him here,’ Serg said. ‘We were sent to bring him back. Mauri’s not happy that he stole your sister from the beach house and caused you to leave.’
‘Does he know that I’m here?’ Ivy asked.
Serg shrugged. ‘No idea. I just go where he points.’
Making eye contact with Dax, she thought of when he had said something similar. ‘So if I hadn’t been here were you just going to leave my sister here with the check?’
‘It’s already been taken care of,’ Serg said. ‘We have to take Trystan to Mauri, Dax says that you’ll take Rosie back. But we can—‘
‘No,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m not leaving my sister with you guys.’
Serg, Trystan, and those two bulky guys lifting Trystan from the floor, might make for an interesting road trip, but it wasn’t a guaranteed safe one. Mauri usually put up with Trystan’s exploits and then chastised him for them afterwards.
‘Dax probably figured that,’ Serg said.
His men had Trystan up on his feet and despite the split lip, Trystan was unharmed, except he wore an expression of thunder. ‘You set this up, didn’t you, bitch?’ Trystan shouted at her.
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.
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘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.
Fighting Back (Harrow #2) Page 24