The Debt 3 by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online Page B

.
    But she wasn’t going to let that
possibility change what she chose to wear.
    Will
Jake like it?   Will it make him want
to do bad things to me?
    Raven left the bathroom, shaking her
head.   She was frustrated at how
much she continuously wondered about Jake, and how much the thoughts of him
touching her seemed to dominate her thinking.
    Every so often, no matter where she was
or what she was doing, she’d remember him stripping off her robe, putting his
hand down there, between her legs…
    And then she’d be wet all over again,
wishing that he’d do it the same way that night.   Even as another part of her said that
what Jake was doing to her was wrong, and she was wrong for letting him have
his way.
    No
wonder he won’t kiss you.   This is
no way for a good woman to behave.
    Raven ignored that critical voice.   She was used to the self-judgment, and
often chose not to listen to it.
    There was a time when she’d listened, and
it had nearly cost her everything.
    The phone was ringing.
    It was her hotel room phone.   She hesitated, then finally crossed over
and answered, expecting to hear someone from the front desk, or maybe Jake
calling to check in with her.
    But it wasn’t any of them.
    “Hello, Miss Hartley,” the familiar voice
said, and Raven suddenly realized that Max Mendez was calling her hotel room.
    “How did you get my room number?” she
said, her voice shaking a little.
    “Never mind about that,” Max said, his
tone light, friendly even.   “Just
you know that we’re always keeping tabs, Raven.   Always.”
    “What do you want?”
    “That’s not very nice.   I thought we were friends.”
    “No you didn’t,” she said, and waited for
the real reason he was calling.
    “You need to come to our office
immediately,” Max said.  
    “I can’t just go to your office, I don’t
even know where it is.   And I’m in
New York with Jake.”
    “We’re in New York, too.   Our office is a fifteen-minute cab ride
from your hotel.   I suggest you
leave now.”
    Raven’s chest tightened at the tone of
his voice.   Max sounded different,
like he was being friendlier because he was actually angry this time.   “Why do you want me to come to the
office?   What’s this about?” she
asked.
    “Don’t worry what it’s about,” Max
said.   “You’ll find out.”
    “I’m not coming unless you tell me.”
    “I’m only going to say this one more
time,” he said, his voice getting softer and yet more menacing somehow.   “You need to come to the office.   Immediately.   We know where you’re staying, Raven, so if
you don’t come now—we’ll find a more unpleasant way to meet with you.”
    Suddenly, she knew.   She knew without the shadow of a doubt
that Max was telling the truth.   She
was in some kind of trouble with Max and whoever else
he worked with, and there was no way to avoid dealing with it.
    “Okay,” she said, finally.   “Tell me where to go.”

 
    ***
    Raven left immediately, as requested,
without telling anyone where she was going.   She managed to escape the hotel without
being noticed by anyone, perhaps because without Jake beside her, nobody knew
who she was yet.
    It also helped that she blended in with a
group of tourists who happened to be leaving at the same time.
    And then she’d managed to find a cab to
take her to the prescribed location, a swanky part of town that was even
swankier than the one she’d been staying in, if such a thing was even possible.
    The cab dropped her off and she walked into
the most intimidating building that she’d ever been in—that she could
ever have imagined being inside.
    It was one of the many buildings located
on the uber-fancy Central Park West, and she was immediately greeted inside the
lobby by an unsmiling security guard.   She expected him to ask her name or who she was
there to visit.
    Instead, he said, “Raven Hartley?” as if
he’d been expecting her at that very moment, like she was being