‘Please,’ Carina said. ‘Everybody calm down, someone will get hurt!’

So Mauri had been happy to have Bruno at his side as long as Mauri was still running things, but the betrayal of Bruno and Winnie had come out, and that had changed things for Mauri. He wouldn’t give the reins of all that he had built to the man who had stolen his wife.

‘Is that why you wanted to take Ivy out?’ Dax asked, seeing his chance to get the answers that he wanted. ‘You found a wife you couldn’t fuck?’

Bruno whipped around but kept the gun waving in Mauri’s direction. ‘I could fuck your wife if I wanted to, she’s a horny little bitch who likes it rough, I’d fuck that tight pussy, and she’d never come back to your bed!’

Storming over, Dax was ready to finish this; Mauri was shouting, and security had no idea how to act. Until a few weeks ago, Mauri and Bruno had been on the same team. It wasn’t so long ago that Dax was a part of that team too.

The gun came around toward him in an arc and Bruno fired off a round. The bullet went wide, giving Dax plenty of room to duck it. Dipping down, he thrust his arm up to grab Bruno’s wrist and twist it down to free the gun from his grip. The gun fell, but Dax caught it in his lower hand and immediately backed away, bringing the weapon up to aim at the others in the room.

‘Well done, Dax!’ Mauri said with beaming pride, but Dax wasn’t interested in his pride anymore, and he proved that by aiming the gun at Mauri.

‘You all out of here,’ Dax said to the security men. ‘This isn’t your fight, and take those two with you.’

Security did as they were told, taking the two men Dax had hit out of the room with them. Dax had worked with many of them and didn’t want to see them sacrificed for the good of the two scumbag men who remained. The drawing room door closed and Dax waved the gun at the bedroom door.

‘Go and lock it,’ he said. It was unlikely that there was anyone in there, certainly anyone who would take a bullet for Mauri, but Dax didn’t want any surprises.

Mauri went over to the door and turned the key that was in the lock, then he about-faced to saunter back to his place behind his armchair.

‘You,’ Dax said to Carina. ‘Get up and go stand by Mauri.’

‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘She’s not welcome at my side. She has been feeding Bruno information.’

Dax glared at Carina, who hovered in front of the fireplace. ‘He called me,’ Carina said. ‘When we were at the beach house, I was so surprised and—‘

‘And you thought that you’d get in on the action,’ Dax said. ‘Why not claim the bounty for yourself?’

‘She’s no killer,’ Bruno said. ‘And I wanted to see Ivy go slow, the wait was worth it. I knew she was living in fear never knowing who to trust or when the bullet would come… I went to Vegas, we were gonna get together, and that fucking fuckwit of a boyfriend got in the way.’

‘Saul died trying to protect you from the man who wanted Ivy dead,’ Dax said to Carina. He wasn’t hurt or disappointed for himself, he had nothing invested in these strangers. But Ivy would be hurt to hear that the woman she’d been trying to trust had shopped them to Bruno.

‘What are you going to do now, boy?’ Mauri asked.

‘Now it’s time to tell a few truths. I’m not coming back,’ Dax said to Mauri. ‘I will never willingly work for you. Kidnap me, hold me at gunpoint, I won’t do it.’

‘You would if Ivy was at the end of that gun,’ Mauri said.

‘No,’ Dax said. ‘I’d do exactly what I just did, and I’d turn the tables on you. I’ll let you walk away from this today but only because your days are numbered, old man. Brad and Trystan can have your empire, they don’t want me to be anywhere near it and for once the three of us agree on that.’

‘So much for the experiment,’ Bruno said to Mauri. ‘You were so sure that he would come through for you, Mauri. So sure that picking him up at that shitty club when he was a squirt of a kid was going to benefit us all, now look at where we’ve ended up.’

The triangle of men scrutinised each other, each waiting for the other to act. All of them were the alpha types who liked to be in control, but Dax was the only one with a weapon, Bruno’s weapon. Mauri would have a weapon somewhere in this room, but he wasn’t revealing its location, yet.

‘Tell me why you put the bounty on Ivy,’ Dax asked Bruno.

He grumbled but did respond. ‘Because she’s a bitch who took everything away from all of us! Look at this shit! We’re ready to kill each other because of her!’

‘Not because of her,’ Dax said.

‘If you had stayed, done what you were told, Mauri would’ve let us run the show. But I fucked up, my reputation is in the shitter because you had to fall for that cheap piece of ass. Taking her out meant you had no reason not to come and work for Mauri… I was doing you a favour!’

‘You’re jealous that I listened to her instead of you,’ Dax said. ‘That’s it?’

‘She deserves it,’ Bruno growled. ‘No stinking bitch is gonna ruin me. I should’ve kicked you out of that beach house, taken over, trained that bitch to sit, heel, and beg. You were weak, but I could’ve done it. She’d have done fucking tricks for me if I’d been in charge.’

So it was Bruno’s wounded pride that made Dax almost lose Ivy. ‘You were left alone out there because you were trusted,’ Mauri said. ‘You were the two men in the world I trusted more than any other… You let me down, Dax.’

‘I don’t give a fuck about disappointing you,’ Dax said. ‘The only thing I’d do differently if I did it all again would be to get Ivy out of there the first chance I got.’

‘You’re a fucking asshole,’ Bruno said.

‘You’re gonna call it off. The bounty, it’s done,’ Dax said to Bruno. ‘Get out your phone and call Benny, you tell him to call off the hunters.’

‘They want their money, and I can give it to them!’ Bruno exclaimed. ‘I made a mint off this family and using some of that dough to blast a hole in your fucking happiness is worth it. No kid of mine will be a mushy fucking lovesick pup. You need to be angry, bitter, out to hate the world, then you’ll fucking know what it is to be respected.’

‘I’m not interested in being your kid,’ Dax said. ‘Take out your cell and call it off, or I’ll put a bullet between your eyes right now.’

Bruno’s lips squeezed together, he didn’t like to be given orders, but Dax would guess he’d like losing his life less. So Bruno reached into his pocket and took out his phone. Punching in a phone number, he lifted the phone to his ear.

‘Put it on speakerphone,’ Dax said, and again Bruno grumbled something, but lowered the phone and did as he was told. ‘You tell him it’s over, and that Ivy isn’t to be harmed.’

The four of them listened to the ringing until Benny picked up. ‘Bruno? What the fuck is going on?’ The guy sounded panicked, his panted words were rushed. ‘Ravager was here, him and that big fuck he hangs with, they were looking for you… they know about—‘

‘I know,’ Bruno said. ‘Call it off.’

‘What?’

‘The bounty, it’s over, send out word, the girl isn’t to be touched.’

‘Are you…? Are you sure?’ Benny asked. ‘You were sure about—‘

‘Yes, I’m fucking sure,’ Bruno said. ‘Don’t question me you little fuck, just do it.’

‘Ok, boss, whatever you say.’

‘Happy now?’ Bruno asked Dax.

‘One more thing,’ Dax said before Bruno hung up.

‘Who…? Who is that?’ Benny stuttered.

‘It’s Ravager,’ Dax said. ‘You tell anyone who thinks about trying to collect anyway that they’ll have to face me.’

‘Oh… ok,’ Benny said.

‘You tell them the money train isn’t capable of delivering,’ Dax said.

‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Bruno asked probably ready to go on another rant about how much money he had.

‘Where Ivy’s safety is concerned, I’m not gonna take any chances,’ Dax said and squeezed the trigger.

The kick didn’t move him, he kept his eyes trained on Bruno whose stunned expression froze. Carina wailed and dashed across the room. The phone clattered to the floor before Bruno’s body followed and the blood seeping from his head spread on the floor. Carina threw herself down on Bruno and began to sob, but Dax turned his attention to Mauri, he wasn’t interested in her dramatic display.