The Debt 8 (Club Alpha) (7 page)

“Hey, I’m a big enough bastard for you
and me both.
 
Just go and get some
sleep and stop overthinking everything.
 
It’s time to move on, Kurt.”

Kurt got up and Jake showed him to the
guest room.

When he came back down, he looked at
Raven.
 
“You okay?”

She nodded.
 
“I think so.
 
That was just sad to see.
 
I guess I’m surprised that after
everything he did to me, I just feel badly for him.
 
He’s deeply hurt.
 
And he may never heal.”

“We’re all like that,” Jake said.
 
She knew that what he said was true, and
it scared her, but she loved him more and more, just the same.

***

About four hours later, Kurt emerged from
the guest room and came downstairs.
 
Jake and Raven were on the couch watching TV and cuddling.

Kurt looked more like himself, but
something in his face was still different, there was less of the old anger and
bravado about him now.
 
“Guess I’ll
be heading out,” he announced.

Jake sat up.
 
“You don’t have to go.
 
Stay the night.
 
Get some rest, and tomorrow—“

“No thanks,” Kurt interrupted, shaking
his head.
 
“You and I both know that
I shouldn’t be around.”

Jake frowned.
 
“I don’t want you to do anything
stupid.”

“I’m going home and then I need to figure
out what’s next.
 
Probably it’ll
involve a lot of therapy.”
 
Kurt
took a deep breath and then let it out.
 
“Sorry for everything.
 
Maybe
we’ll see each other again sometime under different circumstances.”

This last line seemed meant for
Raven.
 
“Take care of yourself,
Kurt,” she said.

Jake’s friend nodded once, turned on his
heel and left the house.
 
When the
door closed, Jake turned to Raven.
 
“No matter what he did to me and to us, I still owe him a lot.
 
When you’ve been in the shit together
like we were, there’s things that happen to you and only someone who’s been
through it can understand.”

“I think I get it,” she said, caressing
his arm.
 
“But I don’t want you to
ever let him take advantage of your generosity again.
 
Kurt needs professional help.”

“Yeah,” Jake sighed.
 
“But then again, so do I.”

“That’s what you have me for.”

Jake smiled, but there was sadness
radiating out of him now, and Raven wished she could do something about
it.
 
Unfortunately, it seemed to her
that he was unreachable to some extent.
 
The things that he’d seen and done were locked forever away from her and
the other civilians who depended on people like Jake to protect them from the
harsh realities of the outside world.

Still, after some time went by, Jake grew
happier again.

They were watching bad TV, cracking jokes
and laughing, just hanging out.
 
It
was nothing special and yet it was everything to her.
 
She never wanted it to end.
 
Never wanted this moment to end, or the
sound of Jake’s laughter, the smell of him, the feel of his warm body next to
hers on the couch, the waves breaking on shore still echoing into the house
distantly, and the fresh Florida night air seeping inside along with it.

That night, the two of them slept naked
together, and at some point in the night, they began touching one another
silently, murmuring love, and Jake slipped inside her wetness and began moving,
and she came so quickly that she couldn’t even fathom how he’d done it.

After she climaxed, she got on top of
Jake and rode his hard cock, sliding up and down and going faster and faster
until he grabbed her hips and forced himself deep inside, spilling everything,
then pulling her down on top of him and kissing her deeply.

They fell back asleep again, and when she
woke up, it was almost as if the late night activity had been a dream.
 
But she knew it had happened—she
could feel the stickiness of Jake’s semen on her thighs, and her own dried
juices too, and it excited her even though it felt dirty.

Jake was lying on his back in bed next to
her, and she kissed his chest before getting up and going to take a shower.

After that, she went for a walk on the
beach as the sun continued rising, glimmering off the water, and Raven’s heart
felt like it would burst from joy.
 
She waved to the older woman walking her toy poodle, which yipped and
barked and jumped towards Raven but was easily pulled away by its owner.

When Raven got back to the house, she was
flying high.
 
“It’s so beautiful out
there,” she called out to Jake.

But Jake didn’t respond to her, and then
she heard him on the phone with someone in the office, which he never had used
up until that point.

Raven walked over to the doorway and
peaked her head inside, and Jake gestured for her to come in.
 
“Sander,” Jake said, “I’ve got you on
speaker phone.
 
Raven just came in,
and I want her to be a part of this conversation.”

Sander was the head of Jake’s old
label—the one that wanted to sue him until he was bankrupt.

“Fine,” Sander’s voice came through
Jake’s cell phone, which Jake laid on the desk in front of him.

The office was almost empty but for the
desk and a couple of chairs.
 
Jake
clearly had never used the room much for anything since moving into the home.

Jake pointed to a Fed Ex envelope and
slid it across to Raven, his finger gesturing to the name and address on the
outside of it.

Raven looked and saw that the package was
from Mack Zee.
 
It must’ve just arrived
that morning.
 
She saw that Jake had
already opened it and there were three copies of the contract that Mack had
sent over for Jake’s perusal.

When she picked a copy up and began
reading, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
 
The contract was offering Jake a twenty
million dollar advance.
 
Her mouth
dropped open and she looked at Jake and he was grinning widely as Sander asked
him what the reason was for the early morning call.

“Sander,” Jake said, kicking his feet up
on the desk and leaning back in his chair.
 
“We need to put an end to this lawsuit and all the ridiculous character
assassination PR crap you’re doing to me in the media.”

“We’re just protecting our investment,
Jake.
 
You’ve really given us no
choice, and I’m sorry if it’s made life uncomfortable.
 
But then again, I’m not sorry if it’s
made you come to your senses.”

“I don’t know about all that,” Jake
said.
 
“What I do know is that I’m
prepared to make good on my end of things so that we can part ways amicably.”

“And how do you propose to do that?”

Jake looked at Raven before
continuing.
 
She had no idea what he
was trying to do, and it made her nervous that he hadn’t discussed it with her
first.
 
But she folded her arms and
waited to hear what he was going to say next.

“My proposal is that you and the label
drop the lawsuit against me,” Jake told him.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“If you drop the lawsuit and knock off
the bullshit in the press, I’ll sign over the publishing rights for my entire
back catalog to you.”

There was silence on the other end of the
line.
 
“You would do that?”

Jake nodded, watching Raven’s
reaction.
 
She wasn’t entirely sure
what he even meant.
 
But she knew it
must be a big deal if it made Sander go quiet.

Jake continued.
 
“I’m about to cut a deal with Mack Zee
on my next album.”

Sander’s voice was cold and firm.
 
“We have an option on your next album,
Jake.
 
It’s in the contract.
 
Or are you planning to honor nothing in
your contract with us?
 
Was that piece
of paper you signed entirely meaningless?”

Jake dropped his feet to the floor and
stood up.
 
“I just told you I’d sign
over my publishing.
 
That means
you’ll make all the money on my back catalog, you’ll own those songs.
 
Those songs that I wrote, I put my
energy and time into, my blood sweat and tears.
 
And I’m giving them to you in exchange
for me getting my life and career back.”

“I’m not sure, Jake,” Sander said
slowly.
 
“The word on the street is
that this next album of yours could be the biggest yet.
 
And we have an option, do we not?”

“I don’t want to work with a label that
would try and cut my throat in the press because I ticked them off.
 
Things have gone bad between us,
Sander.
 
A lot of that’s my fault,
but it doesn’t matter.
 
I want to
move on.”

Sander sighed through the phone.
 
“What’s the advance that Mack Zee’s
offering you?”

“Twenty,” Jake said.

There was an even longer silence on the
other line.
 
“And what about the
split?”

“70/30 in my favor, and I keep the
publishing as well.
 
They worked
some merchandising stuff into it that goes to them, but that’s about all,
Sander.
 
And I don’t think you guys
can match it, can you?”

“I don’t know.
 
Will you give me a few hours to come
back with an answer Jake?”

Jake looked at Raven.
 
She shook her head no.

“I need an answer now,” Jake said.
 
“If you can’t give me a better deal,
than cut me loose.
 
When this new
album hits, my back catalog is going to explode and you’ll probably make more
money that way.”

“And we won’t have to worry about you,
will we?
 
No more watching after
you, cleaning up your messes, making excuses when you inevitably screw up
again,” Sander said, his tone acidic.

“That’s right,” Jake agreed, smirking at
the phone, but his eyes were full of anger.

“Fine,” Sander said in a clipped tone.
 
“Have the contract drawn up, signed and
delivered to me within the next twenty-four hours and you have a deal,
Novak.
 
It’s going to be nice to not
have to think about you for awhile.”

“The feeling’s mutual, buddy.”

And then Jake hung up the phone.

Raven shivered.
 
“Wow, that was not pleasant.”

“No, it wasn’t.”
 
Jake picked up his phone and held it
aloft like a trophy.
 
“But we did
it, baby.
 
We’re free and clear and
now we can sign with Mack Zee.
 
Twenty million, and that’s just the advance.”

She smiled at him but her heart was
beating fast and her stomach felt queasy.
 
“It’s all moving so quickly.”

“It’s going to be a rollercoaster, but at
least we’ll be on it together, right?”

“Right,” she said, as he grabbed her
around the waist and lifted her into the air, then dropped her down to the
floor and kissed her deeply.

She melted against him, as Jake was
instantly able to evaporate all of her worries and concerns when he touched and
kissed her.

This time was no different.

***

The next few days were a whirlwind of
activity.
 
Jake had his lawyer draft
and look over the contracts pertaining to the deal with Mack Zee and also the
back catalogue publishing rights he was giving up to his old label, under the
condition that they agree to terminate his old contract and the stipulations it
was holding him to.

In effect, Jake was signing away all his
old songs, everything he’d done in the past, and betting the farm on his new
record and his new songs.

His lawyer didn’t know if it was such a
good idea, and he suggested staying with the old label and making amends.
 
But Jake didn’t want to do that and
Raven agreed with him.

Jake wanted a fresh start, and he got it.

Before long, the contracts had been
signed, sealed and delivered.

Meanwhile, Jake’s video for Too Far From
Home had continued to pile on the views, and now had over a hundred million
hits on YouTube.
 
Fans were
clamoring loudly to hear more from his forthcoming album, and their noise
appeared to be wiping out all of the anger and retribution that had come when
Jake had cancelled his old tour.