You better damn well be alone.
Well, it wasn’t a declaration of undying love, but it gave her some reassurance that he was alright. Being back out there, enforcing, was dangerous. It might have been something that he’d done for years, but all it took was one mistake, one prick with a weapon, and she might lose the only purpose she’d ever had in her life.
Being pissed in the same house as each other was very different to being pissed at each other in different states. So with a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried her best to sleep. They would fix this, she’d explain to him how his behaviour was unacceptable, yet the truth was it had sort of worked out for her.
Serg distracting Dax had given her the opportunity to take care of her past without awkward explanations to Dax. She would have to explain, but doing it after the fact would be easier than doing it before when he might want to be a part of the resolution.
This was something she had to do herself, but now that Dax knew where she was, the clock was running. He could show up at any second, so she had to get this done and fast.
Chapter Six
Ivy found out the next morning that Dax wasn’t the only person who knew where she was. Knocking on her hotel room door brought her out of the bathroom after her morning shower. Because he could get the name of the hotel from his credit card statement, and because the timing was right depending on whether or not he finished up with Serg before driving or flying to her, she was convinced that the only person who could be at her door was Dax.
Wrapped in only her towel, Ivy opened the hotel room door with her hair still dripping from the shower and prepared herself to face her husband’s anger. But it wasn’t Dax at the door at all, the six-foot tall visitor had light brown hair and a smile that could melt the panties right off a woman. But his brown eyes didn’t captivate like Dax’s did, and Ivy knew just how false an impression that smile gave. Its disarming nature would make a woman believe that this man was harmless, Ivy knew different.
‘Saul,’ she said.
‘Hey, baby,’ he said, ducking to kiss her cheek. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?’
‘How did you find out?’ Backing off, she tucked in her towel and let him enter the room.
‘I heard you were in the old neighbourhood,’ he said, sauntering in and scrutinising the details of the room. ‘Where’s the hubby?’
‘California,’ she said.
Saul spun around to land her in his sights. ‘It’s finished already?’
‘It’s not finished, he’s working,’ she said. ‘I came here to tie up my loose ends.’
‘Am I on that list?’ he asked, sinking down to sit on the end of the bed. He stretched his legs out and relaxed back on his hands.
‘Actually yes,’ she said. ‘But I hadn’t gotten to you yet.’
‘Now I’m here,’ he said, leaning forward to tug on the flap of her towel. ‘Just in time to show you a good time.’
Her smile flared. ‘No fun,’ she said, stepping over his legs to head back toward the bathroom. ‘You wait out here, I’ll talk to you in a minute.’
She hadn’t locked a bathroom door in months, but she did it now, which just proved how little Ivy trusted Saul Haynes. Saul was a great friend to everyone who met him, he was a guy who knew how to get things and networking was one of his best assets. Saul knew everyone, she had never known a person with so many connections. So it shouldn’t have surprised her that he knew she was back in Vegas, what did surprise her was that he’d come here looking for her.
After drying her hair and pulling on the clothes she’d selected for the day, Ivy went into the bedroom to find Saul standing in front of the window with her wallet in hand. Her purse was on the small round table beside him, next to the proud lamp also located there. Without an ounce of shame, he slid her credit card out of its slot.
‘Harrow,’ he read.
‘That’s right,’ she said, crossing the room to take both wallet and credit card away from him.
‘Don’t know him.’
Putting her purse back together, a smile tilted her lips. ‘I thought you knew everyone.’
‘Everyone in Vegas,’ he said.
‘You used to say that you knew everyone on the West Coast.’
‘Does he have siblings? Who does he work for?’
‘You don’t know him,’ she said, unwilling to reveal too much of who Dax was.
‘I might, maybe I’d know him if I saw him.’
Placing her purse back on the table, she squinted up. ‘Does it upset you that there’s a stranger out there? Someone you don’t know?’
He shrugged and sat down in the tub chair angled in the corner near the table. ‘Not really, I know him now, don’t I? You can introduce us.’
‘He’s in California,’ she said. ‘Did you not hear me say that a few minutes ago?’
‘Yeah, but we’ll cross paths eventually. You’re not planning to cut me out of your life. We’ve shared a lot… is he the jealous type? Possessive? If he’s controlling—‘
‘No man can beat you on that score, can they?’ she said, leaning away when he snagged her skirt.
‘You loved being my girlfriend,’ he said. ‘We had a lot of good times.’
‘Yeah, but not exclusively,’ she said.
‘That why you ran off and married Harrow? You looking for payback?’
‘I left you, Saul, don’t re-write history, and I did it months ago.’
Ivy met Saul on one of her few nights out in Las Vegas, and he had pursued her with zeal. But after six months together the sheen had definitely faded. By the time she encountered Trystan Stark in his GoldSpring suite, she and Saul had been broken up for around five months.
Breaking up with Saul had been such a relief for her and for a time she had worried that he wouldn’t let her go. But when he moved on to another busty brunette, Ivy was quickly forgotten.
One thing that Saul was not short of was female attention, or any kind of attention. His attention span was notoriously short, but he didn’t just drop people once he was bored with them, they got shifted onto his periphery.
Saul liked to be adored, he liked to do people favours and to be seen as a good guy, and he could keep a secret too. Somewhere along the way he had learned that a part of winning people’s confidence meant having a reputation for being discreet, another thing that Saul excelled at.
‘Do you want to go to a casino?’ he asked. ‘Your choice. We could take in a show if you want, I made dinner reservations for—‘
‘You’re that eager to impress me all over again?’ she quipped, folding her arms. ‘What were you doing in my purse? You’ve never been short a few bucks.’
‘Your phone made a noise, and I was curious,’ he said.
He would never have offered that information without her prompt, sometimes he enjoyed keeping secrets a little bit too much. Taking her phone from her bag to see why it had made a noise, Ivy saw a message from Dax, one that Saul had read.
Just got in. Going for a nap, then we’re going to talk.
‘Sounds like there might be a little bit of trouble,’ Saul said, he slid down in the seat and patted his thigh. ‘Come sit down and tell Daddy all about it.’
‘Yeah, right,’ she smiled at his tease, then responded to Dax’s message.
Going to breakfast with my ex-boyfriend. Call me when you wake up.
She was still getting used to texting. Before Dax, she hadn’t had a cell phone because devices weren’t a priority and she didn’t have the expendable income. Being unreachable was one of the things that Saul had hated about her. When Saul bought her a cell phone, she’d thrown it right back at him because she knew it was a tool meant to increase his control over her and her social calendar. Dax got her one out of concern and he knew better than to manipulate her with it.
Texting Dax had become a habit while they were both working on the East Coast. He would text her when he was bored at work, or when he was at home waiting for her to come home from her job. Because they worked opposing shifts – he on the night and she on the day – texting each other when they woke up, got home, or were about to go to sleep, was part of their routine.