The Debt 5 by Kelly Favor

away
from the intersection.
    Raven was sandwiched in between Max and
another man.   The other man was as
short of stature as Max was tall.   He couldn’t have been much over five feet tall, but he was stocky, with
dark curly hair that was receding in front.   His eyes were heavy-lidded, reptilian,
and his lips were thick and wet.   “Raven, how nice to finally meet you.   I’ve heard so much about you,” he said.
    “Let me out of this car,” she replied.
    Max shot her a glance.   “Watch it with the demands.   I’m getting pretty fed up with you.”
    “Ease up on the girl,” the short man told
Max.   “She’s been through a lot.”
    “Who are you?” Raven asked him.
    “My name’s Zeke,” he said, smiling with
his blubbery lips.   His eyes were
dark and watchful as he turned his head to look at her.   He held out his small hand and she shook
it, not knowing what else to do.
    His hand was clammy but soft, and he
didn’t hold her hand very long.  
    “Zeke, I really don’t know why you all
won’t leave me alone.   I’m not
seeing Jake anymore.   I did exactly
what Club Alpha asked me to do, which was leave and never speak to him again.”
    Zeke was wearing a dark, finely tailored
suit with polished shoes.   He
examined his fingernails as he spoke.   “Was that before or after you told Jake about your little meeting with
Scott, and Jake went and assaulted him in the restaurant?”
    “I didn’t know Jake was going to do
that,” she said.   Her entire body
was shaking uncontrollably now.   “Please, I just want to be left alone.”
    “I’m afraid the time for that has long
passed,” Zeke said.   “We tried to
keep you out of the fray, but you refused to listen.   And now things have changed yet again.”
    “I don’t understand,” Raven said.  
    Max glared down at her.   “Shut up for a minute and he’ll explain,
maybe.”
    She closed her mouth and tried to slow
her erratic breathing.   She was
getting a horrible feeling that these men intended to do something awful to
her, perhaps as payback for what Jake had done to Club Alpha’s CEO.
      “Everyone knows Jake Novak was in the
military,” Zeke said, as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pair of nail
clippers.   “It’s common knowledge,
isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” Raven said.
    Zeke began clipping his nails, which were
already quite neat and tidy.   But he
seemed to find new angles, new little bits to shave off to make them even more
perfect.   He clipped and clipped as
he spoke.   “What most people don’t
realize is that Jake’s service overseas is only a small part of the story.   Jake Novak wasn’t just some regular
soldier fumbling around in the desert until he got sent home again--he was the
member of a top-secret elite force that was sent on very special missions.   Very dangerous missions to do work that
nobody else could or would do.”
    Raven swallowed.   Was Zeke just messing with her
head?   She couldn’t tell.  
    He continued hypnotically clipping his
nails as he talked.   “You may wonder
why you’re sitting in this car with me right now, being told such a strange
story.”   Zeke glanced up into her
eyes.   “Am I right?   Are you wondering?”
    “I—yes.   Yes, I’m wondering why you’re telling me
any of this.”
    He smiled at her.   The kindness of his smile struck more
fear into her than harsh threats from Max Mendez.   She suspected that behind Max’s anger
was a man who didn’t want to have to hurt her.
    However, behind Zeke’s kind smile, she
sensed the killer instincts of a remorseless and calculating psychopath.   “Unfortunately, this situation has
become very complicated, Raven.”   He
went back to daintily clipping his fingernails.   The little white shavings drifted onto
his black pants and clung there, like dandruff.   “Things have evolved to where you can no
longer be protected from the truth.”
    Protected?   Since when was Club Alpha protecting