The Debt 5 by Kelly Favor Page A

her
from anything?
    She thought these things, but kept
silent, guessing that asking such questions might be bad for her health at this
point.   The goal now was to say
anything she needed to say to get the hell out of the car alive.
    “Sir,” she began.
    “Call me Zeke, please,” he smiled.
    “Zeke, I’m fine staying ignorant.   Really.”
    “Yes, they say ignorance is bliss, so I
can understand why you say that.   But you must know that if we’ve gotten to this point, all possibilities
have been explored and we’ve arrived here out of necessity.   As I said, the time for you to walk away
blissfully unaware has now expired.   So you must tread very carefully, now, Raven .”   Zeke once again looked up into her
eyes.   “Very, very carefully
indeed.”
    “I’ll never speak a word about Club
Alpha,” she said, her throat tightening.   “Just please don’t hurt me.   Jake is out of my life.   I
promise, I swear.”
    Zeke exchanged a bemused look with Max
Mendez.
    “Jake won’t be out of your life for very
long,” Zeke replied, giggling slightly.   “You see , this has become a very fluid
scenario.   One moment something is
asked of you, the next, something different.”
    “I thought you wanted me out of the
limelight,” she said.   “I was told
that my very presence in Jake’s life could compromise the secrecy of Club
Alpha.”
    “That’s very true,” Zeke said.   He nodded thoughtfully.   “However, the risks and rewards are
constantly being weighed and sometimes a new consensus is reached.”
    “Please,” she begged.   “Can you just let me out of the car?”
    “Stop asking that,” Max warned, his voice
gravelly and angry.   Suddenly, Raven
realized that tough Max Mendez was also terrified, and that made her so
frightened that she almost threw up.
    If
I say the wrong thing, Zeke will kill me , she thought.   He’ll kill me as calmly as he sits there
clipping his nails.
    It’s
really true, and that’s why Max is acting crazy.   Max might be mean, but he doesn’t want
my blood on his hands.
      “It would appear on the surface that Club
Alpha is nothing but a glorified escort service,” Zeke said.   “And in fact, as far as most everyone
involved is concerned, that’s exactly what we are.   Our function is to service our rich and
powerful clients with the kinds of women who meet all their needs, and provide
discretion and secrecy that guarantees those same powerful men won’t have to
worry about any messy scandals.”
    “But that’s not really what Club Alpha
is,” Raven said, her mouth as dry as desert sand.  
    Zeke’s smile died on his lips.   “Oh, no.   No, we’ve never been anything as
simplistic as a brothel.   In point
of fact, we have never wasted our access to the personal lives of the most
powerful and influential men the world over.   In reality, Club Alpha is and always has
been primarily an information gathering service.”
    The enormity of what Zeke was telling her
dawned on Raven, and her stomach dropped, as if she’d just been pushed off a
ledge and into an abyss.
    “Club Alpha is full of spies,” she said.
    Zeke smiled.   “Let’s not get carried away,” he said,
but his eyes told her that she was correct in her conclusion.  
    “So now you want me to be a spy?”
    His heavy-lidded eyes fixed on her, his
pupils seeming to get larger as spoke.   “Jake Novak engaged in a particular mission his last week in Afghanistan.   Our intelligence tells us that it is of
the utmost importance that we find out exactly what that mission was in as much
detail as possible.”
    “Jake would never tell me about any
top-secret mission in Afghanistan,” she said, her voice rising despite her best
attempts to keep it under control.   “Jake wouldn’t even tell me what he had for breakfast.”
    “Be that as it may, you’d better find a
way to learn about his breakfast, and whatever else we tell you to learn about
Jake Novak.”
    “Jake’s not