The Hostage (Book 2 of The Arrangement Series)

Amberleigh Dubois was still clutching the pregnancy test in her hand when the driver pulled up to The Cobra Club. It had felt like a million tiny, little hammers were pounding against her fucking skull the whole twenty minute ride from the penthouse of railroad tycoon Grayson Godwin. And her stomach felt sick again. She was doing her best not to have a complete psychotic break in the back of the roomy, black Lincoln Town car.

                Not that anyone could really blame her given her current fucked up situation. Two months ago, one of the most powerful men in the city had pulled her to his penthouse in The Cobra Club and given her a shady offer she couldn’t refuse. Grayson Godwin offered her two million dollars to have his child. She knew from the start the offer seemed too good to be true and was suspicious as fuck. But she had little choice but to accept. You don’t say no to a Godwin after all.

                And it certainly was no fucking fairytale, her beginnings in the swanky high-rise of the billionaire. Grayson Godwin was a busy man, who treated her like an annoying client he was obligated to fit into his busy schedule and nothing more. He would treat her like she didn’t exist most of the time, then slip into her room late at night, and put his dick inside her with the least amount of enthusiasm, talking, touching, and passion possible. Good fucking times indeed.

It was a dreary, boring existence only made bearable by his personal chef and friend Leonardo Clemonte. Leo was the only bright spot in that dark beginning. He kept her sane, kept her company, and they soon grew close. Leo didn’t treat her like a hired whore, but rather a human being. And perhaps more than just friendship developed between them.

But the chef was loyal to his friend which kept him from crossing that ultimate line and kept Amberleigh from breaking the terms of the contract. For Grayson Godwin was a man who had to be in absolute control and she’d basically signed her body and life away to the billionaire for a year. She regretted that decision many times afterwards and fantasized it was Leo in the billionaire’s stead.

But beyond being treated like an unwanted inconvenience, it soon became clear to the intrepid Amber, that the billionaire was hiding something. Not only was Grayson a different person behind closed doors with his friend Leo,-a person she would actually like-but he was hiding something far more sinister. She made it her mission to discover just who the fuck she was sleeping with. Meds she found by breaking into his room raised some troubling concerns that Amberleigh may just be getting into bed with a psycho.

But the truth turned out to be far worse in her opinion. After she and the billionaire made a breakthrough of sorts,(which had only taken him to get drunk as fuck to confess his true feelings and bring that fiery passion she’d craved), Amberleigh was once again blindsided. Caught in a lie, it appeared he was creeping to another woman’s bed right after he promised her she was the only one. Right after they had fucked each other liked they meant it and made promises to explore their relationship and feelings further.

Feeling scorned and angry with herself for getting too attached, Amber had tailed the billionaire, but it wasn’t to a hotel room he went, but rather the grave of his brother. During a heartbreaking and private graveside chat with the older brother he still mourned, Grayson Godwin dropped the bomb which exploded apart the dreamy fantasy world Amberleigh been building in her mind.

 Truth be told, it would have been easier to accept if the billionaire had been fucking someone else. The truth was far more grim, Grayson Godwin was born with a fatal brain disease that would debilitate him before finally killing him.  There was no cure and he would slowly lose his ability to think, walk, breathe, lose every part of himself possible. He wouldn’t live to be old and grey.

If that wasn’t enough of a shock to deal with, Amberleigh lost her fucking mind when she discovered Grayson had a fifty percent chance of passing the disease onto his children. Her child. That rather than risking the world knowing his secret, to protect the image of his company, he was willing to play Russian Roulette with his child’s life. Naturally, that didn’t go over too well with Amberleigh. She lost her shit on him and gave the billionaire a piece of her mind.

That had been two weeks ago. He’d released her from the contract then and she was hell-bent on leaving his selfish, lying ass behind. Now she wished to God she had just fucking walked away then. But no, like a fucking idiot, she decided to stay, though on her own terms. The billionaire had successfully sucked her back in. Played her supremely.  Said all the right words, did all the right things, especially with his tongue. Then he fucked her royally again, though this time not in a fun way. It was all just a week before they were set to jet off to Spain to a fertility clinic to ensure a healthy child would be implanted inside her.

Only an hour or so before Amberleigh found herself in this hired car, she and Leo had returned from a pleasant evening stroll in the park in the heart of Omega City. Well pleasant until Amber had heaved up the contents of her stomach. Leo had suggested she take a pregnancy test just to be on the safe side. She tried to convince the chef and herself she wasn’t pregnant.

But a nasty little surprise awaited both of them upon their return to the penthouse. It was like some cosmic joke really, like oh, you’re finally happy and killin’ it out there Amber, hold my beer and watch this. There was Grayson and his ex-fiancé Courtney Van Tessin, now sporting a diamond the size of  a golf ball, as the happy couple announced their engagement. What the fucking hell! But the further kick to her symbolic balls came not when the billionaire revoked the contract and kicked her ass to the curb with the other trash, but from the results of the pregnancy test still embedded in her palm. The one she’d humored herself and peed on just before she vacated his penthouse. But even though she now began to laugh again, there wasn’t anything remotely funny about the words Pregnant.

So, for the second time in her twenty-two years, Amberleigh Dubois found herself pregnant with a child the father didn’t want. Even though Grayson had no idea he’d successfully knocked her up, he’d made his decision. He would father a crop of blonde, pale children with that stuck up cunt heiress despite how many times Courtney had cheated on him in the past.

 Fuck Amberleigh and fuck the baby inside her, as both were unwanted. But unlike last time around, at only sixteen with nothing to her name, this time things were so much fucking worse for her. Because even though she could probably squeeze enough child support out of the billionaire to live like a fucking queen, no amount of money in the world could save this child if it was in fact a carrier for its father’s genetic disease. Poor kid, barely a bun in the oven and already having shit odds stacked against it.

The driver was looking at her like she lost her fucking mind as she laughed herself to tears in the backseat. He opened his mouth to say something, then seemingly thought better of it. He didn’t get paid enough to deal with this shit or care as he opened her car door then went to get her luggage from the trunk. She wiped at her eyes with a napkin and slipped her dirty little secret back into her cosmetic bag. If she stopped laughing, she was liable to start screaming. And she didn’t know if she’d be able to stop herself.

She glanced up at the familiar sight before her eyes. She had to crane her neck back to look at the massive, black S-shaped building as it soared a hundred and fifty stories up into the sky. The pinnacle was the golden cobra head nestled atop, and through its eyes the two most powerful men in the city could look down at the world beneath their feet. For they pretty much owned it, John Leda and Cole Godwin, Grayson’s father. It wouldn’t be too much longer before Grayson was the one in charge of their railroad empire as Cole was nearing retirement. Going into hiding pretty much to keep the world from finding out he was greatly affected from the disease he’d passed onto to his son.

And it was up in that very penthouse, she’d first come face to face with Grayson Andre Godwin. Now she would give anything for him to have chosen another girl.  Though she didn’t regret meeting Leo and their time together. Leo would always remain that silver lining in this whole clusterfuck.

Somehow, his friend Grayson had found out about the healthy son she’d given up for adoption six years before. The billionaire had found out a lot about her, reading her life from a file as if he were reading a grocery list or something. The club had basically agreed to loan her out as he’d paid them handsomely in exchange.

But still this club had been good to Amberleigh and she owed them her very life. It had found her addicted, scrawny seventeen-year-old ass on the streets of The Fringe and taken her in. Sobered her up, gave her a purpose, and a roof over her head. And she’d come to find she liked sex and she was damn good at it too.

She’d quickly climbed the ranks in The Circus Room and became quite the club favorite. She’d always been flexible and now she got paid for it. Her contortionist act was top notch as was her unique sexual positions the men and women of this city were unlikely to find in their own bedrooms. Not to mention, the company usually wasn’t all that bad either.

Her only true friend Ebony was a rival here, but she couldn’t imagine a life without her. Ebony was a gorgeous, dark skinned Goddess indeed, who gave Amber a run for her money. They had even tried the more than friend’s thing in the past, but bottom line was, Amber had always preferred dicks. Well maybe not anymore. Perhaps she would be switching teams again after this shit. Or at the very least cut off Grayson Godwin’s dick and shove it firmly down his throat.

The driver carried her bags to the back door before he left her ass in the parking lot. Traffic was already becoming a fucking nightmare around the club. In the front of the building, the line probably stretched down several blocks of those patrons waiting to get in.

Amber fumbled with both suitcases in her hands as a bouncer let her in through the back door. She laughed again when she realized it was Tio. The bouncer she had fucked in the elevator the night Grayson proposed his arrangement. Tio had thrown money at her afterwards though she had intended to fuck him pro-bono before her shift.

 A girl like Amberleigh should have been used to getting fucked by now. She had missed this place indeed.  This was where she belonged. And it felt hella good to be home.