What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (5 page)

Lilah was behind her, dressed in a crisp white t-shirt and black pants, her long hair in tangles around her shoulders, sneakers on her feet. She looked young and innocent, and I knew it was a carefully constructed look, probably something Clementine had come up with (or maybe Noah?) so that if the press took pictures of her, they would find only pictures of her looking young and vulnerable, like the kind of girl who would never commit murder unless she’d been pushed to it by some unspeakable acts.

“Hello, Lilah,” I said, remembering how the last time I’d seen her she’d been plucking her own hair from her head.

“Hi,” she said, her voice devoid of emotion.

The four of us sat down around the huge conference table, Noah at the head, me on one side and Clementine and Lilah on the other. I reached into my bag and pulled out my iPad, then frowned.

On the screen wasn’t my usual screensaver of the city line of New York. Instead, there was a square black graphic with a quote written in white swirly script. At first I thought I had the wrong iPad, but then I noticed the nick at the bottom, from where I’d dropped it one day while getting off the subway.

I read the quote.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
— Friedrich Nietzsche

I stole a glance at Noah. He didn’t react, but I blushed with happiness. He must have changed my screensaver!

God, I loved him so much.

“Lilah, I’d like to talk to you about some things,” Noah said and I pulled out a pen and paper so I could take notes.

“Yeah?” Lilah asked. She was leaning back in her chair, swiveling it back and forth. If she was at all concerned that she’d been arrested for murder, she sure as hell wasn’t showing it.

“It’s about what the doctor said,” Noah said. “But before we get to that, I need to be clear with you about something. Charlotte is going to be assisting me on this case. If you want to continue working with me, then she will be granted access to everything you and I talk about.”

It was brief, just a second, but I thought Lilah was going to protest. But then she shrugged her tiny shoulders and said, “Okay.”

“Good.” Noah said shortly.

I let out a sigh of relief. I really hadn’t expected it to be that easy, and I wondered if I should be suspicious of her sudden change of heart.

“Now,” Noah said, and his tone was brusque. He pulled some papers from a thin file folder. “According to the doctor’s report, Lilah, you’re faking.”

My stomach turned in on itself, and I tried not to show my shock.

“What?” Lilah looked at Clementine in a panic, but Clementine looked just as shocked as Lilah did. Lilah sat up in her chair and gripped the side of the table. “I’m not faking!”

“The doctor thinks you can remember what happened the night of Ryan’s murder.”

“I can’t!”

“Are you sure?” Noah asked, raising his eyebrows.

“You think I did it on purpose,” Lilah said softly. “You don’t think it was self-defense.” Her hands twisted in front of her and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the so obviously contrived gesture.

“I do think it was self-defense,” Noah said. “But you also haven’t given me a plausible explanation for why that would be true.”

“Because I can’t remember.”

“According to the doctor, you can.”

“I can’t!” she said, and now there were tears in her eyes. She met my glance across the table, and for the first time, I saw the deep pain reflected there, and I felt myself waving in my belief that she’d done it on purpose, that it wasn’t self-defense. Had I been too hard on her? Was she really just a kid who’d been abused?

“Okay.” Clementine, who’d been quiet up until now, set her pen down and leaned forward in her chair. “Lilah, would you mind leaving the room for a moment?”

“That’s not a good idea,” Noah said. He glanced over at Lilah, his face dark, and I knew exactly what he was thinking about – he was thinking about how she ran.

“I have something to show you,” Clementine said to Noah.

“Show me in front of Lilah,” Noah said.

“I’d prefer not to.”

Noah sighed, then pulled out his phone and called Jared to come into the building from where he was waiting outside with the car.

“Go meet Jared in the lobby, Lilah,” Noah commanded.

I thought she was going to protest, to say that she wanted to stay, but she stood up, her eyes shiny with tears. She glanced at me as she left, and the look on her face was so pathetic that I actually felt bad for her.

Dammit.

Was Noah right? Had I been wrong about Lilah?

Once she’d left the conference room, Noah sent Jared a text to make sure he had Lilah.

“What is it, Clementine?” Noah asked brusquely, and I liked that he was being short with her.

“This.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a cell phone, slid it across the desk toward Noah. “Look at the photos.”

I watched as Noah picked up the phone and began scrolling through the photos, one by one. Clementine was watching him with a self-satisfied look on her face, as if she knew whatever was on that phone was golden. But Noah showed no reaction.

When he was done paging through the photos, he slid the phone over the table toward me.

I picked it up.

When I got to the first photo, I gasped. It was a girl, her face bruised and beaten. It was taken from the POV of the person holding the camera, and she was giving whoever was holding the camera a blowjob. I scrolled to the next. This one was another girl, her face also beaten, deep purple bruises on her neck. Whoever was holding the camera was fucking her.

I put the phone down, bile rising into my throat, not wanting to see any more.

“That’s Ryan Aqualino’s phone,” Clementine said.

Ryan. Lilah’s boyfriend, the one she killed, the one she’d said was making her do horrible things. The imagines on that phone would certainly corroborate her story.

I looked at Noah excitedly, waiting for him to smile, to show some kind of reaction to what could be a huge piece of evidence in the case. We hadn’t even begun to start, and yet already we were being given something amazing.

“Where did you get this?” Noah asked.

“From the crime scene,” Clementine said, and the first worm of doubt began pushing its way into my heart.

“The crime scene,” I blurted. “How did you get access to the crime scene?”

Lawyers usually weren’t given access to crime scenes so early. First the police had to go through the evidence piece by piece, cataloguing everything. And they sure as hell wouldn’t have let her just remove something like that. From what I could tell, there was no evidence tag or mark on the phone.

“I have friends, Charlotte,” Clementine said, like I was a child who needed everything explained to her.

“You stole it from the crime scene?” I asked incredulously.

“Oh, grow up,” she said and rolled her eyes. She began swiveling back and forth in her chair, just like Lilah had been doing a few moments. ago. “This is how these things work. Tell her, Noah.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Tell me, Noah.” I looked at him, but he was just staring at the phone quietly.

“Noah,” I said. “You’re not seriously thinking about using this. If you get caught, you’ll be –”

He held his hand up. “Quiet,” he said. “I’m thinking.”

Clementine stared at me over the table. It was a stalemate, waiting to see who Noah was going to side with – me or her.

But before he could answer, my phone began ringing from inside my bag.

“Sorry,” I said, my face flaming red as Clementine rolled her eyes at me again. I wasn’t sure why, but suddenly felt like I was in class, and Clementine and Noah were my professors who were going to scold me for having my phone on.

“Who is it?” Noah asked as I pulled my phone out of my bag.

“I don’t know.” The caller ID was flashing a private number.

“It better not be that asshole therapist,” he said.

“I’m sure it’s not.”

“Answer it.”

I swallowed and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

There was no sound on the other end of the line, and then finally, an eerily familiar voice.

“Charlotte?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“Hi,” the voice said, but I was unable to place it.

“Who is this?”

“It’s me,” the voice said gleefully. “It’s me, Charlotte. It’s Professor Worthington.”

My mouth went dry and blood rushed through my ears. “How are you calling me?” I asked, my voice strangled.

The words sent Noah reaching for the phone, but not before I heard the Professor’s reply.

“I’m not in jail anymore, Charlotte. I got out. And I can’t wait to see you.”

E
ND OF BOOK NINETEEN

Look for Book Twenty, Coming Soon

W
ANT TO BE NOTIFIED
AS SOON AS ITS RELEASED?

Sign up for Hannah’s exclusive mailing list by clicking here!

T
URN
THE PAGE TO READ THE COMPLETE DEBT SERIES BY KELLY FAVOR, INCLUDED HERE AS A BONUS BOOK!

R
aven Hartley had a very
bad feeling about this.

She was standing with a group of five other girls in front of a sprawling mansion. There were a couple of dozen cars parked along the driveway—Porches, Lamborghinis, Jaguars, Mercedes.

“Can you believe this is happening?” Raven’s friend Skylar whispered in her ear.

“Not really,” Raven replied, and she meant it.

This wasn’t her scene. She didn’t know any of these girls except for Skylar. In point of fact, they’d met the girls at a club just a few hours prior, and after having some shots and dancing together, the girls had convinced Raven and Skylar to tag along with them to the next hot spot.

It was too late at night, the surroundings too unfamiliar, and everything in Raven’s body told her that it was time to go home while she could still call the outing a success.

Remember what happened the last time you went to a party and didn’t consider the repercussions?

But Skylar was so happy, grabbing Raven’s arm and giggling as they approached the ornate doorway, one of the girls pushing the doorbell and then waiting to see who would answer.

Raven didn’t want to let Skylar down. Besides, if the party turned out to be lame or creepy, she told herself she could always leave through the front door.

Finally, the door opened and a slender man in a tuxedo stood there. He looked at the girls, his eyes taking in each one in turn, as if assessing their worth. “Okay, let’s have your cell phones. Drop them in the basket and I’ll return them when you leave.”

The girls began trooping obediently inside, doing just as he’d asked, which Raven found strange. Skylar went in ahead of Raven, putting her phone in a basket that was positively overflowing with all makes and models of phone.

And then it was Raven’s turn. She hesitated at the threshold.

“Do you want to come in or not?” the man in the tuxedo said, as if he had a million other better places to be and people to be talking to right then.

“I don’t see why I should have to give you my phone,” she told him. “I’ll keep it in my purse, scout’s honor.” She raised her hand as if to swear on the bible, and gave the man a little grin to show she wasn’t so bad.

But the tuxedoed man didn’t find her funny. “The reason we don’t allow cell phones inside,” he said drily, “is that our clientele is very exclusive. There are those in attendance who are regularly stalked and harassed by paparazzi. It’s for our guests’ protection that we’ve established these rules.”

Raven thought about it. She didn’t like the idea of giving up her cell phone just to go into some party in a fancy house. The only reason she was even there was because of Skylar.

Be honest, Raven. You went out tonight because you were sick and tired of having no social life. You didn’t do it as any big favor to Skylar.

Okay, so maybe she did need a fun night out on the town. But they’d had that already. Raven hadn’t done this much socializing in a very long time, maybe since high school.

Yeah, and remember how that turned out? Remember what happened the last time you let your guard down?

But she didn’t want to dwell on the past. It had been years since the darkest time in her life, and now she was almost twenty-two years old and sick of hiding from the world.

She wasn’t going to let her past stop her from experiencing any fun.

I’m still young, I’m still free. I need to enjoy my life for a change.

That decided her. Trying not to second-guess her decision, Raven dropped her phone into the basket and walked inside, and Skylar whooped and hollered her approval.

Now they were all clapping and laughing, walking through the enormous foyer with its ridiculous fountains, statues, and it was like walking through a museum—only everything felt dreamlike, completely unreal.

But is it a dream or a nightmare? Raven asked herself as they began walking up the wide marble staircase to the second floor. Luckily, the girls they were with seemed to know the way around, because otherwise it would’ve been easy to get lost.

Skylar looked at her with wide eyes as they climbed the steps, their heels echoing. “I think we’re in paradise,” she said.

“I hope you’re right,” Raven said. She had a feeling that the opposite might be the case.

I
n the end
, Raven decided that maybe the whole thing wasn’t as big of a deal as she’d imagined it to be.

Sure, the environment was different from a normal party—they were hanging out in a gazillion dollar mansion with more rooms than Raven could even count. It was possible to get lost in the hallways, which could easily be considered a maze, as far as she was concerned.

But if you took away the glitz and glamor of the surroundings, then you were left with people standing around talking and drinking as music played in the background.

Granted, the music at this party was being supplied by a well-known band that Raven had seen on TV once or twice, but still…

It was just a party.

The strangest thing about it, in actuality, was the ratio of women to men. There were probably five or six women to every man, and the women were all very pretty and young and stylish, whereas the men tended to be on the older side.

Skylar seemed to be fixated on the fact that all of the men were likely rich millionaires and billionaires.

“Do you think that guy over there is Steve Jobs?” Skylar asked, sipping a pinkish looking drink from a tall, skinny glass.

Raven glanced in the direction that Skylar was looking and saw a tall, older man with a beard. The little beard was about the only thing that even slightly resembled the tech wizard. “Ummm…I think Steve Jobs is dead, honey,” Raven confided.

“Really?” Skylar asked, her eyes widening. “Maybe that’s like…his brother or something.”

“I highly doubt it.”

“Well where’s all the famous people they were talking about?” Skylar demanded. “I mean, everyone is dressed up fancy but I don’t recognize anyone.”

Raven noticed one of the girls that they’d met at the club walking by with her arm wrapped around a much older man’s arm. She gave them a wink as she passed.

“My impression is that these people are more rich than famous,” Raven said.

She watched as the man led the girl through one of the many doorways and disappeared.

Skylar sighed. “And those girls from the club turned out to be total bitches. They act like they don’t even know us.”

“Yeah, well they all seem pretty busy mixing with the popular kids,” Raven said.

And it was true. The girls that they’d been hanging with at the dance club had now paired off with guys, and didn’t seem too interested in chatting with Raven and Skylar anymore. It made sense, in a way. Raven had started to get the feeling that this was an operation, a finely tuned machine, meant to get lots of hot girls to come out and party with rich dudes.

What had seemed like a group of nice girls wanting to befriend them at the club had perhaps actually been some chicks trying to gather more women to bring to this mansion.

But why would they do that?
Raven wondered.
Didn’t that just mean more competition for them?

Whatever the reason for the strange behavior of their so-called new friends, Raven didn’t really care anymore. She was getting tired and about to break it to Skylar that she’d had just about enough excitement for one evening, when something strange happened.

Someone new walked into the room and whispers started, heads turned.

At first, Raven couldn’t tell who it was, because she was blocked by a couple of large pillars from seeing the person in question. All she could see was everyone’s reaction to whoever it was.

And with the music being so loud, it was almost impossible to hear what everyone was babbling so excitedly about.

Skylar moved to get a better view and her eyes widened instantly. Her hand flew to her mouth and she visibly gasped, turning to Raven. “Oh my God,” she squealed.

“What’s going on?” Raven laughed.

“Not what—who. I can’t. Believe. My freaking eyes.”

Now Raven was truly curious, as she maneuvered to get a view of whom everyone was gawking at. Maybe Mark Wahlberg had showed up or something.

As she was stepping to the side so she could get out of the way of the ridiculous pillar, she happened to step right in view of the man everyone was staring at in the first place.

And then he looked right at her.

Right. At. Her.

Jake Novak was staring directly into her eyes.

She knew instantly who he was, it would have been impossible not to know. Jake Novak was probably the biggest celebrity on the planet at the moment.

And he was staring at her. Or rather, he’d caught her staring at him.

It was impossible not to gawk at his muscle-bound, ripped biceps and chest, his flat stomach, those broad shoulders. His face was like the prototype of an action star—strong jaw, short brown hair that never looked too messy or too neat, piercing intelligent eyes with enough humor to balance the brutally smoking sexiness.

He’s so much better looking in person
was the first thing Raven thought. And that was quickly followed by,
oh shit. He thinks I’m crazy
.

Jake’s gaze seemed fixed on her face for an eternity, and he even gave her a tiny flash of his famous grin, before finally turning and shaking hands with some little guy with a beanie on his head.

Then Jake began talking with a small circle of guests and somehow that was everyone’s cue to calm down. Although people were still staring, the party seemed to go back to normal—if there even was anything normal about this place to begin with.

Skylar came closer to where Raven was standing.

“Can you believe Jake Novak is here? That’s like the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Every single girl in here is staring at him. They all want him.”

Raven looked around and saw that it was true. Not that it was as obvious as it had been when he first entered the room, but as she watched, Raven could plainly see that every single woman was self-conscious, hoping to get his attention for even a second.

Every female in the place was laughing a little louder, flirting more openly, running a hand through her hair, and all the while eyes kept shifting over in Jake Novak’s direction, longing glances were thrown his way, heads kept turning, as if each girl thought they might somehow get his approval.

Raven hated that she sensed the same longing and desire within herself.

And I had his attention for a split second. He looked at me, I know he did.

She also hated that for that one fleeting moment, she’d actually believed that a guy like Jake Novak might be interested in her.

“I think he’s hotter in real life,” Skylar said, sipping her drink and staring unabashedly at him.

A couple of stunning models—at least, they looked like models to Raven—approached him and they all began conversing, laughing.

A flash of jealousy coursed through her. She felt surprised and dismayed by her strange possessiveness of a man she didn’t even know. “I don’t even like his music and his movies are unwatchable,” Raven said, as if to reassure herself that her sudden feelings of jealousy weren’t real.

“Who cares?” Skylar said. “I’d crawl on my knees and beg him to fuck me.”

“Skylar!” Raven gasped. “That’s gross.”

“I would. Just look at him. Look at that body. That face. He oozes sex. Did you ever see that one movie, I forget the name of it, where he dances?”

“I told you I hate his movies.”

“Well, whatever. The way he dances, you just know he’s incredible in bed.”

One of the models standing next to him put a hand on his arm and threw back her head, laughing at something Jake had said, and then he leaned in and whispered in her ear.

Clearly, he’d found someone he was truly interested in, someone in his league. It was all sort of depressing. This was not so much different from watching him on the big screen—he felt just as unapproachable and unreal in a way.

Raven had a sudden, strong desire to drink until she couldn’t see straight. While Skylar stood and continued drooling, Raven went to the bar and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea.

It was the strongest drink she could think of that wouldn’t make her gag.

She purposely didn’t look over at Jake Novak while she waited for the bartender to make her a drink. The bar was closer to his corner of the room, but that made it even more imperative that she pretend he didn’t exist.

Somehow, he was like a magnet drawing her closer to him, pulling her into his orbit, and it made Raven angry. She was acting just like all the other foolish groupies that had made Jake Novak into some kind of God.

It was ridiculous.

“Ridiculous,” she muttered out loud. She hadn’t even realized she was going to speak until the words came out of her mouth.

“What’s ridiculous?” someone asked from just behind her.

“Nothing,” she said, embarrassed that her outburst had been overheard. She turned around to see who was talking to her and froze.

Jake Novak was standing there, not a foot away from her, watching her with those movie star eyes and that panty-dropping grin. “You don’t think I’ll understand?” he asked. “I bet I would.”

Raven swallowed. Up close his charisma was so intense that she was thrown into a panic, her heart racing, throat closing up, feeling like she might pass out.

He stood there watching her with those brown eyes and that face she’d seen plastered across countless billboards, on TV screens, even in movie theaters. His eyes were intense, studying her, as if he knew exactly the effect he was having on her in that moment.

“One Long Island Iced Tea,” the bartender called out, saving her.

Gratefully, Raven spun and picked up the drink, guzzling it for a couple of seconds, hoping to calm her frayed nerves.

Jake stepped up to the bar and ordered himself a beer, then turned to her again. “You never answered my question. What’s ridiculous?”

Now she could smell his cologne, his scent, and she found that it was as intoxicating as everything else about him. He was exactly what he promised to be in those silly movies that she claimed not to watch, but secretly enjoyed late at night when nobody was around to see her smile dreamily at the popular boy.