Read Online Losing Control by Summer Mackenzie - Free Book Online Page B

I opened my eyes, Lane was stirring. And then he got up, sat on the edge of the bed and started rubbing his eyes. I felt relief for the first time. Lane saw me and knew something was wrong.
    “What happened?” he asked, because he obviously couldn’t remember.
    “I found you in that rotten place,” I said. “Brought you here. You can’t remember because you were barely conscious.”
    Lane looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry.”
    I wanted to say so much.
    “How long have you been going there?”
    “Thorne—”
    “ How long Lane? ” My voice came out shaking and loud.
    Lane said nothing.
    I felt rage.
    But I also felt powerless, incapacitated.
    I got up from the chair and went over to him. “Lane,” I said and couldn’t help that tears were forming in my eyes. “You need to stop, man. You…you need to stop this shit! This isn’t you! You need to stop—” the sentence wasn’t finished when Lane stood and hugged me.
    “I’m sorry,” he said and I could tell he was choking up on his words too. “I won’t do it again, I promise.”
    I couldn’t think.
    The sight of him with those people in that place, it kept coming back to me and I couldn’t stop the hurt. “Lane—”
    He pulled away and looked at me. “You have to trust me,” he said and I could see the sincerity in his eyes, in his voice. “This won’t happen again. I’m sorry.” And then he hugged me once more.
    “Can we go get breakfast?” he said. “I’m starving.”
    I pulled away. “Of course.”
    He rushed to the bathroom.
    “Where do you want to go?” I asked.
    “Same place.”
    I felt a strange wave of anger. Lane stopped and turned to me. “I really do like that place,” he said. “You’ll be with me. I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”
    I wanted to trust him.
    “Okay,” I said. “We can go.”
    I couldn’t make some place my weakness. It was just breakfast. I would be with him the whole time, and I doubted that friend of his would come near us again.
    There was nothing to worry about.

ELENA

     
     
     
     
     
    Training was finally over, and we were actually getting some work done. It wasn’t easy and there were things that kept bothering me. Someone’s attitude, some task that I couldn’t manage to finish, lack of creativity when there was dire need for it—yes, it’s hardly perfect. But there was something about immersing myself in work that was fulfilling in a different kind of way. I know it wasn’t even going to last that long, which was why I gave it my all because I really wanted things to work out. Needless to say, there were also plenty of late nights and frustrating moments where nothing seemed to go right but because I was really happy with the job overall, I let it all slide.
    I was even better friends with Alex and Tristan and they actually did turn out to be nice people, even though they were as judgmental about everyone still as they were the first day I met them. I think it was some kind of self-defense mechanism—they judged people before other people could start judging them. Thorne was just the high profile CEO we barely got to see. Sometimes we crossed paths in the elevator or walking towards our floor. A man in his position could have made my life miserable, considering he was my employer and I kind of turned him down, but he was incredibly professional despite everything that happened. In fact, he didn’t even look too concerned or interested in me anymore. So basically, he wasn’t hiding a grudge and he wasn’t trying to flirt with me: both good things and more than I could hope for because I was still trying to stay away from men in general.
    It was Sunday and we were at a breakfast place on our street that Penny loves so much. I was outside, trying to search for my phone in my purse which was never easy, as I’ve mentioned before. I had to call to Tristan and when Tristan was waiting for someone’s call and they didn’t call, he got ugly. And he tended to get annoyed which meant