The Debt 4 (2 page)

“Wow, thank you sir!” the young attendant
replied excitedly, and then he held open the door to the restaurant for them,
where they were met by a beautiful hostess with long red hair and striking blue
eyes.

She led them into the strange,
post-modern restaurant that seemed to be part minimalist chic, part ancient
Buddhist temple.
 
If she hadn’t seen
the place with her own eyes, Raven wouldn’t have believed it existed.

The restaurant was crowded, and nearly
every table was already taken, but the hostess led Jake and Raven to the back,
where she sat them in a booth that gave them greater privacy then the other
diners.

“This is perfect,” Jake told the hostess,
as she handed them the menus.

Already, even with the privacy of this
booth, the other patrons were starting to buzz and whisper, and glances were
being furtively thrown in Jake’s direction.
 
He seemed completely unaware or
disinterested in the attention, fixing his eyes on Raven alone.

“Do you like sushi?” he asked her.

“I guess,” she said.
 
“I’m not all that hungry, to be honest.”

“You will be when you eat this stuff,”
Jake told her.
 
“Best sushi in the
country.
 
And all of the wealthiest,
most powerful people come here to eat.
 
You can see a lot here if you keep your eyes open.”
 
As he said this, he swept the room with
his gaze.

Something about the way he said this last
part gave Raven a chill, as if he’d just physically touched her, even though he
hadn’t.
 
“What can I see if I keep
my eyes open?” she asked him.

He looked at her again and his lips
twitched, and then he broke into his world famous grin just for her.
 
“Oh, you’ll see plenty, Raven.
 
And it’s very educational, too.”

“I feel like you’re about to play a prank
on me,” she said, her eyebrows rising.

“Not at all,” Jake replied.
 

“Then what?
 
What are you getting at?”

“It’s simple, Raven.
 
This is the place where everyone who’s
anyone comes to eat, schmooze, and look important.
 
A lot of these people have standing
reservations, you can practically set your watch by it if you had any interest
in running into the right person at the right time.”
 
That famous grin had turned cold, but
Raven still wasn’t sure what he was driving at with his cryptic comments.

The waiter came over and Jake ordered for
both of them, which was a relief since she hadn’t had time to look over the
menu and didn’t particularly care what she ate.

Was Jake really being strange or was it
her imagination? She wondered, as he interacted casually with the waiter, then
gave Raven a quick wink and flashed yet another grin.

Beneath his glib attitude, she was
sensing something darker and more dangerous.
 
He continued to scan the restaurant, as
the waiter came back quickly with drinks and fresh green salads with a tangy
orange dressing.

Raven picked at her salad, appreciating
that it was actually quite good, while at the same time she couldn’t get past
the sense that Jake was up to something.

He put a forkful of lettuce in his mouth
and chewed, once again looking around, checking the room.

People were looking back at him.
 
Some had started using their camera
phones, even though they tried to be cute and hide it.
 
Raven supposed the rich were just as in
awe of Jake as anyone else, since these diners were all supposedly the richest
of the rich.

And then she noticed Jake stiffening, as
if, like a panther, he’d suddenly spotted his prey.

One moment he’d been smiling, seeming to
be relaxed and at ease, the next he was still as a statue, and his eyes were locked
in on what he was seeing.

Raven followed his gaze to where the
hostess was leading a man and woman over to one of the last unoccupied tables
in the restaurant.

At first, she was too surprised to
realize who the man was and why Jake seemed to care so much, but then she
caught a better look at his face and everything changed.

It was Scott, the CEO of Club
Alpha—the same man who not long ago had threatened to beat her and have
her kidnapped and made to disappear in some foreign country.

He was with a tall, leggy blond wearing a
short pink dress that featured her abundant cleavage to the point of
absurdity.
 
Her giggle could be
heard across the room as they sat down and made goo-goo eyes at one another.

Just seeing Scott in the restaurant made
Raven want to throw up.
 
Her blood
had turned to ice and her skin was cold, her mouth dry as sandpaper.
 
“Jake, he’s here,” she whispered.
 
“Did you know he’d be here?”

“I had an inkling,” Jake murmured, his
eyes still focused on the prey.

Of
course he knew Scott was going to be here
.
 

This explained everything they’d been
doing since Jake had gotten off the phone.
 
Jake apparently hadn’t been joking about coming after the man who’d
threatened her, seeing as he’d found a way to run into him within mere hours of
their last conversation.

“Jake, you can’t do this,” she
whispered.
 
“Jake, look at me.”

He finally was able to drag himself away
from staring at his enemy and look her in the eye.
 
“I can do this, Raven, and I will.”
 
He picked up a napkin and dabbed at the
corners of his mouth.

“There are dozens of people here, and
some of them are already filming us this very second,” Raven explained, trying
to keep her voice even.
 
“If you do
anything to him and they catch it on video, can you imagine how it’ll look?”

Jake smiled at her.
 
“I can imagine,” he said, and his brown
eyes were devilish and intense, and she felt a wave of emotion for him.

“I know you want to hurt him for what he
did to me, but you can’t afford to get in a fight right now.
 
The public is already turning against
you.
 
That’s why I’m doing this in
the first place, remember?” she said, leaning forward, trying to talk sense to
him.

“Is that why you’re doing this?” Jake
asked, leaning forward as well.

“Of course it is.
 
I’m trying to help you.”

He nodded.
 
“Yeah, you only want to help,” he said,
chuckling.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say,
Jake, but go ahead and say it.
 
Tell
me the real reason you think I’m here.”

“I think we both know that this has gone
way past being some publicity stunt,” Jake told her.
 
“For both of us,
Raven
.”

She couldn’t even respond—she was
so blown away by his admission.
 
Of
course she’d
hoped
that he felt more
for her—that he wanted more—but she’d never in a million years
expected him to say it or even feel it.

It was too much to believe that Jake
Novak actually cared for her.

Raven swallowed, not knowing how to
respond.
 
Before she could, she saw
that Scott was getting up from his seat and walking towards a hallway that led
to the bathrooms.
 

His blond trophy girlfriend (or perhaps
wife) was busily digging through her purse.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to step away
for a moment and visit the restroom,” Jake announced nonchalantly, standing up
and unbuttoning his suit coat.

“Jake, don’t,” she said, as loud as she
dared without drawing more attention to their table.

“Come on, follow me,” he said, and then
he was on the move, like a graceful cat, and she saw his power and confidence
and was awestruck, knowing that it was wrong what he was doing—yet the
fact that he was doing it for her made it beyond sexy and exhilarating.

She followed him anxiously as he moved
past the rows of tables and into the narrow hallway.
 
The hallway came to a dead end, and to
the right was the ladies room, to the left was the men’s room.
 

“Jake, please be careful,” she whispered,
grabbing his arm.

And then he suddenly pulled her in, hand
at the small of her back, and he was kissing her deeply, his lips like
scorching fire.
 
He broke away and
smiled.
 
“When it comes to you, I
can’t afford to be careful.”
 

He turned and walked into the men’s room
and Raven clutched her blazer, her heart pounding in her chest.
 
She was horrified at what Jake might do
in there, but she had to admit—it was also probably the most chivalrous
thing a man had ever done on her behalf.

Jake was going to confront the man who’d
tried to hurt her.

She stood outside the bathroom,
listening, trying not to panic.
 
More than anything, she just wanted it to be over quickly and for them
to get away safely.

There was some noise in the
bathroom,
she could hear muffled voices and then the sounds
of some kind of struggle.

What
if Scott hurts Jake?

She was horrified at the prospect.
 
The very idea of it seemed a little
ridiculous.
 
After all, Jake was
ex-military, strong and powerful, whereas Scott was slender, not very athletic
looking, and probably no match for Jake’s physical strength.

But Raven was nervous just the same.
 
And she didn’t want Jake to get into
trouble.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open, and
Jake was standing there, holding Scott’s tie and dragging the smaller man towards
the door by that long piece of cloth.
 
Scott’s face was red, and his lip was bloody.

Jake pointed to Raven.
 
“You remember this lady, Scott?”

Scott snarled at her.
 
“You fucking stupid bitch—“

Jake punched him in the belly and Scott
doubled over.
 

“That wasn’t a very nice greeting,” Jake
scolded him, sounding like a disappointed father.
 
“That was just rude, Scott.
 
Can you speak nicely to her, buddy?
 
Otherwise I might just break every tooth
in your ignorant head.”

Scott slowly regained his breath.
 
He looked up at Raven.
 
“Pleasant surprise to see you here, Miss
Hartley,” he gasped.

“That’s a start,” Jake said, shaking him
by his tie.

Raven glanced over to the hallway, making
sure nobody was coming.
 
So far the
coast was clear.
 
She looked back at
Scott.
 
His hair was messy, his
bangs drooping over his baby face that appeared somehow young and middle aged
all at once.
 

His eyes stared at her with nothing but
pure hatred, and his eyes were still threatening her silently, as if promising
to pay her back for this moment of humiliation he was experiencing.
 

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at me,
Jake,” she said, her anger getting the better of her as she remembered how
Scott had frightened her half to death just hours before.

Jake turned to Scott again.
 
“Are you giving my girl nasty looks?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Scott muttered
sarcastically.

“Fuck you,” Jake said, and this time he
grabbed the CEO’s tie with both hands and pulled on it, cutting off the
circulation around Scott’s neck.
 
“I
should fucking end you for what you did to her,” Jake said.
 
“You entitled, arrogant piece of shit.”
 
He pulled tighter still.
 
“And maybe I will end you.
 
I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.”

“Pl…ple…please,” Scott gasped, and then
dropped to his knees, his face turning nearly scarlet.
 
Jake watched the man coldly, his biceps
bulging as he pulled tighter still.

“Don’t kill him,” Raven said, as the
ladies room door opened and an older woman stood there, mouth gaping in what
could have been mock horror at what she was seeing in front of her.

“I’m not going to kill him, not unless he
really pisses me off,” Jake said, kneeling down next to Scott, as the CEO
clutched at his neck.

“Help!
 
Police!”
 
The old woman shouted.
 

Raven gave her a stiff shove backwards
and shut the restroom door, holding it tightly closed to ensure the old woman
couldn’t get out again.