by Hannah Ford
“I am calm,” he said.
“You sure?” Jake asked him. “Because you’re scaring my friend.”
“Yeah, I’m fine, bro.” The guy suddenly seemed as calm and placid as a sleepy dog on a rainy day.
“Okay, good. We’re leaving now.” He put his arm around Raven and looked at her to check and see if she was all right.
“Can we please go? I have a bad feeling about this,” she whispered.
“Yeah, of course.” He started to walk her back towards his bike and suddenly there was a high-pitched yell and then Jake was spinning around as the crazy man attacked him from behind.
There was a flurry of activity, all of it happening so quickly that Raven could hardly tell what was going on. All she knew was that it was violent and horrifying and sudden.
But before she knew it, Jake had pinned the other man to the ground and had a knee against his spine, controlling the guy’s wrist. “Hey, hey, hey. Easy there, champ,” Jake said, his voice almost soothing.
The man was crying now, screaming incoherently.
Some of the other men were assisting Jake in holding the guy down, and after a minute or two he did stop fighting and then they helped him away.
A few guys started explaining that the kid had been released too soon from a mental health program and was off his meds.
Jake talked to them for a little while longer but then said he had to go.
“Thank you,” she said as Jake walked her back to the bike.
“What for?”
“For what you did back there.”
He just smiled and didn’t say anything else about it.
They got on the motorcycle and she wrapped her arms around Jake, the same as she had on the way over. And then they were driving away from the center, away from the gritty streets of Boston, and they were flying once more.
She wished they could have just stayed like this forever, driving with the wind rushing by, as natural as if they’d been together like this for years.
Somehow it seemed as though she belonged here, with him, as crazy as it felt and as absolutely bizarre as anyone might have thought it was.
And then, far too soon, they were cruising back to her apartment and Jake had stopped the motorcycle and she was getting off.
As she handed him back her helmet, Raven felt the beginnings of tears in her eyes. “Why did you bring me to the center?” she asked him. “What did you want to tell me?”
Jake took his helmet off and looked at her. “I was thinking a lot about what you said to me. All that stuff about me taking the easy way out and being a fraud.”
She looked down. “I’m sorry I said that. I was angry.”
“The point is, I wanted to show you that maybe you’re wrong about me.”
“Why does it matter?” she said. “Why do you even care what I think?”
He smiled then, and suddenly he was reaching out and brushing her hair away from her face. “I don’t know why, but I just know that I do.”
“All I wanted you to do was ask Club Alpha to stop harassing me. I can’t afford to lose my job. That’s all I was trying to tell you, Jake.”
His eyes grew more intense. “I know what you were trying to tell me.”
“So will you do it? Will you get Max and whoever else to stop trying to ruin my life?”
Jake didn’t even think about it. “No,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because,” he said, “that would be the easy way out.”
Raven felt her insides growing tight and hot with anger again. “I can’t believe you,” she hissed. “You really think you can just play with me this way? You think that just because you’re Jake Novak, you can hurt me for fun?”
“You better watch what you say to me, Raven,” he replied, his jaw tightening. “You might not want to burn this bridge just yet.”
“Fuck you,” she told him. Even as she said the words she regretted it.
He didn’t flinch. “As you wish,” he responded, and then he’d slid his helmet on and was driving off, his motorcycle buzzing loudly.
“I said, fuck you Jake Novak!” she shrieked, knowing he was too far away and the noise of his engine too loud to possibly hear her.
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself, lady!” someone else shouted from a nearby open window.
She had to laugh at that, a laugh of total defeat. After all of that, Jake had merely toyed with her emotions and left her exactly as he’d found her.
And it was the best revenge he could have taken on her.
* * *
Raven tossed and turned all night, thinking about Jake, remembering the way it had felt when she’d been on the bike with him, gripping him tightly, and the world had been fast and blurry and they were the only two people that mattered.
Even when she did fall asleep, finally, as faint light began seeping in through the small window in her bedroom, Raven dreamed of being on the motorcycle with Jake again.
She was holding him tightly and laughing, knowing it was where she belonged.
But then she was awoken after what felt like mere seconds of being asleep. Someone was pounding on her apartment door. “Raven, open up!” the man yelled.
She sat up in bed, recognizing the raspy, cranky voice. It was her landlord. He also lived on the second floor, but she rarely ever saw him except when he was out mowing the tiny front lawn.
Raven got out of bed and put on a pair of sweatpants. “Just a sec!” she called out.
Her stomach was already in knots and the day had only just started.
She walked to the door and opened it. Her landlord, who she only knew as Mr. Gibbs, was tiny, just over five feet tall, with a yellowish beard and wisps of yellow-gray hair on his balding head. He had very few teeth and his eyes were watery. “Raven, we need to talk,” he said, standing just outside the doorway with a pair of gardening gloves in one arthritic hand.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He blinked and looked at the floor. “I’m sorry, Raven. You’ve been a great tenant, but I have to kick you out.”
“What? Why?” she asked, feeling the breath leave her stomach like she’d just been kicked hard.
He sighed. “I’ve got a buyer interested in this place,” he told her. He couldn’t even look at her as he spoke. “A guy came by yesterday and offered me cash, way above what I paid for the place.”
“Was his name Max Mendez by any chance?”
“How’d you know?”
She had to laugh. This was getting so ridiculous and awful, what else could she do but laugh? Raven assumed that with prices in Watertown, Max must have paid at least four or even five hundred thousand dollars for the entire house. That was a lot of money to spend just to get her kicked out.
And yet Max had done it.
“I just know,” she said. “He’s an acquaintance.”
Mr. Gibbs stared at her uncertainly. “I hate to do this to you but—“
“Let me guess. You need me out of here today, right?”
“I really hate to do it, but the man absolutely insisted I clear out of here right away. Since I live in the house with you and there’s no lease, I have the right to order anyone out of here immediately for any reason.”
“It’s okay, I wasn’t going to try and squat in your basement apartment, Mr. Gibbs.” She wanted to hate him, but somehow he was too pathetic to truly hate.
“I’m so sorry. But I need the money and this is how the guy said I had to do things. I don’t know why.”
“I’m just going to grab a few boxes and rent a motel room tonight. Anything I can’t fit in my car I’m just going to leave,” she told him.
“I’ve got a dumpster being delivered today,” Mr. Gibbs told her. “If you don’t bring it with you by the end of the night tonight, it goes in the trash.”
“That’s fine.” She had no fight left in her. “I better get packing.”
“Really sorry, Raven.”
“Uh huh.” She shut the door
on him and looked around at the tiny basement apartment she’d called home the last two years. There were a lot of things in there that she’d have to let go of. There was nowhere to bring any of it—she couldn’t afford to have it put in storage. The best she could do was load her car up with most of it and leave the rest.
She spent the next three or four hours packing up her stuff and carrying it out to her Ford Fiesta. Mr. Gibbs had been anxious to help speed along the process, supplying her with plenty of boxes and even helping her to bring the stuff to the car, which was impressive given his lack of physical conditioning.
She still didn’t know how old he was—somewhere between fifty-years-old and ninety was her best guess.
Finally, as the afternoon grew late, approaching evening, Raven had packed her car as full as it could possibly be packed.
Mr. Gibbs shook hands with her and took the keys to the house from her. He looked very sad, but didn’t offer anything besides a “take care” as he hobbled back inside and shut the door.
Raven got in her car with a deep sigh. There was a Motel 6 nearby that always seemed to have vacancies and that’s where she was headed.
As she drove the few miles to the motel, she had time to consider the fact that in just a couple of days her life had been turned upside down, and the only thing keeping her off the street was that she had a credit card with such a small balance on it.
Other than that, her cash reserves were dwindling, and she wouldn’t last even a week on what she had in checking.
Going home to Vermont was not an option. She absolutely refused to return to her parents’ house, which she’d left at seventeen, never looking back. That’s assuming they would even have taken her back, which wasn’t at all a sure bet.
Maybe I can crash on Skylar’s couch, she thought. Because she could really only afford a few nights at a motel, otherwise she’d be spending way too much and running up debt way too fast.
Things needed to turn around soon, but how?
These powerful people wanted to destroy her, wanted to force her to play their game. And Raven hated to admit it, but they were winning and it wasn’t even a close contest.
By the time she pulled into the Motel 6 parking lot, she was already exhausted and ready to go back to sleep.
She walked into the lobby and gave a perfunctory smile to the attendant.
He was a youngish guy, his suit looked a little big on him. “Good evening,” he said. “How can I assist you?”
“I’d like to book a room tonight,” she said.
“Great,” he told her.
She explained it would be for just her, one double bed would be fine, non-smoking. He clickety clacked away at the computer keyboard and told her that it would cost sixty-eight dollars.
“That’s fine,” she said, feeling weary, just wanting to get to her room already. She was already imagining a nice hot shower, turn on the TV and fall asleep. Wake up tomorrow with a new attitude.
She handed over her credit card and waited for her room key.
The attendant got a strange look on his face after swiping her card. “I’m sorry,” he said, after a long moment. “This card’s been declined, ma’am.”
Raven couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and yet, she totally knew it was true. “Could you try again?” she asked.
“Do you perhaps have another card we could use?”
“Just try it again,” she said dully.
In the end, he tried two more times. Each time, the card was declined.
Raven left the motel and walked slowly to her car. She called the credit card’s customer service line. The representative was concise with his delivery of the news.
“I’m sorry, this account’s been closed, Ms. Hartley.”
“I didn’t close it,” she said.
“I’m afraid I’m not able to give you any more information at this time.”
“Do I owe money? I don’t understand how you could just close my account for no reason. I made all my payments, I’ve never been late even once.”
“Ms. Hartley, all I can tell you is that the account’s closed and we’re not going to be able to re-open it at this time.”
Eventually, she got off the phone. She was still sitting in the parking lot, having nowhere else to go.
She now had no credit card, about thirty dollars in her purse, and not much more in her checking account. How long would it be before they got to that account as well?
They might even have done it already, but Raven wasn’t sure she cared anymore.
It’s over, she thought.
It really is.
The truth sank in as she sat in the nearly empty parking lot, and she cried, breaking down in tears and sobbing for the first time in a very long time. In a way, the crying felt good, and the release of everything seemed to clear her mind.
The time had come to make a phone call she’d been dreading. But now that she’d made the decision, it didn’t feel quite as difficult as she’d imagined it would be.
The other line rang only twice before Max Mendez answered. “Raven Hartley,” he said, as if genuinely glad to hear from her. “How are you?”
“I think you know the answer,” she said. “Thanks for getting me kicked out of my home, getting me fired from my job, and leaving me broke on the street.”
“Nothing personal, Raven. Just business.”
There were a lot of nasty replies to his comment, but Raven knew better than to say any of them. She bit her tongue. “If you say so,” was all she managed.
“So can I assume from the fact that I’m hearing your voice right now, you’ve finally come around to our way of seeing things?” Max asked.
“I guess you could say that.”
“So you’re ready to honor your contract with us.”
“Yes.” It hurt to say the word, but it was also liberating in a strange way.
“That’s very good. We can start immediately. The client will be very pleased.”
“I’m not going to have sex, though,” she said. “That’s not on the table.”
“What you do with your time is between you and the client, so you’ll have to negotiate that separately. Club Alpha doesn’t concern itself with what you do on your time, as long as the client’s needs are met.”
“And if he wants sex from me?”
“Like I said, what goes on specifically is not our concern. It’s between you and the client.”
“You mean me and Jake Novak.”
“Miss Hartley, I don’t know who or what you’re talking about. But what I will do is contact our client and get back to you with next steps.”
She laughed, enjoying the feeling of having maybe ruffled Max Mendez’s feathers a little bit. “I look forward to hearing from you about Jake Novak,” she said, needling him again.
“That name has absolutely no meaning to me, Miss Hartley. I will be in touch shortly.”
The line went dead.
Raven dropped the phone on her lap and started giggling, and then she was laughing, and she kept laughing for a long time.
* * *
Four Seasons. Penthouse suite. Be there in 1 hour.
That was the text she’d received from Max Mendez, and now Raven was taking the elevator up to the penthouse suite.
She’d managed to get out of her old clothes and into the new ones in the car without anyone seeing her, although it hadn’t been the most comfortable costume change.
Raven was now wearing a short black cocktail dress and black high heels, a thong and lacy black bra underneath.
It was rather strange how quickly she’d adjusted to the role, once she’d made the decision to stop fighting Club Alpha and just give into their demands. Now she was decked out in her slinkiest escort gear, and she had to admit that it felt kind of neat.
Her old life had been steadily becoming more and more stagnant, and oftentimes over the last few years she’d begun to feel much older than her chronological age indicated she should feel.
&nbs
p; But suddenly she felt her age, felt twenty-one, wild and dangerous. The elevator stopped and let her off on the very top floor of the hotel. Moments later she was knocking on the door of one of the most powerful men alive, and she had no idea what was going to happen next.
Would he decide that he didn’t want her after all?
Would he try to talk her into having sex…and what if she didn’t want to say no?
The door swung open and Jake Novak stood before her wearing a black Armani button-down shirt with the top few buttons undone, revealing his muscular chest. The sleeves were partly rolled up, showing off his sinewy forearms.
Raven was once again shocked by the power of his physical presence, as if he had a force field around him that radiated sex and animal magnetism.
“So you decided to show up after all,” he said, looking her over but giving no sign of approval or disapproval at her choice of outfit. He stepped aside and let her enter the enormous suite.
It was by far the most luxurious room she’d ever been in. The main room was enormous, with a view of the city skyline out the window. In front of the huge picture window was a baby grand piano, and near to that, a little glass table and a few chairs that might have served as a breakfast nook. Surrounding all of that were beautiful wood bookcases filled with ornate books, a full bar, and on the wall near the couch and chairs, a gigantic mounted flat screen television.
“Wow, this is amazing,” she said, looking around.
Jake closed the door to the hotel room and gestured for her to sit down. She crossed her legs carefully, a little self-conscious at the way her dress rode up her thighs.
“Drink?” he asked.
“Maybe later,” she said.
“I think you should have one,” he replied, and crossed to the bar where he poured them both vodka tonics. He came back and handed her the drink and then sat down on the black leather chair across from her.
I’m sitting in Jake Novak’s penthouse suite.
I am Jake Novak’s escort.
Her heart started to beat faster and faster, and now she was glad for the drink in her hand, sipping it and noticing the burn in the back of her throat as it went down.
“What happens now?” she asked him. “I’ve never done this before, obviously.”
