The Debt 8 (Club Alpha) (13 page)

Zeke nodded to Max, who quickly went and
dug into Jake’s pants pocket, and when he had the cell phone in hand, Zeke
walked over and took it away from him.

“Where are the pictures?” Zeke said.

“They’re in the camera roll.
 
You’ll see them,” Jake assured him.

Zeke turned away from everyone and
started pacing, as if wanting privacy to see what Jake was offering.
 
Raven looked at Jake, who was studying
the small man.
 
She followed Jake’s
gaze, and noticed that Zeke had stopped moving—as if he’d been turned to
stone.

“Everything okay, boss?” Max asked,
sounding nervous.

“These pictures…
”
 
Zeke hissed.
 
“How did you get these?”
 
He sounded totally stunned.
 

“It wasn’t difficult.
 
And right now, those pics are waiting to
be sent to many of your fellow Club Alpha members and co-workers.
 
Your
CEO, various
politicians and kings and ambassadors, heads of state…powerful people that work
with you and know you, Zeke.
 
But I
think those pictures could really humanize you, make them see you in a whole
new light.”

Zeke clutched the phone in his hand as he
turned and looked at Jake with a strange, enigmatic smile.
 
“You’re very good,” he said,
finally.
 
“You’re much, much better
than I ever would have imagined.”

“That’s why I make get all of the glory
and you’ll always be a puny little troll trying to steal my crumbs,” Jake
said.
 
His words were effortless and
said with the ring of truth, as if he was simply telling Zeke what Zeke already
knew about himself.

Zeke turned his attention to Max.
 
“Let them go,” he said.
 
“It’s over.”

“Are you serious?”

“I’m completely serious.
 
Strike them from the books, release
them, and don’t ever speak their names to me again.”
 
Zeke looked at Jake.
 
“Are you prepared to allow for a
truce?
 
Can I trust you won’t
release these photographs?”

“Of course,” Jake said.
 
“You know I can keep a secret.”
 
He grinned.

Zeke waited until his men had cut them
loose from their bindings and then he handed Jake back his cell phone.
 
“You’ve earned my respect Mr. Novak,” he
said.
 

“Go fuck yourself,” Jake replied, putting
the cell in his pocket again, and then he went to Raven and took her by the
hand.
 
“Come on,” he said, “we’ll
walk out of here.”

As they left the warehouse, she waited
for a shot to ring out, something,
anything
.
 
She couldn’t believe it had all ended so
quickly and with such little fanfare.

When the bright sunlight hit Raven’s face
and she inhaled the fresh air, she breathed a sigh of relief.
 
“Is it really done?” she said, still not
believing it.

“It’s done,” Jake told her.

“What were those pictures you had on your
phone?”

They walked out of the empty lot and onto
the street where a few cars passed by.
 
“Here, look for yourself.”
 
Jake handed her his phone and she looked at the roll of pictures that
had been saved on it.

There were about a dozen photos of Zeke,
dressed up in garters, heels, a wig.
 
In one picture
he was being spanked by a woman that
looked like a dominatrix
.
 
In
another, Zeke was dressed up like Marilyn Monroe right down to the blond wig,
smiling flirtatiously.

“These can’t be real,” she said, her eyes
widening.

“Oh, they’re very real.”

“How did you get them?”

Jake took his cell phone back,
laughing.
 
“Mack Zee passed them
along as a gesture of goodwill—at least, that’s what he told me.
 
As it turns out, Mack really was on our
side, not Club Alpha’s.
 
And I guess
he does more than just keep his ear to the ground—Mack’s a
one man
intelligence gathering agency.
 
We were very, very lucky to do business
with him.”

“And a lunatic like Zeke really cares
whether people know he’s a cross-dresser?”

“Zeke thrives on his reputation.
 
His ego is immense, and yet incredibly
fragile.
 
If he becomes a laughing
stock in that world of power and prestige and money, then his whole life
crumbles.”

“It just seems strange,” Raven said.
 
“Who even cares if he dresses like a
woman?
 
I don’t see what the big
deal is.”

“The important thing is that he doesn’t
want those pictures to go public,” Jake told her.
 
“He knows he lost.
 
He’s not going to mess with us ever
again.”

She nodded, relief flooding through
her.
 
“Thank you for protecting me.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of
that today, but it was the only way.
 
I couldn’t show my hand in advance and give Zeke time to prepare a
response,
I had to let things unfold in the moment.
 
I had to show him that I’d beaten him at
his own game, outmaneuvered him and surprised him just when he thought he’d won.”

“I understand.”

Jake stopped her.
 
They were standing near a tiny bridge
overlooking an empty street.
 
A car
or two passed by.
 
The wind was
whipping at them, and the sky was overcast.

“They did interrupt me outside the
hospital, though,” he told her.
 
“I’d been meaning to give you something important and then those fake
cops showed up and spoiled the moment.”

Raven had a dawning suspicion of what was
coming.
 
“Jake, I don’t know if my
heart can take anymore dramatics today.”

“I can’t stop now, baby,” he said, and
got down on one knee.
 
A moment
later, he’d produced a box and opened it, revealing a glimmering diamond
ring.
 
“Raven Hartley, will you make
me the happiest man in this whole universe and agree to marry me?”

She nodded, looking up at the sky for a
moment and thanking whoever or whatever seemed to be watching over them, before
looking back into her future husband’s eyes.
 
“I will,” she said.
 
“Of course I will.”

As Jake slid the ring on her finger, she
laughed, thinking what a crazy and frightening ride it had all been—and
yet she wouldn’t have changed any of it—not a single moment.

Because in the end, the difficulties had
made finding her true love and her true life that much more worthwhile.

***

Zeke and Max left Boston, driving in
complete silence.

There was no further discussion of what
had happened with Jake Novak back in the warehouse and Max knew better than to
inquire about the cell phone pictures.
 
It had been a humiliation, and a loss, but that sort of thing was a very
rare occurrence in Zeke’s world.

He’d won many more times than he’d lost.

In some ways, Zeke was even glad it had
happened that way.
 
Jake Novak had
proven to be an incredibly smart and crafty
foe,
perhaps the smartest Zeke had ever come across.
 
And Zeke had completely misjudged the
girl.
 
That was a surprise, an
unpleasant surprise, and in the future he’d need to be better.

Certainly it was of concern that those pictures
had found their way into Jake’s hands, but Zeke felt confident that they would
remain secret.

It was in Jake’s best interest for those
pictures to remain underground.
 
They were collateral, protection against further intervention by Club
Alpha.

By the time they’d returned to New York
City, Zeke was feeling tired, worn down from the travel and the anticlimactic
nature of what had occurred in Boston.
 
He got out of the car on Fifth Avenue to get some fresh air and think,
while Max drove back to headquarters.

 
As he walked, Zeke couldn’t help but
stare at all of the women walking by, talking on their phones, texting,
shopping, each beautiful in their own way.
 
There were millions of them within his reach, and there would always be
a new girl to suit his purposes.

He just needed to keep his eyes open,
wait and watch.

After a time, he arrived at the nearest
bookstore and went in to browse a little.
 
He liked the smell of the bookstore, the quiet, the hum of low
conversation, the different people engrossed in words, not paying attention to
a man like him as he watched them.

He went to the café and got an Americano
with two shots of espresso and then wandered the store.

It was as if his sixth sense was telling
him to be patient, that the next girl was there somewhere if he only would pay
attention.

And that’s when he saw her.

She was seated by herself at one of the
small tables just outside the café, typing away on her laptop, oblivious to the
world around her.
 
The girl was
probably twenty or twenty-two at the oldest, simple brown hair cut to shoulder
length, a good figure hidden by black pants and a black button-down shirt.

This girl was not someone that would
catch a man’s eye at first glance, and yet she was undeniably attractive if you
could see past the initial presentation.
 
Her skin was pale and flawless, her hands dainty as they pecked at the
keyboard of her computer.

Zeke approached slowly, from behind.
 
He wanted to see what she was writing.

As he got closer, he saw that the girl
was writing what appeared to be some kind of simplistic romance, two characters
kissing on a boardwalk.
 
Zeke
grinned to himself.
 
“Are you
working on a novel?” he asked.

The girl turned and looked at him,
startled.
 
“Who, me?”

“Yes.
 
I couldn’t help but notice,” Zeke
said.
 
“I’m a writer myself.”

She smiled demurely.
 
Her eyes were a striking blue.
 
“I’m not sure what it is.
 
Maybe it’ll turn into a novel,” she
said, shrugging almost apologetically.

“Well, good luck with it,” Zeke
said.
 
“I have a good feeling
something will come of it for you.”

“Oh.
 
Thanks!”
 
She turned back to
her computer, and Zeke walked away, but not before attaching one of his
tracking devices to the underside of her computer bag.

He wouldn’t be the one to contact her in
the future.
 
No,
the
seduction process was always handled by younger, more attractive persons who
were suited to such things
.

Zeke would never act as anything other
than a scout—a man who could spot the talent, read the soul, and know
exactly how to use that person to his advantage.

As he exited the bookstore, Zeke had
regained the spring in his step.
 
All it took was finding a new prospect to add to the ever-growing list
of girls in the Club Alpha roster.

He’d failed with Raven Hartley, but next
time he’d be better, smarter, and far more ruthless.
 

Next time Club Alpha would win.

THE END OF THE DEBT 8 (CLUB ALPHA)

I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading
Raven and Jake’s story, as I know I’ve enjoyed writing it immensely.
 
Although Jake and Raven managed to
escape and live happily ever after, Club Alpha will continue on with a new girl
(and a new alpha!), creating fresh dangers to face, but fresh chances at love
as well.
 
As they say, this is just
the beginning, so stay tuned for Book 9! XOXO -Kelly

*For
more Kelly Favor books, check out the
Naked
series and
For His Pleasure.
 
You won’t be
disappointed!

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