Fighting Back (Harrow #2) by Scarlett Finn Read Free Book Online Page A

he wasn’t sharing with her. She’d give him some time, but if he didn’t spit it out in the next day or two, she would wheedle it out of him.
    ‘Go next door and hit your bag,’ she said, dropping her arms from his and giving him a shove. ‘I’ll be right here if you need another way to process.’
    Being physical, between the sheets, in the gym, or in the ring, was Dax’s way of figuring the world out. He liked to have a goal and when he reached it, he felt that he had achieved something.
    Tonight she wasn’t enough of a challenge for him, so she’d let him go and work up a sweat next door. When he came back, he would maybe have figured out how he felt about what he was going to do next, thus giving him another goal to achieve.
    She had her own ideas of what she wanted to spend the next few days doing, but those would keep for tonight. Her mess wasn’t connected to Dax, she just had a few doors to close before she could embrace whatever they were going to face with the Starks.
     
     
    Having had the night to think about it, Ivy was stuck on one thing: taking over the empire. That’s what it came down to. Maurice wanted Dax to take over when he passed away. Brad would be the sophisticated front while Dax headed up the dirty work division.
    Last night, her first instinct had been to tell Dax no and demand that they go home, but they’d argued enough in the last few days. When he did eventually come back to bed after beating up his punching bag, he hadn’t woken her, and by the time she was out of her morning shower he’d already left to go for a run. He’d come back for a shower, and she’d made breakfast, but conversation had been stunted. Despite all of his working out, she could tell that he was still torn about their future.
    Now Dax was out again, this time to pick up lunch. Takeout was his way of contributing to meals, he could cook steak and mix a mouth-watering salsa, but that was as far as his talents went when it came to cookery.
    Standing in the bedroom closet she scrutinised the space, which was filled with Dax’s clothes and possessions. The whole apartment was full of his things while all she had were the items she’d thrown together back east.
    Dax had made something of himself, he had money, and a way to support himself. He could be cast out, penniless, and he would still be able to earn a living through his fighting, and now he’d been offered a chance at owning part of a multi-million dollar criminal empire.
    She’d made their bed with fresh sheets and then moved into the closet. Ignoring Dax’s things, she sought out a sports bag because she needed luggage that would be smaller than the suitcase they’d brought on their trip here.
    The bag that she located she recognised as the one they’d had in Vegas when they got married. Taking the bag out, she laid it on the bed, and unzipped it to check that it was empty. Inside she found only one thing: a pile of zip ties bound by an elastic band.
    Removing them, she thought of their wedding night, which was the night she’d found this same item in this bag. Fingering the plastic, she was reminded of the night she tried to escape from the beach house on the first night that Dax had introduced her to these restraints. Now she would never consider sneaking out of her husband’s bed in an attempt to escape from him.
    Tossing them aside, she put her hands in the bag again, this time to push out the sides and give the bag its shape back. Then she went into the closet to retrieve some of her folded clothes from a shelf. She carried them to the bedroom and put them in the bag.
    She was back in the closet picking her underwear out of Dax’s top drawer when the front door opened. Digging out the last of her lacies, she grabbed a pair of Dax’s socks, and closed the drawer with her elbow.
    Quickly dropping the apparel into the bag on the bed, she hurried through to the kitchen intent on talking to Dax about her trip during lunch. But when she got