by Hannah Ford
And then she’d be wet all over again, wishing that he’d do it the same way that night. Even as another part of her said that what Jake was doing to her was wrong, and she was wrong for letting him have his way.
No wonder he won’t kiss you. This is no way for a good woman to behave.
Raven ignored that critical voice. She was used to the self-judgment, and often chose not to listen to it.
There was a time when she’d listened, and it had nearly cost her everything.
The phone was ringing.
It was her hotel room phone. She hesitated, then finally crossed over and answered, expecting to hear someone from the front desk, or maybe Jake calling to check in with her.
But it wasn’t any of them.
“Hello, Miss Hartley,” the familiar voice said, and Raven suddenly realized that Max Mendez was calling her hotel room.
“How did you get my room number?” she said, her voice shaking a little.
“Never mind about that,” Max said, his tone light, friendly even. “Just you know that we’re always keeping tabs, Raven. Always.”
“What do you want?”
“That’s not very nice. I thought we were friends.”
“No you didn’t,” she said, and waited for the real reason he was calling.
“You need to come to our office immediately,” Max said.
“I can’t just go to your office, I don’t even know where it is. And I’m in New York with Jake.”
“We’re in New York, too. Our office is a fifteen-minute cab ride from your hotel. I suggest you leave now.”
Raven’s chest tightened at the tone of his voice. Max sounded different, like he was being friendlier because he was actually angry this time. “Why do you want me to come to the office? What’s this about?” she asked.
“Don’t worry what it’s about,” Max said. “You’ll find out.”
“I’m not coming unless you tell me.”
“I’m only going to say this one more time,” he said, his voice getting softer and yet more menacing somehow. “You need to come to the office. Immediately. We know where you’re staying, Raven, so if you don’t come now—we’ll find a more unpleasant way to meet with you.”
Suddenly, she knew. She knew without the shadow of a doubt that Max was telling the truth. She was in some kind of trouble with Max and whoever else he worked with, and there was no way to avoid dealing with it.
“Okay,” she said, finally. “Tell me where to go.”
* * *
Raven left immediately, as requested, without telling anyone where she was going. She managed to escape the hotel without being noticed by anyone, perhaps because without Jake beside her, nobody knew who she was yet.
It also helped that she blended in with a group of tourists who happened to be leaving at the same time.
And then she’d managed to find a cab to take her to the prescribed location, a swanky part of town that was even swankier than the one she’d been staying in, if such a thing was even possible.
The cab dropped her off and she walked into the most intimidating building that she’d ever been in—that she could ever have imagined being inside.
It was one of the many buildings located on the uber-fancy Central Park West, and she was immediately greeted inside the lobby by an unsmiling security guard. She expected him to ask her name or who she was there to visit.
Instead, he said, “Raven Hartley?” as if he’d been expecting her at that very moment, like she was being followed.
“Yes,” she answered, uncertain of what to do or say at every turn. She was sweating lightly.
“Please follow me.” He led her toward the elevators. The inside of the building was enormous, all dark marble, fancy mirrors and art adorned the walls. There was another guard standing beside the elevators, watching her with suspicion.
“Hi,” she said, smiling at the guard, whose frown merely deepened. He didn’t respond.
They got into the elevator and rode up to the fifth floor. When they got off, Raven was greeted by her old friend Max Mendez. He looked a little haggard somehow, pale. He was wearing the same blue suit she’d seen him in before.
“I’ll take her from here,” he told the guard, who nodded and stayed inside the elevator as she got out.
“Wow,” she said, stepping out into the enormous hallway.
There were huge stone pillars every few yards, and by the walls, some beautiful chairs and couches. There was even an enormous fireplace with a fire burning brightly inside.
“Nice, ‘aint it?” Max asked her.
“Stunning,” she said. “This is Club Alpha headquarters or something?”
“Or something,” he said, breathing heavily out through his nostrils as he walked, leading her down the hallway. He opened the doors at the far end, and led her into a smaller room that seemed like a library or study of some sort. There were ornate bookcases all along the walls, more fancy paintings, another huge fireplace, and various armchairs, desks and tables meant for study.
There was nobody in the room, however, and Raven’s heart started to race. She swallowed, feeling like she wanted to run. “Could I use the bathroom?” she asked.
“I can’t let you do that right now,” Max said, his eyes turning on her like a predator’s, cold and without pity.
“I can’t even go to the bathroom?”
“No,” he said, gesturing to a chair nearby. “Why don’t you have a seat?” he said.
“Okay,” she replied, not knowing how else to respond to his refusal. So she sat down and crossed her legs. She felt a little dizzy, faint, and tried to ignore the intense pressure in her bladder.
“You know, I wish it didn’t have to be like this,” Max said, pacing a little in front of her.
“Like what?”
He turned and glared at her. “You got the cushy gig, you know? Any girl who works for us would have given a fucking arm and leg to be with Jake Novak on tour. But what do you do, you go and fuck up a choice situation. I knew you’d be trouble from the minute I laid eyes on you.”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, trying to meet his relentless gaze.
He sneered at her. “No, of course not. Little innocent Raven Hartley never does nothing wrong. Not you.”
“I don’t appreciate how you’re speaking to me right now.”
“So what?” he laughed, contempt written all over his face. “What the fuck do I care if you appreciate it? Do you know what kind of trouble I’m in because of you? Huh?”
She swallowed again. “I…I really need to go to the bathroom.”
He bent down and pointed a thick finger in her face. “You’ll fucking sit there until you’re told you can go. I don’t much care if you piss all over the seat. You sit and wait for the boss.”
The boss?
Just the way he said it made her afraid. Who was the boss? Could he be any worse than Max Mendez? She didn’t want to even think about that possibility.
“I’m sorry I got you in trouble, Max,” she said, finally, as Max stood near her chair, hands clasped in front of him, waiting.
“Yeah, yeah.” He sighed. “That’s the game, baby.”
“I’m doing the best I can.”
He glanced at her briefly, then went back to staring straight ahead. “Well I hope for both our sakes that you start doing a heck of a lot better. Because if not, we’re both going to be in a world of trouble real soon.”
Raven’s stomach knotted, tightened, and her bladder ached. She re-crossed her legs and waited, trying to keep herself calm.
There was a buzzing from her purse and she took out her cell phone. A message had come through from Jake.
Where are u? Just knocked on your door.
She sighed. What to tell him? Certainly not the truth. And then it hit her, an easy lie.
I’m with Sky. I’ll let u know when i’m free.
She typed it quickly and put the phone away.
Max glared at her from the corner of his eye.
“You better leave that phone in your purse when the boss comes in, or I’ll take the whole thing and throw it in the fucking fireplace.”
She ignored him but her body was shaking from fear and anxiety.
A minute later, the doors opened again, and then a slender man walked into the room with a friendly smile on his face. He was maybe early forties, handsome in a regular guy sort of way, dressed in a vest and tie, dark slacks, gleaming shoes. He was very put together in an understated sense.
“You must be the famous—or should I say infamous—Raven Hartley,” he exclaimed, still smiling, offering his hand to her.
She shook it, noticing his grip was soft and his hand was clammy. She took her hand away as soon as possible. “Hi,” she said. “And you are?”
He grinned. “I’m just so glad to meet you, finally,” he said, dodging her question. He shot a cold glance to Max. “Thanks,” he said, his tone changing, becoming harsh.
Max’s head seemed to go down, like a whipped dog. He started walking toward the doors, leaving without so much as a backward glance. He shut the doors behind him on his way out, leaving Raven alone with the boss.
“Call me Scott,” the boss said, smiling once more, pulling over another chair and sitting down just a couple of feet away from her. He crossed his legs and straightened his tie. “I hope you understand that we brought you here today for an important reason. Not just to scare you,” Scott said.
“I guess I don’t understand,” Raven said softly. “I’m confused.”
Scott leaned forward, smoothing his tie again. “You see, what you’re doing right now with Jake Novak—it’s very bad for business. We can’t have it.”
“Can’t have what?”
Scott’s smile faded. “Can’t have you in the news, acting like his girlfriend. This isn’t in the contract, it’s not part of the program. You’re putting us in a very awkward situation.”
“But Jake is the one who asked me to do it, and I was told to always keep the client happy,” she replied.
Scott didn’t seem to like her using their words against them. “Keep the client happy, yes, but that only goes to a point. Discretion is the ultimate goal here, Raven. Would you like a drink?”
“No thank you,” she said, but Scott was already out of his seat and walking over to a table nearby, grabbing a pitcher of clear water and pouring it into two glasses.
“The thing is,” Scott said, as he poured the water, “once the media starts digging into your background, they’re going to find out a lot of things. Things that are bad for you, bad for us, and bad for Jake. We can’t have it.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Raven told him. “You want me to tell Jake I can’t be his pretend girlfriend anymore?”
Scott crossed back and put her glass down on the table beside her, while he took a sip from his. “I want you to do better than that. I want you to leave today—leave now—and never speak to Jake Novak again.”
Raven thought about it. And then she remembered Skylar and the help Jake was providing to her. If Raven simply took off without so much as an explanation, Jake might stop helping Skylar. “Couldn’t I at least tell Jake why I have to go?”
“No,” Scott said. His eyes were hard steel, harder and meaner than anyone, even Max. She thought that Scott would just as soon snap her neck if she annoyed him enough.
“The thing is,” Raven began, wanting to tell Scott about Skylar and why she couldn’t afford to burn bridges with Jake.
“I don’t really care what the thing is,” Scott interrupted. He smiled again, but it wasn’t real. “You see, I run a multi-billion dollar business, Miss Hartley. Club Alpha is bigger than you can imagine, and we have clients wealthier and far more powerful than Jake Novak. We have people we answer to, and they don’t ever want to hear our company mentioned in the national media. Not ever.”
“I’ve never spoken about you to anyone,” she said.
“But they’ll find out if you keep giving them reasons,” Scott told her, sitting down and daintily sipping his water again. “The media is stupid, but they have this amazing ability to sniff out the truth. They’ll eventually realize how you met Jake, no matter how hard you try and cover it up. Already they know your name, and they’re digging and digging. Soon they’ll find out all about your little mess you got into back in high school.”
Raven’s blood ran cold. Her entire body went numb. “Little mess?”
“Yeah, the one that led you to that nasty hospital stay for six months. The little mess that made you run away from home, never to turn back. You think you can spin what happened to you into some fairytale that makes Jake look like a hero?” He barked a scoffing laugh at her. “The reporters and bloggers and bloodhounds will see it for exactly what it was. They’ll tar and feather you and Jake Novak will get hit right along with you. It will end his career.”
She couldn’t believe that Club Alpha knew about her past. It had been buried, all of it, scrubbed from the internet, and her hospital records were confidential. But then again, none of that would stop a powerful company like Club Alpha. They could buy and sell her and she knew it.
“I was a victim,” Raven said, finally, trying to gather her composure. “Everything they said about me was lies. I was bullied. That’s the point.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Scott replied.
“How am I wrong? I lived it.”
“What you lived doesn’t matter,” he said. “You must be a bigger fool than I took you for.”
“I’m not a fool,” she said, standing up. “And I’m leaving.”
“Sit down before I put your head through that window behind you.” His voice was like ice, and she knew he meant it. She sat down immediately.
“So you’re going to beat up a woman?” she asked him, meeting his gaze. “How courageous of you.”
He stood up and peered down at her, unbutton his vest. “My job isn’t to be courageous. My job is to keep my clients and investors happy and make us all a lot of money. And I’m not going to let one naïve, silly little girl ruin an empire. Just so we understand each other,” he said.
“Understood,” she replied, her breath whistling in her chest.
“You’re to leave this office and outside a car will be waiting to take you back to Boston,” he told her. “Everything’s been arranged. All you have to do is get inside and leave.”
“What about the fact that I have nowhere to live, no money, no job?” she said. “That’s because of you. I have nothing to go home to.”
“Don’t you worry,” he said. “We’ll get you your little job back, find you an apartment, give you a couple dollars to tide you over. We’ll make sure you don’t starve. And all you have to do is stop speaking to Jake Novak, forget you ever heard his name. No interviews, no telling anyone—I mean anyone—about what happened between you and him. Forget you ever heard of Club Alpha and we’ll try our best to undo the damage you’ve done to us.”
“The damage I’ve done to you? You’ve threatened me, had me fired—“
“Shut up,” he told her. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “One more word and so help me, I’ll show you what real damage is.”
“You’re going to hit me?”
“Only if you give me a good reason,” he grinned. “Please, doll, give me a reason.”
Raven felt faint, and she saw spots for a moment, but then she blinked them away. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go. Just don’t hurt me.”
“Gladly,” Scott said. “It’s so good we had this little chat, darling. Really good to meet you. I mean, Max has told me so much about you, but meeting you first hand is precious. Just precious.”
“Great,” she replied, simply trying to end all of this. It was a nightmare and she only wanted to wake up now.
“I’ll go and tell Max you’ve been a sport and agreed,” Scott told her. He started to walk out, but he turned around at the last moment. “One last thing, Miss Hartley.”
Raven forced herself to look at h
im, even though doing so made her sick to her stomach. “Yes?”
“If I find out you’ve talked to Jake—even a Tweet, just a friendly hello—I don’t care what. If I find out you so much as breathe in Jake’s direction, I will send a couple of goons to pick you up. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, it won’t matter. My guys will find you and within twenty-four hours you’ll be halfway across the world, in some slum in Africa or Asia where nobody can find you. And you don’t want to hear the rest,” he told her, as calmly as if he was offering her another glass of water.
“I’m sure I don’t,” she replied, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of showing him how terrified she really was.
“Good, we understand each other, then,” he said, and opened the big wooden doors, leaving as calmly as he’d entered.
Raven was still sitting and waiting. She was scared, really scared, in a way that she hadn’t been in a very long time.
Maybe she hadn’t ever been this afraid.
Max Mendez came into the room moments later, and he was visibly tense. “Come on,” he said, “we need to get you outside to the car. It’s waiting to take you.”
“Back to Boston?” she asked him.
He averted his eyes, glancing away. “Yeah, yeah. Boston. Come on, we need to hustle.” He clapped his hands like an instructor.
Raven got up and walked out, following behind him, as he made his way back to the elevators.
Inside the elevators together, there was a long and uncomfortable silence between them. Max stood with his hands clasped and just stared straight ahead, still not looking at her, as the floors dinged during their descent.
This time they didn’t stop at the lobby, and Raven realized he’d pressed the button for the basement.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her heart hammering inside her chest.
She had a feeling of claustrophobia, as if the elevator was closing in on her.
“Just out the back way,” he said, smiling. “The car’s parked out there.”
“Oh.” She swallowed drily. Her bladder was throbbing and she wanted a bathroom more than anything now.
