‘Yeah,’ Dax said. With eye contact and a nod, he gave his thanks.
‘Who would want this? Does she have enemies?’
The only enemies he knew her to have were ones relating to him. His thoughts briefly went to their time in Vegas, Trudi was pissed at her and probably Carlos too if he’d heard that his name had come up in conversation. But they wouldn’t flout five hundred grand on something like this, they just wouldn’t have that kind of cash to burn.
Saul could have savings, but he hadn’t struck Dax as the vengeful type. Though Saul did have friends in every walk of life from what Ivy had told him, so he would be able to set something like this up.
But pinning this on someone from Ivy’s past was ignoring the obvious. Those angriest with her now were his adopted family. Mauri might blame her for Dax’s choices. Trystan was pissed that she had rejected him again. But it made no sense why they would come after Ivy and not after him directly.
‘Is this Mauri?’ Serg murmured. ‘Does he think you’ll come back to the family with Ivy out of the picture?’
The man could be that deluded. Though it wasn’t much of a delusion, Dax had shown a precedent for believing what Mauri said. Mauri probably believed that he could talk Dax into just about anything and without Ivy there to keep him balanced, Dax might just be broken enough to let the old man win.
‘I’m gonna find out,’ Dax said.
Spinning around, he set his destination as the Stark mansion where he was determined to get answers. If this was Mauri’s bidding then Dax would find a way to have him call it off. Except word was still spreading, and it would take twice as long to call off the minions who would chase Ivy down.
Before getting on his bike, he took his phone from his pocket. He couldn’t tell Ivy what was going on, not over the phone, and not before he had all of the information. But she was in danger and liked to defy his authority, so she could be out on the streets now, a walking target.
Dax called the apartment and was relieved to hear that the line was busy. If she was home then she wasn’t outside presenting an opportunity for every psycho with a gun. Opening his texts, he typed in his commands.
Stay home. No messing, Minx. Danger outside. Stay in the apartment.
He expected her to call as soon as she read the message and sure enough before he had started the engine of his bike his phone buzzed. For a few seconds, he debated with himself as to whether or not he should answer the phone because he wanted to get to Mauri and get some answers of his own. But if he ignored her she was likely to ignore his message, so he picked up.
‘What kind of message is that?’ she asked before he had a chance to speak. ‘Are you being a dick?’
‘I just got some information,’ Dax said. ‘There’s trouble.’
‘What kind of trouble?’
‘The kind that means you have to stay inside.’
‘Since you asked so nicely and all—‘
‘I mean it, Minx,’ he said, throwing a leg over his bike he kicked away the stand. ‘Just stay inside.’
‘Tell me what happened,’ she said.
‘I can’t. I don’t have all the facts yet. I’m going to find out what’s going on, and then I’m going to come home, hear me?’
‘Dax,’ she exhaled. In bed, she could say his name like she was worshiping an idol of pleasure. But that breathy whimper was absent now, this was a wife with a gripe she wanted to complain about.
‘Yeah, I know you’re pissed, babygirl. But I’m keeping you safe, I’ll explain everything when I get home and then you can bitch at me all you want.’
‘We didn’t talk about what happened last night, and now you’re giving me more questions without any answers. We can’t keep going like this, you have to trust me and hear me out. You can’t just issue orders and expect me to follow them without any kind of explanation.’
‘Yeah, I can,’ he said. ‘Because I’m not going to give you half of a story, which might scare you, while I’m not there to reassure you. I don’t care how pissed you are. I’m telling you to stay inside for your own good. I could’ve said nothing at all and just assumed that you’d stick to what you told me earlier, but I wanted to let you know that something serious was going down… I will explain, babygirl. Just trust me, stay in the apartment and don’t let anyone in.’ When she didn’t say anything, his concern burgeoned. ‘Ivy?’
‘Ok, I’ll stay inside, but when you get back here we are not doing anything else until you fill me in on everything, and I do mean everything, Dax Harrow.’
‘Ok. You got it.’
She didn’t hide her anger, but that was one of the things that he loved about her. When Ivy was happy or aroused, she just glowed. But when she was pissed off, like she was now, she made no secret of it.
She accepted who he was and had never tried to change him, although she had. The changes that he’d gone through had been those he chose for himself, and he preferred the man he was now to the one he’d been before. Except without Ivy, he wasn’t sure there would be anything left of himself worth saving.
Chapter Thirteen
Dax didn’t wait to be announced. He went into the mansion and up the stairs to head for Maurice’s private suite. The old man liked to be the man behind the curtain, so even if there was business to conduct he would leave Brad to deal with it. Mauri only came out for the important matters, and it had been that way for a few years now. That didn’t mean that his influence was any less, he still pulled all the strings. But he didn’t tire himself by dealing with those lower than him, which included pretty much everyone.
Security was tailing after Dax through the house, they were paid to take down any threat to Mauri. But it had been so long since anyone had threatened this man in his own home that security had become complacent about their role. As a result, Dax was able to enter the outer room of Mauri’s suite, with its fireplace and red upholstered armchairs, while the two security men were still running toward him along the corridor he’d just traversed.
‘Mauri!’ Dax called out.
If he had to go into the bedroom, then he would. But if he went in there he was likely to end up murdering the man, and he couldn’t do that, at least not until he’d called his dogs off Ivy. The security men burst in at his back, and Dax spun around to defend himself. Taking one out with a punch, the other lunged at him and he got hold of the guy’s arm, twisting it around and up his back, using it to toss him back out into the hall. The first security guard got up again, but Mauri’s voice stalled the action.
‘No more!’ Mauri declared and despite a few growling glares, the security men receded, closing the door to give Mauri and Dax their privacy.
‘You—‘
‘I heard,’ Mauri said. ‘We found out about the bounty an hour ago, and we’re doing our best to trace it.’
Mauri was calm, but Dax couldn’t hear himself think beyond the blood gushing at high speed through his body. ‘You expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with this?’
‘What would we gain? You lose your wife and blame me for the rest of your life? I want you with us and that means working together.’
‘Convenient.’
‘If this was my order then I wouldn’t be making you the offer that I’m about to,’ Mauri said. He stayed where he was in front of the bedroom door and for now Dax was happy to keep his distance and maintain his position near the exit.
‘What offer?’
‘Take Ivy to the beach house, she will be safe there, no one will approach it without us knowing. I can post security outside, they will make sure that she is safe.’
‘And she’s supposed to live the rest of her life there?’
‘She can remain there until we uncover who is behind this. We neutralise the threat and then she can move freely again. You know yourself that it will take a day or two to trace this to the real source, chances are he’s using a middleman, we find that middleman and then we coax the information we want out of him.’ Dax would enjoy the coaxing part. ‘Once we know, we take him out.’