Go Full Circle (A Go Novel Book 5)

by Scarlett Finn

  The light of daring desire in his eyes betrayed his curiosity. He wasn’t going to back down, wasn’t going to stop her. Seizing a handful of her hair, he yanked her head back and bowed to suck on the swell of her breast until the nip of his suction made her yelp.

  Stretching his arms along the back of the couch, he didn’t disguise how proud he was of marking her. As the tingle of pain went through her, she glanced down to see her marred skin. Instead of offense or anger, a shot of feral need surged through her.

  Grabbing his face, she joined their mouths, pushing her tongue into his, wishing she could fill him with the same pounding hunger he instilled in her.

  “You have one helluva nerve.”

  Ophelia’s voice was probably the only thing that could interrupt this moment. Taking her mouth from his, Harlow locked her eyes onto Ryske’s. They shared a moment, silently telling each other they were ready.

  “How nice of you to join us?” Maze said. “I think there was about to be a vote. Wasn’t there? Ryske?”

  “I think there was about to be a federal crime,” Ophelia said.

  Harlow brushed her lips over Ryske’s and then slithered down his body to sit on the floor between his feet.

  “Look around you, Fi,” Ryske said. “This whole place is a federal crime and you know it… You orchestrated the whole damn thing and recruited every member… I’ve got to give it to you, you’ve got some chutzpah.”

  Laying a hand on her head, Ryske stroked Harlow’s hair. She wrapped both arms around his leg and rested her head against it.

  “I suppose this sight means my brilliant plan didn’t work,” Ophelia said. “Unless she’s poured a few doses of my product down your throat.”

  “Ha,” Ryske said, still stroking her hair. “Harlow is my drug, Fi… Haven’t you figured it out yet?” He slowed his words. “I love her.”

  “You’re a fool. She’s not the right woman for you. She’s using you.”

  “As long as I get to take her home every night, what do I care?”

  “Maybe we should leave the jealous woman talk for after the vote,” Penzance suggested.

  “Yes,” Ophelia said. “I vote to get rid of Harlow.”

  Stepping forward, Ophelia opened her purse and pulled out a paper bag that she dumped on the table.

  Ryske tapped Harlow’s head, so she let him go to reach over and get the bag. She handed it back to him.

  He opened up the bag to look inside as Harlow went back to her place embracing his leg. “Her initial investment?” Ryske said, scrunching the top of the bag again. “Half a million dollars.”

  He didn’t give the bag to her, so Harlow guessed he’d kept it on his lap or at his side.

  “That’s right,” Ophelia said, reeking of smugness. “Now she has no need to be here.” She looked around. “Where’s Anthony? Someone get him in here for a vote.”

  “We should get him in here, yeah,” Ryske said. “But we don’t need a vote. We accept.”

  Ophelia’s arrogance faltered. “Wha… we?”

  “Yes,” Ryske said. “I was here acting as Harlow’s agent. We were both coerced and manipulated by you… Everyone here was. I think you’re right, I don’t think we need our place in this consortium anymore… So, we’ll expect all of you to withdraw this evening. Our premises will no longer be accessible to any of you or used to facilitate your operation… Same goes for our contractors.”

  “The hookers,” Penzance said and hissed in a breath. “No premises and no staff. That’s gotta hurt.”

  “Any employees on their payroll can go too. The locks on every access point are being changed as we speak.”

  Dover’s talents seemed to know no bounds. The man was skilled in many trades. Noon usually reserved his locksmith skills for vehicles, but he wasn’t averse to branching out for a good cause.

  “You can’t do this,” Ophelia asserted but turned her glare down to Harlow. “How are you doing this? How did you do this to him?”

  “It has a lot to do with her personality… and the fact that she isn’t you,” Ryske said.

  Parratt murmured something to Lydia who scurried out of the room.

  Ophelia was fuming and didn’t see the woman go. “Oh, I will ruin all of you for this,” she growled. “You’ll regret crossing me.”

  “You might want to think carefully about that,” Harlow said, skimming a hand up Ryske’s leg and then turning her attention to Ophelia. “You’re going to be too busy running to think about payback.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  Maze tossed one of his folders onto the table. It spun around and came to a stop in front of Ophelia. Taken aback, while trying to maintain her confidence, Ophelia bent down and picked up the folder to leaf through it.

  Harlow could almost see each of the pages register as the certainty drained out of Ophelia. There was a snippet transcribed from the night of Jarvis’ murder. Pages from her medical and educational report, and evidence from the investigation of her parents’ death.

  Curling her hands over Ryske’s knees, Harlow boosted herself onto her feet.

  “Where did you get this?” Ophelia asked. “It’s lies. All lies.”

  “That’s just a sample of what we have,” Harlow said, skirting around the table. “We have evidence of everything, of exactly what you’re like, of who you are. If you force us to use it, we will.”

  Ophelia tossed the folder down and turned toward Harlow. “This proves nothing. You know nothing.”

  “I know I was there,” Harlow murmured. “I know I saw you do it. I took the rap to protect the people in this room from you… But now these people are smart enough to see what you did.”

  The curtain over the entry hallway moved. Yarker came in with Lydia behind him.

  “Anthony,” Ophelia declared, rushing over to him. “Do you know what’s going on in here? What they’re accusing me of?”

  “You orchestrated this whole thing and I let you,” Yarker said, pushing her hand away when she tried to reach for him. “You never loved me. You manipulated me. You forced me and my best friend to get involved with something that could cost us both our freedoms… I told you Gil got the offer and refused because we didn’t want to be involved in anything illegal like this… I thought it cost your brother his life. Now I learn it was you who took it. You killed your own brother… You’re a monster.”

  Grabbing Lydia, Yarker pulled her away from Ophelia and across to Parratt like he was protecting her.

  “No,” Ophelia said, searching the room and her thoughts. “No, this isn’t right… this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

  “That’s the way life goes,” Harlow said. “You’ve got to learn to go with it.”

  Fury clenched Ophelia’s jaw and her fists. “You’ve ruined everything!”

  She started to stalk across the room toward her. Harlow held her ground, even when she saw Ophelia’s hand go into her purse. There were gasps from across the room when Ophelia pulled out a gun.

  Harlow’s blood chilled. This was the way Hagan had gone and he hadn’t seen it coming. Harlow had no excuse, she’d had a feeling it was going to end this way. Still, shock tensed her muscles.

  But before Ophelia could reach her, a shadow crossed between them and then Ryske’s body was in front of hers. Harlow tried to push him aside, but he just wrapped both arms around his back and held her against his spine.

  “You want to use that, you better take me down first,” Ryske said.

  “No, Crash,” Harlow said, trying to wrestle out of his grip, but he was too strong. “Crash, let her have me.”

  She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go through the torture of losing him again. With his height and breadth, she couldn’t see around him and resented him for putting her in this position.

  “Every person in this room is willing to testify that all of this was your operation,” Ryske said. “The cops will buy it because your plan was the only thing you brought to the table… You can leave now, get
out the city with all the money you raised selling your brother’s life’s work… Sorry, your murder victim’s life’s work… or you can start shooting… But that’s a six shooter. Even if you use every shot to kill someone, there will still be witnesses… Think about all those clients out there with cellphones and the drugs behind that curtain. You bet your ass you’ll be going to jail. Oh, and all that evidence we have, it will find its way to the cops even if we’re dead. That’s the benefit of having a crew… something that comes with loyalty.”

  “And compassion,” Penzance said, leaving his chair to put himself in front of Ryske.

  To her amazement, Maze got up too. “And dedication,” he said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Penzance.

  “Ryske isn’t the only one who’ll stand up for Harlow,” Penzance said, but she couldn’t see much of him. Ryske was blocking her view.

  “No, he’s not,” Anwen said. To Harlow’s amazement, Anwen came over to stand with the guys. “It’s over, Fi. You’re being given a chance Jarvis would never have given you… Think about it, Brash and Animal know the truth. They know you killed Jarvis. They’ll be out for your blood. It would be smart to get out of dodge anyway.”

  “Leave town, Ophelia,” Parratt said, though he, Lydia, and Yarker stayed in their corner. “Never speak of any of this to anyone and none of us will. Force our hand and you will be pinned as responsible.”

  “Because you are,” Lydia said. It was nice to hear the woman stand up for herself.

  Tension hung in the air as everyone waited to see what Ophelia would do next.

  “All of you deserve to burn,” Ophelia spat. “If I’d set that fire myself in your precious bar, instead of hiring someone to do it, maybe you’d have got what you deserved!”

  Harlow felt Ryske lunge and found herself throwing her arms around his waist to pull him back. In an instant reversal, now she was holding him where he didn’t want to be.

  “Don’t, baby,” she said, dropping her weight back to hold him.

  “Get the fuck out of here, Ophelia!” Maze shouted, something he didn’t often do. “If you don’t leave now, I’ll take you down myself.”

  “You’re all ungrateful, ignorant swines,” Ophelia said. “To hell with you all.”

  Harlow heard movement and then the sound of the curtain. A moment of silence followed before Ryske began to relax.

  “Check she’s really gone,” Ryske said.

  “On it,” Penzance replied.

  After a few more seconds, Ryske eased her arms from around him. Her love turned toward Parratt who was coming their way. Penzance and Maze were striding out of the room.

  “I hope our paths never cross again,” Parratt was saying to Ryske when he and Yarker reached their position.

  “Oh,” Lydia made a sound of disappointment. “I was going to ask Harlow to lunch.”

  Harlow smiled.

  “Absolutely not,” Parratt said.

  Leaning to the side, Harlow peeked around Ryske to see Lydia. “I’ll call you.”

  Lydia grinned, but Parratt was blustering.

  Ryske ignored him to look at Yarker. “Get your people out of here, Ophelia’s too.”

  “Within the hour,” Yarker said and helped Lydia to drag Parratt out of the room.

  Ryske turned to Anwen, but she just raised a hand. “I’ll go help Maze,” she said and was smiling as she left.

  “That went as well as it could have,” Ryske said, turning to face her. “No one even got hurt.”

  Before he’d stopped turning, she brought her hand across his face in a hard slap. “You asshole! Don’t you ever do that to me again!”

  His hand was on his face until she began to move.

  He seized her arms, hauling her back to him. “I will always put myself between you and danger,” he asserted, shaking her. “Always!”

  “What would I have done if I’d have lost you?”

  He lost some of his anger and slid a hand up to cup the side of her head. “The same thing that I would’ve done.”

  Pulling her up, he kissed her hard. Though she objected at first, she felt herself melting and surrendering to him until she was loose in his embrace.

  He ripped his mouth free of hers too soon. “Don’t leave this room. I’m packing up Pothos for Parratt and then we’re clearing this place… It’s ours now, baby. Just ours… Told you we were going to own the world. This is just the first step.”

  “What’s next?”

  “Home, sex, wake up tomorrow,” he said, nuzzling her mouth. “All part of your plan.”

  “Dover should open Floyd’s tomorrow.”

  “He should.”

  “And we should go to my parents for dinner Sunday.”

  “You’re getting good at this planning for the future stuff.”

  Coiling her arms around his neck, she pulled herself to her tiptoes. “Crash?”

  “Hmm?” he asked, licking her lips.

  “Tell me I belong to you.”

  Easing back, he looked her in the eye, an intrigued smile on his face. “You do belong to me, Trinket… You have since that very first night.”

  “Crash?”

  “Yes, baby,” he said, tucking her hair back from her face.

  “Tell me I’m going to marry you one day. That I’m going to bear your children and we’re going to be together forever.”

  “We are.”

  Mesmerized by his mouth, she was rocking on her toes, eager to taste him again. “No, I need you to say it.”

  He laughed. “Why?”

  “Because every time I resisted, you fought, and you’ve been right every time. You are my soul, Ryske. The love of my life. My blood… If you say it, you believe it, and you’ll make it happen.”

  Taking her face in both hands, he bent his knees to align their eyes. “You’re going to be mine forever, Harlow Sweeting. I told you that you’d share my name and you will bear my children. But happy?” He scowled. “Happy is for wimps. We don’t do things by halves, baby. Happy ever after? No. This is our deliriously, ecstatic, orgasmic ever after, because even when you hate me, you love me, Trink.”

  She smiled and curled her fingers to drag her nails over the area of his tattoo. “I do.”

  “You do,” he said, guiding her mouth to his.

  “I do.”

  Harlow hadn’t anticipated the love of her life would crash into her in the middle of the night and almost bleed to death in her lap. But she was so grateful that he had. Even in spite of all they’d endured to get to the place they were at.

  It had been a taxing adventure, and somehow she knew it wasn’t over yet. With Ryske at her side, backing her up, Harlow was ready for whatever the world could throw at her.

  If there was one thing she’d learned, it was that going it alone didn’t work. Going all in had almost cost Harlow her freedom. She’d had to go all out to get it back.

  No matter what, Ryske would never have let her stay lost. Her Crash knew how the world worked. He lived by the most valuable piece of advice she’d ever received.

  Trust was vital and no matter what happened, the best plan was always to go with it.

  Thank you for sharing this adventure!

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  GO NOVELS

  GO WITH IT

  GO IT ALONE

  GO ALL OUT

  GO ALL IN

  GO FULL CIRCLE

  EXILE

  HIDE & SEEK

  KISS CHASE

  THE BRANDED SERIES

  BRANDED

  SCARRED

  MARKED

  THE KINDRED SERIES

  RAVEN

  SWALLOW

  CUCKOO

  SWIFT

  FALCON

  FINCH

  THE EXPLICIT SERIES

  EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION

&n
bsp; EXPLICIT DETAIL

  EXPLICIT MEMORY

  RISQUÉ SERIES

  TAKE A RISK

  RISK IT ALL

  GAME OF RISK

  HARROW DUET

  FIGHTING FATE

  FIGHTING BACK

  MISTAKE DUET

  MISTAKE ME NOT

  SLEIGHT MISTAKE

  STANDALONE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  RELUCTANT SUSPICION

  RESCUED

  STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

  GETTING TRICKY

  HEIR’S AFFAIR

  MAESTRO’S MUSE

  REMEMBER WHEN…

  RIVALS ON AIR

  SWEET SEAS

  THIRTEEN

  XY FACTOR

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