‘Going? Yeah, if you touch me I am likely to leave you in my dust, just like I did the first time you tried to touch me, remember that? Does anyone ever ask you about your scar?’ She pointed toward his face though he was still a good twenty feet away. ‘Do you tell them that it’s there because you tried to touch what wasn’t yours?’

‘I can have any fucking thing that I want,’ Trystan asserted. His smile was long gone, he didn’t appreciate it when the shoe was on the other foot, and he was the one in the spotlight being irritated.

Leaning forward, her ass pressed into Dax, and his hands slid onto her hips. ‘You can’t have me,’ she murmured and widened her smile. ‘You are a sick fuck who seduced my sister because you thought it would be like having me, didn’t you? But it’s as close as you will get, Trystan. You will never have me. I will never want you. And you will live the rest of your life knowing that you’re far inferior to the street rat who your daddy always preferred over you.

‘Dax was Mauri’s number one, and now he’s mine too. No one wants you, and no one ever will, because you are a spoiled, pathetic mess still living off your daddy. Women want a real man, and you are a joke, you can’t provide for a family or protect them. Why would any woman choose you?’

‘Your sister did,’ he snapped.

‘While she was drunk and possibly high, we know what you’re like. You love to drug your women and then take advantage of them. You are a child stuck in a man’s body. What are you going to do when Mauri isn’t around anymore to protect you?’

‘You’re a fucking bitch,’ Trystan snarled. When he stormed toward her, she didn’t recoil, she didn’t have to because Dax sidestepped and inserted his body in front of hers.

‘You think about touching her and you’ll regret it,’ Dax warned in a guttural tone. ‘I’ll take you to pieces, I’ve been looking for an excuse to do it for years.’

‘And how will you explain that to Mauri?’ Trystan barked. ‘You can’t touch me.’

‘I’m not on Mauri’s choke chain anymore, Tryst,’ Dax said. ‘For years I put up with your shit because I didn’t think that there was another way. Now I know that there is.’

The tone of his last sentence was a threat. Just like he’d done on the night they met, Dax had managed to make a threat without using a single negative word. Touching her lips to his arm, she grazed her fingertips down the back of his hand.

‘Mauri would take you apart,’ Trystan said.

‘You won’t have him to hide behind forever,’ Dax replied. ‘You shouldn’t be hiding behind him now. Ivy’s right, you’re spoiled and pathetic. Brad won’t tolerate you risking his operation. He’ll have far less patience for you than Mauri does. You’re going to find yourself in the street without anyone to watch your back.’

‘I don’t need anyone to—‘

‘Yeah, you do.’

‘Dad will look after me, when the will is read—‘

‘You’re going to get a shock,’ Dax said. ‘He’ll provide for you, but Brad will have the power and then what will you do?’

Trystan didn’t have an answer for this and Dax was happy to remain silent and let the truth sink in. When Mauri passed away, he might leave money for Trystan, but Trystan would have no control of the business or the house and other assets. Mauri had offered Dax what he would never give to Trystan.

The youngest Stark was too irresponsible to be trusted with anything that mattered. Maintaining the business and reputation of the family was what mattered to Mauri and Trystan wasn’t capable of that while his father was living and around to guide him.

For years, all of his adult life, Trystan had proved that the only thing he cared about was himself. His antics had jeopardised the family more than any of their business dealings. Being spoiled and selfish, Trystan was happy to push boundaries and keep taking what he wanted without considering the consequences, or how it would affect the Stark name.

‘I should go to Rosie,’ Ivy said. ‘I have to wake her so that we can get out of here.’

‘You’re welcome to join mine and Rosie’s party, I won’t say no to sisters in my bed,’ Trystan said. ‘I can handle two of you at once, piece of cake.’

‘Dream on,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m going in there to get my sister back. I’ll wake her up and get her dressed, then we’re going to get the hell away from here, away from you.’

‘She won’t want to leave,’ Trystan said. ‘She came here with me, and she’ll stay here until I’m finished with her.’

‘Until you’re finished with her?’ Ivy said, remaining behind Dax. ‘Do you think that we’ll just walk away and let you hurt her? You’re forgetting who you’re dealing with. We know what you’re like. I won’t let you pass her around to your friends after you get her high.’

‘You can’t stop it,’ Trystan said, trying to regain the upper hand, but the arrogance he’d maintained when he came in was waning. ‘She’ll want to stay right here. I can show her a good time.’

‘A good time? For as long as it suits you,’ Ivy said. ‘We came here to get her away from you, and that’s what we’re going to do.’

Trystan wouldn’t take on Dax, so Ivy left her shielded position to stand at Dax’s side. The tension radiating between the men was so charged that she told herself to hurry in retrieving Rosie. A brawl wouldn’t end well for Trystan, and she didn’t know how they’d clear up the mess that would be left if Dax started on Trystan.

Proving her previous point, Ivy walked forward and passed Trystan with her head held high, and he did nothing to stop her. Ivy went to the bedroom but paused before entering to look back at the men. Dax and Trystan were frozen in their stare off again, if so much as a hair twitched they were going to snap and start working out some of that conflict burning between them in typical male fashion.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Pushing into the bedroom, Ivy closed the door behind her to make sure that Trystan wouldn’t be able to sneak up on her without at least some warning.

The huge room had a full wall of windows displaying the glitz of this artificial city in full widescreen. But it wasn’t the vista that interested her, Ivy was focused on the centrepiece of the bedroom.

Crossing to the white and gold sheets, which gathered in waves on the bed, Ivy began to pull them aside to uncover her sister’s naked body.

Slumbering with her face pressed into a voluminous pillow, Rosie was out cold. Being in a slumber this deep made Ivy believe that her sister must have been high last night. ‘Damn it,’ Ivy said, giving Rosie a shake. ‘Come on, Rosie, wake up.’

The room was a mess, and she scanned around to see if any of the scattered items might belong to Rosie. Clothes were strewn across the floor, so Ivy left the bed and began to sweep up Rosie’s garments. The mess wasn’t Ivy’s to tidy, but it was a reminder of just how inconsiderate Trystan Stark was.

Empty champagne bottles clattered around, hitting each other every time Ivy lifted something to check for Rosie’s clothes. Ivy found her sister’s underwear, but couldn’t find a dress or skirt to go over the top of it.

‘Rosie!’ Ivy called out, catching sight of the white powder scattered on the dresser nearest the bed. So cocaine had been on the menu last night, as had lobster and something with a red sauce that was smeared into the carpet beside the fallen room service tray.

A flash of green near the bed drew Ivy across the room, and she fell to her knees to try and pull out the fabric, which was tangled in an electrical cable under the bed. ‘God damn it, Rosie!’ Ivy said, still fighting the cord for the dress. ‘Get up, get out of bed!’

A mumbling reply came from the bed, so she was reassured Rosie had heard her. But she had to wrestle with the dress for another minute before it came free. Exhaling, Ivy came out from under the bed and fell back to sit on her feet. Bra, panties, and the dress, it was a start. She would look for Rosie’s shoes while Rosie was getting dressed.