Ivy stayed on the bed while Rosie darted around the room to collect her things, there were just a few makeup brushes and items of jewellery, no real luggage. Rosie found her purse in the bathroom and stuffed everything inside, then tucked it under her arm.

‘Ok, I’m ready to go,’ Rosie said. ‘Wait, where are we going?’

‘Back to the beach house,’ Ivy said, joining her sister near the door.

With Carina gone it would just be her and Rosie, but Ivy was glad they would have the chance to get to know each other again. They hadn’t had a huge fight, they’d just drifted apart, each doing what they had to in order to get by. Ivy would like to hear Rosie’s story, and now she had the time for it, thanks to Maurice Stark and some as yet unknown bounty hunters.

A clatter from the next room startled the women. Ivy had known that leaving Trystan and Dax out there alone for too long would lead to trouble. She wasn’t concerned for Dax’s ability to defend himself, but she didn’t trust Trystan not to try and get Dax into trouble with the cops for doing it.

Grabbing Rosie, Ivy dashed out of the bedroom and came up short in the living room. Dax and Trystan weren’t the ones fighting. There were three other men in the room, two of whom were wrestling with a cursing Trystan on the floor, the other stood by Dax having a conversation as though the pandemonium on the floor at their feet was normal. That man, the one with Dax, was unmistakable, his height and stature gave away his identity; it was Serg.

‘What’s going on?’ Ivy asked. Serg and Dax turned. ‘Why are you here?’

‘Mauri sent us,’ Serg said. ‘We didn’t know that your man was here.’

‘You thought that I’d come here alone?’ Ivy asked.

‘Is he a bad guy?’ Rosie asked, pointing at Serg. The note of awareness in her voice was apparent.

‘I don’t know what he is,’ Ivy replied. ‘He’s never hurt or attacked me like Trystan has, but I wouldn’t say he’s warm and cuddly either.’

‘Mauri heard about the beach house exodus,’ Dax said.

‘He checked out Trystan’s credit cards and traced him here,’ Serg said. ‘We were sent to bring him back. Mauri’s not happy that he stole your sister from the beach house and caused you to leave.’

‘Does he know that I’m here?’ Ivy asked.

Serg shrugged. ‘No idea. I just go where he points.’

Making eye contact with Dax, she thought of when he had said something similar. ‘So if I hadn’t been here were you just going to leave my sister here with the check?’

‘It’s already been taken care of,’ Serg said. ‘We have to take Trystan to Mauri, Dax says that you’ll take Rosie back. But we can—‘

‘No,’ Ivy said. ‘I’m not leaving my sister with you guys.’

Serg, Trystan, and those two bulky guys lifting Trystan from the floor, might make for an interesting road trip, but it wasn’t a guaranteed safe one. Mauri usually put up with Trystan’s exploits and then chastised him for them afterwards.

‘Dax probably figured that,’ Serg said.

His men had Trystan up on his feet and despite the split lip, Trystan was unharmed, except he wore an expression of thunder. ‘You set this up, didn’t you, bitch?’ Trystan shouted at her.

Ivy ignored him and kept Rosie’s hand to lead her over to Dax and Serg. ‘Is this normal behaviour?’ Ivy asked. ‘For Mauri to intervene like this.’

‘No,’ Dax said. ‘Never heard of it.’

‘You’ve never heard of it because you were his check on the jerk,’ Serg said. ‘Mauri didn’t have to police him when he had you doing it for him.’

That made sense to Ivy. Dax put an arm around her, holding her body into his. She felt like an anchor though she was unsure about what he was trying to hold onto – his anger or his restraint.

‘Get him dressed,’ Serg said to his men who dragged Trystan into the bedroom.

Being told what to do was Trystan’s worst nightmare, and although he swore out his objections to how he was being manhandled, he did little to fight the men. That behaviour exhibited his true colours, he’d get physical with a woman who he could overpower, but with men who were stronger and meaner, his true cowardice flourished.

Dax’s phone rang, he let her go and walked to the window to speak to whoever was on the other end.

‘I want to get going,’ Rosie said to Ivy.

‘We’ll wait for Dax,’ Ivy said. With Serg showing up to cart Trystan off, they didn’t have to worry about travelling separately. Ivy had the car keys, but wouldn’t use them until she had her husband at her side.

‘I’m going to check on Trystan,’ Serg said and left them to go into the bedroom.

‘He’s a giant,’ Rosie muttered, watching Serg go. ‘Do you think he’s giant everywhere?’

Drawing her eyes to her curious sister, Ivy laughed. ‘Have you not learned your lesson about strange men? And they don’t come much stranger than him.’

‘Stranger than who?’ Dax came back to them, putting his phone in his pocket. Ivy raised the keys and dropped them into his hand.

‘Who was on the phone?’ Ivy asked.

‘Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘He wants us back at the mansion too.’

‘He snapped his fingers and thinks that we’ll jump? What did you tell him?’

‘That we were in Vegas and Serg had shown up to take Trystan home. We have to go back to California anyway, so I told him we’d stop at the mansion.’

‘We don’t have to go back, why do we have to go back?’ Ivy asked.

‘Because he says he has your things from Kay’s place and until we find out who is behind the bounty and put a stop to it, you’re in danger. I want this over before we go back home. Do you want to put our friends in danger?’

Appealing to her about their friends’ safety was purely for her benefit. Dax would sacrifice anyone, all of their friends and acquaintances, before he would let anyone harm a hair on her head.

‘Ok,’ she said, taking his hand and turning to Rosie. ‘We’ll give you some money, enough to get you wherever you want to go. I guess you’re free now.’

‘No,’ Rosie said. ‘I want to come back with you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I want to know that you’ll be safe,’ Rosie said. ‘You came all the way out here to protect me when it could have cost you your life. Please, Ivy, let me see how this plays out.’

‘Ok,’ Ivy exhaled and glanced at Dax. ‘Let’s go back to California.’

Dax now had responsibility for two women, but it didn’t seem to perturb him. Ivy knew that he’d rather have her and Rosie to worry about than deal with his mother again. So at Mauri’s command, they headed out of the suite and down to the car in the GoldSpring parking lot.

It had been their intention to go back to the beach house anyway. It was impolite to use Mauri for his safe haven and then refuse to look him in the eye. Ivy tightened her grip on Dax’s hand at the thought of going back there, not because she was fearful of her safety, but because she feared what Mauri would ask of him this time.

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Every time we drive up to this place I feel sick,’ Ivy admitted, watching the Stark mansion expand in her view as they drove closer. Rosie leaned between the two front seats from her position in the back to see the house that Ivy was sneering at.

‘I don’t know why. You’ve never been harmed here, have you?’ Dax asked.

‘Never been harmed here?’ Ivy said. Her head snapped to the side, taking the mansion out of her view and bringing her husband front and centre. ‘Are you crazy? The first time you brought me here, you spanked me in the driveway in full view of the house.’

‘You tried to run from me, and it worked, didn’t it? You’ve never run away from me again.’

‘Except those seven weeks you spent chasing me across the country, are we forgetting about that?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, bringing the car to a stop parallel to the front portico. ‘We are.’ He turned off the engine and gave her the car keys again.

‘Why do I need them this time?’ she asked but put them into her purse.