‘No. Mauri told me that Bruno was never on board with taking care of Dax. He wanted to leave him with the fighters.’

‘He was probably worried that having Dax back meant the possibility of you coming back into his life, and if you held his secret about the affair…’

‘Yes, maybe,’ Carina said.

The reverberation of a car engine broke the air, and Ivy sprang up. Though they were at the back of the house, the sound carried around to them from the driveway at the front.

‘Is that Dax?’ Carina asked.

God, Ivy hoped so. If he knew he was going to be back, then he probably wouldn’t have bothered calling. Ivy would rather that Dax got his work done and came back to her than he interrupted what he was doing, which would cause him to take him longer in completing his task.

Dodging the table and Carina’s legs, Ivy went back into the house and through the kitchen. When she got into the living room the front door was swinging shut, but there was no one in the room. ‘Dax!’ she called out in case he’d gone upstairs, but even he couldn’t move that fast.

Shooting across the room, Ivy opened the front door to see a convertible with its top down swinging a U-turn in the drive, and there was her sister in the passenger seat waving her hands in the air.

‘Rosie!’ Ivy called, rushing out onto the paving stones. But she was struck dumb when she caught a glimpse of the driver: it was Trystan Stark.

‘Vegas here we come!’ Rosie screamed and waved at Ivy, who watched the red of their tail lights grow smaller as they disappeared down the drive.

Trystan was the guy that Rosie had met, and he was coming to get her. He would have no trouble getting past the security men his father had posted there because he knew them all. Trystan loved to mess with people. Going for Rosie was his way of attacking Ivy and Dax at the same time. Vegas would be a party for Rosie alright, but Ivy knew how Trystan Stark partied there.

Chapter Nineteen

‘What’s going on?’ Carina asked, coming into the living room from the kitchen as Ivy came back inside.

‘Trystan fucking Stark is what’s going on!’ Ivy said, determined that she wasn’t going to take this lying down.

Going to Vegas with Trystan was the most stupid thing that Rosie could possibly have done. Ivy had no idea what Trystan had promised Rosie in order to get her to take the trip. Whatever Trystan had offered had to be better than the financial incentive Mauri had spoken about using to get Rosie here. By leaving the beach house, Rosie could be forfeiting.

‘What has he done?’

‘He’s taking Rosie to Vegas,’ Ivy said.

Marching to the stairs, she went up into the bedroom and into the closet. Tossing her and Dax’s things into their suitcase, she also retrieved the wad of money that she had hidden under the ottoman during her first stay here. Brushing her hair, she pulled it back and then stuck her feet in her shoes.

Almost ready to leave, she returned to the bedroom to see that Carina was in the room waiting for her. ‘What are you doing?’ Carina asked.

‘I’m going to get my sister back before she does something crazy… crazier than running off with a stranger anyway.’

‘They met at Mauri’s party,’ Carina said. ‘They were dancing later in the evening. Maybe they’re friends—‘

‘Trystan Stark doesn’t have friends,’ Ivy said, checking her purse then throwing it over her shoulder. ‘He has worshippers and groupies. If Rosie tries to deny him—‘

‘Do you think that he would force her into…?’

‘He will force her to do anything he thinks that she should do. She hasn’t used drugs while she’s been here and going there with him… he’ll get her hooked again and then when he’s bored he’ll just abandon her.’

‘Maybe he cares about her,’ Carina said.

‘Trystan cares about nothing except himself.’

Carina exited the room. Ivy lifted the case onto the bed and unzipped it. She grabbed what she needed from the bathroom and brought it back to the case, then she pulled a few bills from the wad of cash and moved them into her purse. If she needed money, then she couldn’t whip out a ten grand bundle and hope it would be inconspicuous.

With her purse on her shoulder and the case on its wheels, Ivy headed for the exit. Unsure if she should leave Dax a note or not, she hesitated at the bedroom door. Without any idea of whether or not Dax would come back here, Ivy chose not to leave evidence and instead decided to text him from the road. If she called or contacted him now, then he would tell her to stay put and that wasn’t something Ivy could do with her sister in possible peril.

Departing the bedroom, she got downstairs to find Carina waiting at the front door.

‘We don’t have a car,’ Carina said.

‘We?’ Ivy asked. ‘No. I’m going alone. If you want to leave here then do it yourself, tomorrow, Mauri will send a car and—‘

‘I came here because I wanted to get to know Dax. You said it yourself that you can be an ally. I want to show you that I can be trusted. If you leave here now, then you might not come back and… I’ll lose Dax all over again.’

‘Ok,’ Ivy sighed, she didn’t have the time to fight anyway. ‘Come if you want, but you have to do what I say.’

‘I will,’ Carina said, picking up her bag from the floor. ‘How do you plan to get there?’

Opening the front door, she clocked the single car in the driveway: the security guys’ vehicle. Making a beeline for it, Ivy opened the door and climbed in, happy to find the keys in the ignition. Pulling her case over herself she got it into the back seat at the same time that Carina got into the passenger seat holding her luggage.

‘This isn’t your car,’ Carina said.

‘Mauri’s men won’t call the cops,’ Ivy said, turning on the engine but keeping the lights off as she reversed and started to drive away from the house. ‘Keep your head down.’

The security men wandered around on the property and only checked in at the house periodically. She hadn’t seen anyone for a while; Trystan may have called them off so that he could stage his little escape with Rosie.

‘How did you know the keys would be in the car?’ Carina asked.

‘If someone came onto the property Mauri’s men would want to be able to chase them away, and then chase them down, so they’d want quick access,’ Ivy said. ‘They all arrived together, so this is a Stark company vehicle.’

‘I don’t understand why Mauri sent security, do you think that crime is a problem out here?’

‘Kidnap at least,’ Ivy said, switching on the lights when they got onto the road. But even if security saw them leave, they had no vehicle to follow. ‘Mauri isn’t worried about crime.’

‘So why—‘

‘There’s a bounty on my head,’ Ivy said, thinking that maybe she should have told Carina that before the woman got into a car with her.

‘A what?’

‘It’s why there’s security at the house and why Dax has been gone all day, he’s trying to find out who wants me dead.’

‘That’s awful… But why…? Why would someone want you to be killed?’

‘That’s sort of what we’re trying to figure out,’ Ivy said.

‘You have a full life,’ Carina said, hugging her bag closer to her chest. ‘You and Dax must have quite the adventures.’

‘Not really, it depends what coast we’re on,’ Ivy said. ‘We prefer to keep to ourselves. But when we’re out here the trouble seems to seek us out.’

‘Are you afraid?’

‘No,’ Ivy smiled. ‘No one will be looking for me in Vegas, and I have friends out there who can help us. Rosie doesn’t have much of a head start, and Trystan Stark won’t be hard to find in Vegas. He’s a creature of habit, and he likes to make an impression. As I said, I have friends who should be able to help us locate him. I just hope we can before Rosie does something stupid.’

‘Like what? Marry him?’

‘Oh, God,’ Ivy groaned. She hadn’t thought about that, Mauri did want Trystan married and maybe if he got high enough he would be up for it. Rosie would probably say yes because her sister believed that any action taken in the name of a good time was justified. ‘Yes, like that.’