Free What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) by Hannah Ford Page B

never spoken Jake’s name. “A client at the party last night expressed interest in your services, and you said that you weren’t going to participate in the requested arrangement.”
    “That’s right. I won’t sleep with a guy for money because I’m not a hooker.”
    “You don’t get to say what you will or won’t do, Miss Hartley. You work for us and you’ll do what the client tells you to do.”
    His confidence had unnerved her, but she fought back. “I don’t work for you and prostitution’s illegal.”
    “I have the contracts you signed in front of me right now,” Max stated, his voice calm and terrible and cold. “So although you might feel you don’t work for us, these very same contracts tell a different story. You do work for us, and we expect you to honor your contract.”
    “Or what?” she said, laughing, almost wanting to upset him now. “I’m dead broke, buddy. Go ahead and sue me if you want, I really don’t care. But you better stop calling me, because I’m not afraid to let the police know what you’re doing, and I also have a lot of friends who won’t take very kindly to your threats either.”
    There was a long pause and she thought maybe the creep had finally hung up, but then he breathed a low, soft sigh into the other end of the phone. “You will honor your contract, Miss Hartley.”
    And then there was a click and he was gone.

----
    R aven couldn’t stop thinking about Max Mendez and Club Alpha after she’d gotten off the phone with him.
    On her way to work, she searched for both Max and Club Alpha on the Internet and came up with absolutely nothing. There were no forum posts, no Wiki entries, no websites registered to Club Alpha, nothing at all.
    At first, she wanted to believe that meant this guy was just bullshitting her, trying to scam her or something. But deep down, in the pit of her stomach, Raven knew that there was something serious going on, and that it wasn’t over by any stretch.
    After all, Jake had mentioned them last night—not by name, but he’d definitely been referring to them when he said they should book a meeting through her agency. And she’d seen the name Club Alpha on that contract she’d signed as well.
    Why did you sign those papers without even looking at them? What were you thinking?
    She was furious at herself for letting the moment get away from her and once again impulsively acting without thinking of the consequences. She’d been just as impulsive and thoughtless when she was seventeen and it had nearly cost her everything.

----
    W hen Raven got to the restaurant, she saw Skylar was already sitting at a table and rolling silverware, getting ready to open for lunch.
    “Hey,” Raven said, sitting down across from her.
    Skylar looked up, eyes wide, smiling. “Hey, you! Crazy night, huh?”
    “Too crazy,” Raven said. She grabbed a napkin, fork, knife and spoon. “When did you leave?”
    “Not that long after you,” Skylar said. “Some old guy came up and started chatting to me about five-star restaurants and asking whether I liked Sushi, but he was like five feet tall and a little smelly. I made excuses and got the heck out of there.”
    “Gross,” Raven agreed, wrinkling up her nose.
    “Can you believe that Jake Novak talked to you?” Skylar asked. “I was, like, totally blown away. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
    Raven didn’t want to get into that, nor did she want to admit that he’d followed her downstairs and asked her on a date of sorts. That would have led to a lot of other revelations that she wasn’t quite ready to share just yet.
    But she was curious. “Hey, did anyone call you last night or this morning? Anyone from the party?”
    “The party?” Skylar asked, her brow furrowing. “I didn’t give anyone my number.”
    “So some guy named Max didn’t call you or leave you any voicemails?”
    Skylar stopped rolling silverware and looked at her suspiciously. “Are you still drunk,