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

didn’t plan for. Where there had been a vacant space, she filled it with all the ways she wanted me to love her.

Sitting back on my heels, I kept my face close to hers. “I do love you, Evey. You need intimacy right now, not sex. We both have to learn what those look like. I have a feeling your scars look like mine.”

Leaning in, I kissed her nose trying to prove to myself there were definitive lines between the two, this was the intimacy that I never got in all those summer nights. “Try to sleep it off. I’ll be downstairs.”

Pulling away completely, I disappeared into my closet in search of some workout clothes before I changed into them. I had a bag downstairs hanging from the ceiling that I took my aggression out on when killing someone was unacceptable.

With my Under Armour on and my wraps hanging over my shoulder, I glanced towards Evey who was now fast asleep again under the influence of Henny.

Downstairs, I had a space with a bag and a ring; I wasn’t a professional, but hitting things made it easier to not kill people.

Wrapping my fingers, snaking through each one, I jogged down the stairs already feeling relief just being down here. Dropping my hands down, I felt the new weight of the wraps that are supposed to protect my hands. Normally the taste for blood soaks through, leaving bruises instead of blood stains.

Warming up, I bounced on my toes and tapped the bag lightly—enough to get reacquainted with the leather.

Boxing is supposed to silence the demons, but my demons grew too big and now I was forced to hear their complaints.

Through all the thoughts, theories, truths, and lies swimming around my head, all my demons were on the same page: Elias was the root of Eve’s pain.

Jab.

And for that he had to die. It would be the only way she’d start to heal.

Jab.

I was determined to break the bag when I kept driving my hands into the it with the idea of killing him pulling my lips into a smirk.

I kept punching until my lungs and arms burned too much to keep going.

My mouth tried to take giant breaths of air in but I was pulsing against recovery when my stomach clenched into a ball. Just making it to the trash can, I threw up all the humanity and feelings poisoning my body that only knew how to survive—not feel.

Wiping my mouth with the spare towels I kept downstairs, I tried to relax while my forearms rested on the top of my head.

My phone vibrated and lit up with the name mom, forcing me to answer the phone as I stayed silent waiting for her to speak.

“Bowen,” she said it like it was some kind of new punctuation when I took a deep breath.

“Yes, mother?”

Pulling the phone away from my ear, I put it on speaker and fell down to the bench waiting for whatever she had to say.

“Tell me you weren’t responsible…” her voice wasn’t angry or even annoyed, she simply wanted to know.

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head in disbelief realizing I should just start saying yes if I was going to be questioned by everyone. “No, mother, I didn’t kill her parents. Vic has that market covered. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

I could hear the disappointment in her voice that I wasn’t responsible for slaying Eve’s demons.

Her parents weren’t the demons; it was Elias who made her uncomfortably scared.

“Two days, Bowen. Presence is required when the Clave is footing the bill. We’ll have the wake here, closed caskets, and then the bodies will be flown to Denmark. Two days.” She stressed the days more than once and I couldn’t figure out why before the line went dead.

Holding my phone between my legs, I toyed with her illusive clues to something I didn’t know I was searching for.

My mother certainly knew more than she was saying.

Two days until the wake.

All my mind thought about was this would be two days of babysitting Eve with hopefully some form of detox from all of her drinking before the wake.

Making all the necessary arrangements, I texted Donte and the guys to make sure my ass was covered from unexpected guests showing up.

ME: Taking a few days off for a wake.

DONTE: Celebrating your deaths too? Did it lose the spark?

ME: Won’t be at work for a few days.

VIC: Let us know if you need anything.

Cursing out loud, it just dawned on me that I left the folder on my desk. I looked up at the ceiling trying to contemplate if I could leave Eve alone long enough to go back to get it.

Jogging upstairs, I checked on her once more, still passed out, before I grabbed my keys and headed for the office still in my workout clothes.

Using my teeth, I unwrapped my hand one at a time, cruising down the road at a rapid speed. My neighbor across the road was some old woman who was infamous in my life for calling the cops. With Rodriguez on our side, shit was easier to deal with but still annoying.

If anyone woke up Eve sleeping off a hangover, I might just succumb to being the unhinged murderer everyone apparently thinks I am.

I didn’t even bother turning off my car or closing the door when I took the stairs three at a time up to my office. I was trying to be quick, keep my head down and avoid any kind of triggers of me being here after hours. Breezing past the desk that Chevy normally sat at, I pushed open my door to see her sitting at my desk.

A place she hated even entering. She never closed the door