‘Weren’t you supposed to call Dax? Will he worry when you don’t phone him?’

‘I’ll phone him when we get there,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m more concerned about the welfare of the person who tells him we’re not at the beach house anymore… I was supposed to be there laying low.’

‘So he’ll worry for your safety,’ Carina said. ‘Maybe you should call him now.’

‘Wait until we’ve crossed state lines, that way we’ll be too far away for him to drag me back by my hair.’ Carina said nothing, so Ivy glanced over at the woman’s wide-eyed expression. ‘He’s a worrier… when it comes to me.’

Dax would be furious with her, but she hadn’t been thinking about that when she packed to go after Rosie. No one would find her in Vegas, the friends that she had would protect her if they had to. All she wanted to do was find Rosie, and once her sister was away from Trystan Stark, they would all return to the beach house. That was Ivy’s plan, and she’d do everything in her power to make it happen as quickly as possible.

Daylight was breaking by the time they got to Vegas. Ivy had tried to call her sister, but Rosie never picked up and after the tenth time of trying the phone started to go straight to voicemail without ringing first. Either Rosie had turned off her phone or the battery had died, and there was still a chance that Rosie had left her cell at the beach house meaning that calling was pointless anyway.

Rosie and Trystan would be at the GoldSpring Hotel because that was where the Starks always stayed when they were in Vegas. Ivy wanted to drive straight there to snatch her sister up, except she’d need a key-card or an invitation, neither of which she had. To get a key-card, Ivy would need to book a room, which would require a credit card. She couldn’t risk using her credit card or being seen in the hotel because anyone who might have tailed them from LA would find her in no time.

Trying to consider the bounty and be sensible about not walking into danger, Ivy drove to the next safest place, Saul’s house. Pulling into his driveway, she ran her fingers through her hair and checked to make sure her eyes weren’t too bloodshot in the rear-view mirror; the last thing Ivy wanted to do was scare the guy she was about to ask for help. Satisfied that her appearance passed muster, she reached for the door release.

‘Stay here,’ Ivy said to Carina and got out of the car.

She had to knock on the door a dozen times before Saul answered, but this was Vegas, the party had probably only ended for him a couple of hours ago. His hair was a mess, and he was wearing only boxer shorts. Ivy grinned when he opened the door, trying to act as though this was just a cordial visit.

‘Hey,’ she said.

‘Ivy…’ he said and cleared his throat a few times. ‘I thought you were… I didn’t know you were… didn’t you leave?’

‘I did,’ Ivy said, patting his chest and edging him aside. ‘I have a helluva story to tell you, can I come in?’

She was already inching around him, so he backed off while nodding. It was good to get him while he was still in a daze because it took him longer to realise that this was an inconvenient intrusion.

Working her way through the house to the kitchen at the back of the property, Ivy started making coffee to offer the pick-me-up as an olive branch. She was a good half-minute into the task before Saul came through to join her. Seating himself at his breakfast bar, he finger-combed his hair and coughed.

‘What’s going on? Why are you here so early?’ he asked.

‘I just got in,’ Ivy said, scooping more coffee than usual into the machine. ‘I just drove in from LA.’

‘Why? And where is Harrow?’

‘Still in LA,’ she said, closing the coffee machine and spinning around to smile at him again. ‘I sort of need a place to stay, just for a day.’

‘A day?’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I was staying in LA with my sister and she did something crazy… She took off with this guy, who is bad news, and came here to Vegas.’

‘Your sister?’ he asked. ‘You never talked about her.’

He kept blinking and yawning, following the conversation must be difficult when you were still half asleep. ‘No, because I haven’t seen her for a while.’

‘Then why do you care about what she does?’

‘This particular guy could get her into a lot of trouble, and I just can’t let that happen. So I had to come here and stop it.’

‘Why didn’t you go to a hotel? You did that last time you showed up.’

‘That’s the thing,’ she said, creeping across the kitchen. ‘There’s a bounty on my head.’

His eyes landed on her, the yawning and blinking stopped. Ivy smiled, hoping to encourage his understanding, but it still took a few seconds for him to react.

Licking his lips, Saul spoke in a dull tone. ‘Let me get this right,’ he said. ‘You were staying with your sister?’

‘Yes.’

‘She took off with a creep, and you followed her here to Vegas?’

‘Yes.’

‘But you can’t go to a hotel because there’s a bounty on your head?’

‘That’s right,’ Ivy said.

‘Hmm,’ he said and pushed up to his feet. ‘I’m going back to bed.’

‘What? No!’

‘This is obviously a dream or I’ve slipped into a coma or something.’

‘No!’ Ivy said. Leaping past the breakfast bar to grab his arm, she pulled him around to face her. Just then a tiny brunette wearing a man’s tee-shirt entered.

‘Oh,’ the brunette said. ‘Who’s she?’

‘This is Ivy,’ Saul said, pushing Ivy’s hand away from his arm. Realising that touching him didn’t look good, Ivy let go and moved away. ‘Ivy, this is…’

No need to worry about breaking up his deep and meaningful relationship if he couldn’t even remember the girl’s name. ‘Brittany,’ the brunette said.

‘Right,’ Saul said. ‘This is Brittany, Ivy, Brittany.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ Ivy said, reaching over to shake the girl’s hand. ‘I’m sorry to interrupt your morning, but I… Saul and I are old friends.’

‘Whatever, I’m going to shower,’ the brunette said wearing a scowl, then she spun around and disappeared back the way she’d come.

‘She’s cute,’ Ivy said.

‘I have great taste in women,’ Saul said.

Ivy laughed. ‘Yeah, I suppose that you do.’

‘Look, Ive, I’m sorry that you’re mixed up in some shit, but Harrow will kill me dead if he finds you here.’

‘I imagine that he’s already on his way,’ Ivy said. She hadn’t checked her messages, but had read Dax’s name twice on her phone screen, so he’d certainly texted her. Ivy hadn’t gone so far as to open the texts because she was sure they weren’t just random, “thinking of you” messages.

‘Exactly my point,’ Saul said and tried to walk away, but Ivy put herself in front of him.

‘He’ll be grateful,’ she said, and he glowered at her. ‘No, really, Dax knows about the bounty, he’s been trying to figure it out. I can’t go to a hotel because it’s not safe, but if you kick me out, then that’s where I’ll have to go. If Dax finds out that you’ve sent me into danger, how happy do you think he’ll be?’

Saul thought about this for a second then lifted his hand and growled out loud. ‘Ok, fine, damn you, stay if you want… Let me go and talk to Brittany.’

‘Ok. I’ll get his mom.’

She turned, but Saul snatched her shoulder to pull her back. ‘Whose mom?’

‘Dax’s,’ she said. ‘It’s a long story and not important right now.’

‘You want to move in here with your mother-in-law?’

‘I’m not moving in, don’t be dramatic. We just need somewhere to freshen up and make phone calls. It would be great to sleep for a couple of hours too. But the sooner I find out where Rosie is, the sooner we can get out of here.’

‘The sooner, the better,’ he said. ‘And don’t accuse me of being dramatic, you’re a fucking wanted woman, I’m one step away from harbouring a fugitive.’

‘Don’t be stupid, the cops aren’t looking for me.’

Saul folded his arms. ‘Yeah? So this bounty, someone wants you dead, right?’