The Debt 8 (Club Alpha) (9 page)

She walked in, and actually it was no
joke.
 
She needed Jake’s steady arm
to support her, because this was all too much.
 
Jake was being real with her—she
was actually the manager of the biggest musical act on the planet right now.

“I’m calming down,” she lied, trying to
control her breathing as Jake helped her sit at the kitchen table.

“Let me grab you a cup of water,” Jake
told her, and returned moments later with a cold glass filled with ice and pure
cold liquid.

She guzzled for a long moment, letting it
hit her throat, and then she sighed and put it down on the table.
 
Raven closed her eyes and then opened
them again.
 
“I think I’m doing
better now.”

“Good,” Jake said.
 
He left the room and came back a minute
later with his laptop and placed it in front of her.
 
“Mack’s going to be releasing my single
on iTunes later today,” he said.
 
“Things
are about to get even crazier.
 
You
know that, right?”

“I thought you were trying to help me
calm down, not make me faint,” she said, keeping her voice steady.

It’s
just a car.
 
Okay, an expensive
car.
 
But nothing’s changed.
 
I don’t even need to drive it if I don’t
want to.

“I want you to log into your bank
account,” Jake said softly, but his voice was firm.
 
His eyes were watching her intently.

“Why?” she demanded.

“Because, you need to check your account,
Raven
.”

“Jake, you better not have done anything
crazy. That car is enough.”

“Log in, babe.”
 
He pushed the laptop towards her
insistently.

She did as he told her, and now her hands
were really shaking.
 
She knew that
something big was coming, but as her account popped up, nothing could have
prepared her for how big it was going to be.

Raven sat and stared at the screen,
dumbfounded.
 
“That’s a mistake,”
she said, her voice sounding distant to her own ears.

“That’s your commission on my advance,”
Jake said.
 
“It’s standard.”

“It can’t be.
 
I—I can’t accept this, Jake.”

“You don’t really have a choice,” he
chuckled.
 
“That’s the manager’s
cut.
 
It wouldn’t be right for me to
keep that money.”

“But…but…”

“But nothing.
 
You earned that money fair and
square.
 
You were the one who kicked
that imbecile Hec out of the session and helped me get my head screwed on
straight, convinced me to record my songs the right way.
 
You sat there and acted as my ears in
the studio, talked me through my own bullshit and got me to let loose and
really commit to the work.
 
And
you’re the one who made sure that song found the light of day, and that’s the
only reason Mack Zee ever contacted me in the first place.”

Even though Raven knew everything Jake
said was the truth, she still couldn’t fathom what she was seeing on the laptop
screen.

The most recent deposit into her checking
account was for the tidy sum of four million dollars.
 

FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

It boggled the mind, literally.
 
“I don’t know what to say.”
 
Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized
what this meant for her and her family.
 
Not only would she be able to provide for herself into the distant
future, but she’d be able to help her mother and father and Danny too.

“You don’t need to say anything,” Jake
said, rubbing her back.
 
“I’m the
one who needs to say that I love you, and I owe you my life.
 
You helped me to get out from under all
of that old baggage—all that crap that was hanging around my neck like a
damned albatross.
 
But I put the
bags down and I’m free, thanks to you.”

She realized she was crying, and began
laughing at her own hysterics.
 
“I
don’t even know why I’m crying,” she said.

“Maybe it’s because you’re happy.”

She nodded over and over again, and then
they leaned into one another and Jake’s lips were on hers and she could feel
his love and his respect and everything that she’d ever dreamed of, and it was
as if he was pouring it into her soul, filling her to the brim with nothing but
love and acceptance and joy.

It wasn’t the money at all, she realized.

It was
him
.

Jake was what had happened to
her—she’d found the man of her dreams, and he loved her back, every bit
as much as she loved him.

***

The rest of the day was a celebration.

They took her new car and drove it around
the island.
 
Mostly Jake drove it,
because Raven was too intimidated, but she did take a turn at the wheel for a
few minutes towards dusk.

Driving past the white sandy beaches, feeling
the wind on her face and in her hair, Jake Novak beside her, and she thought
she was going to burst with the emotions that were running through her.

Later, a private chef came to Jake’s
house and made them a four-course meal that consisted of an amazing Waldorf
salad, a creamy mushroom soup, and then absolutely perfect sirloin steaks and
buttery mashed potatoes.
 

For desert, a moist lava cake with a
scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

When the chef took his leave, Jake and
Raven grabbed a bottle of wine, stripped down to nothing, and got into the
pool.
 
Jake had put on the lights
and turned the heat up to a sweltering ninety degrees, making it more like a
hot tub.

The lights shimmered in the pool,
creating a green glow that made everything feel surreal, dreamlike, which was
how most of Raven’s life was feeling lately.

Jake took a long swig from the wine
bottle as Raven hung on the side of the pool and checked her phone.
 

“What are you doing on that damned
thing?” he said, splashing over to where she was and grabbing her bare waist.

Her nipples stiffened instantly, but she
hung on to the railing.
 
“Hey!” she
cried.
 
“I need to check how the
single’s doing.”

“Bullshit.
 
That can wait.
 
Tonight, no business.”
 
He grabbed her again, and this time, as he
pushed his bare torso and hips into her from behind, Raven could feel his
hardness pressing into her buttocks.

“Just give me one second.”
 
She checked the popularity list and saw
that the single had debuted at number three.
 
It was already ahead of Miley Cyrus’s
new track.
 
“Oh my Gosh!” Raven
cried.
 
“We’re at three
already!
 
We only just came out
within the last few hours and we’re at three!”

Jake’s lips caressed her ear and then he
was nibbling at her wet neck.
 
“I
don’t care about fucking iTunes,” he growled, and finally he pulled her off the
side and carried her away, creating ripples in concentric circles around
them.
 
Water lapped the sides as she
turned to face him.

He was completely nude, wet, and wanting
her.

What the hell had she been thinking?
 
Why had iTunes seemed so important
again?
 
She couldn’t for the life of
her remember.

Jake’s cock was pushing itself between
her legs as if it had a mind of its own, and she opened herself to it.

“Oh God,” she moaned, as Jake’s hands
roamed her body, lifting her onto him, splitting her down the middle as he
entered her, fucking her in the middle of the pool, taking her the way she
wanted him to.

When she climaxed just minutes later,
Jake came too, and his mouth was on her breasts, licking her nipples, and she
continued to come and come until her entire body was vibrating.

Eventually, he slipped out and then
continued to hold her as they floated around the pool together, almost like
they were attached.
 
She supposed,
in a way, they were.

Finally, they parted ways, but continued
swimming and relaxing in the amazing water, blissfully lounging, and Raven
found herself staring up out of the porch and into the night sky filled with a
million stars.

Some time later she checked the charts
again and discovered they were at number one and she’d gotten texts from a lot
of people, including Mack Zee.
 

This
team is unstoppable!
Mack had written.

She smiled at that.
 
She liked and appreciated that he was
trying to show her that he took her seriously as Jake’s manager, and didn’t
just consider her some girlfriend who was tagging along and served no real
purpose.

Of course, there was still a chance that
Mack was playing a larger and more devious game on behalf of Club Alpha, but
Raven refused to let that fearful and negative thinking dominate her mind.

It was only when she got a text from
Skylar that the smile faded from her face.

I
am so proud of you!!
 
And I already
downloaded the song—I
cant
stop listening to
it.
 
NUMBER ONE ON ITUNES
????!!!!
I always knew you were the best.
 
Miss you! XOXO Sky

Jake swam over to her.
 
“What’s up?”

“Well, your song’s at number one
already.
 
I know you don’t care…”

“Let me see that,” he said, taking her
cell phone and checking it.
 
“I’ll
be damned,” he drawled.
 
“We are at
number one.
 
That’s insane.”

But when he turned to share the joy with
Raven, he saw the look on her face.

“Jake,” she said softly.

“No,” he replied instantly.

“It’s time for me to go back to Boston.”

He shook his head.
 
“I need you here with me, Raven.
 
I’m scheduled to get back into the
studio to work on the final songs for the album.”

“You’ll be fine.
 
Rory’s coming back and he knows what you
need now.
 
Besides, you can always
send me the rough cuts if I’m away.”

Jake stared at her, his eyes
wounded.
 
“Why do you have to go now?”

“Because Skylar needs me there.”

For the first time, he seemed to
understand that it was really happening.
 
“And you can’t even tell me how long you’re going for?”

“I think a week should do it,” she
said.
 
“I want to tie up loose ends
with my family.
 
They’ve been
homeless for too long and I want to help them sort things out.”

“Raven, I can help them.
 
I’ll go down as soon as this studio work
is done and—“

She shook her head.
 
“It’s not your responsibility,
though.
 
It’s mine.
 
They’re my family.”

Jake put his hand up to her cheek.
 
“I know four million seems like a ton of
cash, babe, but it’ll go fast if you start buying everyone you know a brand new
house.”

She laughed.
 
“And what about my cut from the single
sales, and the album sales when it comes out?
 
I co-produced those songs.
 
We both know that I’m going to have a
lot more than four million in my account soon.”

Jake fell silent.

Raven wrapped her arms around his
shoulders, clasping her hands on the back of his neck.
 
Her body pressed into his and her eyes
stared deeply into his eyes.

“It’s just for a week so I can tie up
loose ends and be there for Sky.
 
I
can’t just run away from everyone and everything in my life forever.”

“I know,” he said, and a ghost of a smile
formed on his lips.
 
“I never thought
I’d say this to anyone in my life after everything I’ve been through.”
 
He swallowed and his eyes filled.
 
“But I love you and I need you, Raven.
 
I can’t lose you now.”

“You’re not losing me.
 
It’s just for a little while, and we’re
strong enough to handle some time apart.”

But as they got out of the pool and then,
later, as she lay awake in bed and heard the sound of Jake’s deep breathing,
Raven wondered if she’d just unintentionally pulled on the thread that would
unravel everything they’d created together.