Read Online The Debt 2 by Kelly Favor - Free Book Online

didn’t even know Skylar and he hardly knew Raven, yet he was there taking time out of his schedule to help them.   He’d been through a grinding concert performance and was likely exhausted, but you’d never have known it based on his actions.
    How had she misjudged him so badly?   Why hadn’t she been able to see that there was much more to him then the little slice she’d seen at the party and in his hotel room?
    Well, the truth was that he’d kept that part of himself from her.   Jake hadn’t seemed to want her to know that there was more to him.   It was only this emergency that had brought it to the forefront.
    They pulled up to Sloan Kettering and were let off out front, where a shorter woman in an overcoat greeted them just outside the entrance.   She had brown curly hair, a long, narrow nose, and her smile was genuine.   “Jake?” she said.
    “Yes,” he replied, “and you must be Dr. Lara.”
    “That’s me.”
    “I really appreciate you coming here at this time of night to help us.”
    “Listen, I hadn’t even taken off my makeup yet,” she laughed heartily.   “Not to worry.”
    Raven wanted to say, not to worry?   You’re not annoyed at being dragged from your home in the middle of the night just because some celebrity snapped his fingers?
    But this was no time for looking a gift horse in the mouth, so Raven didn’t say a peep.
    The doctor turned to Skylar and Raven, and upon seeing Skylar’s expression, seemed to instantly realize that she was the patient.   “Skylar?”
    Skylar nodded anxiously.   “Yes.”
    “Hi, I’m Dr. Lara.   Let’s get you right inside, okay?”   She smiled and then led them into the hospital, where she acted as their personal escort.
    Raven had never seen anything like this.   Usually, when she’d gone to a new hospital, she’d been made to fill out all kinds of forms and answer questions, give proof of insurance, all sorts of things.   It typically also included a lot of waiting around.
    But Dr. Lara simply brought them up the elevator herself, walked them past the nurse’s station and to a private room.   “All right,” she said, turning to Jake and Raven.   “We’re going to do an examination of Skylar now, so I’ll need to ask you to wait in the waiting room.”
    Skylar gave Raven an anxious look, and Raven nodded to her, trying to appear confident and unafraid, but in truth she was far from that.   As Dr. Lara brought Skylar in to be examined, they wandered back down the hallway to the small but empty waiting room.
    Raven couldn’t sit still, so she stood and stared out the window into the darkness of the city outside.   Jake came up next to her.  
    “You okay?” he asked, glancing at her.
    “I’m scared.”
    “I know,” he said.
    She turned and looked at him.   “And I can’t figure out why you’re suddenly being so nice to me.”
    He chuckled.   “Am I really that big of an asshole?”
    She nodded.   “Yeah, pretty much.”
    “Well maybe you don’t have me all figured out just yet.”
    “I guess not.   But I still don’t understand.”   A shiver ran through her and Raven folded her arms and tried to warm herself.
    “I have certain limitations,” Jake said, looking down.   “There’s thing’s that’ve happened in my life…I don’t really want to go into details.   But the things that happened, they make it so that I need to live the way I live.”
    “Now it’s all so clear,” Raven replied sarcastically.
    “Don’t bust my balls,” he told her.   “I’m telling you that it is the way it is for a reason.   I’m this way for a reason.”
    “I can’t find fault with you tonight, not after what you’ve already done for Skylar.”   Raven looked at him, saw the pain etched in his face.   “And what you’ve done for me, Jake.”
    He looked back at her.   “It’s for you,” he said.   And then he walked over to one of the chairs and sat down heavily, as if admitting how tired he was