His head came up. ‘The others, her sister and…’

‘They are both there,’ Mauri said. ‘They travelled to the beach house this morning… Ivy would probably like to have some company while you are out hunting down the threat. She and her sister haven’t seen each other for a long time.’

Ivy had worried about Rosie being close to Mauri and staying in his house. If Ivy had time with her sister, she might be able to explain her concerns. ‘Ok,’ Dax said. ‘We’ll leave tonight, that should give me time to talk her round.’

‘Good, I will prepare everything and send a car for you. It will be safer that way. I’ll make sure that there is a full security team out there. We will keep her safe.’

Safe from what, Dax had to ask himself. This morning they had been certain that they were leaving the Starks behind, and now they were about to walk straight back into Stark territory.

Murder was nothing to trifle with. After the shock of what Dax had told her subsided, Ivy was faced with the horrible truth that someone wanted her dead, and they were willing to pay big money to see her corpse. She didn’t want to die and wasn’t stupid enough to think that she could defend herself against everyone who would now be looking for her.

Only now their freewill had been taken away. One of Mauri’s lackeys was now standing outside the apartment, he had arrived not long after Dax had come home. But by the time she found out that the lackey was there, Dax had revealed what he knew, and she was still languishing in the news.

Dax had tried to question her, but she needed time to absorb the development. His questions had been about her enemies, about anyone who might wish her harm, anyone that she’d upset or angered recently. After some thought, she came up with a big fat zero. The only people she’d had run-ins with recently were the Starks, and they were apparently going to act as saviours.

She had made dinner, but they’d eaten in silence, and now she was packing up their things to go on this forced vacation.

‘Are you pissed?’ Dax asked, loitering in the bedroom doorway. ‘I can’t get a read on what you’re feeling.’

She folded a sundress from the pile of clothes they’d dumped on the bed. She placed it into the suitcase open beside the mound of clothes. ‘No,’ she said, carrying on with the folding to pack everything into the case.

‘You’re not saying much,’ he said, coming a few feet into the room. ‘If you want to get out of here… I mean if you would rather I protect you alone—‘

‘You and Mauri figured it all out,’ she said. ‘I don’t want anything happening to you either, so it makes sense to take advantage of Mauri’s offer. I would prefer one of his thugs take the bullet than you.’

‘Not so long ago that I was one of his thugs,’ Dax said. ‘He’s not doing this just out of the goodness of his heart. He wants something.’

‘He wants you.’

‘I don’t think that’s it.’

‘Are you willing to bet our future on that?’ she asked, placing his shorts into their luggage. ‘We’ll just go out there, play nice, and think of it as a vacation, just like Mauri said. We stay there for as long as we need to and then we get the hell out of there.’

‘Ok.’

She carried on packing, and he sauntered toward the closet, he went in and came out, then retrieved some things from the bathroom before going back into the closet. Ivy kept turning over her questions in her mind, letting her thoughts grow until they reached critical mass, and she dumped an unfolded top down.

‘You know what? I am pissed,’ she confessed.

‘There’s a surprise,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t it feel better just to say it?’

He left the closet and strolled out of the bedroom, leaving her to gape at his disappearing act. Not one to let him get away easily, she followed and found him in the kitchen retrieving a beer from the fridge.

‘You can’t ask me a question and then walk away when I answer,’ she said.

Lowering the bottle from his lips, he took a breath. ‘I think I can. Do you want a beer?’

‘No, I don’t want a beer. Don’t you want to ask me why I’m pissed?’

‘I would think that was obvious after the night we’ve had,’ he said. ‘But if you want to rant at me I guess you’re entitled.’

‘Rant at you?’

Leaving the kitchen, he went to the couch and picked up the TV remote. But before he could turn on the television, she rushed over and grabbed it from his hand. ‘I guess you want my attention while you rant,’ he said, flattening his hands on the couch at each of his sides. ‘Go for it then, babygirl.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me that Bruno is your father?’

With everything that he’d revealed that day she guessed that he wasn’t expecting that question. Ivy knew how to get his attention, and she had it now. He’d picked up the remote because he expected her to shout at him for getting her into this mess. But she didn’t blame him for the actions of the crazy person who wished her dead. She blamed him for concealing information that he had, for lying to her by saying that nothing had happened at the midnight meeting all those weeks ago.

‘That is why you’re pissed?’ he asked after he got over his surprise. ‘I come home and tell you that someone is trying to have you killed, and that we’re going to a place where you were held against your will for months, and you’re pissed that I didn’t tell you something?’

‘Trystan said—‘

‘And you believe what he says?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘That’s why I’m talking to you about it. I want you to know that I know. And I want to know why you didn’t tell me.’

‘Because it’s embarrassing,’ he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees so that he didn’t have to look her in the face. ‘It’s disgusting. It’s a fucking joke, that’s why.’ Dax got up, looming close to her now that their bodies were both upright. ‘That sick motherfucker had his hands on you and if I think about—‘

‘Ok,’ she said, his fists clenched, so she stroked his arms until she saw them loosen. ‘I understand why you’re upset. But if this was what Mauri told you, how do you know that he wasn’t trying to upset you? Now, at the beach house, you’ll have the chance to talk to your mother and—‘

‘Do you think she’ll be honest?’ he asked. ‘We don’t know her, we can’t be sure that anything she says is the truth. I don’t know anything about her.’

‘We can find out who she is. Trust takes time to build, so I guess Mauri is giving us a chance to do that. I doubt that you’ll get to know her enough to trust her in the short time that we’re at the beach house with her.’ She hoped it was a short time. ‘But… it’s a start.’

‘You’re into this?’ Dax asked. ‘You want me to let her into our lives?’

‘I think it’s worth taking this opportunity. Yeah, we were going to turn our backs on it, but things have changed, and now we’re in it whether we like it or not. We might as well make the most of it.’

‘You don’t have a great relationship with your mom, you haven’t seen her since you were a teenager. Why do you think my mom will be different?’

‘We’re talking about two separate things,’ she said. ‘We don’t know that our mothers are the same. Besides, I’m not talking about having cosy Christmases together, all around the tree in jammies opening presents. I’m talking about having a conversation and finding out the truth about your past from the horse’s mouth.’

‘Keeping you safe is number one, babygirl,’ he said, placing his hands on her waist. ‘How do you feel about going back to the beach house?’

‘I think that explaining the jail cell in the basement might take some dancing.’

‘Mauri knows that we’re going, he asked us to go there last night. He would have assumed that he was getting his way so would’ve set the place up to receive guests. That cell wasn’t always there. So don’t be surprised if it’s gone now.’

‘My sister probably wouldn’t notice anyway, she’s not had the best luck in life… kind of like me I suppose, until I met you.’