‘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.
Maurice Stark exuded 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 ostentatious 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. When he was a kid, Dax had been caught in the act of picking Mauri’s pocket. Mauri didn’t punish him, he brought Dax 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. I knew as soon as you heard he’d said 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 that Mauri had taken pity on him as a kid, made him sick to his stomach. Grinding his teeth, Dax sought distraction in the world sweeping past his view through the window.
‘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 got Serg to track him down and drag him back to the mansion. He’s been pretty much locked up since then.’
‘He’ll be loving that,’ Dax muttered. There were only a few months age difference between him and Trystan, but he referred to Trystan as a kid because he still acted like a child in a candy store as soon as drugs and sex were on offer.
‘Mauri wants you back. Serg’s been watching you, we sent him ahead, so he could give us the skinny on what you’ve been doing – working security at that strip joint, Risqué? Got your wife answering phones at an auto garage? Come on, you know you’re worth more than this. Come home.’
‘Why? To jump back into enforcing? You want me running the operation 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 you haven’t sold it yet.’
‘Been a little busy.’
‘Then it all works out,’ Brad said, opening his arms. ‘If you’re 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, Dax 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 stared each other down until Brad relented and spoke to reinforce his declaration.
‘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.’
Dax wasn’t interested in impressing Brad. ‘Why now? Why should I come back when—‘
‘He’s sick, Mauri is sick… We should’ve figured it out when he pulled that trick about Tryst marrying Ivy, he’s known for months. It’s cancer, stage four, inoperable, he’s got about four months.’
Wiping a hand over his mouth, he sat back. Much as Mauri pissed him off during the Ivy situation he was the closest thing Dax had to a father and no one wanted to receive news like this about family.
His hand slid off his thigh to seek out its mate, its partner, except it wasn’t there because his wife wasn’t present. Ivy had become his support, and without her here, he was lost as to the appropriate way to react.
‘He wants to say goodbye?’ Dax asked.
Mauri wasn’t exactly the sentimental type, but Dax had grown up listening to the man talk. Mauri had counselled him on everything from girls to his fighting technique. The world wouldn’t be any worse off with one less crime boss in it, but Dax would be worse off without his mentor.
‘He wants to settle old debts,’ Brad said. ‘Least that’s what I think, he wouldn’t give me details… Since you left, he hasn’t been the same, and I know he’s not happy with the way things ended. Come back, hear him out. Say goodbye to the man who made you who you are.’
He could refuse, but then he’d never know what it was that Mauri wanted. ‘Ok,’ Dax conceded. ‘Take me back to the apartments, we’ll leave in the morning.’
‘We can go right now, we’ll get you on a plane and Serg can pick up—‘
‘Ivy won’t go anywhere with anyone except me; she’s a clever girl and my responsibility. She doesn’t trust you bastards any more than I do, which is why she won’t leave my side for a second. Take me home and come back in the morning.’
‘If you’re just picking her up then why—‘
‘She doesn’t jump at anyone’s command. She’ll need time to warm up to the idea of going back to the family who tried to take over her life.’
That was an understatement. Dax knew that Ivy’s love for him was real, and if he made a big enough deal of it then she would support him in just about anything. But going back to California, back to the family who had nearly torn them apart… that would take some persuasion.
Ivy put the last plate in the cupboard and glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Brad Stark coming back into their lives spelled trouble, there were no two ways about it. That he'd come across the width of the country to seek Dax out meant that they were serious about wanting him back. It couldn't be anything else, there was no other reason for Brad to be here.
If Trystan had been the one to show up, he’d have been hell bent on revenge. Brad wasn’t so shallow; he did his father’s bidding, but he didn't do his dirty work. If Maurice Stark wanted harm to come to her or Dax then he had minions to do that for him.
The image of Dax entering that car without looking back was imprinted on the inside of her eyelids, which was why she’d kept herself busy cleaning up their apartment.
Their new life here was good, they were making friends and adjusting to life in their fresh environment. Dax had even found himself a couple of fights. Much as she didn’t like to see him come home bloodied, she knew that his love of the underground circuit was a part of who he was.
But with Brad back and Dax willing to hear him out, she could see their lives here being disrupted. There were too many questions about the past that she and Dax couldn’t answer if their new friends asked.
Wiping down all of the kitchen counters, she reminded herself how far Dax had come. The possibility existed that he would tell Brad to go to hell and if he did there would be a major reward in it for him coming from her.