Candy Crush Read Online Free

turned
to him and whispered suggestively, “ I was hoping you’d offer
your bed .”
    In reality, she said, “The real estate
company said there is an apartment above the candy store. I planned
to stay there.”
    Brandon gave the candy store a dubious look.
“Maybe I should go with you, check for raccoons again,” he
suggested.
    She hesitated.
    “After seeing the state of the store, are
you sure you want to be alone when you check out that
apartment?”
    Gabriella sighed and gestured at the alley
that ran behind the row of stores on the candy store’s block. “Lead
the way,” she said, sounding resigned.
    ***
    Behind each business there was a small area
of asphalt with a small dumpster parked to the side of the back
door. Each business also had a large spotlight, shining over each
back door. Gabriella wondered if the apartment over the candy store
had heavy drapes, otherwise she’d never get to sleep with all the
lights glaring into the windows.
    They walked in and out of shadows, as they
passed each spotlight in turn. Gabriella had taken off Butter’s
leash and she wandered around the alley, sniffing dumpsters and
watering clumps of weeds.
    Gabriella could see the stairs leading up to
the apartment above the candy store. The staircase was outside the
building and was exposed until the top, where a small tin roof
covered the balcony that jutted out from the back of the building.
When they reached the stairs, Brandon held out his hand, palm up.
Without a word, Gabriella handed him the keys and followed him up
the rickety stairs. Butter climbed the steps behind her.
    “One of my cousins is a carpenter. I’ll
mention these stairs to him. He’ll probably be here Saturday,”
Brandon said when he reached the top.
    He unlocked the door and stepped inside,
flipping the nearest light switch as he did so. Gabriella was
relieved when a bright light popped on. And then she gasped.
    The apartment had either been ransacked or
there had been a struggle of some sort. The eat-in kitchen and
living area was all one room, and while the kitchen appeared
relatively unscathed, the living area was virtually destroyed. A
couch sat in the middle of the room, its cushions and arms in
shreds. A chair was upended next to it, with springs sticking out
the bottom. An old box television with a smashed screen lay on the
floor. Pictures hung haphazardly from the walls. Most had broken
frames and broken glass. The coffee table was in two pieces,
splintered wood sticking out every which way.
    “Whoever was here last was really pissed
off,” Brandon said as he stepped around the debris and walked down
a short hall to look in the bathroom and bedroom. “The bathroom
looks okay but the bedroom is ransacked as well. The bed looks like
someone took a knife to it. And I think there might be something
living back there. I think you should stay somewhere else tonight.
Maybe for the rest of the week, until my family can get in here and
get this cleaned up. I don’t suppose you have an alternate place to
stay?”
    Gabriella shook her head dismally. This was
not at all what she expected to find when she’d decided to start
her life over. She expected a little dust, maybe some dated
furniture, but at least she expected it to be inhabitable. She
suddenly felt overly depressed and exhausted. “I guess I’d better
go find a hotel.”
    “There aren’t any hotels in this town.”
    “There has to be a hotel,” Gabriella said, a
tinge of desperation in her voice.
    Brandon shook his head. “Just a couple of
bed and breakfasts at two-hundred dollars a night each.”
    Gabriella blinked up at him, desperation
shining in her eyes. She couldn’t afford to stay in a
two-hundred-dollar-a-night bed and breakfast. She had already
dumped almost all of her savings into this candy store, and at the
moment, she did not have a source of income.
    “I’m sure I’ll manage,” she choked out as
she shifted her gaze to the hall leading to the bedroom.
    Brandon