by Kelly Favor
Raven didn’t know what was coming next, but she didn’t care. Right here and now was enough for forever.
Morning came too soon, and when it came, things changed again.
Jake sat up in bed, and his phone was ringing and ringing.
Raven opened her bleary eyes, caught sight of Jake’s back as he sat on the edge of the bed with the phone against his ear.
“Yeah…” he sighed deeply, coughed a few times. “I know, Kurt. Kurt, I know. I’m going to deal with this. Yes, I’m coming back in a few hours.”
There was a long, long pause.
Jake turned his head and glanced at Raven, and for some reason she was scared to show him she was awake, so she closed her eyes and pretended to still be asleep.
“If we lose sponsors, we lose them,” Jake said. “If I go bankrupt, I go bankrupt, Kurt. What do you want me to say?”
Another long pause.
“I’ll do all the interviews you want when I get back. Book the biggest one. I don’t care who. Fucking Diane Sawyer. Does she want to do it?”
More silence.
“Kurt, Kurt. Calm down, buddy,” Jake said. “Just calm the hell down. I just woke up and I’ve got to get out of here and to the helicopter. I’ll be back in a couple hours and then you can let me have it with both barrels. Just chill out until I get there.”
Raven’s stomach tightened and her chest seemed like it was full of lead.
After he got off the phone, Jake sat on the edge of the bed and his head was hanging. “Christ,” she heard him whisper. “Christ,” he said again, and his shoulders were hunched.
“Jake,” she whispered, sitting up. “Is everything okay?”
He sat up straighter, then, turning to look at her. “Huh?”
“Is everything all right?”
“Not really,” he told her, and then he stood up. “Look, I’ve got to jump in the shower really quickly. I’m going to head back to Boston.”
“Okay,” she said, feeling suddenly nervous.
His voice was changed, cold and hard.
“You should stay here with Skylar,” he said. “I’ll book you both for an extra couple of days until she gets results. You can charge everything you need to the room and I’ll cover it.”
“Jake,” Raven said, wanting to talk about what was happening with the scandal. She’d heard and read enough to know it was bad and probably only getting worse.
“Listen, I really have to get moving,” Jake said. “Stay in bed, get some sleep.”
And then he was moving to the bathroom and the door was shutting.
Get some sleep? She thought. That was about as ridiculous a thought as telling her to eat a big meal right about then. She had no appetite and she wasn’t tired.
She was scared.
While Jake was in the shower, she put on her bathrobe and went to her own hotel room. And then she also got in the shower, making sure to be fast, just a quick wash and rinse, towel dry, and then climbed back into her clothes that she’d worn the previous day.
It wasn’t ideal, but once again she had no change of clothes.
She was worried about Jake and what was happening with this scandal. The talk of bankruptcy and losing sponsors—it was frightening to hear. He seemed on the brink of something and she wanted to be there for him the way he’d been for her.
She’d gotten back into her dress and then just as she was putting on her heels, there was a knock on her door.
She went and opened it, and smiled when she saw Jake there, freshly showered himself, but his eyes were so tired and red still.
“Hey,” she said. “What’s up?”
Jake stood awkwardly in the hallway. “Listen,” he said, not able to meet her gaze, his eyes looking everywhere but directly at her. “I was thinking about it in the shower and I want to let you out of your contract.”
“Huh?” she said, stunned. “Wait. What do you mean, Jake?”
“It’s not right, Raven. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t have that kind of situation in my life and it’s not fair to you either. I never should’ve manipulated you into doing any of that stuff. I’m so sorry.”
“Wait a minute,” she said. “Just—just wait a second—“
“I’m going to make it up to you, though,” Jake said, still not looking at her. “I’ll pay you the full thirty grand, and like I said, I’ll book these rooms for you and Skylar.”
Raven should have felt relief and happiness, but she didn’t. Instead, she felt terrible.
“I don’t understand why,” was all she said.
“I told you, I realized it’s not right,” Jake replied. “I’ve got to get serious about changing my life, and this isn’t about bad publicity or the stuff that came out last night from my past. This is about me doing the right thing. I’ll make sure Max Mendez and Club Alpha leave you alone. Nobody will bother you ever again, Raven.”
“Jake, wait a second.”
He stopped and looked at her for a moment. “Raven, I have to go. I’m…I’m…” he seemed about to say more, but then he ran a hand through his hair, turned and walked away from her.
She stood there with the door open, stunned and wanting to cry.
Why are you upset, you silly girl? He just gave you thirty thousand dollars and your freedom!
But it didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like a huge loss.
They’d just been starting to break through, Jake was letting down his walls and then he’d gone and dug a moat between them.
Now he was leaving and she’d never see him again. Raven wasn’t sure if she should be angry, hurt, or what. She stood there, her thoughts on fire, trying to make sense of everything.
I know I could have helped him, she thought.
Maybe that’s what was so sad, she realized. Jake was like her polar opposite, and together they somehow fit, they somehow had each other’s missing pieces.
Just like that, a light went off inside her mind—a flash of inspiration. She knew then that there was something she had to tell Jake.
And then she was running down the hallway, and she caught up to Jake as he stood at the elevators. When he saw her, his expression grew cold again.
“Raven,” he said, “I can’t talk right now.”
“I don’t want you to talk,” she said. “I want you to listen to me.”
He stared at her uncomprehendingly. “Fine, say what you want to say.”
“It’s good that you’re firing me, because I don’t want to work for you,” she told him.
“Okay, great,” he said, his voice impatient.
“And you can’t have me as your employee because I’m going to be your girlfriend.”
“What?”
“You’re in trouble, Jake,” she said. “Don’t bother telling me everything’s okay because it’s not. You’re in danger of losing everything you’ve built because of that video, but I might be the one person who can help to repair the damage.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed. “How do you plan to do that?”
She smiled. “It just so happens that I’m one of those people you made fun of in your video. When I was in high school I was bullied so bad that I attempted suicide.”
His face went pale. “Raven, are you serious?”
“It’s true. That’s what happened to me.”
“Raven, I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but if you’re saying I should use what happened to you in order to someway benefit—I can’t do that.”
“You’re not using me. I’m the one offering to help you. If we act like we’re together, it will be almost impossible for this scandal to ruin you. I’m someone who’s been through all of it. I’m the exact person you need on your side to show that you’ve changed since that video they’re showing of you.”
He shook his head. “I can’t be your boyfriend, Raven. I can’t do it.”
“I know. I’m not saying it will be completely real. But it will be real enough for everyone else.”
“Why?” he asked. “W
hy would you do this for me after everything I’ve done to you?”
And then Raven didn’t know what to say. The elevator doors opened and he was still standing there, waiting for her response.
She didn’t know what to say because she wasn’t sure why she was doing any of it.
All she knew was that maybe sometimes you had to take a risk in life and bet everything on a long shot.
“Trust me,” she said, finally.
Jake’s eyes widened, and Raven realized she’d just asked Jake Novak to do the one thing in life that scared him more than anything.
TRUST.
End Of Book Two
The Debt 3
Raven had just asked celebrity superstar Jake Novak to trust her, and judging from the look on his face, Jake wasn’t going for it.
Not one bit.
She couldn’t really blame him for being skeptical of the idea that they could repair his image problem by pretending to be in a relationship together. It was a long shot at best.
“Trust you?” he said, as if she’d just asked him to jump on a live grenade.
For some reason, she kept persisting. “Yes, trust me. Give me a chance, Jake, and if you don’t like the way it’s going you can always end things.”
He shook his head, but she could tell he was giving it serious thought. “The story won’t hold up,” he said, after a long pause. “It’ll look like a PR stunt—which is exactly what it would be.”
Raven smiled at him. “How can you be so sure it won’t work?”
“We’ve only known each other a few days,” he said. “If this crazy idea was going to have any chance, we’d need to have been dating a lot longer than that.”
“How would anyone know how long you and I’ve known each other?” she said.
The elevator doors had closed and now the two of them were simply facing each other in the hotel hallway, Jake still looking skeptically at her. “You don’t get it, Raven. This isn’t like going into school and telling your teacher that the dog ate your homework.”
“I know that.”
His brown eyes grew darker as he continued. “These reporters are going to look under every rock—they’re going to dig into every corner of your life.” He stepped closer to her. “Are you really ready to have your world turned upside?”
She was taken aback by his scrutiny. “I—I don’t know,” she said.
“Exactly,” he said, his expression triumphant. “You just broke down when I applied the tiniest bit of pressure. All your confidence went away and you were left wondering if you could do it. Well that’s not going to fly when Barbara fucking Walters starts interrogating you on national television.”
“Isn’t Barbara Walters retired?”
Jake sighed impatiently. “I don’t know. Maybe. And that’s not the point.”
“What is the point?”
“You can’t hack it,” Jake told her. “And even if you could, the media will pour through every story we tell, examine every tiny detail, and they’ll figure out we’re lying. Once they do that, I’ll be worse off then where I am now. And so will you.”
Raven shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I think we can pull it off.”
“That’s because you’re naïve,” he said.
“No, I’m really not. How dare you tell me who and what I am? You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through in my life.” She had half a mind to slap him for how dismissive he was being. “You know, this is exactly why you have an image problem,” she said, pointing directly at him, finally poking him hard in his chest. It actually hurt her finger because his muscles were like iron.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you’re being a jerk right now, just like you were in that stupid video. Maybe the reason this is happening to you, is because you haven’t changed since then. Maybe I’m not the one who can’t hack it, Jake. Did you ever consider that?” She turned on her heel and started walking back to her room.
Jake was impossible, she decided. He was so full of himself, so caught up in his own media hype that he’d actually started to believe all of the bullshit.
Good riddance, she thought, fury boiling in her stomach once again. The look of arrogance on his face! Calling her naïve, telling her she couldn’t hack it.
“Raven,” he called from behind her. “Hold on a second,” he said.
“Screw this,” she yelled, not looking back at him.
She started to actually run, got to her hotel room and quickly opened the door. She wanted to slam it in his face, hard.
But then he was at the door before she could close it. He braced his arm against the door and kept her from shutting it on him. “I’m an asshole,” he said. “I know that.”
“Yeah, so does the entire world, Jake. Now get away from me.” She tried to shut the door but he held it open as easily as if she’d been a two year old trying to close it on him.
“I’m trying to talk to you,” he said calmly. He was almost—almost smiling.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said, breathing heavily.
“Like what?” And now he was starting to actually grin.
“This isn’t funny,” she said. “What is wrong with you? How can you smile and laugh at a time like this? Your whole life is falling apart, Jake.”
“I know,” he said, still smiling crookedly at her. “But you’re just…”
“What?”
“You’re so damn cute when you’re mad, Raven.”
She turned and walked away from the door, having given up on shutting Jake out. “You’re exhausting,” Raven said, wiping the strands of stray hair from her face. She stared out the window. “You’re so hot and cold.”
She heard his footsteps closing in behind her. “That’s why I told you I’m not boyfriend material.”
Raven saw his reflection in the glass—saw he was right behind her now. It made her flash back to the previous night when he’d come behind her, stripped off her robe and touched her so perfectly.
She tried to wipe that memory away because it only confused her. “I know that you’re not boyfriend material,” she said, still pretending to look out the window when in reality she was watching Jake’s reflection in the glass. “It’s not about us being together,” she said, knowing that was partly a lie.
Maybe it was even mostly a lie.
“If we were to do this,” Jake said softly, “it would have to be perfect. There’s no room for mistakes, no room for doubts. Everything we do will be examined under a microscope, combed over—people take pictures and video of every move I make.”
Raven’s breath caught in her chest. He was actually talking as if they were going to go through with her suggestion, as if he might actually come out and tell the entire world he was her boyfriend.
“I know they’d be watching us,” she said, shivering a little at the thought of it.
Or maybe she was shivering because his breath was hitting the skin on the back of her neck. “You think you know,” he said, “but you have no idea what bastards they can be.”
“I have an idea,” she replied, remembering her own brush with the lies and rumors that had spread about her when she was seventeen. “Maybe I’ve never lived it the way you have, but I can imagine.”
“No, you really can’t,” he said. “Look at me, Raven.”
She turned and faced him, and his liquid brown eyes were staring into hers.
“If you don’t want to do it, just say no,” she told him. “I’m not going to beg you.”
“Are you sure?” he smiled, his lips twisting into a slight grin.
“Jake, this is serious. Stop confusing things.”
“I do want to do it,” Jake told her, “and that’s what bothers me.”
“Why does that bother you?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense. It’s too risky. I don’t know you well enough to trust you with my life, my career. You could ruin me.” His eyes searched hers, as if looking for the truth there.
She met his gaze and tried not to be afraid. “You could ruin me, too. And my life is just as important to me as yours is to you.”
That seemed to surprise him. He raised his eyebrows in response and gave a low whistle. “That was a damn genius comment, Raven,” he said, scratching his chin. He walked away from her and sat on the edge of a couch, watching her from further away.
“So what now?” she asked him.
“I’m seriously thinking about putting you to the test,” he said, laughing a little. “It might be crazy, but then again, it might just work. I’ve been travelling to Boston a lot, spending time at the veteran’s center. I could say I met you on one of my trips six or seven months ago.”
She swallowed. “I keep to myself. Nobody would know if I had a secret boyfriend. I mean, people wouldn’t expect it, but I don’t think they could disprove it either. How would anybody know?” She thought about it some more. “Of course, Max Mendez knows.”
“Don’t worry about him. Max is discreet.” Jake ran his thumb across his bottom lip. “And then there’s Skylar,” Jake said. “She knows we haven’t been an item, she was with you the night of the party, right?”
“Yeah,” Raven said, suddenly feeling guilty. She hadn’t been thinking about Skylar at all, only about Jake and the notion of being his fake girlfriend. “Sky’s fine, she won’t say anything if I ask her not to.”
That hadn’t always been true, Raven thought, but now Skylar had more important things on her mind than spreading gossip. She wasn’t going to be running around at the restaurant blabbering about Jake Novak. She was probably going to be in the hospital and dealing with her health for the foreseeable future.
Jake took a deep breath and let it out. “We’re going to have to act like we’re in a serious relationship,” he said, finally. He looked over at her. “Are you ready for that?”
She laughed. “I think you need to ask yourself that question, Jake.”
“Listen,” he said, getting up and coming towards her again. “I know what this means. I get it. That’s why I’m telling you. I need to know that you understand, Raven.”
“I understand,” she said, her stomach on fire from his challenge. “I’m not stupid.”
