Page 21 of Thorns of Malice

$20 million in profits from Seducing Ivy blooms delivered.

$38 million from Seducing Ivy bloom pre-order profits.

I stare at the numbers and all the zeros and then add them together.

$72 million.

I take a deep breath and call my private investigator, Hank Tallywind.

"Dax. Long time since I've heard from you," he says.

"Yep," I reply.

"How have you been?"

"Fine. Let's avoid the niceties," I state.

He chuckles. "Same old Dax Carrington, I see. Who do you want me to find?"

My heart aches. My chest tightens. I open and close my fists. I've made this call to him before but have yet to have him do it. I've always told him, "Never mind."

This time, the words come out of my mouth. "I need you to find a woman. She'd be about twenty-eight now. Her name's Ivy Ford. Her father's name is John."

"John Ford? Pretty common name."

"They're somewhere in Georgia, near the Savannah area."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I had their address."

"Then why do you need me?"

Because I burned it like a fucking moron.

"None of your business. All you need to know is that I no longer have the address, but I need you to get it."

"Sure. Ivy is spelled I-V-Y?" he asks.

"Yes."

"Is John J-O-H-N or J-O-N?"

I grit my teeth, thinking about how much John Ford hates me. Can't say I have any good feelings for the man either. Although, as bad as a father as I think he was to Ivy by not supporting her as well as he should have, he was smart. He created the hybrid.

His daughter gets to profit from the hybrid, not him. Besides, he never would've done anything with it if it had stayed in his little leather notebook.

I reply, "It's J-O-H-N."

"Okay. On it," Hank declares and hangs up.

I turn back to my piece of paper with my handwritten $72 million, staring at the numbers.

Time to do it.

I click on the Carrington Enterprises account and go to the transfer button. From the dropdown menu, I select the Ivy Ford Trust. Then, I transfer $72 million into it.

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