THE CONTROL: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Elena Monroe (ebook reader android .txt) 📕

She was taking my silence as some kind of issue instead of the venomous personality trait that it was. “I was ignoring you like I do all stupidity. Is there another reason you're here, gossip queens?”

Justice was wound up so tight that if we let go she could start a hurricane. She could talk to anyone else the way she wanted to, and it was clear Vic saw it as foreplay, but my dick wasn’t touching her kind of crazy with a ten-foot pole so she can lose the attitude with me.

Grace spoke from the other side of the room while fingering whatever was over there. “Just get to the point. He’s obviously cutting to the chase.” With a small pause she groaned facing my direction. “They want to throw her a bachelorette party. Pretty sure they just want to scope her out.”

“Out of the question.”

Abigail acted as the kind verbal backup with Grace as the strong arm. But Justice, their mouthpiece, spoke up against the injustice with such ease it made my eyes want to roll back, but instead, I drank more of my spiked coffee. “So we can’t ever be around her? What is she… a prisoner? Slave?”

Sitting back and closing the window on the desktop Mac, I scavenged their faces for an ulterior motive. Coming up empty, I pondered how much innocent hands can quickly turn into something else.

It starts subtly and ends in a kind of dirty that makes you so angry that all the other kinds of emotions don’t even catch your eye. Who would have thought uninvited hands had the power to keep you angry?

I was all too comfortable with how things turn corrupt without any real warning signs.

Every glaring set of eyes was judging Eve marrying me before they knew her, or knew us, and it was a sure fire way to piss me off.

“Imprisoned by a ring and slave to the rules of the Clave; the same as you all. I don’t need her joining your merry band of cohorts and annoying me more than she does. Take your fucking unwelcomed judgement somewhere else.”

What in the actual fuck? Why were they even here to pass judgement? Hilarious coming from a gangbanger, a feminist on crack, and... Abigail, who I actually couldn’t say much about when we shared a similar past.

One that left visible scars on her from what I’ve heard.

They were still standing in front of my desk looking at me like they could break me when I was already a broken boy and even more bruised of a man. The job was already complete.

“You’re dismissed.” Picking up my phone, it rang until Dante answered. I had business to attend to, and if they wanted the details of my job then they were welcome to stay and listen, but I wasn’t their husbands. What I do is much worse.

Donte’s gruff voice filled my ear while Justice narrowed her focus on me, trying to challenge me to say something terrible and I was about to, she just needed to wait for it. “You called me five times last night. Issue?”

I didn’t break eye contact with Justice when I sat back into my chair as I listened to Donte’s cracked voice explain that there was an incident in my absence last night when I stayed home with Eve.

Apparently, one of the girls didn’t like Donte’s version of manhandling and tried to bite his tongue off when he shoved it in her mouth but making any moves past a slap on the wrist was something I had to approve of.

On a labored exhale, I spoke easily into my phone hanging off my ear, “No one said you could touch the merchandise. Those girls aren’t for you to test drive, Donte.”

Justice’s eyes flared, and she tensed in an obvious way when her whole body squared to mine like she was begging me to stand up and let her give me her worst. I hung up the phone while Donte pleaded his case to me, because unlike Vic, the only other person he dealt with, I would hurt him in ways he wouldn’t want to come back from.

My twisted mind worked differently than Vic’s. Mine didn’t care about strategy or winning, but painting the world black enough for me to blend into.

Dropping the phone to my desk, I pressed my elbows into the surface, leaning forward when I took her attention hostage. “Is there a reason your offended ass isn’t leaving? Scared you’ll like it if you stay or that I'll corrupt you in ways good ole’ golden boy can’t?”

My virgin dick wasn’t going to touch her if my dying breath depended on it, but she didn’t need to know the extent of the games I played.

Grace grabbed Justice by the arm and yanked her from her position, convincing her to drop it even when I kept my eyes glued to her long enough to make sure she knew she lost this round.

That was enough of a treat for me considering how much she was exactly like Vic.

I started counting down from ten in my head, waiting to see Vic barge through my door with complaints I made his wife feel funny.

Forewarning: I make everyone feel funny.

Downing my spiked coffee, I let the black screen illuminate on my desktop with the Clave logo and a simple login that granted me access. Only big players had access and our limit for gathering information knew no bounds. If I wanted to know your credit score, I could.

I didn’t want to know anything but why my brother killed himself and why the only person to truly have my back was ripped away from my life like a fresh band aid.

None of that was accessible, trust me, I tried the