The chatter returned, and the security guards did as they were told. Brad turned around and put a hand on Dax’s arm, which he shrugged off. ‘Don’t fucking touch me!’

‘Ok,’ Brad said, lowering to pick Dax’s jacket up off the floor. ‘Do you want to go back to your wife now?’

‘I want to go downstairs,’ Dax said. The gym in this building was state of the art, but all he needed access to right now was the punching bag.

‘Ok,’ Brad nodded. Dax hadn’t expected him to agree. ‘Let’s go.’

Brad again tried to touch Dax in order to guide him, but Dax lifted his arm away and didn’t move in the direction Brad wanted him to go. ‘What’s going on? What is Mauri playing at?’

‘You’d have to ask him that,’ Brad said. ‘All I know is that bringing these people together was important to him. He doesn’t have much time, Dax, and tracing those women sapped a lot of his energy. He was very hands on with making this happen, he had to be. Your mother was reluctant to come here.’

‘Good,’ Dax said. ‘She can fuck off then. Go in there and get Ivy for me.’

‘My,’ Brad said, wearing a smile that Dax wanted to rearrange. ‘Dax Harrow isn’t afraid, is he?’

‘Afraid? No, but I’m done with the games. Mauri couldn’t have done a worse thing, Ivy was already against coming back here, and you’ve just given me the excuse that I need to walk away.’

‘Walk if you want to,’ Brad said. ‘But Ivy doesn’t appear to be as eager to get out of here, does she?’

That could have been Mauri’s goal, he wanted to tempt Ivy by bringing these women back into their lives. Ivy might change her mind now that her family could be a part of their supposed new life. Coming to Mauri’s call had been a mistake, Ivy had been right all along.

‘Get out of my way,’ Dax said, sweeping Brad aside to march back to the room he’d left his wife in.

Going back down the corridor, he tossed open the door but didn’t venture much more than a foot into the room. ‘Move,’ he said to Ivy.

All of the women were in here, seated in the wood framed couches arranged in a square formation. Mauri was alone on the head one in front of the window. Their relatives were seated together on the couch to Mauri’s right. Opposite, Ivy sat on a third couch with a man who hadn’t been here before, a man that he didn’t recognise.

‘Dax,’ Mauri said. ‘Come in and join us.’

‘No, thanks,’ he sniped, keeping his focus on Ivy, who hadn’t said a single word though her attention was trained on him. ‘What’s the matter with you, Minx? Move.’

‘I think that Ivy wants to stay,’ Mauri said. ‘You should join her.’

‘You want to stay?’ Dax asked her.

‘Yes, she does,’ Mauri said.

Releasing the door handle, Dax came another couple of feet into the room while remaining in the shadow of the door. ‘You keep your fucking mouth shut, old man. My wife has a tongue in her head, and she’s very capable of using it.’

‘Your wife is very beautiful.’

This unfamiliar female voice drew his eye for a second, but the words had come from the woman Mauri claimed was his mother. Dax wasn’t going to entertain her because that was exactly what Mauri wanted. ‘Minx?’

Ivy’s lips parted to speak, ‘I…’ her body jolted an inch, and her feisty eyes snapped around to the man at her side.

Taking in the scene again, Dax kicked himself for not sensing the danger sooner. ‘Take your fucking hands off her,’ Dax said, striding toward the man beside his wife.

The drawing room door closed, but he didn’t bother looking to see who had closed it. It should have been obvious to him that Ivy sitting on the couch without expressing a word or opinion was wrong. His mind was mangled by Mauri’s revelations. But at least now he had some legitimate danger to vent his frustration on.

Before Dax got to their position, the man rose and hauled Ivy up to her feet, keeping her body pulled into his side. The gleam of a gun barrel was pressed under her ribs.

‘Now everyone calm down,’ Mauri said, rising from his seat. The man holding Ivy began to inch back until they were aligned with Mauri.

Dax paused next to the couch they had been seated on and made eye contact with Ivy. ‘I should’ve fucking known.’

‘Not your fault,’ Ivy said and managed a smile. She wasn’t saying much and was maybe a fraction paler than normal, but she didn’t have fear or tears in her eyes. ‘They took exception to me wanting to come after you… apparently there’s more that they have to tell you.’

‘We didn’t want to resort to this,’ Mauri said. ‘All we want you to do is hear us out.’

Us. That was a joke. Mauri was a puppet-master who tugged on everyone’s strings whenever he wanted, and Dax had just got his Ivy embroiled in the old man’s sick theatre.

‘Do you think that threatening my wife is going to tempt me into agreeing with you?’ Dax asked.

‘Who would you rather we threaten?’ Mauri asked. ‘She has you hypnotised.’

‘Pissed that I stopped dancing to your tune?’ Dax asked. ‘Ivy doesn’t give me instructions and expect them to be followed blindly. She taught me respect, something you never showed anyone.’

‘You’re lashing out, I understand that,’ Mauri said, glancing at whoever was behind Dax.

He didn’t want to take his focus from Ivy and the weapon in the room, but as it turned out, he didn’t have to because Ivy acted as his eyes for him. ‘It’s Brad,’ Ivy said. ‘He doesn’t have a weapon though. I trust that you can take him.’

‘Like he just tried to take half a dozen security guards in the lobby,’ Brad said. ‘The guests know something is going on.’

‘We don’t care about them,’ Mauri said. ‘Everyone we care about is right here.’

‘Trystan might take exception to that,’ Brad said.

‘Oh, let him, the boy is nothing but trouble,’ Mauri said. Dax had seen him annoyed before, but this was more than that.

‘He’s giving you a run for your money now,’ Dax said. ‘You thought Ivy could get him to shape up before you died, doesn’t look likely now.’

‘No,’ Mauri said. ‘But he will be your problem when I am no longer here.’

‘He’s his own problem,’ Dax said. ‘I don’t give a fuck about your empire or your family. You let mine go, and we’ll be out of the state by sunset.’ Turning to Ivy, he held out his hand. ‘Come here.’

She tried to move forward, but the guy at her side wrenched her back, prodding the gun deep into her side making her wince. Dax’s upper lip twitched with the angry revulsion taking him over. He would remember every detail of that motherfucker’s face, and if he ever saw the guy again, he would make sure that he never drew another breath.

‘Is this what it’s like to have two men fighting over you?’ Ivy quipped.

‘He’s not going to hurt you,’ Dax said, taking a step closer. ‘You think that Mauri would take the risk of hurting you, babygirl? It won’t happen.’

‘I’m expendable,’ Ivy said.

‘Not to me,’ he said. ‘That diamond cost a small fortune.’

‘Well I want to be buried with it, so you’re out of luck,’ she said, smiling again. ‘No refund or return for you.’

‘Damn. I knew I should’ve gone with the zirconia.’

‘Then I might have said no.’

‘You’re not going to say no now, are you?’ he asked, elevating his hand. ‘Come here.’

The guy with a hold of her looked at Mauri when Ivy began to move away from him. The threatener didn’t yank her back, but he kept his hand on her arm.

‘You don’t want Dax to get over there, dad,’ Brad said to Mauri, prompting the guy gripping Ivy to let her go. She bounded forward and put her hand into Dax’s.

‘I’m disappointed, Mauri,’ Dax said. ‘You should follow your own advice. Never bluff in life, someone’s always bound to call you on it.’ Rounding, he went for the door, ready to get out of this house and away from all of these people forever.

‘Your possessions are upstairs, Ivy,’ Mauri’s voice sounded solemn.

Dax kept walking but had to stop when Ivy did. ‘What?’ Dax asked her.