‘Trystan might take exception to that,’ Brad said.
‘Oh, let him, the boy is nothing but trouble,’ Mauri said. Dax had seen him annoyed before, but this was more than that.
‘He’s giving you a run for your money now,’ Dax said. ‘You thought Ivy could get him to shape up before you died, doesn’t look likely now.’
‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘But he will be your problem when I am no longer here.’
‘He’s his own problem,’ Dax said. ‘I don’t give a fuck about your empire or your family. You let mine go, and we’ll be out of the state by sunset.’ Turning to Ivy, he held out his hand. ‘Come here.’
She tried to move forward, but the guy at her side wrenched her back, prodding the gun deep into her side making her wince. Dax’s upper lip twitched with the angry revulsion taking him over. He would remember every detail of that motherfucker’s face, and if he ever saw the guy again, he would make sure that he never drew another breath.
‘Is this what it’s like to have two men fighting over you?’ Ivy quipped.
‘He’s not going to hurt you,’ Dax said, taking a step closer. ‘You think that Mauri would take the risk of hurting you, babygirl? It won’t happen.’
‘I’m expendable,’ Ivy said.
‘Not to me,’ he said. ‘That diamond cost a small fortune.’
‘Well I want to be buried with it, so you’re out of luck,’ she said, smiling again. ‘No refund or return for you.’
‘Damn. I knew I should’ve gone with the zirconia.’
‘Then I might have said no.’
‘You’re not going to say no now, are you?’ he asked, elevating his hand. ‘Come here.’
The guy with a hold of her looked at Mauri when Ivy began to move away from him. The threatener didn’t yank her back, but he kept his hand on her arm.
‘You don’t want Dax to get over there, dad,’ Brad said to Mauri, prompting the guy gripping Ivy to let her go. She bounded forward and put her hand into Dax’s.
‘I’m disappointed, Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘You should follow your own advice. Never bluff in life, someone’s always bound to call you on it.’ Rounding, he went for the door, ready to get out of this house and away from all of these people forever.
‘Your possessions are upstairs, Ivy,’ Mauri’s voice sounded solemn.
Dax kept walking but had to stop when Ivy did. ‘What?’ Dax asked her.
‘I told you not to let them know how important that was to me,’ she murmured then let go of his hand to turn back to Mauri. ‘Where?’
‘There’s a bedroom ready for you and your husband upstairs, next door to the one being used by your sister. If you will hear our offer, we will take you there, and you will be free to have all of your possessions back, and I suspect there’s a particular object of importance to you up there.’
‘What is your offer?’ she asked.
‘We don’t care,’ Dax said, taking her upper arm. ‘Come on, we’re leaving. What’s up there can be replaced, I’ll buy you a new one.’
‘You can’t buy me,’ she said, wrenching her arm back and landing him with her ire. ‘I didn’t marry you for your money.’
‘Why did you marry him?’ Brad asked, and he lowered to sit beside his father. The man who had threatened Ivy went out of a side door, but Dax knew it wasn’t over, he would take care of that guy at the first opportunity.
‘I married him because I love him,’ Ivy said, folding her arms. ‘Is there another reason that a woman would marry a man?’
‘Dozens of them,’ Brad said. ‘You were sure it was love?’
‘We’ve made it this far,’ Ivy said.
Dax came up behind her and brought his lips to her ear. ‘Stop engaging him.’
‘What’s the worst that they can do?’ Ivy asked. ‘They’ve proven that they’re not going to hurt us, even if they threaten it, we know it’s not in their best interest to try and scare us.’
‘You didn’t appear to be scared at all,’ Brad said. ‘Even with a gun aimed at you point blank, you didn’t blink. Most women would be weeping and pleading.’
‘Ivy isn’t the weeping type,’ Dax muttered.
If they were going to be stuck having this conversation until Mauri relinquished Ivy’s possessions, then they had better be comfortable doing it. So Dax led his wife to the couch she had occupied when he entered and seated them both. As long as he maintained his focus on Brad and Mauri, he could just pretend that the other women weren’t here.
‘There was nothing for me to be afraid of,’ Ivy said. ‘That’s the great thing about being married to a man like Dax. Few people take the risk of threatening my life because the consequences would be grave for them.’
‘As we’ve just highlighted,’ Mauri said. ‘I am sorry that we had to take such measures. But if we had allowed you to run after Dax then you would not have heard us out.’
‘You mentioned an offer,’ Ivy said.
Dax rested back on the couch, lifting one ankle to the opposite knee. Ivy twisted her body toward him to address Mauri and Brad and pressed her hands into his thigh. ‘You’re not interested in their offer,’ Dax said to her.
‘No, I’m not. But they said we had to hear it, then I could get my things and go. So the sooner we hear it…’
‘We want to offer you the chance of a vacation,’ Mauri said. ‘Two weeks in the California sun.’
‘Why would you want to—‘
‘We can afford our own vacation,’ Dax said.
‘We want you to spend two weeks at the beach house, with your relatives,’ Mauri said, glancing over at the silent women, Dax didn’t follow his eye line.
‘You want to facilitate some big reunion?’ Dax asked. ‘Sorry, we’re not interested.’
‘You have to be,’ Brad said.
‘If you do this, you’ll have the time to consider the offer that I made to you before,’ Mauri said. ‘Then if at the end of it you choose not to agree, we’ll provide you a million dollars, no strings attached.’
Dax didn’t like the way that Ivy shifted. He wanted to throw the offer back at Mauri without any hesitation. But the offer of money did bring clarity about why their relatives had come. ‘How much did you offer them?’ he asked, bobbing his head in the direction of the other two women. ‘That how you got them here?’
‘Financial incentive is effective,’ Maurice said.
‘What’s the point of this?’ Ivy asked. ‘What do you expect to happen?’
‘Family is important, I’ve always believed that, but it’s become more relevant to me recently. When I’m gone, Dax won’t have that parental figure in his life anymore. He and Brad have always tolerated each other, but we know what his relationship with Trystan is like. I don’t want him to be alone in the world.’
‘And you thought that bringing my relatives into it would tempt me to coerce him?’ Ivy asked. ‘I don’t have the influence over Dax that you think I do.’
‘Yes, you do,’ Mauri smiled. ‘You’re sitting here now negotiating with me while he remains silent because he will do what you tell him makes you happy. He doesn’t want to lose you. He turned his back on his life for you.’
‘Not for me, because of you and your unreasonable demands,’ Ivy said. ‘If I had influence over Dax, we wouldn’t be here now.’
‘I’m not expecting you to answer this minute,’ Mauri said. ‘We prepared your room and invite you to spend the night. We can complete our negotiations over breakfast. You’re free to leave at any time, from here or from the beach house if you choose to. There is a lot at stake, and it would be foolish of you both to turn your back on an offer of financial stability that you won’t receive again.’
‘Show us to our room, my husband and I have to talk,’ Ivy said and Dax’s eyes closed.
This was an impossible decision to make. He didn’t want to be Mauri’s puppet anymore, but in a few months Mauri would be out of the picture for good. Now they had the chance of a small fortune even if they didn’t choose to take over the empire, and he could use that money to take care of Ivy for the rest of their lives. She was right, they needed to talk.