The Debt 7 (Club Alpha) (2 page)

“You’re so wet, Raven,” he murmured.
 
His breath was hot on her face and then
he was kissing her neck, sucking her skin, as he fucked her harder and faster.

It was true
,
she was wet
.
 
She had almost nothing to compare it to,
but Raven couldn’t imagine she could get any wetter.

The sound of his skin slapping against
hers was exciting, sensual, and the feelings generated as his pelvis collided
into hers was absolutely amazing.
 
She threw her head back as her body was wracked by yet another
miraculous orgasm.

This time she had enough air in her lungs
to cry out loud.

“I’m coming,” Jake told her, and then he
picked his hips up high and slammed them down against her in a series of aggressive
motions as he exploded inside her, bursting, pulsing, letting out his essence.

Raven’s body was still shuddering in
wonder, every fiber,
every
cell alive and dancing, a
smile overcoming her face as she realized the extent of what he’d done to her.

“Oh my goodness,” she whispered, as Jake
collapsed his full weight on top of her and lay breathing as if he’d just
sprinted across a football field.

She ran her hands along his back,
then
scooped a handful of his hair into her palm, stroking
his head with love.

Finally, he rolled off her, to the side,
but remained close, still breathing quickly.
 
She turned and looked at him.

His eyes were searching the ceiling, as
if he could see into the future.
 
A
blend of emotions passed over his face, and Raven just watched, in awe of the
beauty of him.

“You saved me,” she told him.

He turned and looked at her.
 
“We saved each other, didn’t we?”

And then they both smiled, knowing it was
the truth.

***

Raven was exhausted.
 

They’d trekked from the cabin to the
road, where Jake’s driver had been waiting with his car to take them both back
to civilization.

She slept for a brief time in the car,
but then she woke and noticed all her messages on her phone and knew that she
needed to get in touch with people who were worried about her.

So Raven contacted her family and let
them know she was all right.
 
They
were apparently safe and sound and able to conduct their lives from the new
residence Jake and his team had arranged for them.
 
Even her brother had little to complain
about.
 

Raven didn’t spend a lot of time telling
them where she’d been or what had occurred in her short time away.
 
She just made sure they were safe and
relatively happy.

Danny tried peppering her with questions
about the future and she told him she had no idea what was going to happen
next.
 
“Jake will figure it out and
we’ll be in touch.”

“So we all just wait for Jake to decide
our fates?” Danny scoffed.

“Be patient,” she told him.
 
“Soon things will be back to normal.”

She
got off the phone
with Danny, feeling a little guilty, knowing
that she was somewhat
responsible for his life and the lives of her parents being turned upside down.

Next, she called Skylar.

“I thought something terrible had
happened to you!” Skylar said.

Raven apologized for dropping out of
touch.
 
“We’re back now, though, so
I’ll be coming around again.”

“You don’t worry about me,” Sky told
her.
 
“I’m doing just fine.”

But Raven didn’t believe her.
 
She thought her friend sounded tired,
ragged, and maybe a little scared beneath the brave exterior.
 
Skylar didn’t want Raven to worry or
feel responsible, so she was putting on a brave front.

“I’m going to be checking in with you as
soon as I land somewhere for more than five minutes,” Raven said.
 
“But you can always call me, day or
night.
 
Promise me you’ll call if
you need anything, Sky.”

Skylar agreed she would, but once again,
Raven got off the phone feeling more confused and disturbed.

Jake told her it was all going to work
out, to relax and sleep the rest of the ride back to Boston, but Raven was
unsure.

Finally, they arrived back at the hotel in
Boston, and surprisingly there were no paparazzi even waiting for them.
 
At least they’d caught one break, she
thought wearily.

Inside the penthouse suite, she collapsed
into bed and fell asleep for a long, long time.

When she woke up again, she heard voices
in the outer suite and sat up, confused.
 
There was a note next to her, stickied to the comforter.

In
a meeting.
 
Come out when you’re ready.
 
Clothes for you in the closet, toiletries in the bathroom.

Love,
Jake

Getting out of bed, Raven went to the
closet and found some clothes that had been specifically delivered for
her.
 
She put on a pair of jeans
that somehow fit perfectly without her ever having tried them on before, and a
long-sleeved shirt that also hung exactly as she liked.

She went into the bathroom and quickly
freshened up, taking a moment to dab a moist towel on her puffy eyes.
 
She blinked at herself in the mirror.

I
look different, she thought.
 
I
wonder if it’s because Jake and I slept together.

Anything was possible.

Raven exited the bathroom and then
approached the closed bedroom door.
 
The voices were louder now.
 
Jake was talking to a man whose voice she didn’t recognize.

But their exact words were muffled, and
Raven couldn’t figure out exactly what they were discussing.
 
All she knew was that there was no
laughter, no joking around.
 
Even
without hearing the content of their conversation, she knew with almost
complete certainty that it was very serious.

Finally, she opened the door and went
into the main suite, where Jake was pacing back and forth, arms folded tightly
across his chest.

Meanwhile, a shiny-headed bald man in a
perfectly tailored black suit with a purple handkerchief and matching tie sat
on the sofa with a briefcase open next to him.
 
He was holding a stack of papers and his
brown eyes scanned the pages with intense focus.

“Hi,” Raven said, announcing her presence
awkwardly.

Jake glanced up at her, but only for a
moment before resuming his pacing.
 
“Hey,” he said.

The bald man looked at her as well, his
eyes scouring her face as closely as he’d just been reading his papers.
 
“Hello.
 
You must be Raven.
 
I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh.”
 
She smiled.

He looked back at his papers, his brow
knitting, no longer interested in her.

Jake stopped pacing again.
 
“Raven, this is my lawyer, Bernie
Hoffman.”

He looks like a Bernie, Raven
thought.
 
“So nice to meet your
acquaintance, Mr. Hoffman.”

“You can call me Bernie, or even Bern,”
the lawyer said, still searching his papers.
 
His briefcase was positively overflowing
with them.

Raven crossed to where Jake was
standing.
 
He was wearing gray
slacks and a light green sweater, and he looked freshly showered and
shaved.
 
But he was obviously very tense,
as when she tried to lay a hand on his arm, he flinched away.

“Everything okay?” she said softly.

“Not even remotely,” he replied, but
still didn’t look her way.
 
“If you
want coffee, room service brought food in,” he said, gesturing to a couple of
rolling trays parked in the corner of the room.

“Oh, okay,” she said dully, feeling a
pain in her stomach.
 
She was
worried all over again.
 
Jake was
upset, and he seemed to not want her around.
 
Did he wish she would leave the room or
something?

She didn’t know.

Raven went to the carts and found a cup
of coffee for herself.
 
“Do you want
anything, Jake?
 
Or Mister…Bernie?”
she called out.

They didn’t respond.

“These contracts are iron clad,” Bernie
said to Jake, resuming their conversation now.

“So I need to finish my tour,” Jake said.

“As it is, you’re in the red.
 
Kurt mismanaged your funds, and nobody
saw it.
 
There was so much money
transferring hands, going from one holding company to another, one account to
another, large deposits and withdrawals all over the place.”

“Christ,” Jake said, shaking his head.

“It’s going to take weeks if not months,
and a lot of manpower to figure out everything he was up to.
 
So much of this touring stuff is
operating as a cash business, and so many people were being paid.”
 
Bernie scanned some more papers, then
put them aside.
 
“But the bottom
line result is that your company is on the brink of bankruptcy.
 
Which means you, personally, are on the
brink.”

“I’ve made millions and millions—“

The lawyer put up a hand to stop
Jake.
 
“If you cancel your tour, there
will be enormous consequences.
 
Your
label will likely be sued by the venues, and the label, in turn, will sue you
to recoup their losses.”

Raven couldn’t believe what she was
hearing.
 
She brought her cup of
coffee with her as she walked back to where Jake was standing.
 
“Jake,” she said, hoping not to further
anger him.

He looked at her, impatience etched in
his face.
 
“What?”

“Why are you talking about cancelling
your tour?”

He ran a hand through his hair.
 
“I just can’t stomach the thought of
going back out there again.
 
Performing that bullshit.
 
It’s all fake,
Raven
.
 
I never wanted to be this guy, and now
I’m about to go back on the road, pretending to be that same person that isn’t
me and has nothing to do with what I wanted to become.”

She pulled on her lower lip
anxiously.
 
“If you just do the
contracted shows, just until your free and clear—“

“It’s a huge tour that will go on for
months.”
 
Jake turned and looked at
her.
 
“And what about everything
that we’ve been through?” he continued.
 
“Once I’m on tour, all I’ll be focused on is my shows, and travelling,
and making sure the show goes on and is a success.
 
There won’t be any room for us, or for
you to be in my life.”

The lawyer was watching their
exchange.
 
“Excuse me,” he said,
“but I don’t think you fully understand the extent of your exposure, Jake.
 
If you don’t fulfill your contracts, you
could end up in debt to the tune of five or ten million dollars.
 
The numbers simply don’t add up.”

“I do understand,” Jake told him.
 
He continued to look at Raven and now he
spoke directly to her.
 
“Being alone
with you, going through what we went through these last days…it’s made me
reconsider everything.”

“I don’t want you to give up anything for
me,” she told him, her stomach churning.
 
“I couldn’t bear that responsibility.”

“It’s not your responsibility,” he
said.
 
“But I know that if I go back
on tour, I’ll be going back to a life that I no longer believe in.
 
My life will be fake, and I’ll be losing
myself again, when I only just started to discover myself again.”

She swallowed, her eyes welling up.
 
“You know I’ll support any decision you
make.”

“I don’t want to go back on tour.
 
I want to be just us,” he said.
 
His eyes were steady, completely engaged
with her, ignoring everything else around them.
 

Her stomach did a few flips as the
enormity of it hit her full force.
 
“What would we do?” she said.

“I have no idea,” he replied.
 
“We’d figure it out together.”