What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (59 page)

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.”

“Listen,” Bernie said, standing up, leaving his sheaf of papers on the sofa. “You’re not thinking straight, Jake. This is going to ruin your life.”

Jake turned and looked at him. “I understand your position. All I can ask you to do is try and protect me the best you can, given my wishes.”

“I can’t protect you if you bite the hand that feeds you,” the lawyer scoffed, his cheeks turning red with frustration. “You want me to protect you? I’d like to have you committed to an insane asylum—that’s what I’d do to protect you.”

“If you want out, you can quit,” Jake said. “I’ll find another lawyer to handle my affairs.”

Bernie’s face was ashen. “You’re going to be a cautionary tale,” he said. “Nobody will ever work with you again. Not in the music industry, not in the film industry. You’ll be lucky to get a job singing in the subway station a year from now.”

Jake shrugged. “I’ve done worse things than singing in the subway.”

Raven had to smile at that comment, and she realized that she’d never loved Jake Novak as much as she did at that moment. He was taking a stand for himself, and even if it was a mistake, it was his mistake.

The lawyer looked from Jake to Raven and back again, his eyes wide and confused. “You’re both crazy,” he announced, and then scuttled over to the couch and began quickly piling his papers back into his briefcase.

“It’s okay,” Jake told him. “You tried your best, Bern.”

“Fucking crazy,” Bernie said, ignoring him, and taking his briefcase with him, as he quickly left the hotel room, not looking back.

The door slammed shut and Raven looked at Jake uncertainly. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, that was your lawyer, you pay him to tell you what to do in these kinds of situations.”

Jake breathed a sigh out. He strode to the window and looked out at the city. “All I know is that I feel a giant weight off my shoulders. I feel like I let fame and money make me into something I’m not. I forgot who I was for a very long time, and now suddenly I’m waking up, coming alive again for the first time in ages.” He turned and looked at her and his eyes were bright and moist. “Thanks to you, beautiful.”

She set her mostly untouched coffee mug on the table. Bernie’s nearly empty cup was still there, and next to it a pen that he’d accidentally left behind with the name of his firm on it.

“I’m scared,” she told him honestly. “What if you blame me for this? What if later on you decide this was all a terrible mistake?”

Jake laughed. “I can’t blame you for my decision.”

She pulled on her lip, thinking. “All I want is for you to be happy.”

He smiled, crossing back to her, taking her hands in his. “I am happy, Raven. For the first time, maybe in my whole life, I’m truly free.”

She smiled too, and then he kissed her, and the butterflies danced in her stomach again, but this time it was for a good reason.

Jake’s lips were like dazzling fire, and his hands moved up and down her body, touching her, making her skin shudder with delight, and she knew that despite all of the unknowns in the situation—she wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way.

L
ater that day
, Raven was just getting out of the bath when she heard Jake answering the hotel room door.

She could tell, from the sounds, that he’d ordered more room service.

Smiling, Raven slid on thong panties, latched her bra, and then put on a light dress that was sexy and comfortable. All of her new clothes had been sent over from various designers, as per usual, but she had to admit that she loved them all.

It was as if someone had climbed inside her head and figured out exactly what she’d have chosen for herself if she’d had unlimited money and knowledge of the newest styles.

Coming out of the bathroom, she pulled her damp hair back with a hair tie and exited the bedroom to find Jake pulling the silver covers off the carts. He revealed two large salads, bowls of creamy soup, and steak sandwiches with sides of potato salad.

“Are we ever going to leave the room?” she joked.

Jake glanced up at her, his eyes serious. “I want to keep you here all to myself,” he said. “I don’t want to share you with anybody else.”

Raven shook her head, laughing. She wasn’t sure if Jake was losing his mind or finding it, but either way, she was enjoying his change of heart.

They sat down together and started eating. Everything tasted wonderful, and both of them remarked on the quality of the food.

Jake was relaxed, enjoying himself. “I can’t remember the last time I really had nothing to do,” he said, taking a bite from his sandwich and then wiping his hands together to dust off the crumbs.

Raven took a sip from her can of Diet Coke. Jake had ordered it, already starting to know her likes and dislikes. “Are you nervous at all about Club Alpha?” she said, hoping she wasn’t putting a damper on the fun atmosphere.

Jake wasn’t phased by her question. He swallowed his bite of steak and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “They got my message,” he replied, picking up the sandwich again. “I think they’re going to leave us alone now.”

“How do you know? Did something happen that you haven’t told me?”

Jake sighed. “My guys took care of things,” he told her. “You don’t want to know the gory details, remember?”

“But if Club Alpha responded to you, I want to know what they said.”

“They didn’t exactly respond to me directly.” Jake took another bite from his sandwich and chewed it.

Raven rolled her eyes. “I still don’t get it.”

He took a deep breath and let it out. “Let’s just put it this way. That little slap around I gave to Scott in the bathroom of that Sushi place—that was nothing compared to what my guys did to the two chumps that kidnapped you. Eventually, those idiots were returned to sender, and when they were, it delivered a very clear message to the guys that want to hurt us.”

“But how do you know that Club Alpha won’t just retaliate?”

“My men had some interaction with Club Alpha. You don’t want to know exactly what kind of interaction—but suffice it to say, some people at the top of that organization have very much regretted and reconsidered their actions in regards to you and your family.”

Raven wasn’t sure, it all sounded vague and confusing to her ears. “So they won’t try and hurt us anymore?”

“Nothing’s a guarantee in life,” Jake said. “But usually, when you throw your best punch and the guy takes it, and then hits you back twice as hard…usually, anyone with half a brain walks away and doesn’t push their luck.”