The Debt: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance)

by Kelly Favor

  Love you too, Raven texted. She was smiling now, through her own tears.

  Just as she was finally starting to feel a little better, there was a knock on her door.

  Startled, Raven got up and went to the door, checking herself quickly in the mirror first just to make sure she didn’t look too much a mess first.

  “Who is it?” she called.

  “Jake and Kurt,” Jake called back, his voice muffled through the door.

  Raven took a deep breath, reminding herself that Jake had no idea what Kurt had said to her on the phone, no idea that his manager had threatened her and tried to bribe her, so she needed to act friendly.

  Don’t be weird, Raven. You know Kurt will probably try to rub you the wrong way just to get you to act like a jerk and make Jake hate you. Don’t fall for his plan. Act like everything’s just fine.

  This was even more important now that she’d been so testy with Jake at the pizza shop.

  She opened the door and affixed a warm and friendly smile to her face.

  The two men entered, Jake looking distracted and maybe even annoyed, Kurt seemingly chipper. “Hey Raven, how are you?” Kurt asked her.

  As he walked by, she caught a whiff of aftershave and cigarette smoke, and her nose wrinkled. Something about Kurt just made her want to screw up her face, but she had to try to play the game. Smiling, she shrugged. “Oh, you know, I’m doing as well as can be expected.”

  “Yeah, it’s a big circus out there,” Kurt said, nodding, surveying her hotel room as if expecting it to be infested with rats and roaches.

  “Can I get either of you a drink or something?” she offered.

  “I’m fine,” Jake said, not looking at her.

  She hated that he seemed so distant. She tried to catch his eye and smile at him, but he wouldn’t look at her.

  “I could go for a beer,” Kurt said.

  Raven’s fake smile grew wider. “Let me check with the mini bar,” she told him. She went and grabbed an imported beer and handed it to Kurt, who thanked her and then popped the top, immediately swigging from it.

  Jake sat on the edge of a chair and fiddled with the remote control. “So, we need to figure out the next step,” he said.

  Kurt agreed. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this myself. With the Boston shows officially cancelled and gossip swirling about your mental state, we need to come out with a decisive win in the next few days.”

  “My mental state?” Jake said, his eyes getting that same confused and put off crinkle that he’d had in the pizza shop earlier.

  “Yeah,” Kurt said, pacing as he drank from the imported beer Raven had given him. “People are saying that you’ve cracked up. They think the pressure’s gotten to you.”

  Jake just shook his head. “People say a lot of things. Why should I care?”

  “Because,” Kurt told him, “you’ve suddenly acquired an image problem.” He shot Raven a knowing glance as if to say, we both know this is all your fault.

  Jake wasn’t paying attention, so Kurt obviously knew he could get away with his little mind games.

  Raven rolled her eyes at Kurt before speaking. “The biggest problem right now is that video of you insulting depressed and suicidal people. We need to find a way to show everyone that you’ve changed.”

  “Right, that’s where you come in,” Jake said, finally looking at her. “We need to get your story out there. But it can’t look planned, it can’t look phony and staged.”

  Even though it is.

  Even though I wish it wasn’t, and maybe part of me actually believes that you really have changed and you do care about me, instead of only thinking about what I can do for you.

  Suddenly, Raven’s phone cell phone was buzzing, and she looked at the caller ID.

  The number, at first, was vaguely familiar but for a moment she couldn’t for the life of her remember why—but just for a moment. It was only unfamiliar because she hadn’t seen it in years…even though it should have been as familiar as her own number.

  Because it was her own number.

  It was her old home phone number, the landline from her parents’ house in Southbridge Massachusetts. She stared at it like she’d seen a ghost.

  “What’s wrong?” Jake asked, suddenly taking an interest in her again. “Is it something with Skylar?”

  “No,” Raven said, her stomach feeling like someone had dropped it down an elevator shaft. “It’s my parents. Someone’s calling me.”

  “Is that bad?” Kurt asked, his tone condescending.

  “It’s not bad…” she said, not knowing if that was true or not. “I just haven’t kept in close contact with my family since I moved away when I was seventeen.”

  Kurt’s eyes widened and a strange grin crept across his face. “That’s it,” he whispered.

  The cell phone stopped ringing and now it just said missed call. She put it away in her purse and tried not to think about it.

  “I’ll call them back,” she said, not knowing if she would.

  Kurt laughed wildly. He took a long swig from his beer. “This is why I’m a genius,” he said, tapping his head with a finger. “Because I think outside the frigging box.”

  “Come on, spit it out already,” Jake said, an edge seeping into his voice.

  “The two of you need to go home,” Kurt said, pointing his finger first at Raven and then Jake.

  “I don’t get it,” Jake said. “Why should I go home?”

  “No,” Kurt corrected him. “You’re going to her hometown—together. Back to where she grew up, to meet her family.”

  Raven felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said flatly.

  “It’s not a good idea,” Jake said.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness Jake didn’t agree with Kurt’s horrible plan.

  “It’s not?” Kurt said, his smile turning to a frown.

  “It’s a fucking great idea,” Jake smiled, hopping off the edge of the chair and holding out his fist for a reply fist bump from his old buddy Kurt.

  They laughed and Kurt took another swig of beer and belched.

  Raven thought how much she hated Jake’s manager. But she didn’t say anything right away because this wasn’t something she could just flat out refuse to do. If Jake liked the idea, she needed to help him see why it was bad, without telling him the total truth. Especially not with Kurt listening to every word she said, waiting to smell any weakness before he attacked.

  “Don’t you think people will view it as Jake running away from everything if he leaves New York, the tour, everything—and escapes to some small town in Massachusetts?” she said.

  “Are you kidding me?” Kurt cackled. “The media loves this shit. Big star takes his everyday normal average girlfriend back to her teeny tiny hometown and graces them with his magnificent presence. The press will eat it up. We’ll make sure to get beautiful pics of you guys taking long romantic strolls down the quaint little streets. Jake will come out smelling like a rose.”

  Jake nodded. “He’s right. It’s good. This is the way to go.”

  Raven felt her blood pressure rising dramatically. “I don’t think my family should be subjected to the spotlight. They never signed on to any of this.”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem,” Kurt said, “unless, that is, one of them has something to hide.”

  Jake looked at Raven for the first time. “I can tell you’re uncomfortable with this idea,” he said, his brown eyes searching hers for answers. “You can tell us what it’s about, Raven. You can trust us.”

  She wanted to snort, throw up her hands, laugh like a hyena.

  Trust Kurt? Trust that snake? Didn’t Jake realize that his best friend and most trusted confidant was a totally classless jerk?

  But no, he didn’t realize that and she wasn’t about to tell him. Instead, she just smiled. “I’m only worried about inviting the spotlight into their lives without even asking them if they’re okay
with it. It’s one thing for me to make that decision for myself, and quite another to make it for them.”

  It sounded like a good reason, but the truth was far more complicated and darker than that. If only she could have trusted Kurt, or if she and Jake were alone—maybe she could have tried to explain it to him.

  But she couldn’t trust Kurt and they weren’t alone. She had to make things up, make her reservations about the idea sound legitimate.

  “Look,” Jake said as he came over, grabbing Raven’s hand and staring into her eyes. “I know this feels scary and overwhelming for you. But this is exactly what you signed up for when you told me you wanted to help. Well I accepted your help and now you need to come through for me.”

  There it was again—Jake’s not too subtle hint that this entire relationship was nothing but a forgery, a copy of the real thing. The anger immediately welled up inside Raven’s chest, as if she was being stuck with a red-hot knife.

  “So putting my family into the media spotlight is the only way I can help you now?” she said, her voice taking on a shrill quality. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Kurt was smirking.

  He was loving every minute of this, putting her on the spot and making her look bad.

  “It’s not the only way,” Jake said, his voice still calm. “But it’s the best way.”

  “You can’t ask me to drag my family into this.”

  “I’m not going to force you to do anything,” he said, taking his hand away, his mouth tightening into a straight line. “If you don’t want to do it, we won’t do it.”

  Kurt’s smirk widened. “Hey,” he said, shrugging. “Not everyone’s cut out for this sort of thing.”

  Raven glared at the arrogant manager. “Maybe not all of us are comfortable pimping out friends and family just to make a publicity stunt look good.”

  “I didn’t make the rules,” Kurt said. “I just play by them.”

  “She doesn’t want to do it,” Jake said. “Next idea, please.” But his face was a mask of disappointment.

  Raven was frustrated too. She was scared of why her parents had been calling in the first place. It had been years since they’d even tried to make contact. Was it because they’d seen her on the news or something else? Anything she tried to conjure up to explain their phone call only made her feel more anxious.

  When she thought about going back home, it made her almost physically ill.

  Kurt and Jake were throwing out new ideas now, ideas about interviews on multimedia platforms, town hall forums, Jake apologizing and then starting a national anti-bullying foundation where he would donate millions to charity.

  Each new idea seemed more ridiculous and transparent than the last.

  Meanwhile, Raven stood there, thinking and thinking about what had been presented to her. A chance to go home, with Jake, and tell her story in her own way. A chance to face her demons head on, to face down the bullies, the cruel people that had lied and hurt and tormented her.

  As much as she distrusted Kurt’s motives, he’d possibly come up with the one scenario that could give her what she’d always been searching for—closure, vindication.

  Of course, this was where it had all been leading the whole time, Raven realized, as her heart rate accelerated. A jolt of energy ran through her body.

  She needed to go back home. She needed to do it just as much—no, more even—then Jake needed it for his own publicity reasons.

  “Okay,” she said softly, “I’ll do it.”

  “Huh?” Jake said, glancing at her. “You’ll do what?”

  Kurt put his empty beer down and folded his arms, a tiny smirk playing on his lips. “Please enlighten us,” he said. “What are you willing to do, exactly?”

  “I’ll go home, with Jake, just like you said.”

  “What about all that stuff you were saying about not wanting to put your family in the spotlight?” Jake asked her, his eyes suspicious.

  “Of course I need to check with them first,” Raven said. “But if they’re okay with it then so am I.”

  “Are you sure?” Jake asked, his expression deadly serious. “Because you can’t do this halfway. We need to know that you’ll go through with it no matter what.”

  “I’ll try,” she said. “I’ll do the best I can, but…there are issues between me and my family.”

  “Issues?” Kurt asked innocently. “Like what?”

  She shot him a look. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle my own business when it comes to them.”

  Kurt put his hands up. “I didn’t mean any harm. Just a question.”

  “You need to chill out,” Jake told her quietly, but his voice was firm.

  “I am chilled out,” she whispered. “Just tell your nosy friend to lay off me for a minute.”

  Jake shook his head. “Why don’t we call it a night?” he said. “You obviously need more downtime, and you can call your folks back and let them know we’ll be visiting them.” He stretched his muscular arms up in the air. “Come on, Kurt. Let’s leave the lady alone for a bit.”

  Kurt chuckled as he exited, brushing past her, giving her a sly grin. “Talk soon,” he said under his breath.

  Raven watched him go, practically shooting daggers at his back as he left. Jake turned once to look at her on his way out the door.

  “You need to get a hold of yourself,” he said, his dark eyes completely without empathy. “This isn’t going to get any easier, and you promised me I could trust you.”

  And then they were gone and she was alone again.

  Some time passed before Raven could get up the nerve to call her parents back. She’d broken out in a cold sweat, and her heart was racing. She felt like something awful was going to happen, like she was about to die.

  Just calm down, Raven. They’re you’re parents, not executioners.

  Or maybe it’s Danny calling from their house

  She couldn’t possibly imagine why her older brother Danny would be calling her from her parents’ house, though. It had to have been one of her parents.

  They hadn’t left a message, but still…

  As she hit redial on her cell phone, sitting on the couch, curled up in what was nearly a fetal position, Raven wondered if maybe they’d somehow accidentally called her.

  No, that was really impossible. An accidental phone call after nearly four years without contact?

  She shivered, a tremor running through her entire body as she waited for the moment of truth.

  “Hello?” her mother answered, the voice sounded hesitant and somehow fragile.

  Raven clutched the phone so hard her fingers nearly went numb. “Hi, Mom, it’s me.”

  There was a long, pregnant pause. “Raven? Is that you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” She wanted to puke. This was too hard.

  “I just tried to call you,” her mother said.

  “I saw that,” Raven told her. “I wondered if maybe you saw the news…”

  “Joe and Mary Barrett came over this afternoon and were talking all about how they saw you on TV with some movie star. We were completely confused, to be honest.”

  Raven felt her cheeks flush. “It’s weird, I know. And kind of a long, confusing story how everything happened.”

  “I can imagine.” There was another awkward pause. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to hear from me, Raven, but I had to make sure you’re okay,” her mother said.

  Raven sighed. “I’m okay, Mom.”

  “And you’re happy now?”

  Something about how she’d phrased it made Raven feel judged, as though her mother didn’t believe that Raven could truly be happy. But then again, maybe that was old stuff. Maybe her mother had changed in the last few years, just as Raven had changed. “I’m pretty happy,” she replied, wondering what the truth really was.

  “That’s good. Because you know it’s all your father and I ever wanted for you, was just that you be happy.”

  “And you and Dad? How are you both doing?”
/>   There was another too-long silence. “We’re good. Pretty good. You know, things happen but we’re doing fine.”

  “What things happened?” Raven said, the cold sweat turning hotter as she felt her pulse raise that much more.

  “Nothing for you to worry about, Raven. The point is, everyone’s doing fine.”

  “Mom, if something’s wrong—“

  “If you really wanted to keep up with us, you should’ve called and enquired about how we’re doing,” her mother said, her voice getting brittle. “Besides, we haven’t spoken to you in so long. We never wanted to bother you.”

  The guilt was settling in like a lead weight on Raven’s shoulders. “I don’t want to get into the whole back-and-forth about why we fell out of touch,” Raven said. “I have my version and you guys have yours and we’ll never agree.”

  “Well, we agree about that,” her mother said, her voice strident now.

  Raven shook her head. Why did it have to be like this between them? There was no good reason for why it had all gone so bad, but she wasn’t going to take all of the blame for it. “Anyway,” she said, “I was hoping that maybe I could come and see you both soon.”

  Another long pause.

  She’s going to say no, Raven thought. Won’t that just put a nice bow on all of the stuff that happened, if now, after everything, Mom says she doesn’t even want to see me again. In a way, it would be a relief if she said it.

  Then Raven could tell Jake that they couldn’t go visit, and it would be guilt free.

  “We’d love to see you, Raven.” Her mother’s voice had become emotional, hoarse, a little raspy, like she was close to tears.

  “Jake and I were planning on making our way out there very soon, the next couple of days. Will you and Dad be around?”

  Her mother was confused. “Jake who?”

  “Jake Novak. He’s the guy that I’m…we’re spending time together and that’s why I’ve been in the news lately.” Even saying it felt silly and stupid and unbelievable.

  “Jake Novak…I think I’ve heard that name before.” Her mother hemmed and hawed. “Was he in that Disney film about the young man that played football?”

  “Yes, Mom, that’s the guy,” Raven said, laughing a little. “He’s been in a few movies and he’s a musician too.”