Go All In

2

2

Her mother wasn’t the only new arrival. Harlow’s father, Brysen Sweeting, and her sister, Lena, were present too. All of them looked somewhat disheveled. They’d have been pulled out of their beds at this ungodly hour by whichever orderly had decided it was a good idea to rat on her.

First responders had a habit of recognizing her. Especially since she’d become notorious as the kind social worker turned suspected murderess who’d wheedled her way out of felony charges.

There were probably cops on the fire scene. Given that Harlow had been identified by a cop on the Hagan security tape, and she’d been arrested outside Floyd’s, it wouldn’t have taken someone long to make the connection.

In children and family services, she had worked with cops. Even if someone didn’t know her personally, they’d remember her face from that damned security video. From there, her former employment, or prison records could be accessed at the touch of a button. Her parents would’ve been listed on both as her official next of kin.

A lot had changed since she’d been gainfully employed. Harlow didn’t know if her lawyer, Greta, had lodged the papers stating Ryske was her proxy with the court. Everything had happened quickly after he’d signed them. Even if it was written somewhere official that Ryske was her proxy, no one would have been able to get in touch with him. He didn’t have a phone.

At least he was still officially alive. That was something. Although Harlow had believed Ryske was dead after the shooting, he had never been legally dead. The fact that he was breathing wouldn’t raise any questions for official agencies. Huntley Ryske had no death certificate. The crew had gone that far in faking Anwen’s death, but Ryske’s death had only been meant to fool her. Harlow hadn’t demanded paperwork; none of that had been needed to convince her.

Her parents came deeper into the room, pulling Lena between them. Then came the cherry on her sundae when Rupert walked in too. Bale was getting to his feet, greeting people and shaking hands.

“Are you her doctor?” Brysen asked.

Rupert shook Bale’s hand. “We’ve met. You’re Harlow’s friend.”

“Doctor Bale is her boyfriend,” Lena said, starting with confidence but trailing off as she caught on to what the other perplexed people seemed to have noticed. They all knew the man sitting on the bed with her.

Her mother was the first to make the identification out loud. “Mr. Ryske,” Jean said.

They were used to him being more preened. Tonight, he wasn’t even clean. There was no slick suit, only hospital scrubs. Harlow didn’t blame them for being confused.

“Just Ryske is fine,” Ryske said, turning his face into her hair. “Want me to handle this?”

That was his way of asking if she wanted him to vamp. To conjure up some story that her family would buy as to why he was there and why he had his arm around her.

“No,” Harlow said, patting his thigh. “I’ve got it.”

“What are you going with?”

Sitting up, out of his embrace, Harlow smoothed her bedcovers over her thighs. “The truth,” she said and then smiled. “Ryske and I are together.”

She hadn’t exactly cleared that with him. As of a few hours ago, they hadn’t been together in the strictest interpretation of the word… or maybe any interpretation of it. Yet, there she was announcing her relationship to her folks without getting the okay from her declared other half.

The panic of nearly losing him brought so much into focus. It was enough to make Harlow sideline her grievances. Sure, she wasn’t ready to jump into full bliss. Her comment about marriage had been d**g and adrenaline induced, but she was ready to call them an item and build a relationship with him.

“To… together?” Lena asked, glancing at Rupert who was at her side. “What do you mean together?”

“I thought he was engaged to Ophelia Hagan,” Rupert said.

Harlow noted how although they stood next to each other, neither Rupert nor Lena was touching the other. There was a clear foot of awkward space between them. If they’d told her parents about the baby they were expecting together, they hadn’t gone so far as to explain that Harlow knew, or if they had, her parents hadn’t taken the news well.

“No,” Harlow said. “He’s not… and he actually never was.” Ryske’s hand curved around her shoulder in a show of support… That’s how she chose to interpret it anyway. Maybe he was telling her to hold back, maybe not. It didn’t matter; she wanted everything out there. “He’s not a millionaire tycoon either.”

“He’s… he’s not a millionaire?”

Lena’s questions might be sort of dumbfounded and naïve, but at least she was managing to hazard them.

“No.”

“So, what does he do?” Lena asked. “And why did he—”

“We’ll probably leave that up to your imagination,” Harlow said, peeking over her shoulder at Ryske to see he was smiling. After he winked, she carried on. “We’ve been together for quite a while…”

“I’ve been on her since the minute we met,” Ryske said, which was so true and so hilarious that Harlow had to laugh out loud. “What? You said truth. It’s true.”

“Yes, it is,” she said, seeking his hand to interlace their fingers. “Our relationship has been rocky, to say the least. We broke up…” When he came back from the dead. “Ryske came to SweSec, not to trick anyone, but to get close to me… He wanted to get close to me again.”

“That was months ago,” Rupert said. “That was when we…”

The way he trailed off made Lena look over her shoulder. Rupert dropped his gaze away from her.

“It’s a complicated story, but I didn’t lie to you,” Harlow said. “I intended to do what I told you I would.”

Clarity raised Rupert’s chin. A straight, accusatory finger ascended too. “He’s the one.”

“The One?” Harlow asked, pulling Ryske’s hand to her lap. “I don’t know if I believe in all that soulmates stuff. He’s an arrogant prick most of the time, but—”

“No, the one you said you were with in the city. You told me you were with another man.”

Harlow nodded once. “Yes.”

“He’s the one who likes to see you with other men.”

Jean and Lena both squawked.

“Uh, no,” Ryske said. “That’s not what she said. She said it pisses me off and that she likes pissing me off… Both of those are true.” He kissed her shoulder. “This truth stuff is cool.”

“Oh my God, you were listening to us,” Rupert said on a gasp. “You were there in the hallway and after you… Both of you took a long time to come down the stairs.”

“Yeah, she was giving me head.”

Squeezing hard, Harlow dug her nails into the back of his hand. “We don’t need to share every truth, honey.”

If it was just Rupert, or even Rupert and Lena, she wouldn’t mind so much. But it was clear that her parents were in shock. Adding more illicit details wouldn’t help them recover.

“You’re together… You’re with this man,” Jean said. “Were you with him tonight? We… we got word you were in a bar fight, I—”

“Fire, Mom,” Harlow said. “The building we were in was on fire. They brought me here by ambulance, but I’m okay.”

Rupert’s finger was still pointed at Ryske until he swung it around toward Bale. “I don’t understand, who is he?”

“A good friend of both of ours,” Harlow said. “Bale and I were never together. He came to hang out with me after I learned Ryske had been an asshole again. It’s sort of a recurring theme in our relationship.”

“This is… this is shocking,” her father said and clung to the end of her bed. “You were never going to invest with us.”

“I’m invested in your daughter,” Ryske said. “SweSec is safe from me and mine.”

Harlow hadn’t confirmed how Ryske made a living. From her father’s pallor, she assumed he was reaching his own conclusions. Ryske had sold himself well. Brysen had been drawn in, something that he’d claimed wouldn’t happen to him.

“You’re together,” Rupert said.

“Gonna get married,” Ryske said, picking up her hand to kiss the back.

“Well, we’re going to talk about it,” she said, making him mutter something that was probably about her being the one to have brought it up or being fickle.

“This is… I don’t know what to say,” Rupert said.

“You were in a fire?” Lena asked. It was nice that at least one person was paying attention to her predicament. “In a bar… Why were you in a bar in the middle of the night?”

“We live in a bar,” Ryske said.

“Oh my God, you live with him?” Rupert snapped. “You wouldn’t live with me until we were engaged. Despite his claims, I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

Was he offended? In her worrying about her parents’ reaction, it hadn’t occurred to her that Rupert’s would be this strong. Before Harlow had learned about him and Lena, she might have been more sympathetic to indications that her relationship hurt him. But the man had impregnated another woman and was planning to marry her. He couldn’t claim ownership over her anymore.

Her curiosity about Rupert’s reaction was tempered when she realized that Ryske was sitting up straighter. She could feel him begin to tense. Before her love could say anything, or act, Lena spoke up.

“Why do you care who she’s marrying? You’ve been broken up forever… Isn’t that what you told me?”

“I… I wasn’t saying that I cared,” Rupert said, though his reaction had said it for him.

“Doctor,” Jean said to Bale. “You are a doctor, aren’t you?” Bale nodded. “What’s wrong with her? Will she be okay?”

“We think she’ll be fine. We do want to keep an eye on her for a day or two,” Bale said. “The fire was intense and the smoke may have damaged her lungs. We’ll want to take some more pictures of her chest, just to make sure nothing sinister develops.”

“What the hell is sinister?” Ryske asked. “You never told me sinister.”

“I couldn’t tell you anything because you were too busy charging around like a wild animal,” Bale said. “She’s fine and I’m sure she’ll be fine. If she follows her doctor’s orders.”

There was an undercurrent there that reminded her of the stars on her arm. Bale was her doctor, he was the crew doctor, and they were bound to do what he said.

“I have to be out by Saturday,” she said, touching her stars.

“Baby, I’ll take care of that,” Ryske said.

Flipping around, she touched his jaw. “I’m in this. We’re in this…”

“What about Ophelia?” Lena asked, drawing everyone’s focus.

For a second, Harlow was shocked to discover her sister was aware of anything Pothos related. Then she remembered what they’d been talking about before.

“Yes,” Jean said. “She stayed at our house… She said she was engaged to Mr. Ryske.”

“My friendship with Ophelia was genuine,” Harlow said, refraining from adding the word “once” to the end of her sentence. “She and Ryske have been friends for many years.”

“So, she perpetuated the lie?” Rupert said.

He had a real bug up his a*s. “Can I have a minute alone with Rupert, please?” Harlow asked, unable to take her attention from her ex.

Her parents wouldn’t think anything of her wanting to talk to a man she’d been close to for years. Especially if they didn’t know about his connection to their youngest daughter. It seemed they were still ignorant. Despite an initial visible urge to object, Lena stayed quiet and let her mother put an arm around her.

“I’ll see what I can do about finding a hotel for tonight,” Brysen said and headed to the door with his wife and daughter in tow.

Bale stood up after they were gone. “I’ll go see if your labs are back.”

He took one step before she spoke. “Bale,” she said, and flicked her eyes to the side toward the man on her bed.

Ryske wasn’t going to want to leave. The only way she’d get him out the room without a fight, and keep him out, was if someone took responsibility for him.

“Right,” Bale said and came around the bed to punch Ryske’s arm. “You need to call and find out how everyone else is doing.”

“Later,” Ryske grumbled.

Harlow pushed his thigh. “I think that’s a great idea. They might need supplies.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“You have to,” Bale said. “There’s a bunch of paperwork you have to sign.”

“Shouldn’t her parents do that?” Rupert asked.

Ryske gritted his teeth. Harlow thought she might have heard him growl.

“Ryske has medical power of attorney… all power really,” she said to Rupert while stroking Ryske’s leg. “He makes my medical decisions. Authorizes whatever I need.”

“Bet you never had that, did you, Marlowe?” Ryske snarled.

His adrenaline from the fire obviously hadn’t waned just yet. Twisting around, she stroked his stubble. “Just give me one minute, baby… please… Crash.”

“Why?” Ryske grumped, his focus zeroed in on Rupert. “I already know he f****d your little sister and knocked her up. There’s nothing he can hide from me.”

Rupert’s shock was palpable. Bale must have felt it too because he grabbed Ryske’s arm and was more forceful about pulling him off the bed. The doctor hadn’t known who the father of Lena’s baby was, more because she hadn’t gotten around to telling him than because it was a secret from him.

Rupert wouldn’t appreciate his secret being broadcast. He couldn’t possibly understand how informing her crew was a formality for her, not a betrayal. Harlow would trust them with her life. Tonight had proven again how far they would go for each other.

“Come on,” Bale said, yanking Ryske along. “We’ll find some people for you to glare at in the waiting room… come on.”