The Debt 3 (7 page)

“It’s me,” the voice replied.

“Who?” she said, not recognizing it.

“Kurt.”

Her insides froze and her hands tightened
into fists.
 
“Please go away.”

“Jake sent me,” he said.
 
“Open up, I don’t have all day.”

“I don’t care who sent you,” she said.

“Fine,” he said.
 
“I’ve got a suitcase full of clothes for
you.
 
I’ll leave them here and you
can open the door when I’m gone, seeing as I scare you so badly.”

“Good.
 
Please go,” she said loudly.

And then it went silent outside the
door.
 
She took a
few deep breaths
,
hand on her stomach
.
 

She hated that man, hated his voice.
 
Why did he have to be there in New
York?
 
Why, with every other thing
happening, did he have to come around to make it all that much worse?

But there was nothing to be done.
 
She went and opened the door, expecting
to see just a suitcase sitting in the hallway.
 
But Kurt hadn’t moved.
 
He was standing beside the suitcase,
arms folded, smirking at her.
 
“Hi,
Raven.”

“You said you were going to leave.”

“I said that so that you’d open the
door,” he said, his eyes sparkling with malice.
 
“I knew you’d fall for it, too.
 
You’re so darn predictable.”

She tried to slam the door, but he
stepped forward and blocked it.
 
“Don’t do that,” he said, his smile fading fast.
 
“I want to explain something to you.”

“I don’t want to talk to you, and so help
me—I’ll scream at the top of my lungs if you don’t leave me alone.”

“No you won’t,” he said, challenging her
with his eyes.

“How do you know what I will or won’t
do?”

“I know you were too chicken-shit to tell
Jake what I said to you.
 
You don’t
want the gravy train to end so soon,” he said, his voice filled with contempt.

“Get away from me,” she said, trying to
sound tough, but failing.
 
Her voice
shook from the strain.
 
Finally, she
let go of the door and backed away, giving up on stopping him.

He laughed as the door swung open once
more, but he didn’t come further inside.
 
“Listen,” he said, “you got what you wanted.
 
Jake’s already allowed the two of you to
be photographed together, so the damage is done and I’ve accepted that.
 
I tried to talk sense to him, I tried to
get you to go away, but it didn’t happen.”

Raven licked her lips.
 
“I really don’t care about any of this.”

“Shut up and listen to me,” he replied,
his voice as cold and condescending as a man talking to an idiot or a child
he’s lecturing.
 

“Don’t talk to me like that.”

He chuckled.
 
“Oh, so now we’re supposed to play nice,
huh?
 
Well, that’s fine by me,” Kurt
told her.
 
“I’m ready to play
nice.
 
I’m trying to explain to you
that I’m not going to fight this preposterous scam anymore.
 
If you and Jake want to play house like
a couple of kids, go right ahead.”

“I don’t believe you mean that,” she
replied.
 

“It’s true.
 
My job now is to try my best to make
this fly with the media.”

“It’s as simple as that?” she said.

 
“You and I can call a truce if you’re up
to it,” he told her.
 
He held out
his hand.
 
“Truce?”

 
“Leave me alone and I’ll leave you
alone,” she told him.
 
“But I’m not
going to touch you.”

He turned and started walking away from
her.
 
“That’s the classy lady I’ve
come to know and love, Raven.
 
You
just keep being you, honey.”

“Don’t call me honey, asshole,” she said
and slammed the door shut.
 
And then
she remembered that suitcase was outside still, so she opened the door again
and dragged it into her room.

She could have sworn she heard Kurt’s
laughter still floating down the hallway.

Once the suitcase was in her hotel room
and the door was shut, Raven unzipped it, revealing outfit after beautiful
outfit folded neatly inside, and tucked away at the bottom were about six pairs
of high heels.
 
There weren’t just
dresses, skirts and blouses, but also panties and bras.

Raven would have been grateful that Kurt
had brought this suitcase to her, because she desperately needed the change of
clothes.
 
But the things Kurt had
said and done made her disgusted, and part of her wondered if this was some
sort of set-up.
 
Would he later try
and accuse her of stealing these things?

She had no reason to trust anything that
came out of that man’s mouth, and she simply wished he would go away.

She picked out some clothes to change
into and then got dressed, her mind whirling with thoughts about this new life
that had been thrust upon her.
 
Everything was moving so fast, and Raven didn’t know anymore if she
could make the right choices.

Would it be better to just try and go
home, run away from it all?

Could she even leave or would Jake find a
way to bring her back?

As Raven checked herself out in the
bathroom mirror, fixed her hair, she thought about Jake.
 
What was even going on between them?

Sometimes she got the distinct feeling
that there was more than just a business relationship.
 
The way he looked at
her,
touched her, the softness and tenderness in his eyes when he was concerned about
something—everything told her that Jake had feelings beyond a mere
transactional arrangement.

But then he would act completely
disinterested, cold, angry and dismissive of her the next moment.
 
He wouldn’t so much as kiss her.

None of it made any sense.
 
Why couldn’t he just be a normal
guy?
 
Did such a category of man even
truly exist?
 
 
Maybe a normal guy was like Big Foot or
the Loch Ness Monster—one of those things that people searched for but
never quite found.

Raven had changed into a short black skirt,
black heels, and a white blouse.
 
She had to
admit,
it was a cute outfit, maybe
even sexy.
 
It scared her a little
that reporters and photographers might take pictures of her in this outfit and
then people would trash her all over the
internet
.

But she wasn’t going to let that
possibility change what she chose to wear.

Will
Jake like it?
 
Will it make him want
to do bad things to me?

Raven left the bathroom, shaking her
head.
 
She was frustrated at how
much she continuously wondered about Jake, and how much the thoughts of him
touching her seemed to dominate her thinking.

Every so often, no matter where she was
or what she was doing, she’d remember him stripping off her robe, putting his
hand down there, between her legs…

And then she’d be wet all over again,
wishing that he’d do it the same way that night.
 
Even as another part of her said that
what Jake was doing to her was wrong, and she was wrong for letting him have
his way.

No
wonder he won’t kiss you.
 
This is
no way for a good woman to behave.

Raven ignored that critical voice.
 
She was used to the self-judgment, and
often chose not to listen to it.

There was a time when she’d listened, and
it had nearly cost her everything.

The phone was ringing.

It was her hotel room phone.
 
She hesitated, then finally crossed over
and answered, expecting to hear someone from the front desk, or maybe Jake
calling to check in with her.

But it wasn’t any of them.

“Hello, Miss Hartley,” the familiar voice
said, and Raven suddenly realized that Max Mendez was calling her hotel room.

“How did you get my room number?” she
said, her voice shaking a little.

“Never mind about that,” Max said, his
tone light, friendly even.
 
“Just
you know that we’re always keeping tabs, Raven.
 
Always.”

“What do you want?”

“That’s not very nice.
 
I thought we were friends.”

“No you didn’t,” she said, and waited for
the real reason he was calling.

“You need to come to our office
immediately,” Max said.
 

“I can’t just go to your office, I don’t
even know where it is.
 
And I’m in
New York with Jake.”

“We’re in New York, too.
 
Our office is a fifteen-minute cab ride
from your hotel.
 
I suggest you
leave now.”

Raven’s chest tightened at the tone of
his voice.
 
Max sounded different,
like he was being friendlier because he was actually angry this time.
 
“Why do you want me to come to the
office?
 
What’s this about?” she
asked.

“Don’t worry what it’s about,” Max
said.
 
“You’ll find out.”

“I’m not coming unless you tell me.”

“I’m only going to say this one more
time,” he said, his voice getting softer and yet more menacing somehow.
 
“You need to come to the office.
 
Immediately.
 
We know where you’re staying, Raven, so if
you don’t come now—we’ll find a more unpleasant way to meet with you.”

Suddenly, she knew.
 
She knew without the shadow of a doubt
that Max was telling the truth.
 
She
was in some kind of trouble with Max and
whoever
else
he worked with, and there was no way to avoid dealing with it.

“Okay,” she said, finally.
 
“Tell me where to go.”

***

Raven left immediately, as requested,
without telling anyone where she was going.
 
She managed to escape the hotel without
being noticed by anyone, perhaps because without Jake beside her, nobody knew
who she was yet.

It also helped that she blended in with a
group of tourists who happened to be leaving at the same time.

And then she’d managed to find a cab to
take her to the prescribed location, a swanky part of town that was even
swankier than the one she’d been staying in, if such a thing was even possible.

The cab dropped her off and she walked into
the most intimidating building that she’d ever been in—that she could
ever have imagined being inside.

It was one of the many buildings located
on the uber-fancy Central Park West, and she was immediately greeted inside the
lobby by an unsmiling security guard.
 
She expected him to ask her name or
who
she was
there to visit.

Instead, he said, “Raven Hartley?” as if
he’d been expecting her at that very moment, like she was being followed.
 

“Yes,” she answered, uncertain of what to
do or say at every turn.
 
She was
sweating lightly.
 

“Please follow me.”
 
He led her toward the elevators.
 
The inside of the building was enormous,
all dark marble, fancy mirrors and art adorned the walls.
 
There was another guard standing beside
the elevators, watching her with suspicion.

“Hi,” she said, smiling at the guard,
whose frown merely deepened.
 
He
didn’t respond.

They got into the elevator and rode up to
the fifth floor.
 
When they got off,
Raven was greeted by her old friend Max Mendez
.
 
He looked a little
haggard somehow
,
pale
.
 
He was wearing the same blue suit she’d
seen him in before.

“I’ll take her from here,” he told the
guard, who nodded and stayed inside the elevator as she got out.

“Wow,” she said, stepping out into the
enormous hallway.

There were huge stone pillars every few
yards, and by the walls, some beautiful chairs and couches.
 
There was even an enormous fireplace
with a fire burning brightly inside.