Raven saw that they had been driving
quite a distance, and she’d been so engrossed in the conversation with Zeke
that she hadn’t noticed where they were even going.
But now she realized that they’d arrived
at Jake’s concert.
In fact, the
concert was due to start soon.
The
parking lots were already filling up with cars and there were people
everywhere, walking around, eating, drinking, playing Jake Novak songs,
even
carrying signs.
There was even a fairly large group of a
couple dozen protestors, picketing the concert.
Their signs said JAKE THE SNAKE and WE
DON’T PAY FOR BULLIES TO PLAY and things of that nature.
More than a few cops were patrolling and
walking around, keeping an eye on things in case they got out of hand.
“What are we doing here?” she asked.
Zeke finally put his nail clippers away
and brushed the trimmings from his pants.
His motions were short, brusque, and economical.
“We’re here to start you back on the right
track, Raven.
I like to give my
employees a helping hand whenever possible.”
Max gave a signal to the driver and the
car stopped in its tracks.
Zeke pointed toward the front of the
car.
“If you were to walk a few
hundred yards past this car, straight towards the arena, you’d eventually run
into a member of Jake’s security team.
Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“Yes,” she said, although she wasn’t
certain of why he was giving her this information.
“Good,” Zeke said approvingly.
“In a moment, you’re going to get out of
the car and walk directly over to a member of his security team and say you
were just mugged, and you need to see Jake immediately.”
Raven turned her head and looked at
him.
“Mugged?”
“Yes.
And you have been.”
Zeke gave an ever so slight nod of his
head to Max, and then suddenly Max had grabbed her purse and ripped it off her
shoulder.
Raven shrieked, as the contents spilled
across the bottom of the car.
A second later, he flung the back door
open, got out, grabbed Raven by the arm and flung her out of the car, where she
landed on the pavement hard, smashing her elbow and knee and rolling onto her
back.
A moment later, her empty purse landed
beside her, the strap snapped, completely useless.
“Remember, it was a mugger.
He was wearing a hoodie and you didn’t
get a look at his face,” Max growled, as he got back in the car.
A second later, it sped away, leaving
her there.
A few of the people nearby that had seen
what happened came over and helped her up.
“Are you all right?” they asked.
“I’m fine.
I just fell.”
“That guy pushed you—“
“No,” she insisted.
“I fell.
Please leave me alone.”
“Hey, aren’t you Raven Hartley?” someone
said, and she started to run.
Eventually, she ran straight into one of
Jake’s security team, just as Zeke had promised she would.
The man looked surprised to see her
there.
“I need to see Jake right away,” she told
him, looking back over her shoulder.
“Mr. Novak has a show—“
“Just tell him I’m here, okay?” she
cried.
Tears were streaming down
her face now.
The security guard turned away from her
and spoke into a headset microphone he was wearing.
She couldn’t hear what he said, but a
few seconds later and he was escorting her quickly through a back entrance away
from the crowds.
Everywhere she went
,
people seemed to be staring at her.
The guard maneuvered her through the maze until she finally reached
Jake’s dressing room.
There were two other members of the team
stationed in front of the door.
“We’re right in front,” the security
guard said into his mic, and then knocked.
When the door opened and Jake was
standing there, Raven didn’t know what to do.
She was terrified that he was going to
yell at her, ask her what the hell she was doing,
even
threaten to call the cops.
Instead, he only looked concerned.
“Are you all right?
What happened?”
She broke down into tears, unable to
answer.
All she knew was that Jake
didn’t hate her, he actually did care, and the relief was so strong that she
couldn’t even talk.
“It’s okay,” Jake told the security team.
“I’ll take it from here.
Come on, Raven,” he said softly, taking
her by the arm and leading her back into his room.
He shut the door and led her to the
couch.
“Sit down.
Sit down.
Let me get you some water.”
He grabbed a cold bottle of water and handed
it to her.
“Th-th-thanks,” she said, still
crying.
She opened the bottle and
drank a sip.
Jake was watching her very closely.
He was wearing a black leather jacket,
black jeans and black boots.
His
brown eyes were concerned, but he was managing his emotions.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I got mugged,” she said, hating the lie,
but knowing she didn’t dare tell him the truth right now.
Not after what those men had said and
done to her.
Jake’s eyes flashed.
“Who did it?
Someone from Club
Alpha?
Your
ex?
Who?”
She shook her head.
“I’m not sure.
He came from behind and he was wearing a
hoodie.
I got knocked down and then
he ripped my purse off my shoulder.”
Jake peered down at her pants.
“You’re bleeding around your knee,” he
said.
“Damn it.”
He knelt down and gently pulled her
pants up over her calf and past the knee.
“It’s scraped really badly.”
“I’m sorry I bothered you.
I just—I wasn’t sure what else to
do.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said.
“I’m glad you came, Raven.
And when I find the guy who did this to
you, I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“No, you don’t need to do anything,” she
whimpered.
Raven’s emotions were a complete and
utter mess.
She wanted desperately
to unburden herself, to tell Jake exactly what had occurred.
After all, she hadn’t done anything
wrong.
The problem was that she was scared of
what Jake might do if she told him the truth.
The last time she’d confessed about Club
Alpha’s threats, Jake had jumped the CEO in the bathroom of a fancy restaurant
and nearly strangled him.
Obviously, that little stunt hadn’t
deterred the thugs at Club Alpha one bit.
No, they’d come back with a vengeance, and Raven had the sense that they
were no longer playing games.
This was life and death.
This was incredibly dangerous, for Raven
and Jake both.
If what Zeke had told her was true, than
Club Alpha was much more than just some swanky underground escort service.
Club Alpha was using its call girls to
gather information from the most powerful and influential people in the world.
Club Alpha had access to investment
bankers, heads of state, movie stars and rich business owners.
She had no doubt that they might very
well place their “exclusive” girls with men who worked in the FBI, NSA, CIA and
more.
Their operation wasn’t restricted to
America, either.
No doubt they had
girls working in China, Russia, Japan, Latin America.
Where did it end?
Who did they give the information to?
She had no idea, but she did know that
Zeke was a cold-blooded psychopath and he’d been brought in to make sure that Raven
got the information they wanted out of Jake.
Jake had gotten involved in something
very serious in Afghanistan.
Either
that, or the Club Alpha thugs were just lying to frighten her.
But she didn’t believe that was the
case.
She thought they were telling
the truth.
“Raven,” Jake said, studying her face,
“you don’t look so good.”
“I’m okay,” she lied.
Her heart was suddenly racing.
“I’m really all right.
I—I should go.”
“What?” Jake said.
She got off the couch and was about to
head for the door, but then the world swam in front of her eyes and there was a
loud ringing in her ears.
And then she fell into the depths of
blackness.
***
Everything was blurry at first, and then
the blobs of shapes coalesced into what looked like human faces staring at her.
Their black mouths opened and closed but
all she heard was buzzing at first.
It was nice in a way.
There was a peaceful sensation involved
in not knowing who or what anything was.
But then the human faces got even
clearer, and Raven realized she was lying on the ground, on her back.
Jake, his manager Kurt, and another man
were staring at her.
“Raven?” the man said.
“Raven?”
He snapped his fingers first over the
top left corner of her field of vision, and then to the bottom right corner.
“She’s following, she’s tracking,” Jake
said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Kurt stood up, shaking his head.
“This is just drama queen bullshit,
Jake, and it’s the last thing we need right now.”
Jake was kneeling over her, but he
glanced up at Kurt.
“Say one more
word like that and see what happens.”
His jaw muscle twitched.
“Take it easy,” Kurt said.
“I didn’t freaking mug her.”
“Are you sure about that?” Jake said, his
voice edgy.
“Hey, fuck you,” Kurt replied.
“Raven, I’m Doctor Phelps,” the stranger
said.
“I’m one of the medical staff
here at the show.
Can you hear me?”
Raven nodded.
“I’m feeling better.
I must’ve passed out.”
The doctor helped her sit up and then he
took her vitals.
He checked her
eyes, her head for any signs of trauma, and then asked her some basic questions
relating to memory.
When he was
done, he turned to Jake.
“She
checks out okay.
We could always
bring her to the ER and get some scans done just to rule out anything we might
have missed.”
Jake looked at Raven with deep
concern.
“I think we should take
you just to be sure.”
“I didn’t hit my head,” she told
him.
“Unless I hit my head when I
fainted.”
“No, I caught you,” he said.
“You’re light as a feather.”
His mouth twitched into something that
almost resembled a smile.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“I should go home now and let you all
get back to work.”
“We can have a few members of the team
bring her home,” Kurt said.
“We’ll
put someone out in front of her building if you want.
Just to be sure.”
“No,” Jake told him.
“I’m not letting her out of my sight
again.”
The doctor looked uncomfortable.
“I’m going to step out and let you folks
talk amongst yourselves.”
He left the room as Jake helped Raven
over to the couch.
She was fine,
steady on her feet.
But Jake was
treating her as though she was made of porcelain.
Kurt, meanwhile, was watching her with
barely repressed disdain marking his features.
“Brother, we have a show to put on.
There’s a sold out crowd waiting for you
to come out there and knock their socks off.
We need this to go well tonight.”