Security let them through the gate, and Serg drove up the driveway at a pace that made Dax consider practising his craft here. ‘Think about what you’re going to do before you get in there,’ Serg said.
‘Fuck that,’ Dax said. ‘You stay out of it.’
The car stopped, and Dax jumped out. Going straight to the front door, he was happy to dispense with anyone who wanted to get in his way. But there were no guys on the door to obstruct him, which was unusual.
He found out why security was absent from the rest of the house when he got up to Mauri’s suite. There were ten security guys in there, forming a barrier around Mauri and pinning Bruno to the wall near the door. Carina was on the couch, wailing about something, but Dax blocked it out. As far as he was concerned, Bruno was his prey and that was all he was focused on now.
Snatching a handful of the first security man’s shirt, he hauled him back and decked him. While that guy was rolling on the floor, Dax pulled the other one off and landed a knockout punch on him. Bruno was freed, Dax could hear Mauri’s protestations and the thunder of security men closing in on him.
Bruno’s smug face deserved a punch of its own. Dax delivered, knocking the man back against the wall with a thud. He’d had to contain the power of his fist because he wanted answers before he ended the man.
‘Why?’ Dax asked, balling his fists in Bruno’s jacket and slamming him back against the wall. ‘You tell me you fucking piece of shit why my wife was the—‘
‘The slut’s got you on a leash,’ Bruno said, showing his teeth in a grin. ‘Here pussy, pussy—‘
‘Jealous you motherfucker?’ Dax asked. Bringing one arm back, he clenched his fist and thought about how much he’d enjoy ending this bastard’s life.
‘Wait!’ Mauri exclaimed. ‘Dax, don’t!’
‘Why the fuck shouldn’t I?’ Dax asked with his eyes pinned on Bruno, who was still grinning.
‘Daddy wants you taking over the organisation,’ Bruno snarled. ‘That double-crossing bastard needs you to be squeaky clean.’
‘He is your father, Dax,’ Mauri said. ‘Family is—‘
‘Bullshit,’ Dax said, thrusting away from Bruno he turned to face Mauri. ‘You wanted me as long as I did what I was told. You don’t want me now, you don’t want me running the racket; you just want me to agree, so you know that you still have me.’
‘You’re here now,’ Mauri said. ‘This is where you’re supposed to be.’
‘It was you he wanted all along,’ Bruno said, coming close enough to mutter in Dax’s ear. The sound of a gun being cocked made Dax leap back a step, but when Bruno raised the gun it was trained in Mauri’s direction. ‘I gave you my life, and you favour this piece of shit!’
Dax was forgotten in Bruno’s mist of psychosis. Bruno strode toward Mauri. Some of the security men backed off, while others closed in around Mauri. Carina bounced up to her feet, and Dax kept backing away, widening his field of vision so no one could take him by surprise. There wasn’t a person in this room who he trusted, but the only person in the world he did trust was locked up in his apartment far from this danger.
‘You won’t even face me like a man!’ Bruno screamed. ‘You get these bastards out of here and we’ll settle this.’
‘Dax is your son,’ Mauri said. ‘You should be proud of what he’s accomplished that he can take over an empire like the one we built.’
‘We! We built it,’ Bruno said. ‘You betraying fuck—‘
‘Betraying?’ Mauri asked. ‘You slept with my wife for half a decade!’
Dax hadn’t been sure that Mauri knew that before Ivy brought it up, apparently he had. ‘You forgave that!’ Bruno said. ‘That was years ago!’
‘I caught you together, I had no idea that it had gone on for as long as it had. I let you walk away from here alive because of our history and now you do this? You come in here and threaten me in my home! Kill me, yes, you can do that, but it will change nothing. My assets are still bequeathed to Brad and Dax, a bullet will not change that.’
‘Please,’ Carina said. ‘Everybody calm down, someone will get hurt!’
So Mauri had been happy to have Bruno at his side as long as Mauri was still running things, but the betrayal of Bruno and Winnie had come out, and that had changed things for Mauri. He wouldn’t give the reins of all that he had built to the man who had stolen his wife.
‘Is that why you wanted to take Ivy out?’ Dax asked, seeing his chance to get the answers that he wanted. ‘You found a wife you couldn’t fuck?’
Bruno whipped around but kept the gun waving in Mauri’s direction. ‘I could fuck your wife if I wanted to, she’s a horny little bitch who likes it rough, I’d fuck that tight pussy, and she’d never come back to your bed!’
Storming over, Dax was ready to finish this; Mauri was shouting, and security had no idea how to act. Until a few weeks ago, Mauri and Bruno had been on the same team. It wasn’t so long ago that Dax was a part of that team too.
The gun came around toward him in an arc and Bruno fired off a round. The bullet went wide, giving Dax plenty of room to duck it. Dipping down, he thrust his arm up to grab Bruno’s wrist and twist it down to free the gun from his grip. The gun fell, but Dax caught it in his lower hand and immediately backed away, bringing the weapon up to aim at the others in the room.
‘Well done, Dax!’ Mauri said with beaming pride, but Dax wasn’t interested in his pride anymore, and he proved that by aiming the gun at Mauri.
‘You all out of here,’ Dax said to the security men. ‘This isn’t your fight, and take those two with you.’
Security did as they were told, taking the two men Dax had hit out of the room with them. Dax had worked with many of them and didn’t want to see them sacrificed for the good of the two scumbag men who remained. The drawing room door closed and Dax waved the gun at the bedroom door.
‘Go and lock it,’ he said. It was unlikely that there was anyone in there, certainly anyone who would take a bullet for Mauri, but Dax didn’t want any surprises.
Mauri went over to the door and turned the key that was in the lock, then he about-faced to saunter back to his place behind his armchair.
‘You,’ Dax said to Carina. ‘Get up and go stand by Mauri.’
‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘She’s not welcome at my side. She has been feeding Bruno information.’
Dax glared at Carina, who hovered in front of the fireplace. ‘He called me,’ Carina said. ‘When we were at the beach house, I was so surprised and—‘
‘And you thought that you’d get in on the action,’ Dax said. ‘Why not claim the bounty for yourself?’
‘She’s no killer,’ Bruno said. ‘And I wanted to see Ivy go slow, the wait was worth it. I knew she was living in fear never knowing who to trust or when the bullet would come… I went to Vegas, we were gonna get together, and that fucking fuckwit of a boyfriend got in the way.’
‘Saul died trying to protect you from the man who wanted Ivy dead,’ Dax said to Carina. He wasn’t hurt or disappointed for himself, he had nothing invested in these strangers. But Ivy would be hurt to hear that the woman she’d been trying to trust had shopped them to Bruno.
‘What are you going to do now, boy?’ Mauri asked.
‘Now it’s time to tell a few truths. I’m not coming back,’ Dax said to Mauri. ‘I will never willingly work for you. Kidnap me, hold me at gunpoint, I won’t do it.’
‘You would if Ivy was at the end of that gun,’ Mauri said.
‘No,’ Dax said. ‘I’d do exactly what I just did, and I’d turn the tables on you. I’ll let you walk away from this today but only because your days are numbered, old man. Brad and Trystan can have your empire, they don’t want me to be anywhere near it and for once the three of us agree on that.’
‘So much for the experiment,’ Bruno said to Mauri. ‘You were so sure that he would come through for you, Mauri. So sure that picking him up at that shitty club when he was a squirt of a kid was going to benefit us all, now look at where we’ve ended up.’