The Debt 3 (3 page)

“And if I don’t take it?”

He laughed, a harsh, barking noise in her
ear.
 
“If you’re dumb enough to turn
it down, I’ll make sure that your life turns into a living hell.
 
Nobody, not even Jake himself will be
able to protect you.
 
And if you so
much a
breathe
a word of this conversation to him,
expect me to unleash hell—I’ll make your friend’s cancer scare look like
a fucking picnic by the time I’m done with you.”

And then he hung up.

***

Ten minutes passed while Raven fretted
over what to do next.
 
Kurt might
have been bluffing, Raven couldn’t be sure.

He was Jake’s tour manager, and if what
he’d said had even a grain of truth to it, then she didn’t stand a chance if he
decided to poison Jake against her.
 
Kurt was rich and powerful, and he was Jake’s trusted friend, while she
was just some girl that had come up with a ridiculous idea.

As she left her hotel room and walked
down the hall to Skylar’s room, Raven considered trying to talk to Jake about
what Kurt had said to her just now.
 
But she was too scared.
 
Kurt’s last threat had made clear that if she did any such thing, it
would be a declaration of open war.

Kurt was obviously threatened by her
relationship with Jake and the plan that Jake wanted to use to regain his
public standing.

Her thoughts were racing as she went to
Skylar’s room.
 
On the one hand,
Jake was helping Skylar with her health issues, and Raven wanted to allow that
to continue if possible.
 

On the other hand, Kurt might stir up
trouble on that front as well.

Perhaps if Raven departed the scene,
maybe Jake would continue to assist Skylar, but at least Kurt would back off,
knowing that Raven was out of the picture and not interfering in Jake’s career.

She didn’t know what the right answer was
and she was panicked.
 
It seemed
that anything she did would end badly.

Screw
Kurt.
 
He’s trying to bully you just
like they did back in high school.
 
And you’re going to run away again?
 
Aren’t you sick of lying down every time someone threatens you?

Standing in front of Skylar’s door, she
held her hand up to knock.
 

The truth was, she was sick and tired of
being afraid and always running when these bullies attacked her.
 
Back in high school, she’d almost paid
the ultimate price because of her own fear and shame and the humiliation of it
all.

But now she was getting a new chance to
make different decisions.
 

She was going to refuse Kurt’s deal.
 

She didn’t want a hundred thousand
dollars of Jake’s money.
 
And how
could Kurt give her Jake’s money anyway?
 
It wasn’t his to just give away.

The question wasn’t about whether to take
the money or not.
 
The question was
whether to leave with her dignity relatively intact, or stay and risk being
hurt worse than she’d ever been hurt before.

She was still thinking about it when the
voice called her name.
 
She turned
to see Jake coming towards her.

“Hey, I was just about to come and see
you,” Jake called out.

 
“Hey,” she said, feeling so glad to see
him, and yet so terrified as well.
 

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Going to check on Skylar,” she
said.
 

On the one hand, she was happy to see
him—something about his very presence made her feel protected and safe,
even if she wasn’t.
 
On the other
hand, she knew that she couldn’t tell him what Kurt had said to her on the
phone.

“I need to tell you something,” Jake
said, his brown eyes focused on her and her alone.

“What is it?”

“I can’t agree to your decision to stop
seeing me two nights a week,” Jake said.

“You’re joking.”

He shook his head once.
 
“I need that time with you.
 
It’s got to be part of this deal.”

“No way,” she said.
 
“We’re not going to do
that
and have me pretend to be your
girlfriend too.”

“What is this really about?” Jake asked
her.
 
“Is
there
something else going on?”

Raven felt caught.
 
But she knew the time wasn’t right to tell
him about the threats his manager had made over the phone.

If she told Jake now, it would force Jake
to choose between the two of them and she couldn’t win that fight. Kurt would
come back firing at her with everything in his arsenal and she would lose.
 
It was way too early in the relationship
for Jake to trust her over his brother-in-arms from Afghanistan.
 
 

She suspected that Kurt knew it as well
as she did.
 
Kurt had purposely put
her in this position, maybe hoping she would be stupid enough to tell Jake
about that phone call, hoping she would get angry and demand Jake fire Kurt or
something equally outrageous.

If she did that, Jake would lose faith in
her completely.

So Raven said nothing, shrugging her
shoulders and giving him a hopefully guilt free smile.
 
“It’s not about anything except standing up for myself.”

“Okay then,” he said, “let’s put that
issue aside for the moment.”
 
Jake
ran a hand through his hair.
 
“I
told my manager, Kurt about us.
 
That’s how serious I am about this decision.”

Raven wanted to say that she already knew
about him telling Kurt, but she stayed quiet.
 
“What did he say about it?”
 

“Actually, Kurt mentioned that he might
try and call you soon.
 
I gave him
your number, I hope that’s okay.”

“Sure,” Raven said, blinking a few times,
trying to hide the twitch of discomfort that rippled across her facial
muscles.
 
Just hearing Kurt’s name
caused her to feel faint.

His threats were still ringing in her
ears.

But after this, Raven knew she wasn’t
going to do it.
 
She wasn’t going to
let Kurt just run her off without even a fight.

He was bluffing, she realized.

If Kurt had really been confident in his
ability to influence Jake, he would’ve simply told Jake to dump her and that
would have been that.
 
Simple.

Instead, he’d tried to come in through
the backdoor and scare her away, which had almost worked.
 
But now she was calm enough to reason
things out.

“I think Kurt’s a little skeptical of our
plan, actually,” Jake chuckled.
 
“I
can’t say I blame him.
 
If I was him
I’d think it was a terrible idea too.”

“But you don’t agree with him?”

“No, I don’t,”
Jake
replied, watching her closely.
 
“What
about you?
 
Any second thoughts?”

She swallowed.
 
Now was the time to back out if she
still had any doubts.
 
But the
reality was that she didn’t want to go home now.
 
She didn’t want someone like Kurt to
scare her off.

But
what about Jake trying to make you do his bidding two nights a week still?
 
Are you okay with that?

She didn’t know what she felt.
 
The truth was
,
part of her liked that he still wanted to do those things to her, and she
wasn’t sure what that meant.

“I’m not having second thoughts,” she
told him, finally.

“Good.”

“But I wonder if it’s going to be a
problem that your manager isn’t behind this one hundred percent.”
 

Jake shrugged.
 
“At the end of the day, I’m the one
calling the shots, Raven.
 
Don’t get me wrong
,
Kurt is my guy
.
 
He had my back in Afghanistan when the
shit was coming down hard, and I’ll never forget it.
 
That’s why I trust him with my
life—he has access to everything, and he could hurt me bad if he decided
to screw me.”

Raven’s mouth went dry.
 
“It’s—it’s good that you trust
him, then.”

“I have to,” Jake said, his expression
getting subtly tense.
 
“It’s not a
choice.
 
A man like me needs to have
someone he can trust completely.
 
And Kurt is that person for me.
 
After what I’ve been through…” he looked away, as if he’d suddenly
become emotional.

“I understand, Jake—I think I do,
anyway.”

Jake seemed to regain his composure.
 
“Anyway, the point I was trying to make is
that I trust him, but I’m still the one making the decisions about my life and
career.
 
Kurt has to accept that
this is how I want to handle things, even if he doesn’t like it.
 
We sink or swim together.”

“I guess that means so do I,” Raven said.

Jake laughed a little.
 
“I guess it does.”
 
He cleared his throat, seeming to forget
the emotions from a moment ago.
 
“Besides, once Kurt talks to you and hears your sweet voice, I’m sure
he’ll be completely on board with everything.”

Raven almost laughed at that, but she
managed to restrain herself.

It wasn’t until the door opened and
Skylar looked out at them that Raven realized just how long they’d been
standing out there in the hallway in front of her room.

“I heard you guys talking out here
forever,” she said.
 
“At first I
thought it was the people from the room across the hall, but then I realized it
was you two.
 
What the heck?”

“Sorry, we got caught up going over some
silly stuff,” Jake said, waving it all away as inconsequential.
 
“But the important thing is how you’re
doing.”

Skylar sighed.
 
“I’m okay,” she said, turning and
letting them into her room.
 
“I mean, I’m scared.
 
I’m really, really scared.”

They followed her inside and Jake sat
down next to Raven on the couch.
 
It
was weird,
Raven
thought, as his leg pushed slightly
against hers.
 
It did feel like they
were boyfriend and girlfriend, and she had to admit that she liked the feeling
quite a lot.

But
it’s not true.
 
You’re just
fantasizing again.
 
He’s sitting
next to you on a piece of furniture, Raven.
 
That’s it.

As she sat beside him, felt his
comforting strength, and heard him make casual conversation with Skylar, Raven
couldn’t stop thinking that this all seemed so natural and real.

It’s
like we were meant to be together.

“Do you ladies want to get something to
eat?” Jake asked.

“Sure, I’m hungry,” Raven said.
 
And then she wondered
,
would this be a public outing where they’d have to pretend to be together?

“Actually, I can’t go,” Skylar said.

“Why not?” Raven asked her.

“My parents are on their way here.
 
I called and told them what’s going on.”

Raven looked at her friend and realized
that Skylar’s problems were way more serious than anything going on with Jake
or Kurt or Raven’s worries.
 
Skylar
might have cancer, and she was going to need support.

“Do you want me to wait here with you,
Sky?” she asked.
 
“I don’t mind.”

“No,” Skylar told her.
 
“You two go eat and have fun.
 
I’m fine.”

“Sky—“

“Just go, have some fun for me,” Skylar
smiled sadly.

Jake and Raven tried to talk Skylar into
letting them stick around and keep her company, but she insisted on them going
out to lunch without her.

Moments later, the two of them were
leaving Skylar’s room and then getting on the elevator.
 
Raven looked at Jake, who was humming softly to
himself
.
 
She wondered if he was humming one of
his own songs, or someone else’s.