What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (31 page)

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.

Jake put his face almost against Scott’s face, finally letting go of the man’s necktie as Scott fell back, gasping for breath, coughing and sputtering.

“Scott, you’re a spoiled, spineless bully who sends attack dogs to do your dirty work,” Jake said, and now he was calm again. “Without your money, you’d be nothing and no one would listen to a word you say. But I don’t give a shit about your money, and I’m not afraid of you.”

Scott stared at Jake with frightened, wide eyes. “I know you’re not afraid of me,” he rasped.

“You think because I put on fancy clothes and sing goofy songs that I forgot how to do my old job, the one where I killed bad guys for a living?”

“No,” Scott whispered, coughing, spittle dribbling from his mouth. “No, I don’t think that,” he said.

“Good,” Jake smiled. “Because I’m only going to warn you like this one last time, Scott. Stay away from the people I care about.”

The old woman was still yelling and pounding on the inside of the door as Raven continued holding it shut from the outside.

Jake stood up straight and buttoned his suit coat, and Raven noted that he essentially was unmarked and unruffled by the incident, not even a hair was out of place. He shook out his arms and then cleared his throat, as if putting an end to a slightly annoying situation.

Raven looked down at Scott, who had by this time regained his breath, but looked completely worn out, like a beaten dog. The CEO of Club Alpha didn’t meet her gaze this time. Rather, he seemed to studiously avoid making eye contact.

“Is he okay—“ Raven asked, but Jake grabbed her free hand and dragged her away from the door.

“Come on,” he said. “I’m not in the mood for sushi anymore.” Quickly he led her out of the hallway, stopping only to drop a couple one hundred dollar bills on their old table, before continuing on his way out of the restaurant.

Once they got outside, he started walking down the street. Four or five blocks down, he pointed at a local pizza place. “Want to grab a slice instead?” he asked her.

Are you serious?
She thought.
You just practically killed a man and now you want pizza?

But then she realized that maybe this was just the way Jake was. After being through war, what he’d done at Koan wasn’t such a big deal to him.

“Sure, I’ll get a slice,” she shrugged, still buzzing from what she’d just witnessed him do. Her thoughts were still scattered and racing, questions bubbling and then popping, leaving her more confused than she’d been before all of this.

Once inside the pizza shop, there was only a few customers—a couple of old Italian men sitting in a booth and one young guy in a track suit who couldn’t stop staring at Jake and Raven. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost, as the two of them walked up to the counter.

“Can I get a couple of slices of cheese?” Jake asked.

If the man behind the counter knew who Jake was, he didn’t show it. Jake paid for the pizza and a couple of sodas, dropped a few bills in the tip jar.

The man behind the counter placed a couple of gigantic pizza slices onto two large paper plates, the grease already soaking through, and then Jake and Raven took the plates and sat down away from the window and started to eat.

“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, after taking a small bit of the abnormally large piece of pizza. It was actually pretty good, although too greasy for her tastes.

Jake chomped contentedly into his slice, having folded it in half to better manage it. “You need to try this technique,” he said, showing her. “Otherwise you’ll never get through even half a slice.”

“I’m not really trying to have an eating competition with you,” she said, but then she took his advice and folded her pizza just the same. As she took a bite, she had to admit that it was indeed easier to eat, and tasted better somehow.

Jake took a few napkins from the dispenser and wiped his lips. He chewed happily, watching her. “Good, right? I love this place.”

“You eat here a lot?”

He nodded, grinning. “I’ve only been to that Koan place once, a while back. I just happen to know that Scott eats there like clockwork the same day each week, at about the same time.”

“I guess today was his lucky day then,” Raven said.

“Yeah, I guess it was. Just happened to work out that I knew where he’d be. But I would’ve tracked him down one way or another.”

Outside, a couple of cop cars sped past and Raven couldn’t help but wonder if they were zooming to the scene of the assault, and whether or not Scott would be filing a report, and the old woman from the restroom that Raven had locked inside might also be adding to the witness pool.

Meanwhile, Raven and Jake were sitting only a few blocks away, munching on greasy pizza like nothing had even happened.

“You don’t really think that he’s going to leave me alone now, do you?” Raven asked him. “Because I don’t think he’ll stop. I think he might even want to hurt me worse after what you did to him. He’ll blame me for that.”

Jake put his pizza down on the paper plate and dusted his hands off. “He’s not ever going to hurt you,” Jake told her. “I meant what I said back there, I wasn’t bluffing.”

“I know you weren’t,” Raven said softly. Butterflies were slowly churning in her stomach. Jake’s ferocity and protectiveness were something new, and something very welcome, even if she had a hard time trusting it was all real.

“I’ve dealt with way scarier guys than Scott or Max or any of the fools from Club Alpha,” Jake said, shaking his head. He picked up his pizza slice again, hefting it. “They don’t worry me. In fact, I’d almost enjoy cracking some skulls just to show them they’re not as tough as they pretend to be.”

Raven laughed, partly in disbelief. “You know, there are bigger problems to deal with than Club Alpha. We still haven’t dealt with your public relations disaster.”

“Sure we have,” he said. “The media knows about you now. They’ve seen us together, they’re starting to write stories about us being a couple. Soon, they’ll want to know more about you, your past, who you are and why we’re together.” He snapped his fingers as he swallowed another bite. “And that’s when we let the cat out of the bag about how you were bullied back in the day, yada yada.”

Something about the way he said it all made her uncomfortable. He was back to sounding as though it was all preplanned, totally superficial, that none of it was even real to him.

Which is it, Jake? Do you care about me or not?

Maybe I’m just the property and you’re marking that territory, protecting me the way you might take care of a shiny new car or a fancy guitar.

Maybe I’m just one more thing you own.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out,” Raven said, sitting back and looking away from him.

“Hey,” he said, “what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” she lied.

“Raven, your poker face is about as weak as your appetite,” he told her.

She finally dragged her gaze to him, and found his brown eyes focused on her, and it hurt because she wanted him so badly, and wanted him to really care more than she had any right to.

“If my poker face was really that bad, you wouldn’t need to keep pestering me about what I’m thinking,” she retorted with an acid tone.