Fighting Back (Harrow Book 2) Read online

  ‘Mauri admitted that he gave them a financial incentive. She is here to collect a check, then fuck off again and that’s fine by me,’ Dax said. ‘We’ll just avoid each other. You and I managed to keep each other pretty occupied the last time we were here.’ He stripped down to his jeans and crossed to sit on the side of the bed. ‘Come and stand here.’

  This was a serious conversation that they had to have, but that serious expression on his face loosened to a brief smile before he adopted it again. He had said that to her, sat in that place and said those exact words to her, all those months ago.

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘Pick up right where we left off,’ he said. She sashayed toward him, slipping off her shoes and untying the halter of her dress on her journey. ‘Good.’

  The purr of arousal in his voice stalled her, and she held the ties of her dress straps over her shoulders so as not to reveal any of her flesh. ‘What do you think is going to happen here?’

  ‘Whatever the hell I want,’ he said, leaning over to grab the fabric of her dress, he dragged her nearer to him. So as to keep her breasts concealed, Ivy had to snatch the dress over her chest.

  ‘I’m not going to have sex with you,’ she said unable to keep the smile away from her face.

  ‘Oh, I think you will.’

  ‘I will not,’ she said, curling her fingers around his shoulders, which gave him the opportunity to pull down her dress. She wasn’t wearing a bra tonight, so when he pushed the apparel down over her hips, all that covered her was the pale silk of her panties.

  Flattening his inverted hands on her waist, he drove his fingers south to scoop her thong down her thighs, leaving it around her ankles. He kissed one nipple, then still with a hold of her hips, he leaned back, forcing her to kneel on the bed astride him.

  ‘Dax,’ she said while he enjoyed her breasts. ‘Is the ottoman still in the closet?’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ he said, his mouth curled in a smile.

  ‘Just in case, you know.’

  ‘I didn’t forget.’

  That ottoman held the money he’d given her when they were here before. ‘You still haven’t taken me to a fight.’

  ‘I think you’ve seen all the fighting that you need to,’ he said.

  The sound of his jeans being unbuckled carried to her ears. They wouldn’t make it for drinks on the deck tonight, Carina and Rosie would have to entertain themselves. After the day they’d had, this wasn’t a night to play catch-up with long-lost relatives. This was a night for man and wife to enjoy each other, to reassure each other, tomorrow would be their chance to start over if that was what Dax wanted to do.

  When Ivy woke up, she was alone, just like the old days. She sat up in bed and the light streaming through the high windows to her right made her eyes hurt. Dax liked to sleep in, usually she had to roll him out of bed in the morning with promises of giving him the world each day. So the fact that he was awake now meant either he hadn’t slept at all, or he’d had a message earlier that told him he was needed somewhere else for something else.

  Crawling to his side of the bed, she reached for his phone and flopped back in the sheets to scroll through and see who had sent him a message.

  Got a lead on Winlow. Pick you up at nine.

  The message was from Serg and the time on his phone read eight forty-nine, so Serg would be here soon. That was providing that Serg knew they were here, and he wasn’t planning on picking Dax up at their apartment, in which case, he would be here a lot later than nine.

  The bathroom door opened, and she tossed the phone onto the nightstand while rolling onto her side. ‘You’re going to leave me here alone so soon?’ she asked.

  ‘Beats playing happy families, doesn’t it?’ he said, plucking the towel from his waist to rub his hair. With a quick towel dry, he lobbed the damp towel across the room to land near her chest.

  ‘Can I come with you?’

  Though she already knew the answer, she was here to be safe from the threats that lurked everywhere, but that didn’t mean that she liked surrendering or that she relished the idea of being here without him, while he could be getting into trouble.

  ‘Are you kidding?’ he asked. ‘You’re staying here until I’m sure it’s safe for you out there.’

  ‘You can keep me safe,’ she said. ‘I’ll just sit in the back of the car and not say a word.’

  ‘You don’t know how to be silent,’ he said, sitting in a corner chair to lace his boots. ‘You wouldn’t be able to help yourself.’

  ‘If it’s the difference between being alone here and being out there, I think I could manage to be quiet. It’s in my best interest, right? If I stay quiet today, then you’ll have to take me with you tomorrow and so on.’

  ‘This is a safe place, Mauri has security on the property already.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I called him when I got out of bed,’ Dax said, sitting back to examine her. ‘You’re safe here.’

  ‘Maybe it’s just being locked up again, it makes me uneasy.’

  ‘You’re not locked in. I’ll talk to security and make sure that the front door stays unlocked at all times. Will that make you feel better?’

  ‘Maybe,’ she shrugged, dragging her gaze around the room. ‘Who thought we’d ever come back here by choice.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he muttered. ‘Wonders never cease. This is a temporary arrangement, don’t get used to it.’

  ‘No chance of that. Who is Winlow?’

  ‘Winlow is a sonofabitch who has a thing for knives. He also has ties to some of the LA gangs. I don’t want to threaten anyone while you’re around, I don’t want them to know your face. I’m guessing you don’t have much of a reputation around LA, you’ve never lived there. So tracking you will be hard if they don’t know what you look like.’

  ‘But it’s ok if they know your face?’ she groaned. ‘What happens when these people who are out to get me find out that you’re my husband? They’ll use you to get to me.’

  ‘You think I’ll let them hurt you to get myself out of a jam?’

  ‘No,’ she said, lifting handfuls of the sheet then flopping her arms down. ‘They might hurt you, I don’t want that to happen. I know you’re too stubborn to tell anyone anything about me. But I’d rather you handed me over than you got yourself killed. Am I supposed to sit around here with my sister and your mother and sip tea while you get yourself into trouble?’

  ‘Go for a swim, work out downstairs. Avoid them if you want to. I don’t give a shit.’

  Dax went into the closet, and she lay on her back again, bringing his towel to her face, Ivy inhaled the scent of clean man and enjoyed how it blocked out the light.

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’

  Dax’s voice betrayed that he was back in the room with her, so she pulled the towel down. ‘Wrong with me?’ she asked.

  ‘Usually you’re up as soon as the sun hits the horizon.’

  That wasn’t even close to being true because she could enjoy a nice lie in just as most of the population could, but that was Dax’s assessment of her because he was never awake himself to see how long she slept.

  ‘I’d think my troubles were kind of obvious,’ she said.

  ‘You never let the bastards get you down, never show fear or—‘

  ‘I’m not scared, I’m bored,’ she said. ‘Well, I know that I will be anyway. There’s no hurry to get out of bed, you’re leaving, I have no job to go to. I just have to stay here for maybe ever and do nothing. Maybe I should call Bri, find out if her and Blaser want to come for a vacation?’

  ‘Are you going to explain how we got here? Why there’s a bounty on your head? And who those women hanging around are?’

  No, she didn’t want to explain that and she wouldn’t want to put her friends in danger, which they could be if Mauri decided that he didn’t like having guests here whom he didn’t invite.

  ‘Ok, well you go and beat on some people, maybe that will make you feel
better. But you better be back here tonight, I don’t want any crap that you went and got yourself into a fight or anything.’

  ‘I shouldn’t need a fight,’ Dax said. ‘Not if we get our hands on Winlow.’

  A car horn blasted, which told her that Serg had arrived. Dax came over to the bed and leaned down to kiss her, but she covered her mouth with both hands, leaving him hanging there, his face a few inches from hers.

  ‘What?’ he asked. ‘You don’t want to kiss me? Are you pissed?’

  Elevating her hands just a little, she let herself talk but didn’t remove the barrier. ‘I love you. But don’t kill anyone today.’

  ‘I’ll try my best,’ he scowled.

  ‘They’ll probably deserve it, but you know how important it is that I get mine.’ Joking about sex was actually a potent reminder of how much she needed him by her side and the last place she wanted him to end up was in a jail cell.

  Ready to leave and not put off by her hands, his fingers curled under her hip, and he flipped her onto her front before she fathomed his intention. He spanked her three times, then ducked down to dig his teeth into her flesh, which made her laugh.

  ‘Dax!’

  ‘Be good,’ he said, spanking her again then retreating from the bed to leave the room.

  Ivy turned over to watch him go and saw his form disappear just before the door closed. Alone in this place she sighed and forced herself to get out of bed, now she had to go and make good with her mother-in-law.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The kitchen was filled with fresh food and beverages and everything that they could need for a prolonged stay. Ivy picked some fruit from the bowl on the kitchen island, then she retrieved a bowl and a board to chop it on.

  Casting her attention around, she focused on the drawer that had been locked during her last stay here. This time, it slid open without a hitch. Selecting a knife, Ivy went to work on peeling and chopping the fruit to put together a salad for breakfast.

  It was while she was squeezing some oranges for juice that the kitchen door swung open, and Carina came in wearing an ankle length skirt and gauze shirt over a basic tank top.

  ‘Good morning,’ Carina said.

  ‘Morning,’ she reciprocated but kept on juicing.

  ‘I’m sorry that you and Dax didn’t join us last night,’ Carina said, crossing to sit at the island Ivy was working on.

  ‘It was a long night. We just went to bed.’

  ‘I know that this is difficult, for all of us.’

  ‘It is,’ Ivy said. ‘But there’s no reason to make it more difficult than it has to be.’

  Pouring the last of the juice into the jug, she then transferred it to the fridge. Scooping some of the fruit salad into an individual bowl, Ivy covered the rest and put it into the fridge too.

  ‘Is that for Dax?’

  ‘The fruit salad?’ Ivy smirked. ‘No, he likes his fruit whole, and the only breakfast he has is tar thick coffee and the occasional donut or three when they’re around.’

  ‘He didn’t look like the type to enjoy deep fried food.’

  ‘I don’t think he’s met a junk food that he doesn’t like,’ Ivy said, taking another mouthful of fruit. She chewed and sucked out the juice but eventually swallowed. ‘He runs and works out all the time, so he needs the energy. And he’s a believer in everything in moderation.’ As she said it, Ivy immediately thought of at least two things he didn’t mind overindulging in, one of which was her.

  ‘You must think that this is odd,’ Carina said, smoothing a towel that lay folded on the counter. ‘I’m his mother, but I don’t know a thing about him.’

  ‘Dax isn’t an easy guy to get to know,’ Ivy said. ‘Why are you doing this? I mean, why are you here?’

  ‘I haven’t heard of him for so long and—‘

  ‘Look,’ Ivy said, shoving her bowl back so that she could lean on the counter. ‘You won’t win any points with me or Dax by bullshitting us, we have quite an accurate radar for that kind of shit.’

  ‘You’re a tough woman.’

  To go with her tough guy, yeah, that made sense. But it wasn’t her job to make friends with the mother of her husband, Ivy knew her job now was to protect him, not to prioritise building bridges.

  ‘You came here for money,’ Ivy said. ‘Mauri said it to us at the mansion. You’ll get a lot further with both of us if you’re honest.’

  ‘Mauri tracked me down,’ she said. ‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to get to know my son… and the woman he loves of course.’

  The kitchen door swung open again and her sister, Rosie, swanned in with a grin on her face. ‘This place is immense! Your husband is related to zillionaires!’

  The house only had three bedrooms, but the rooms were huge and the furnishings screamed wealth. Rosie was older than her by two years. They were the same height, but Rosie’s hair had been the same bleach blonde for as long as she could remember.

  ‘Where did Mauri find you?’ Ivy asked her sister who had already bounded over to snatch up Ivy’s fruit salad.

  ‘I was in Texas, singing in a club in Dallas,’ Rosie said, munching on an orange segment. ‘Where did you find that hunk of a husband? I didn’t really believe the guy who picked me up in Dallas when he told me you’d got married. But, wow, Ive, you did good. He’s a great guy.’

  Typical that Rosie would say such a thing having never exchanged a single word with Dax. ‘You don’t know anything about him,’ Ivy said.

  ‘Well, where is he? Bring him in.’

  ‘He’s not here,’ Ivy said. ‘He got called out to work.’ She wasn’t going to be the one to tell Rosie and Carina about the gangs of people possibly looking to cause her harm. Mauri might have let them know, but until she talked to Dax about the merits of full disclosure, she was keeping her mouth shut.

  ‘To work?’ Carina said. Something about the shift in her shoulders told Ivy that she knew exactly what Dax did, or rather had done, for the Stark family.

  ‘He’ll be back tonight,’ Ivy said, tidying up the mess she’d made.

  ‘Do you know that for sure?’ Rosie asked, polishing off the last of Ivy’s breakfast.

  Yes, Ivy was confident in Dax’s return, he wouldn’t want to leave her alone with all these variables floating around. He was also aware that he wouldn’t get laid for a month if he abandoned her here.

  ‘How do you know your way around this kitchen so well?’ Carina asked.

  ‘I’ve spent time here before, with Dax… and Bruno.’

  Ivy didn’t have to wait long for Carina to react. The woman left her stool and took a hand to her chest. ‘Mauri said that I wouldn’t have to see him.’

  ‘You don’t have to see him,’ Ivy said. ‘He’s not been around, he wasn’t in the mansion. Trystan said that he and Mauri had an argument.’

  ‘Trystan is cute,’ Rosie said, taking the empty bowl to the sink to dump it there.

  ‘Don’t even think about going there,’ Ivy said. Rosie went back to her stool. ‘You don’t want to get mixed up with him.’

  ‘Could be fun,’ Rosie said. ‘He’s a rich guy with class, I could do worse… hell, I have done worse!’ Rosie laughed. Carina was polite enough to smile, but the mention of Bruno’s name had rattled her.

  ‘How did you and Bruno meet?’ Ivy asked, crossing to the sink to wash up the dishes.

  ‘I don’t… I’m not sure that I should talk about that… should I?’ Carina asked.

  ‘I met my last serious boyfriend in a public restroom,’ Rosie said, pulling the jug of freshly squeezed orange juice from the fridge. ‘And yes, that story is as distasteful as it sounds. Where did you meet Dax?’

  ‘Vegas,’ Ivy answered honestly. ‘Why were you in Dallas? I thought you were staying with Auntie Jo?’

  ‘I was until she got this letch of a boyfriend, yuck, he thought he owned the whole place, and Jo just let him take over. I was out of there as soon as he started laying down rules like I was some dumb kid.’

&nb
sp; Some dumb kid was exactly how Rosie came across. It was a bit rich of Rosie to pass judgement on how Jo was with her boyfriends because Rosie was exactly the same. She let her boyfriend’s rule the roost and would let them get away with anything as long as they gave her attention. Rosie and Jo were just the same, their self-worth was directly tied to how much attention they got from the opposite sex.

  Carina was tough to get a read on. She seemed kind of classy but was uneasy around others, and uncomfortable with direct questions, something Dax could be guilty of too.

  ‘Have you heard from her recently? Is she ok?’ Ivy asked.

  ‘Last I heard, yeah,’ Rosie said, pouring out a full glass then putting the jug on the island while she sat on a stool and slurped from her glass. ‘I want to hear more about Dax.’

  ‘You’ll hear about Dax from him,’ Ivy said.

  It was unlikely that Dax would come back tonight and open up to a room full of women, but Ivy wasn’t going to give away information about him when she knew how private he liked to be. They were married now, and his secrets were her secrets, which was just the way she planned to keep them.

  ‘What’s downstairs?’ Rosie asked. Ivy’s hands went limp in the dishwater, and she drew in a breath at the reminder of what she’d endured in the space beneath their feet.

  ‘Yes,’ Carina said. ‘Rosie and I had a look around last night, and we couldn’t find the basement entrance.’

  ‘I think it’s that door by the stairs,’ Rosie said. ‘It’s the only one that wouldn’t open.’

  ‘It is,’ Ivy said. ‘Dax will have a key.’ Though there was a chance that door was locked for a reason.

  ‘It’s weird that they’d lock us out of just one place,’ Rosie said. ‘What do you think is down there?’

  Possibly another woman who inhabited her cell, though Ivy prayed that wasn’t the case. ‘Last time I was here it was just a gym.’

  ‘A gym? Well isn’t that monumentally disappointing? I was at least hoping for the family fortune, or maybe a private nightclub or something,’ Rosie sagged and dropped her head into her hands. ‘Can we even get down to the beach?’