What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (47 page)

Raven chuckled at the sight of the smaller woman as she barely dodged a group of students, who looked at her like she was a fool.

Finally, the redhead was able to sit, and she waved Raven over. By the time Raven got there, her new friend was still breathing heavy.

“I knew I quit smoking for a reason,” she said, as Raven sat down.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Raven told her, smiling.

“But you’re glad I did, aren’t you?”

“Yes, of course. Now I feel like I should buy you a cookie or something.”

The woman shook her head. “Don’t give it another thought.” She had a cellophane wrapped tuna sandwich and a bottle of water. She slowly and painstakingly began unwrapping her sandwich. “My name’s Bri, by the way.”

“I’m Raven. Nice to meet you.”

Bri nodded, got half her sandwich unwrapped and started eating it with gusto. “Food’s not so bad here.”

Raven couldn’t say the same about her cheeseburger. It tasted like it had been made with mostly soy and microwaved until it turned into a hockey puck. But she was hungry enough to eat it, especially once she’d dumped enough ketchup and mustard on the burger to make it less offensive.

“Do you work here?” Raven asked, after swallowing a particularly unsatisfying bite.

Bri shrugged. “I’m a freelancer.”

“Oh.” Raven wasn’t sure what that even meant, but decided to let it go.

“What about you?” Bri asked, her green eyes suddenly piercing. “What brings you here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“My friend’s getting treatment and I’m here for support.”

“Ah,” Bri said. “I get it. That’s nice your friend has you.”

“I’m lucky to have her.”

Bri laughed, took a sip of water. Suddenly, her eyes crinkled up. “You look really familiar,” she said. “Do we know each other from somewhere?”

Raven stared at her. “I don’t think so.” And then it hit her. The woman probably recognized her from seeing a story about her on TV or maybe online.

It seemed to dawn on Bri as well, because she snapped her fingers. “Yeah, I just remembered. I read about you! You’re that girl who’s dating Jake Novak, aren’t you?”

Raven’s stomach went cold. She glanced around but nobody had heard the question, thankfully. “Sorry, I don’t really feel comfortable talking about that.”

Bri looked aghast. “Oh, Jeez. I hope I didn’t offend you.”

“No, not at all.” Raven tried to smile but it felt frozen and fake. “I just don’t really talk about that stuff.”

“Oh, totally. I’m so sorry.” Bri went back to eating her sandwich. “It’s just that I’m kind of a closet Jake Novak fan,” she said, as if imparting state secrets.

Raven tried again to smile, but now she was looking around, trying to think of how she could escape the situation without seeming too rude. “Hey, there are a lot of those,” she said, lamely.

Bri appeared to sense the shift in Raven’s demeanor. “Listen, I didn’t mean to put you off. It’s just—are you two still an item? I’m so curious.”

Raven looked at her. Alarm bells were going off, for some reason. Why did this total stranger keep asking about her and Jake’s relationship?

As Raven stared at Bri, she noticed that the redhead was carrying a laptop case. It wasn’t unusual, but combined with her comment about “freelancing” and the way she’d coincidentally approached Raven out of nowhere—everything just clicked into place.

“You’re a journalist,” Raven said, and she didn’t phrase it as a question because she already knew the answer.

Bri’s expression didn’t change. Her beady, piercing eyes stayed trained on Raven’s face. “I didn’t mean to mislead you,” Bri said, “but this is my job.”

“Actually, you did mean to mislead me, but it didn’t work.” Raven tried to control her mounting anger. “And you think it’s your job to follow me to a hospital and ambush me when I’m taking a break from visiting with my sick friend?”

“No, it’s my job to get the story that my boss tells me to get.”

“That’s not my problem,” Raven said, rising from her seat. “Maybe it’s time to find a new job.”

And then she started to walk quickly away from the table, noticed she had crumbled the foil with the remains of her crappy burger still inside of it, and swerved to throw it away in one of the garbage bins.

As she exited the cafeteria, Bri scurried up alongside her. “I know you’re angry, but we’re not done here just yet.”

“Oh, yes we are. We never even started,” Raven replied, walking fast and looking straight ahead.

“People are going to be writing stories about you and Jake. Wouldn’t you at least prefer we get them right? Don’t you want to respond to the awful things they say about your sex tape? We both know that you didn’t have group sex with those boys at the party.”

“I don’t care what they say. They’re going to lie because people like you eat it all up,” Raven said, and then shut her mouth. She was angry at herself for even taking the bait.

“I know you and Jake aren’t together anymore,” Bri continued. “I just wanted to get your comment on the fact that he’s already seeing Courtney Taylor.”

Despite her better instincts, Raven stopped walking. She looked at the smaller woman. “Please leave me alone. Please.”

“I know you find this distasteful,” Bri said. “But isn’t what Jake’s done to you even more distasteful? He used you and threw you away as soon as your past became an inconvenience. And now he’s gallivanting around with a young pop star, forgetting about the regular girl who gave him her heart.”

Raven wanted to slap Bri, but she kept her voice calm. “You should be ashamed of yourself. I’m here to help my friend and you’re taking advantage of that to leech off my problems.”

For the first time, Bri seemed defensive. “I’m sorry, but this is my job.”

“You keep saying that,” Raven replied, shaking her head slowly. “But it doesn’t excuse your behavior.”

“At least I tried to get your side of the story.”

“You’ll publish it either way. You don’t care whether it’s true of not, you just want something juicy.”

Bri’s cheeks were almost as red as her hair now. “You know, before I met you I actually felt sorry for you. I thought Jake was wrong to dump you for Courtney Taylor. But now I totally get it. You don’t deserve him, Raven.”

“Maybe I don’t,” Raven told her. “But I also don’t deserve you.” Raven started to walk faster down the hallway, and this time the nasty journalist let her go and didn’t try to follow her.

S
ome hours later
, and the first chemo treatment had mostly been a success, other than the early snafu. Skylar and her mother were on their way home and Raven was walking back to her apartment, trying to clear her head.

Her thoughts were racing, ever since she’d had that horrible encounter with the journalist.

It scared Raven to know that there were people who knew what she looked like, knew her name, and they were trying to follow her and anticipate her whereabouts in order to break a story.

The worst part of it was that she’d let that woman get under her skin, especially the comments about Jake starting to see Courtney Taylor. Was it possible that the journalist had just been trying to get a reaction, spreading a rumor or outright lying?

Yes, it was very possible. It was also possible that Jake and Courtney were actually involved. Courtney was young, beautiful, and had clearly been smitten with Jake, based on her behavior when she’d met him backstage.

And Jake clearly didn’t mind taking advantage of his status with the ladies to get what he wanted.

But was Courtney what he wanted?

She doesn’t look at all his type
, Raven thought, and then cracked a smile.

She was actually taking comfort in the fact that Courtney Taylor didn’t look as much like Jake’s dead fiancé as Raven did.

That was bizarre and twisted, and yet, it did serve to calm her a bit.

The tabloids always want to make something out of nothing. You should know better than to believe anything they say.

As she walked towards home, Raven drifted into fantasy about going to Jake’s show that night. What would he do if she decided to just confront him about everything? What if she admitted her true feelings to him—would he really shoot her down and tell her he felt nothing in return?

Probably, she decided.

Raven was stepping off the curb to cross the street at a red light when a car came skidding around the corner at a high speed. It was headed right for her, and her life flashed before her eyes.

But at the last moment, a pair of strong arms grabbed her, pulling her out of the way, as the car skidded to a halt just a few feet away.

“Oh my God,” she said, her heart racing, legs shaking from the close call.

“Lady, you better watch your step or you’re going to get killed,” the large man said.

She knew that voice. Turning to look up at him, she saw Max Mendez sneering down at her.

“Leave me alone!” she yelled, but her voice wasn’t very loud. The near accident had taken all of the fight out of her.

The door to the car that had nearly hit her swung open and Max shoved her into the backseat and then got quickly in behind her, shutting the door. “Drive,” he said, and the driver floored the gas, as they screeched away from the intersection.

Raven was sandwiched in between Max and another man. The other man was as short of stature as Max was tall. He couldn’t have been much over five feet tall, but he was stocky, with dark curly hair that was receding in front. His eyes were heavy-lidded, reptilian, and his lips were thick and wet. “Raven, how nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you,” he said.

“Let me out of this car,” she replied.

Max shot her a glance. “Watch it with the demands. I’m getting pretty fed up with you.”

“Ease up on the girl,” the short man told Max. “She’s been through a lot.”

“Who are you?” Raven asked him.

“My name’s Zeke,” he said, smiling with his blubbery lips. His eyes were dark and watchful as he turned his head to look at her. He held out his small hand and she shook it, not knowing what else to do.

His hand was clammy but soft, and he didn’t hold her hand very long.

“Zeke, I really don’t know why you all won’t leave me alone. I’m not seeing Jake anymore. I did exactly what Club Alpha asked me to do, which was leave and never speak to him again.”

Zeke was wearing a dark, finely tailored suit with polished shoes. He examined his fingernails as he spoke. “Was that before or after you told Jake about your little meeting with Scott, and Jake went and assaulted him in the restaurant?”

“I didn’t know Jake was going to do that,” she said. Her entire body was shaking uncontrollably now. “Please, I just want to be left alone.”

“I’m afraid the time for that has long passed,” Zeke said. “We tried to keep you out of the fray, but you refused to listen. And now things have changed yet again.”

“I don’t understand,” Raven said.

Max glared down at her. “Shut up for a minute and he’ll explain, maybe.”

She closed her mouth and tried to slow her erratic breathing. She was getting a horrible feeling that these men intended to do something awful to her, perhaps as payback for what Jake had done to Club Alpha’s CEO.

“Everyone knows Jake Novak was in the military,” Zeke said, as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pair of nail clippers. “It’s common knowledge, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Raven said.

Zeke began clipping his nails, which were already quite neat and tidy. But he seemed to find new angles, new little bits to shave off to make them even more perfect. He clipped and clipped as he spoke. “What most people don’t realize is that Jake’s service overseas is only a small part of the story. Jake Novak wasn’t just some regular soldier fumbling around in the desert until he got sent home again--he was the member of a top-secret elite force that was sent on very special missions. Very dangerous missions to do work that nobody else could or would do.”

Raven swallowed. Was Zeke just messing with her head? She couldn’t tell.

He continued hypnotically clipping his nails as he talked. “You may wonder why you’re sitting in this car with me right now, being told such a strange story.” Zeke glanced up into her eyes. “Am I right? Are you wondering?”

“I—yes. Yes, I’m wondering why you’re telling me any of this.”

He smiled at her. The kindness of his smile struck more fear into her than harsh threats from Max Mendez. She suspected that behind Max’s anger was a man who didn’t want to have to hurt her.

However, behind Zeke’s kind smile, she sensed the killer instincts of a remorseless and calculating psychopath. “Unfortunately, this situation has become very complicated, Raven.” He went back to daintily clipping his fingernails. The little white shavings drifted onto his black pants and clung there, like dandruff. “Things have evolved to where you can no longer be protected from the truth.”

Protected? Since when was Club Alpha protecting her from anything?

She thought these things, but kept silent, guessing that asking such questions might be bad for her health at this point. The goal now was to say anything she needed to say to get the hell out of the car alive.

“Sir,” she began.

“Call me Zeke, please,” he smiled.

“Zeke, I’m fine staying ignorant. Really.”

“Yes, they say ignorance is bliss, so I can understand why you say that. But you must know that if we’ve gotten to this point, all possibilities have been explored and we’ve arrived here out of necessity. As I said, the time for you to walk away blissfully unaware has now expired. So you must tread very carefully, now, Raven.” Zeke once again looked up into her eyes. “Very, very carefully indeed.”

“I’ll never speak a word about Club Alpha,” she said, her throat tightening. “Just please don’t hurt me. Jake is out of my life. I promise, I swear.”

Zeke exchanged a bemused look with Max Mendez.

“Jake won’t be out of your life for very long,” Zeke replied, giggling slightly. “You see, this has become a very fluid scenario. One moment something is asked of you, the next, something different.”