Page 38 of The Professor's Possession (Crystal River Billionaire Brothers)

I bite on my lip, drawing blood that leaks into my mouth. I am frustrated, that’s for sure. Uncharacteristically so.

I am irked.

Agitated.

Troubled.

I sound like a broken record player, butnogirl rejects me, especially my dream girl.

This must be fixed, or I am sure I will fall into madness.

18

OLIVIA

Okay,there is only one way to stop this obsession – only one way to stop all this time spent thinking about my professor – and that is to simply find out more about him. I reckon it’s time to dispel the mystery that has been building in my head and bring him back down to reality from being some enigmatic man with the cool voice and intelligent eyes to something morereal. I simply need to make him like every other ordinary, boring man on this planet, and that will stop all these crazy little theories bouncing around my head.

Ishouldbe working on my coursework, but I really can’t concentrate because ofhimplaguing my thoughts. Even my normal coping mechanism of going for insanely long runs isn’t helping. Neither is getting a peek at his house. This is getting beyond control; I need to dosomethingto end this once and for all.

Because of all this, I head to Crystal River’s public library - just down the same street as The Oak in the center of town. I am very much tempted to drop by the coffee shop for one of their famous almond croissants on the way to the library, but I need to work, and so I stumble past and avoid gazing inside at all the delicious treats on display.

No more distractions. Time to end this craziness.

The first thing I do when I arrive at the library is to ask the assistant at the reception for all newspapers relating to the Penmayne family. The response I get is a curious raised eyebrow.

“You want to know about the Penmaynes?” the assistant asks me, her glasses balancing precariously on the edge of her nose.

“Yeah.”

She sighs. “You don’t want to go digging around there, trust me. Not that family.”

“Why not?”

“You do know who they are, right? What powers they have? They have a reputation of not being too kind on people who snoop around their affairs.”

“They don’t make people disappear, do they? Sounds like they’re supervillains.”

The assistant smiles warily. “I would say you’re not far off.”

“It’s for a college project,” I lie. “I need info on famous Crystal River families, and it seems they’re the ones way above all others.”

“Well, it’s your funeral,” the assistant shrugs before helping me collect the newspaper files on the computer. “Good luck.”

It certainly seems like the family has spent a fortune trying to keep their privacy from the prying world. There isn’t much written about them over the years despite their fame and wealth. Even though the father owns a global media empire with the estimated revenue of a small sovereign European country, they’re all really hushed up with their family’s affairs.

I guess they really don’t want people snooping...

Sure, there’s a lot of talk and speculation about the family. The internet is awash with conspiracy theories and memes fordays, and it goes back to even before social media. It seems like the rumor mills have been turning overtime for a long time about the Penmayne family and their power and influence and their dating lives, but I can see it’s all pure conjecture. Nothing concrete at all. Not what I’m looking for.

I skim-read through the few articles about them. At least having read as many books as I have, I’ve developed an ability to scan through unhelpful paragraphs quickly.

There is one article about one of Damon Penmayne’s companies being valued at a billion dollars. He’s the so-called criminal one that Ava warned me about. I see that he owns an alcohol company. I read a local newspaper talking about a brewery he operates just outside Crystal River, giving jobs back to the town. Probably a good cover for his criminal work.

In the same newspaper, I read about Connor Penmayne saving someone from a collapsing building in Crystal River a year ago. He’s a firefighter in town, it seems. I see that he’s rejected his family’s money for a life of service to the community, a far cry from the wealth of his father or the crimes of his brother. Good for him.

A lot of articles are about Victor Penmayne: a rising actor in Hollywood. He’s done profile pieces in international magazines and newspapers promoting his movies. He’s a Penmayne Ihaveheard of, though I never made the connection between him and this family until now. I’ve even seen a couple of his movies. I don’t think he’s ever been nominated for any big awards. Seems like he’s on the hunt for one of those gold statues by the amount of press he’s done. But, even then, he is coy and secretive about his family and personal life in interviews. He always bats away any journalist questions about the Penmaynes in an easy-going, charming Hollywood style. The man may appear to be a shallow narcissistic actor, but he clearly knows the power of his name and family. There is definitely more to him than his pretty-boy star looks.

But I’m not looking for the brothers - I’m looking for only one man. The only one on my mind.Spencer.

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