Page 42 of Seize the Night

“Julien Brite?” her father repeated. “Young Lady, didn’t we tell you that you were never to see him again?”

“You did. I ignored you.” Remi pushed open the door to room 5515. Julien was sitting up in bed surrounded by his family. She nearly teared up at the sight of him in the hospital room. Hopefully this would be his last trip to a hospital for the rest of his life. Instead of crying, she kissed Julien.

“Excuse me, miss,” came a woman’s voice from behind her. Remi ignored it. She looked Julien in the eyes.

“Did we get it?” he whispered the question. He could have shouted it if he wanted to. Everyone in the room had recognized each other at once. Her parents were fighting with his parents. A nurse shouted over them all to shut them up. And in her peripheral vision she saw Merrick standing to the side and taking pictures of the melee and grinning.

“We got everything,” she said and gave him one more long, lush kiss.

“Excuse me?” Remi felt a tapping on her back. She stood up, turned around and faced Mrs. Deidre Brite. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“I was just slipping the tongue to your son,” Remi said with a smile.

“You were what?” she gasped.

“It’s okay, Mom,” Julien said. “Remi and I are sleeping together so she’s allowed to kiss me.”

“Julien!” his father yelled.

“I’m going to need everyone to shut up and sit down right this second,” Remi said. “Or stand. I don’t care. But you all do need to shut the hell up because Julien and I have a few very big announcements.”

Julien hopped out of the hospital bed and stood at her side. Just then Salena in her white doctor’s coat and blue scrubs entered the room and stood by Merrick. Good. They didn’t want her to miss the show.

“Announcements?” her father said. “You drag us to a hospital to tell us you’re dating Julien Brite? Remi, what the hell is going on here?”

“First of all, you should know Julien and I are fine. Neither one of us is sick or injured. We faked it to get you away from the farms so Merrick could do a little digging. He struck gold, in case you were wondering.”

“Julien, you scared your mother and I to death-” Mr. Brite started but Julien raised his hand.

“Yeah, well, you all scared me a little too by engaging in illegal activities. I think faking a faint is barely a misdemeanor considering you all are committing felonies,” Julien said.

“What are you talking about?” Mr. Brite demanded, his face red and angry.

“We’ll get to that in a second,” Remi said. “The second thing you need to know is that Julien and I are together. And that’s the least of your problems.”

“Problems?” Mrs. Brite repeated, looking nervously at her husband.

“Big problems,” Julien said. “Remi, you know this stuff better than I do. Can you explain it?”

“Happily,” she said. “You see, Tyson Balt owns Verona Downs. And Hijinks and Shenanigans are the favorites for the Verona Downs Stakes race. Everybody bets on the favorites. If they lose and one of the long-shots wins, Tyson Balt and Verona Downs will be swimming in money. Mr. Balt paid our parents ten million dollars each to whip the press into a frenzy over the biggest horseracing rivalry in decades and then throw the race. Neither Shenanigans nor Hijinks will win and Balt will be richer than God.”

Remi held up a series of emails Merrick had printed out.

“I’ve got emails from Balt to everyone in this room about the race fix. Don’t even bother to deny it.”

“Remi, honey,” her mom began.

Remi held up her hand.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses,” she said. “Do you know how much trouble you all could be in if the racing commission found out about this? Do you?”

All four parents remained silent.

“Do you have any idea how humiliating this would be if the scandal broke? It would be all over the racing news for weeks. Arden and Capital would become laughingstocks and pariahs. Pariahs,” she repeated, knowing how much her family and Julien’s cared about public opinion.

“And all for what?” she continued. “Money.”

“That money is your money too,” her father said. “We did this for you and the farm. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to run a Thoroughbred Farm?”

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