Go With It (A Go Novel Book 1)
Page 34
There, in the middle of it all, was Ryske.
Crash.
Pale. His eyes were closed. His body still. The sheet was pulled up to his throat. She couldn’t see much else, but there was no doubting it was him.
“Ma’am—”
“Leave her,” Bale said, and came up to her side. “Harlow…”
“He can’t be gone,” she whispered, touching the glass. “I didn’t get to tell him.”
“Harlow, you can see him if you want, but you should let me clean up in there first…”
“No,” she said, shoving through the doors to stride inside.
Bale caught the door to follow her, but he didn’t have to worry about pulling her back. Harlow stopped midway to the bed. There he was, her formidable Ryske… how could he be gone… how could the world still be turning when he was no longer breathing?
“The cops will be here in a minute,” Bale said, standing at her shoulder. “He wouldn’t want you facing them. I’ll tell them it was a drive by. He was caught in the crossfire. I was a passerby… Can you say the same thing? After the way you reacted in the ambulance and here…”
The guys would stay if she did. That would lead to their house coming down on their heads. Harlow might get a slap on the wrist, but she hadn’t engaged in anything illegal or immoral, other than her initial failure to call 9-1-1.
Ryske’s crew couldn’t say the same thing. They’d have to answer questions about who shot Ryske and why he was targeted. Bale would probably end up having to explain why he’d been practicing medicine in his bedroom.
Harlow didn’t want that, Ryske wouldn’t either.
But, walking away from the man laid out before her felt wrong. “I can’t just… I can’t just leave him.”
“I’ll take care of him,” he said. “But you have to say goodbye… You have to do it fast.”
The point of her evening had been to bid farewell to those she’d met in the city. No one was supposed to die. Ryske wasn’t even on the list of people she’d planned to say goodbye to. She’d been angry with him. So angry. Now it all seemed so pointless. They’d wasted so much time.
Curling her lips into her mouth, she took a step forward and another until she was within touching distance. Extending a finger, she grazed her nail on the sheet over where his shoulder tattoo would be.
“Harlow, there’s no time to—”
“Take advantage,” she whispered, letting her hand rise to Ryske’s hair. “He’d be disappointed.”
“Yeah, he would,” Bale said. “He’d be more pissed if you let the cops get hold of you.”
“Guess you were right, Crash,” she murmured. “There is nothing left for me here.”
Bowing over him, she grazed her lips on his. Before she could succumb to her urge to throw herself on top of him and wail, Bale took her shoulders and eased her away. Pulling her backwards across the room, he drew her out of the swing doors.
Resisting as the door swung closed again, Harlow didn’t want to take her eyes away from the man who’d come to mean so much to her. “I don’t think I can leave him.”
Something touched her hand, making her look down. Bale was slipping something into her fingers. It was the braided leather band Ryske always wore around his wrist.
“It was all he had on him,” Bale said, stroking her hair. A tear fell onto her hand by the engraved metal cylinder. “You’re not leaving him. You’re going to take him with you.” Tipping her chin up, she wasn’t sure if the doctor’s eyes were still wet or not because her own tears were blurring her vision so much. “Everywhere you go, he’ll be in your heart.”
Shaking her head, she looked down at the bracelet in her hand. “I don’t know… I don’t know how…” Clutching it tight, she was surprised to feel ridges on the underside. Opening her hand again, she turned the cylinder to see there was another engraving on the other side. “Felix culpa.”
Bale put an arm around her. “It means fortunate fall.” Breathing out, a faint smile moved her lips. “He got it added… after you…”
Surprise made her look up quickly and he smiled.
Harlow had said some horrific things to Ryske. They’d been at loggerheads. She’d been about to leave and believed that he f her out of his life. All the while he’d harbored feelings for her and she hadn’t let herself trust them. They’d missed out on everything; lost the only chance they’d had to be together.
Licking her lips, she couldn’t imagine how she’d go on. “What do I do now?”
“The only thing he ever wanted was for you to be safe. Be safe, Harlow Sweeting, and his sacrifice won’t have been for nothing.”
Letting Bale lead her away from the trauma room doors, Harlow concentrated on looping the bracelet around her wrist. Once it was on, she held it against her chest. Ryske wouldn’t want her to cry, he wouldn’t want her to be hurt, but she’d disappoint him on both fronts.
Her hero’s life was over, and hers was changed forever. But he’d given her a gift and shown her what real love was. Harlow wouldn’t forget that and wouldn’t disappoint his memory.
Ryske had been hers and a part of her would always be his. No one and nothing could take that away, not even death.
Harlow Sweeting is no longer the woman she once was.
Life has changed.
She's changed.
A new woman with a new purpose, she has to decide what her next step will be.
CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!
thank you for sharing this adventure!
sign up for scarlett’s newsletter and read excerpts from all her novels on her website:
http://www.scarlettfinn.com
Also by Scarlett Finn
Click for blurb and to buy
GO NOVELS
GO WITH IT
GO IT ALONE
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
EXPLICIT DETAIL
EXPLICIT MEMORY
RISQUE 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
Click here for:
Scarlett Finn’s Website
Follow Scarlett Finn on Bookbub for news on deals!
Follow Scarlett Finn on Amazon for news on new releases!