‘Carlos?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, sagging back into the couch.

‘You were supposed to believe it,’ Dax said. ‘It has to be made to look good, believable, so that the victim will walk in and accept the setup without suspecting anything’s off.’

‘How many people did you set up?’

‘Whoever Mauri told me to,’ he said. ‘Yeah, I’ve taken part in gigs like that before. I won’t lie to you about my past.’

‘I had to come back to Vegas,’ she said. ‘Everything I own is here. I need to… it’s time to consolidate my old life with my new one.’

‘No better way to do that than to keep the new life at your side.’ He took her hand to his mouth and kissed it, but when he tried to let her go, she captured his forearm.

‘You can stay with me, here, in this room,’ she said. ‘But I need time alone to take care of… some things.’

‘Why? What are you so desperate to keep me away from?’

With half a shrug, she admitted the truth. ‘My ex-boyfriend.’

Dax tensed and twisted their joined hands to bring her body flush into his. ‘That loser I met downstairs? You’ll stay at my side. Why the fuck would you need to go near some loser that you used to bang? I’m here. I’ll take care of—‘

‘I’m not going there for sex. Saul and I didn’t have that kind of relationship anyway.’

‘You didn’t fuck him?’

‘I did. I meant it wasn’t just sex. He did care about me,’ she said, avoiding eye contact.

Saul had seemed like a good guy when they started going out and for a time he was besotted with her. But he always wanted to share in the next big thing and Ivy wasn’t interested in being a part of any scene. So their relationship was doomed to never work out, they wanted different things.

‘Is that meant to make me feel good? You were in love with the guy?’

‘Not like I’m in love with you,’ she said. ‘If you want to meet him again, you can. What you can’t do is invite him into the ring with you. You have to be nice to him, no threatening and intimidating him, he did me a favour when he didn’t have to.’

‘What favour?’

‘Nothing naked,’ she said, stroking the hairs on his arm. ‘I needed someone who could mobilise and disarm people, there’s no one better at that than Saul. He knows tonnes of people, and he’s so friendly, he can… he just knows how to work people I guess.’

‘So? Why did you need him to do that?’

‘The night I left here, our wedding night—‘

‘You went to your fucking ex-boyfriend on our wedding night?’ he shouted and shot to his feet.

‘No! No, I called him. I went to my old place, Trudi was working, I knew she would be, I packed up the rest of my stuff there and then went… to the house where I had the live-in job. But, there were new owners, the previous tenant was gone, and they didn’t know where he was.

‘So I was stuck there without cab money and no phone. I went to a friend’s place that was within walking distance and used her phone to call Saul, and we made an arrangement.’

‘An arrangement?’

‘He agreed to store my things for me, the stuff I’d picked up from Trudi’s. I hadn’t taken all of my possessions to the live-in job yet, I only took one bag. I didn’t know if it would work out, and I’d paid rent to Trudi for the month. I wanted to make sure that she was looked after. Funny, isn’t it? I was worried about her because I thought I’d landed on my feet with my new job. I was going to pick up the rest of my stuff from Trudi’s later, then you know, everything happened. So when we were back in Vegas to get married, I took the chance and went over to Trudi’s to pack everything up.’

‘Why did you go to the other house?’

‘I left something there,’ she said. ‘I wanted to get it back.’

‘Something, what?’

‘You won’t understand.’

‘Try me.’

‘You’re angry,’ she said. ‘I can tell when you bark at me like that.’

‘You went to an ex when we were together.’

‘I didn’t see Saul on our wedding night. I left my bags from Trudi’s at my friend’s place, and he picked them up the next day. I came back here to you.’

‘But you didn’t get that one bag? The things you took to your live-in job?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ she said, picking at her cuticle. ‘I was an idiot for going over there. I thought that… that Darryl Kay was a real person. He was probably made up. But I… I’m not ready to give up yet. If Trudi doesn’t know him, then there’s a chance that Carlos will. He’ll be able to tell me who his contact was.’

‘No, he won’t,’ Dax said, dashing her hopes. ‘We don’t leave contact details and transactions like that happen in the shadows, chances are Carlos never saw a face.’

‘How can you—‘

‘Because I’ve been that guy, the guy offering a payoff to someone for carrying out a simple task. You said Trudi gave you the info?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Someone went to Carlos with an envelope full of money and the details. He was told to give the information to Trudi and to make her pass it on to you. Carlos got his money and a piece of paper to be delivered to you, that’s it. He probably never saw the person before or since.’

‘Probably,’ she said, bouncing to her feet. ‘I have to take the chance. He might know. Trudi said she got the job details from a client. Maybe the person offering Carlos the payoff was a client, maybe he knew—‘

‘No,’ Dax said. ‘Being discreet is part of the job. Even if they were our guys, they wouldn’t have approached a hooker they used or her pimp. They might make a recommendation on how to get to you, but someone else would make the drop.’

‘Great, way to break the news gently, Dax.’

Seating herself on the couch again, she tried to think of other ways to get to Darryl Kay. But Trudi had been her ace, Ivy didn’t have any other link to that job.

‘Did you think about coming to me?’ Dax asked.

‘You?’ she asked. ‘You weren’t there. I would have remembered it if you were.’

‘Mauri kept me out of it because you and me interacted. But I have contacts of my own, I can find out how it went down.’

‘You can?’

‘Maybe,’ he shrugged. ‘Pinning down the exact guy who made contact with Carlos will be tough, we’re trained not to talk. But if he wasn’t a top guy, he might be sloppy. If he’s mouthed off to someone about working for Mauri, then I can find that out… though the chances are if Mauri’s heard that the guy has opened his mouth, then the guy won’t be around anymore, if you get me.’

‘I don’t need to speak to that guy,’ she said, springing to her feet and rushing over to her husband. ‘I need to find out what happened to my things.’

‘The bag you never retrieved?’

She nodded. ‘Everything that’s important to me is in it.’

‘Would Mauri have gotten rid of it?’

‘Probably, if you were any other mark,’ he said. ‘But your role was supposed to be at Trystan’s side, they might have sent your things to the California mansion.’

‘Damn.’

‘Damn? I thought that would make you happy, why does that disappoint you?’

‘Because if Trystan has my possessions then I’ll have to ask him for access to them. He’s never going to be nice and just hand them over. You know how he likes to play with people. He’ll want to question me or make me beg.’

‘You don’t have to do anything,’ Dax said, taking her hands to bring them to his shoulders. ‘If there’s anything that belongs to you in Trystan’s suite, I can get it.’

‘How?’ She wouldn’t ask Dax to beg for her, and she didn’t want either of them owing Trystan any favours; he was a sick, twisted man, who could not be trusted.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Dax said. ‘You should have come to me with this before coming here by yourself. What was the next part of your plan? Were you going to speak to Carlos alone?’

‘If I had to, yes.’

‘Men like that don’t talk to women; he wouldn’t have answered your questions.’

‘Do you know Carlos?’

‘No. I don’t have to know the specific guy to know what they’re like. Pimps like to exert power over women and are caught up in their own importance. Even if you did beg he still wouldn’t give you the information that you wanted. Who is Darryl?’