The Arrangement (unenhanced Edition) by AnnaRCase (books to read now .txt) 📖

   Amberleigh ascended the fancy, carved spiral staircase, holding her breathe at what she may find when she reached the top. Her mind was swirling with lots of possibilities, but it was unprepared for what she found. She almost preferred it had been a body or a torture chamber. Because that way it would have been easier to try and remain unattached to the elusive, cold billionaire. Their arrangement was meant to be no strings attached after all.

The first thing that caught her eye was a tie-dye beanbag, so out of character for the rest of the master suite, and even the whole penthouse. The bag was faded and careworn, and even had an indent in the center, as if it seen a lot of ass in its time. She couldn’t help but immerse herself deeper in this enigma tucked away in the Godwin’s private chambers.

A desk built into the wall held a variety of boyish odds and ends such a model Porsche, a faded baseball glove, some old baseball cards, some collector sneakers, an old school boom box, and comic books.  A hockey stick was resting against the side of the desk.

But her eyes were drawn to a framed photo on the desk and she couldn’t help but bring it in for a closer look. It didn’t take too long to figure out who the teenaged boys in the photo was, clearly Grayson and his older brother Adam. And not in some formal, stiff portrait their parents forced them to sit for, but sitting on a park bench on a sunny summer day. Adam had Grayson in a headlock, both smiling, happier, carefree days. If she had to guess, Adam was no older than sixteen in the photo and Grayson fourteenish. They resembled each other quite a bit, nearly twins, but on closer inspection, Adam had dark eyes, and Grayson had a longer haircut.

Along the other wall of the space was a built in bookcase with a nice collection of graphic novels and historical books, or so she discovered when she pulled a few out. Grayson was a history buff so it seemed, which made sense considering his weapons collections.  But it was when she noticed a trophy on the bookcase, that the truth of this place, hit her hard. Junior Hockey League MVP 2034 Adam Godwin, etched into the trophy. This place was a shrine, to a brother who died way too soon.

It was also Adam’s name she saw written in the autographed poster of some Indie band on the wall. And scrawled in the cover of a book on the desk. All the items in this loft had probably belonged to Adam, and her eyes burned when she discovered another cache of pictures of him in a box on a bookshelf. She was just about to take the box and sit in the beanbag to look over the pictures, when her alarm dinged warning her she had five minutes. The maids would return any minute now. She reluctantly closed the lid on the picture of a little boy in his school uniform missing his front teeth. She scolded herself from straying so far from her mission.

She was careful to make sure everything was the way she’d found it before she took the spiral stairs at a run. It made her dizzy by the time she reached the bottom. She needed to focus on her original objective as she was running out of time. But she couldn’t keep her thoughts away from Adam. It had been headline news all-over the fuckin planet practically. The nineteen- year- old had taken a curb too fast in his Porsche, plunged down a ravine, and the car went up in a ball of flames seen for miles away. Many people mourned at the loss of such a young man with such a bright future in front of him. The Godwin’s disappeared from the public eye for a couple months afterwards.

Amberleigh had never really thought to consider the toll his death must have taken on his younger brother. It had been seven years, but clearly Grayson had never really gotten over that loss, if so why did he hide any traces of his brother away? Why not have his things and photos around the penthouse? Was it too painful out in the open for him?

Those were questions for another time, as now her time was down to a couple minutes at the most. She sprinted into his adjoining bathroom suite and threw open his medicine cabinet. She had no time to be searching through his sock drawer and shit. And she was rewarded for her efforts too. Pill bottles, prescribed to a Gabriel Voss lined the shelves. She quickly snapped pictures of all the labels before closing the cabinet and running for the door.

She was running so fast, she legit slid a bit across the marbles floor when she came to a quick stop to search the hall. She heard voices coming from the kitchen. Fuck! It was now or never, as she mad a mad dash out to her bedroom. To her knowledge, she hadn’t been seen, but not a lot she could fuckin do at the moment regardless as she locked her room behind her.

For the next several minutes, Amberleigh filtered through the photos of the pills in Grayson’s room and searched the internet for more information regarding their contents. It soon became evident why he would use a fake name to get his pills also. If word got  out about the pills he popped, it would ruin him no fuckin doubt about it.

 Diazepam, risperidone, fluoxetine, tetrabenazine, lamotrigine. It was far from a pretty picture being painted in her mind. Grayson Godwin was on an arsenal of meds commonly used to treat anxiety, depression, seizures, but worse yet also mood stabilizers and antipsychotics. What the fuck? Just who the fuck was this guy? Some overstressed, poor billionaire who never recovered from the trauma of losing his brother? Or some dangerous, unstable man who had a dark closet full of skeletons? Just what else was he fuckin hiding?