Risk It All (Risqué #2)

by Scarlett Finn

  Dax followed her line of sight to see what had her transfixed and he was stunned to see a long black limo on the edge of the parking lot. It held the attention of the group of residents who were all in the parking lot, but Dax knew why that car was here. Such a show of opulence meant only one thing, the Stark family had come to town.

  Despising being a part of this show, Dax crossed the apartment complex parking lot in hopes of putting an end to it. Brad was standing inside the open limo door, proud of this garish display. The chauffeur still held open the door so Dax stopped on the other side of it, separating himself from Brad.

  ‘Care to take a ride?’ Brad asked him without removing his shades.

  The group of people he’d left to come over here still hung outside the apartment building he’d been living in with Ivy since he tracked her down here about a month ago. Making a scene wasn’t ever on his agenda, so granting the request with a single nod, the driver moved aside to let Dax follow Brad into the car.

  The driver closed the door and Dax chose the seat opposite Brad, with his back to the screen covered driver’s area. Neither of them spoke until the car was moving.

  ‘You need to come home,’ Brad said.

  ‘If that’s why you’re here you can drop me off now,’ Dax said. ‘The answer is no.’

  ‘I didn’t ask. I told you, you’re coming home.’

  ‘What are you going to do? Drive me to the airport? Sorry, no ID.’

  ‘Brought a jet, we’re on a private airstrip.’

  His first thought was for Ivy who had been with the people he’d left in the parking lot. If he got on a jet with Brad then California was their destination. If he didn’t get on the jet then Brad would just keep on coming back for him until he got his way and Ivy might get caught in the crossfire. Resigning himself to the fact that he would end up doing what Brad asked of him didn’t mean that he was going quietly.

  ‘You have to give me something,’ Dax said. ‘You and Tryst miss me so bad that you had to chase me down?’ Brad and Trystan Stark were Maurice Stark’s two sons and they had been sort of surrogate brothers to him through the years.

  ‘Mauri wants to see you, it’s important.’

  ‘Sure it is, Dax said. ‘I told you I didn’t give a fuck and that hasn’t changed. I’m not interested in Maurice Stark, or you and your brother anymore.’

  ‘Still with Dune?’

  ‘It’s Harrow,’ Dax said, correcting Brad’s use of Ivy’s maiden name.

  ‘Oh that’s right, you married the woman you were supposed to be training for Trystan… You’re lucky he didn’t kill you for that stunt.’

  If this was a different environment, Dax might have laughed. ‘He wants to start something, he obviously knows where I am, tell him to come and visit. Ivy might even cook.’

  ‘You are still with her,’ Brad said. ‘Serg said that you were but I’ve got to say, I didn’t believe it.’

  Serg was one of Mauri’s henchmen and a one-time close associate of Dax’s. ‘We’re married,’ Dax said. ‘You think I’d have fucked around on the family if I wasn’t sure she was the only female I wanted?’

  ‘Do you want us to pick her up? She can join us on the trip.’

  ‘I haven’t said I’m going anywhere yet,’ he said, clenching his jaw in the process.

  Maurice Stark had taught him arrogance; he was a superior sonofabitch who taught all of his sons to be assured. Brad managed it with eminence and authority, Dax did it with aloof indifference, and the youngest, Trystan, used overt garish glitz to show the world that he was better than everyone in it.

  Truth be told Dax wasn’t like the other two, he was an unofficially adopted Stark. Mauri had caught Dax picking his pocket as a kid and brought him home to be raised in the servants’ quarters.

  At least that was the story Dax had been raised to believe for all of his thirty-three years until Ivy Dune came in and turned his life on its head. After her he started to ask questions of himself, he rebelled against who the Stark’s had conditioned him to be and then Mauri had revealed some truths that Dax would rather not have known.

  ‘Bruno bet money that you wouldn’t come,’ Brad said. ‘I took the bet knowing that the minute you heard that you’d be leaping onto a plane.’

  Finding out that Bruno, Mauri’s contemporary and right-hand man, was his real father and the real reason Mauri had been at the fight night he found Dax at, made him sick to his stomach. Grinding his teeth, he looked out the window for a distraction.

  ‘Why’d they send you?’ Dax asked, still not tempted to return to the Golden State.

  ‘Can’t trust Tryst to do anything,’ Brad said. ‘The kid flipped out after you left and went on a binge. Mauri had Serg track him down and bring him back to the mansion. He’s been pretty much locked up since then.’

  ‘He’ll be loving that,’ Dax muttered. There was only a few months age difference between him and Trystan, but the kid was called that because he still acted like a kid in a candy store as soon as drugs and sex were on offer.

  ‘Mauri wants you back. We sent Serg out first, he watched you to get the skinny on what you’ve been up to – working security at that strip joint, Risqué? Got your wife answering phones at an auto garage? Come on, you know you’re worth better than this. Come home.’

  ‘Why? To jump back into enforcing? You want me running the operations again?’

  ‘No one did it better.’

  ‘I have a life here, a wife.’

  ‘We’re not asking you to leave her behind, bring her. You can stay in the mansion together or move into your old place, I know that you haven’t sold it yet.’

  ‘Been a little busy.’

  ‘Then it all works out,’ Brad said with open arms. ‘If you’re really planning on living here you’ll need to come back home to sell your apartment. You’ll need to pack up and move, right? You can stay in the mansion while you do that.’

  Sitting forward, he propped his elbows on his knees and looked Brad square in his eyes. ‘If you think that I’m going to trust you cock-sucking perverts anywhere near my wife—‘

  ‘Ivy’s safe,’ Brad sighed. The condescending impatience displayed by Brad retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge was meant to rile Dax and it succeeded. Dax snatched the bottle and tossed it to the floor. The men shared a glare before Brad relented.

  ‘Mauri has told everyone to accept her as your wife. All the guys know it, so she’s safe.’

  Mauri’s word was absolute, but Dax didn’t trust Brad any more than the motherfucker trusted him. ‘Like when you tried to take her from me at the beach house?’ Dax asked, Brad’s bottom lip twitched. ‘You came to that party and tried to get her to leave with you. What was that about?’

  ‘Good old-fashioned double cross,’ Brad said. ‘Trystan wanted her, you had her, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about… I also had to test how obedient she was, to see how dependent on you she had become.’

  ‘And were you surprised?’

  ‘That she refused? No,’ Brad said. ‘But I didn’t see the love, I didn’t see how dependent you’d become on her. You two played a good game.’

  The battle isn’t over…

  Fighting Back

  The fight was supposed to be over, but the Stark family aren’t willing to let go of Dax yet.

  Dax and Ivy Harrow have moved on and started a new life when out of the blue Brad Stark shows up and tells them that they have unfinished business.

  Trying to protect Dax from the darkness of his previous life puts Ivy at risk from an unseen enemy. Swearing to ensure her safety, Dax must use every tool in his arsenal to identify and eliminate the danger.

  But love alone won’t be enough to save Ivy’s life this time and to keep her alive Dax may have to surrender to the demons he wants to bury. The future that fate promised him will be lost unless he can stand up to his past. But sacrificing himself may be the only way to save the woman he loves.

  Coming soon on Amazon

&nb
sp; The ultimate test of loyalty…

  Fighting Fate

  Ivy Dune knows how to survive.

  Even when her paycheck-to-paycheck life is ripped from her by a vicious crime lord without a conscience, Ivy knows she’ll do whatever it takes to make it to the other side alive.

  Dax Harrow has made a living off of blood and pain…both in the ring and out.

  As an enforcer for the most lethal family in California, Dax knows the bounds of loyalty and will do anything to pay back the debt he owes them, no matter the cost.

  When Ivy is placed in Dax’s care neither of them are prepared for the fallout.

  As enemies close in around them, Ivy and Dax must be prepared for the fight of their lives.

  Available now on Amazon

  When all else fails…

  Take A Risk

  Trapper. Risqué.

  Two names is all that sex therapist Doctor Lyssa Cutler has, but it’s all she needs. Those two words reveal the name of a man and the name of the strip club that she’ll find him in. She might not have expected to find the solution to her stalker problem in such a place, but she does. In fact, Trapper turns out to be far more than just the man capable of tracking down her pursuer.

  Colt Warner’s better judgement tells him that he should reject the job offered to him by the inquisitive doctor because he can tell that this sassy sexpot is going to be trouble. Being attracted to a client goes against his usual ethics, but playing by the rules has never been his strong suit.

  Giving in to their sparking attraction lures reality into harsh focus. The stalker that brought them together doesn’t like the picture that the new couple presents and seems prepared to do anything to tear them apart.

  Questions mount up, answers are elusive, and only one thing is clear, time is running out.

  Available now on Amazon

  A woman walks into a bar...

  Explicit Instruction

  Stranded, Flick seeks salvation. Instead, she finds herself living in a nightmare, under threat of physical and sexual assault, but Flick can see no way out.

  Yet, an unexpected reprieve comes in the form of a stranger; a looming silhouette more terrifying than the evil that captured her. She learns that danger has an alias, Rushe. Abrupt, crude, and domineering he becomes her only hope for survival.

  Stolen away Flick has to rely on Rushe’s instincts to keep her alive. But rescuing her saviour from his own demise changes things... or does it?

  Flick entrusts her life to Rushe, but he still cannot bring himself to stand down from red-alert. There’s more going on than Flick understands and Rushe does not intend to give her any of the details.

  Freedom becomes a distant memory. The further into the criminal plot she is drawn, the deeper her entanglement with Rushe becomes. Without him, Flick won’t survive, but to him she is nothing more than a liability.

  The adventure she started by accident threatens her life and his; then Rushe does something unexpected and Flick knows it’s not only her life she is battling for, it’s her heart as well.

  Available now on Amazon

  While she’s playing the rush... he’s on tilt...

  Explicit Detail

  Integrating Flick into his life has given Rushe a new priority, to keep his woman where he wants her – safe and in his bed. But saving women who have no hope is a part of who he is, and it doesn’t take long for the next job to seek them out.

  Rushe knows the rules, but Flick has never played the game from this side of the table before. Working in parallel, our couple go undercover to expose the crucial details of an intrigue that sinks deeper than they could have predicted.

  Ready to get her hands dirty, Flick wades in, relishing the challenge. Except danger closes in on her from all sides, and Rushe has his own cards to play. They have to learn to work together before the job drives them apart.

  But if their union is revealed, it could cost them their lives.

  Available now on Amazon

  History isn’t finished with them… yet.

  Explicit Memory

  The past that they’d hoped to outrun has chased them down, and now it wants payback.

  To appease their debtors, they must delve into Rushe’s own history. As they come face to face with the situation that brought them together in the first place, Flick learns more about the man who she’s pledged her heart, and her body, to.

  When danger encroaches, Flick will resort to whatever measures are necessary to achieve their goal, but could that mean sacrificing their relationship?

  Available now on Amazon

  Trust can’t reason with lust…

  Reluctant Suspicion

  Doing his job means going undercover to get close to their latest suspect. Choker has been claiming victims and leaving no trace of evidence behind. Blake Carson has done his homework, but nothing can prepare him for what he experiences when he walks into Ashton’s bar to assume his latest role.

  The bar is Molly’s life, she’s the only person left in the family and so responsibility has fallen to her to keep the business going. But with the murders taking place so close to home, her staff and customers are getting edgy. She can’t afford to lose it all, but she can’t run the place alone. When Blake appears it seems that all of her prayers have been answered.

  Brought closer by a terrifying event, Molly’s trust in this stranger grows. Blake knows that she’ll discover who he really is and never forgive him for his lies. But he just can’t make himself stay away from the enticing licensee he was supposed to be here to ensnare.

  Available now on Amazon

  When friendship is a high stakes game...

  Mistake Me Not

  It might have been a simple mistake that threw Lacie and Ryder together; but another mistake nearly tears them apart.

  Lacie believes in loyalty above all else, so when her best friend Sorcha needs help Lacie doesn't think twice. But, following Sorcha’s instructions leads Lacie to inadvertently hire the wrong PI. Unaware of her error Lacie is horrified by her body’s overwhelming attraction to this man she has only just met. Especially since every other man leaves her less than lukewarm. Worse still, Lacie believes he is Sorcha's ex, and she would never consider betraying her friend.

  Ryder Stone wasn’t going to correct the little brunette who caught him in the middle of a little B and E; the case sounded easy enough and he wouldn’t want her to be taken advantage of – at least that was his excuse.

  Except neither comprehend the danger ahead. Oblivious to what they’re walking into Ryder finds himself unconscious with only Lacie’s screams and his own imagination to torment him. Unfortunately, it’s not over for them yet.

  Their one misstep leads them into a plot that extends close to home. Lacie has seen something. She’s in trouble and none of them know it until it’s too late and... she’s gone

  Available now on Amazon

  A small town girl in the big, bad city...

  The XY Factor

  The two of them may have grown up in the same town but their ways couldn’t have been more different – he was the rebel and she the invisible princess. No one knew of the chance encounter between Darcy and Sloan on his last night in town almost a decade and a half ago.

  But when Inverquay needs money Darcy steps up to take part in her worst nightmare – a TV talent show. Things don’t go to plan and she ends up under the glare of the media spotlight. In the big bad city she’s alone, and to a small town girl that’s inconceivable; but no one knows why she’s there so Darcy has no one to rely on.

  Sloan swore he’d never go back to Inverquay and after thirteen years he’d rid himself of the town that had forsaken him. Until he stumbles upon the girl he met only hours before he roared away from Inverquay on his bike, and she trusts him... now why in the hell would she do something as stupid as that?

  Available now on Amazon

  Your trouble is you believe everything you read...

  Rivals ON AIR

  Hunter
and Annie hadn’t met, not until they were thrown together by their bosses to justify that kiss. One kiss, one picture, and their worlds collide.

  Their audiences clamour for more. The press are speculating, and truthfully... they can’t stand each other. But now they’re in each other's lives, because how can they walk away from that picture with their credibility?

  Each spend show after show goading and teasing the other, so their bosses come up with the solution – fall in love... though not really, of course.

  Nevertheless, the competition is heating up and the numbers are too close to call. Hunter’s boss Theo won’t have it. They need edge. They have to win this, because both stations are running the same format. Whoever wins the award takes it all... the loser will have to cancel.

  Annie’s getting under Hunter’s skin. Theo questions his professionalism, and demands that he proves his mettle. Ethical, schmethical – get into the girl’s underwear, make her believe it’s real, and she’ll be begging them to win the award.

  The fragile trust between the pair burgeons, yet their careers drive their lives, and this was always just a gimmick... wasn’t it?

  Then Annie makes the move and invites Hunter into her bed... what’s a man to do?

  Available now on Amazon