Fighting Back (Harrow Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ Dax said. ‘You should have come to me with this before coming here by yourself. What was the next part of your plan? Were you going to speak to Carlos alone?’

  ‘If I had to, yes.’

  ‘Men like that don’t talk to women; he wouldn’t have answered your questions.’

  ‘Do you know Carlos?’

  ‘No. I don’t have to know the specific guy to know what they’re like. Pimps like to exert power over women and are caught up in their own importance. Even if you did beg he still wouldn’t give you the information that you wanted. Who is Darryl?’

  ‘Darryl Kay is the guy who owned the house that I worked in, at least I thought he was, he’s the one that I worked for.’

  ‘That’s a good start. I can call Mauri and—‘

  ‘I don’t want us to owe them anything,’ she said, stepping back and dropping her hands. ‘If we ask them for help then they’ll expect us to do what they tell us to. I also don’t want them to know that this is important to me, it’s personal, and if they ask me to reveal… I don’t want them to have ammunition that they can use against me.’

  ‘I’ll deal with it,’ he said, reaching for her hand. ‘Your name doesn’t have to come up in conversation.’

  ‘So how will you get Mauri to—‘

  ‘To give up the man who tricked my future wife? Mauri teaches his kin young that disrespect is the greatest enemy. If I tell him that I want a face to face with the guy, Mauri will set it up. If he wants me to take over then he’s going to have to give me everything I ask for.’

  ‘Are you still considering taking over?’ she asked, hooking his belt loop to pull him back to the couch. ‘How did things go with Serg?’

  ‘It was… like old times.’

  ‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing?’

  ‘It felt good being out there again, I guess, you know, doing something. But once I knew you were here in Vegas, my mind wasn’t on the job.’

  ‘I told Bri I would call her and let her know that we arrived safely,’ she said. Though they had arrived in California days ago, Ivy’s newest friend had plenty going on in her own life, so she shouldn’t have spent too much time worrying. But Ivy did feel bad that she hadn’t phoned sooner.

  ‘Ok, you phone her. I’ll order room service then call Mauri.’

  ‘Can that wait?’ Ivy asked, climbing over him to straddle his lap. ‘I want you to myself for a night. Since Brad showed up, we’ve either been fighting or avoiding each other, least that’s how it feels.’

  Her husband made no secret about the fact that he was on guard and distracted tonight. He hadn’t been in Vegas for long, and there had been plenty of drama already. She had to find a way to take his mind off the turmoil going on around them. Focusing entirely on each other might lead to a sleepless night, but it would be worth it.

  Breakfast at the hotel was exquisite and far more extravagant than anything she’d had before. Waking Dax up had taken quite a while, but she was determined that they would share this meal together and then get to work. The food was delicious and the service impeccable, Ivy was disappointed to leave the table now that they’d finished.

  ‘Can we afford this?’ she asked when Dax handed her a takeout cup of juice that he’d had the breakfast staff bring them before they left the restaurant.

  ‘Sure we can,’ he said, raising the cup that she held up to his lips so that he could drink it while it remained in her grasp.

  ‘It seems so unnecessary, to waste this kind of money, we might need it someday.’

  ‘You’re the one who called this excursion our honeymoon,’ he said, throwing an arm around her. He dragged her body into his and slid his shades over his eyes when they walked out into the desert heat.

  ‘Is that why you bought the suite? Or are you overcompensating?’

  He stopped, still under the hotel awning, and faced her. ‘You got a problem with the equipment you’ve been playing with?’

  ‘No,’ she said with a flash of a smile.

  ‘I’ll drop my pants and fuck you right here if you need the reminder.’

  ‘No, tough guy,’ she said, tucking herself under his arm, against his solid form. ‘I’m not talking about your dick. I’m talking about us going to visit my ex.’

  ‘I’ve got nothing to prove,’ Dax said, swaggering onto The Strip. ‘I know this loser doesn’t compare to me. He’s shit scared of me anyway, just like he should be.’

  ‘He used to give me foot massages after I’d spent a long day on my feet on a shift,’ she teased.

  ‘Hmm,’ he sort of grunted. ‘And since we’ve been married, have you been on your feet for a whole day?’

  ‘No, but—‘

  ‘Fuck foot massages, I massage the more interesting parts of your body.’ His hand opened over her breast and she nudged her hip into him.

  ‘I’ll take you over a foot massage any day,’ she said, kissing his arm. ‘Orgasms were hit and miss with Saul.’

  Giving him that boost made her feel better because she knew when the men came face to face with each other again that the testosterone would fly. As grateful as she was to Saul for helping her out in her time of need, she wanted Dax to be secure in their marriage because there was no better man as far as she was concerned. Though she wouldn’t tell him that, his ego was already healthy enough.

  ‘I hit your mark every time, babygirl.’

  Often more than once, it helped that their lives together served as constant foreplay. ‘Yes, you’re better in bed, does that make you feel like a stud?’

  ‘I fuck better than him and I fight better than him,’ Dax said. ‘Fuck yeah, I am the man.’

  His arm came up to around her neck when she laughed, and she turned her mouth down to it. ‘Yes, you are.’

  ‘Now where is this lesser guy?’

  ‘We need to get a cab,’ she said. ‘And when we get there, I need you to say nothing, not a word.’

  ‘I do strong and silent better than other dudes as well.’

  ‘Yes. You’re quite the catch. I’d suggest that we run off together and get married, but…’

  ‘You’re too late,’ he said, wiggling his occupied ring finger in her face. He moved them off the sidewalk and hailed a cab. ‘Let’s get this over with then I’ll call Mauri.’

  Dax was so eager to say goodbye to her past but at the same time he clung fiercely to his own. Letting go wasn’t so difficult for her, perhaps because she’d done it so many times before.

  This Saul guy had a nice bungalow with a huge yard fit for entertaining. Dax had propped himself on a railing by the pool with a view into the concrete shed that Saul had opened for Ivy. Her things were in there, and she had gone inside to pick out her bags, so Saul had handed Dax an ice-cold beer and joined him in his wait.

  ‘You’re a lucky guy,’ Saul said to him.

  Dax took a mouthful of the beer and watched Ivy’s ass as she bent into the shadow of the building to look in a bag. ‘Yeah,’ Dax said. Ivy had told him not to say much and that suited him, he had no intention of getting buddy-buddy with this prick who used to fuck his wife.

  ‘Ivy’s great,’ Saul said.

  ‘Yeah.’

  They kept drinking their beer and Dax maintained his patient demeanour, but he was eager to get Ivy’s shit and get the hell away from here.

  ‘So… any fights planned while you’re in town?’

  ‘Nope,’ Dax said.

  ‘I could… you know, I could hook you up if you wanted…’

  Lowering his chin, Dax peered over the top of his shades at this eager puppy. ‘You think I need help from a guy like you?’

  ‘No! No, I… I was just saying… I know people and I could… I could get you a good deal.’

  ‘Shit,’ Dax exhaled and didn’t hide his smile as he pushed away from the railing to cross to Ivy’s ass, which was still in the air. That skirt of hers licked the top of her thighs inviting him to whip it out of the way and slide into her real deep.
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br />   After all this time together, his dick shouldn’t react to her so impulsively, but it did. When he got there, he smacked her ass, and she immediately righted herself to peek over her shoulder. ‘Don’t do that in front of Saul.’

  ‘Why?’ Dax asked, happy that her body came to rest against him. ‘The guy’s a loser, what did you see in him? Forget it, I don’t want to know.’ The last thing that he wanted was to hear his wife talk about the positive attributes of her ex.

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said, bending again, this time she deliberately pushed her ass into him.

  ‘If you’d told me this needed to be done, I’d have sent guys over here. I don’t want you to be here.’

  ‘You don’t want to be here,’ she said.

  Slipping a hand up under her skirt, he pressed the length of his cold bottle against her panties, and she gasped in a breath that reminded him of how she breathed in the throes of passion. ‘You’re not going fast enough,’ he said.

  His body blocked hers from the view of the yard, and she was still half-in, half-out the shed, so he fingered aside her panties and touched her core with the condensation covered bottle.

  ‘Don’t do that,’ she said, but when she tried to stand up, he splayed his other hand on the small of her back and held her down.

  ‘Take a couple of steps forward, I’ll close this door and fuck you right here.’

  ‘We are not having sex at my ex-boyfriend’s place,’ she hissed.

  ‘Why not? Worried about upsetting him?’

  ‘No, but I am not a trophy,’ she said, groping around she found his wrist and pulled his hand off her back so that she could stand up.

  But he took the opportunity to seek out her breast, which he fondled through her dress. Kissing along the scratch Trudi had left on her neck, he flicked her earlobe with his tongue. ‘This fucking heat, doesn’t it turn you on?’

  ‘No,’ she said, using her body to move his around, she remained flush with him but brought the pool into their view. ‘But I do think that we should get a pool.’

  ‘At the apartment?’ he asked.

  As it stood, they didn’t have a fixed abode. They had been living in North Carolina, then they flew to his apartment in California, but Mauri wanted them to live at the mansion. Right now, they lived in a hotel in Vegas, so putting in a pool wasn’t an option.

  ‘Wherever we end up,’ she said.

  He didn’t like the way she sighed as she spoke, she had to be fed up with his ties to the Starks, and he could understand that after everything they had put her through. Turning down Mauri should have been his first instinct, but he couldn’t be stupid enough to ignore the chance that Mauri was presenting. If they took over the Stark empire, then Dax would be able to give Ivy anything she wanted.

  He had money from the many fights he’d taken part in over the years. But he wasn’t dumb enough to think that he could fight for the rest of his life, he would have to retire eventually, probably sometime soon. His bank account was healthy and would support them if they chose to live a modest life. But he wanted to take care of Ivy and living in the opulence of the Stark mansion would give her the luxury he felt that she deserved.

  ‘Why don’t you go inside and call Mauri,’ Ivy said. ‘I’ll finish up out here.’

  All she was doing was transferring her things from several smaller bags into a larger one and a suitcase that Saul had given her to use. It shouldn’t take her too long, and she didn’t want to be party to his conversation with Mauri anyway.

  Leaving her alone, he went inside, passing Saul without speaking to him, and picked up the phone to dial Mauri’s direct number. Few people had direct access to Mauri, Dax was one of the lucky ones.

  ‘Hello?’ Mauri answered the phone, he wouldn’t have recognised the number calling him so his suspicious voice was understandable.

  ‘It’s me,’ Dax said. ‘I need something.’

  ‘Anything.’

  ‘The guy Ivy worked for in Vegas, who was he?’

  ‘Darryl Kay,’ Mauri said. ‘He’s on his yacht, sailing in the Pacific now.’

  Men like that didn’t own sailboats, they owned ships that were filled with luxuries. Staying in Vegas had no doubt been a step down for the man. ‘He owed you something?’

  ‘Several somethings,’ Mauri said. He had connections all over the world and kept a running tally of who he’d done favours for over the years. Maurice Stark had no shame in calling in a favour when it suited him. ‘What do you want with him? Did he touch Ivy? Hurt her?’

  The concern in Mauri’s voice was no doubt meant to curry favour with Dax, but it hadn’t occurred to him to question what Ivy had gone through in the three days she’d worked for Darryl Kay.

  ‘He just did you a favour?’ Dax asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When did he leave Vegas?’

  ‘Not long after we took Ivy,’ Mauri said. ‘The man had a weak stomach.’

  ‘If Ivy left something in Kay’s place, where would it be now?’ Dax asked.

  ‘Is there something in particular—‘

  ‘Do you know the answer to my question?’

  ‘I can look into it,’ Mauri said.

  Standing in Saul’s kitchen, Dax dropped his fist to the countertop. Mauri knew all the details of an operation like that especially one that involved his future daughter-in-law, as Ivy was supposed to be. There was no way that he had to “look into” anything, he already had the answer.

  ‘You’re forgetting who you’re talking to, Mauri,’ Dax said, lowering the bass of his voice. ‘If you want me to trust you, then you better show me some respect. I can walk any time I want.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Mauri exhaled. ‘I’ll have her things ready when you come to the party. I’ll find out where they are, and I’ll have them brought to your suite.’

  Their room, so Mauri was expecting them to move into the mansion after the party. While growing up in the mansion, Dax had resided in the staff quarters, he had never had a suite in the main body of the house like Brad and Trystan did. Mauri was going to great lengths to make him feel special, Dax just hadn’t figured out why this was so important to the old man yet.

  ‘Good,’ Dax said. ‘You do that.’

  After hanging up the phone, Dax remained in the kitchen. Keeping watch out of the back window, he made sure that Saul didn’t go anywhere near Ivy while she sorted through her possessions.

  Slugging more beer from his bottle he fixated on her ass again, but knowing that Saul was also enjoying the view of her body irritated him. After this day, his wife wouldn’t go near any man who had touched her in the past, he would make sure that she knew it.

  Chapter Nine

  Ivy had her doubts that Maurice Stark would deliver for them, but Dax was confident that he would. Dax had been conditioned from a young age to have utter faith in his mentor, that kind of unshakable trust confounded her.

  After witnessing Dax’s turmoil when Mauri failed to accept their relationship, she worried that Dax would crash if he was disappointed again. During their early days, Dax had been convinced that Mauri would embrace their marriage once he knew how much they cared for, and loved, each other. It hadn’t worked out that way at all.

  When she requested that they stay in Vegas for the week instead of rushing back to LA, Dax had yielded. It gave them time to relax and enjoy themselves without the watchful eye of the Stark network.

  But on the Saturday of Maurice Stark’s party, they flew back to California with Ivy’s possessions in tow. Having her clothes and knick-knacks back was great, but what she really wanted was the bag Mauri had promised would be at the party tonight.

  They hadn’t been back at the apartment for very long. Dax had gone straight into the shower, leaving her to deal with the unpacking and laundry. Now in the bedroom closet sorting through their apparel, she heard him come out of their bathroom and move into the bedroom, so she called out to him.

  ‘Are you ever going to tell me what happened?’ she shout
ed just loud enough for her voice to carry through the open closet door.

  When he came into the doorway, he was already clothed though his hair was still damp. ‘Tell you about what?’ he asked, clipping the metal strap of his watch closed.

  ‘What happened between you and Mauri at that midnight meeting?’

  ‘That was months ago,’ Dax said. ‘The meeting when I told them to go to hell then spent seven weeks trying to find you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said, folding a clean tee-shirt into a drawer, she closed it then set her sights on him. ‘You saw Mauri alone then you came back here to tell me that he had commanded us to go to a meeting at midnight at his mansion. I told you that Mauri would want you to hand me over to Trystan, so you let me leave here, to escape from them. But you went to the meeting by yourself, and it was something that happened at that meeting which made you walk away from them. You followed me across the country after that. Why did you come after me?’

  ‘I figured out that I loved you.’

  ‘You already knew that you loved me,’ she said, hooking her hands onto a shelf behind her. ‘You had already married me.’

  ‘Yeah, but I hadn’t lost you yet. I only married you so that he couldn’t.’ At least at the time, that was what Dax told himself, Ivy would never have married him if she hadn’t been sure that he reciprocated her feelings.

  Dax turned to leave, but she sprang forward to hold him back. ‘You went to that midnight meeting, you told me that you did.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I told them to go to hell, told them that I wanted to be with you and that I didn’t care about them anymore.’

  ‘What did they say to you?’ she asked. His countenance betrayed that there was something he didn’t want to share, he got irritated, and his attention went everywhere except to her. ‘Please, tell me, it will sound better coming from you, whatever it is, I’d rather know. Was it about me? Were they disrespectful? Do you think that you’re protecting me?’

  ‘I am protecting you,’ he said. ‘You know everything that you need to know.’