Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas

Chapter 1

Asher

6 months later

The amount of glass that’s on the floor in this eerie and dark house is utterly shocking. No one can walk anywhere without feeling the crunch of the skin piercing glass under their shoes.

It’s been a while but it’s time for all of us to move forward. Ever since that fateful day six months ago, nobody has stepped foot back into the Stone’s house, not even the Stones. In all honesty, how can we get back to our normal lives when we just went through hell?

Vito, Mac and I have ten guards in case there is any other problems as we enter Avery’s old house to check it out. We also brought a cleaning crew to get rid of any evidence from that day.

At first the windows were boarded up. This is a nice neighborhood and of course the people started complaining to the HOA, so we hired men to come in and install new windows, but left the rest of the house just sitting the way it was.

I’m not sure why we boarded the house up, maybe it’s because Arya and Garrett wanted it that way. I take in a deep breath and will away the dark and depressing thoughts. That’s all I need is for my men to see me shed a tear or two. I can only imagine what would happen, I would never live this down.

“It could be worse,” Vito says as he walks up behind me. I had to take a deep breath, as I wanted to shout, the fucker scared the shit out of me. Maybe it’s because of who he is, he’s able to sneak up on people like a stealthy rabbit on crack.

He smiles at me with a twinkle in his eye, he knows exactly what he did. Vito and I have grown a lot closer in the last six months than I would’ve ever imagined. He’s the father/grandfather figure I’ve never had and I’m enjoying every minute of it. In our world you never know when things can change, when shit can go sideways.

It’s just nice having someone to look up to. For years I had no one. I’m nineteen-years old and in charge of the East Coast. Vito explained that he doesn’t want to venture out past Chicago, he’s very happy where he is.

That makes me feel better seeing how we’d be going to war if he wanted more. I believe he’s doing it for his granddaughter. Having more power and prestige comes with a lot more money and recognition, I guess. His granddaughter will always be taken care of. I take another deep breath. This time, it didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to.

I’ve got to get out of this funk. I look up and notice Vito watching me. It all makes sense now. We’re here because of what happened, and for some reason I’m not able to move on. It’s severely hard because things hit so close to home. Avery almost died again.

This shit has happened to all of us before but this time it was different, things mean a helluva lot more to me now than they did then.

I walk over to the kitchen island and use my hand to get rid of dust, shards of glass and clumps of dirt.

This is the spot that Avery liked to sit all the time. As soon as I make sure that the chair’s clean enough, I hop up on it. I watch everybody as I take in the scene. Besides me and Vito, Mac was the one that’s been impacted the most. The sadness hasn’t left his face for so long. He lost a lot of good people that were close to him that day.

My mind wanders back, I remember almost every detail of that day. Maybe this is what I needed to do, to let go. I need to relive it one more time.

I’ll never be able to pinpoint exactly what woke me up that night. It could have been a strange noise or a feeling. Something forced me out of bed.

The voices of laughter carry up all the way from the kitchen to our room. Normally I’m a deep sleeper, but something else happened. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary and nobody seems to be in danger.

I could walk down like this, but I don’t think all the guys will appreciate seeing my junk. I get out of bed and find a pair of basketball shorts I wore the other day.

I take my time walking toward the kitchen, looking at the Stone’s house and listening to Avery laugh along with the other guys. Nothing makes me feel better than hearing that my girl’s happy.

As I reached the top of the stairs and make my way down, everyone grows quieter. Not because they noticed I was coming, something else. I walk a little faster trying to find Avery. I don’t have a good feeling.

I don’t have to wait long, as soon as I come down halfway she’s standing right there in front of me, with a big smile plastered on her face. This girl’s my world. Everywhere she goes she has a magnetic pull, people navigate toward her. Even all the damn guards love her.

Noticing Avery is heading toward the stairs, I reach out my hand so she can grab it. I can pull her up the rest of the stairs to meet me halfway, then we can go back to bed together. I give her a smirk letting her know what I’m thinking.

At the same time she looks at me, is the same time everything shifts. I can’t process what I’m seeing. I’m seeing it, but it’s making no sense to me right now. By the time it does make sense, it might be too late.

“Avery, get down!” I start screaming with everything I can. Avery froze, she is in shock and staring at me.

Mac and about five of the other guards come running out into the foyer to see what’s going on. They notice my frantic state and must know something is horribly wrong. All of them freeze in their tracks and start to glance between me and Avery. This whole thing lasted about ten seconds. That’s when I got my ass in gear. I jump off the remaining eight or nine steps. Not the best idea, but I can get there faster if I jump.

Mac picks up on what’s going on fast. He screams in panic at Avery, too. All the guards start running in her direction.

“Avery, get down.”

“Run!”

“Your shirt.”

“Avery.”

“Avery, run.”

Her mouth is open wide as she looks back and forth between everybody that’s yelling at her.

From what seemed to take minutes, was most likely only seconds. All of us were able to get to her.

As soon as we reach her that’s when the sounds of glass exploding starts, and the coppery smell of blood penetrates the air. Even the smell of grass and manure are thick in the air, from when they’ve missed and hit the front yard. I think one person even shot the trashcan.

The only thing I can tell is that the sharpshooters are not close, if they’re missing. Maybe they just suck.

The sound is deafening, it’s an absolute ambush. Someone planned and waited a while to set this up.

I’ve seen this before, I’ve done this before. When you have one target in mind, even if you don’t have other targets, there’s always going to be some collateral damage. In all honesty, the most innocent and sincere one here is Avery, whom is also the target. Luca is still out there.

I’m not a good man anymore, I deserve half of the shit that’s happened now and later on in life. Avery, though, she doesn’t deserve any of this.

Parts of the house that were ripped apart didn’t even have people in them, they were just shredded. I swear they have a group of guys, probably at least ten to fifteen, surrounding the house and just laying some mad fire down. If we take out one guy, another just picks up where he left off.

I feel extremely nauseous as I try to protect my head and everything else from the sharp shards of glass streaming by. The noise is intense, like multiple explosions are happening everywhere: left, right, down and even behind me.

I don’t see Avery anymore. Several of the guys that ran in with Mac are on the floor moaning and crying out in pain. Every part of me wants to see how bad they’re hurt. I’m not doing shit until I can figure out where the fuck Avery went. She was just ten feet in front of me a few seconds ago.

More of mine and Vito’s men have started to run in. I can hear yelling outside the house, so thankfully they figured out what was going on and they’re after the sharpshooters themselves.

“Avery!” The panic starts to build up in me. I can feel it, wanting to explode, to do everything it can to get away. I need to find my girl and I need to find her now.

If I let go, I’m not sure which monster I’ll turn into.

Mac walks back over to me holding onto his shoulder tight.

“You okay man?” I asked him once I see the blood squeezing through his fingers.

Mac gives me a tight nod and continues looking around. He’s searching for more of his men, or ones that might be alive. I know he’s also looking for Avery, too.

Screams can be heard outside, in addition to the grunts and moans of pain from inside.

The house has filled with smoke and a metallic smell from the guns, the blood, sweat and tears of those that have been hit.

It’s so hard to see anything. I take my time as my foot works around on the floor, trying to find anyone or anything.

Taking a shuddering breath, I realize I might not like what I find. I just pray to God that my girl’s okay. Others have been yelling out her name, too, no answer. If this fucking place would just clear out, then we can figure out where the hell Avery’s at.

A chill goes through me as I realize we have dead bodies on the floor from people that were shot. By the vicinity of where Avery was. I start to work my way through the darkness faster, as I realize that Avery could likely be one of these people laying on the floor.

I look around at the people standing up, I haven’t seen Vito for a while. I know he was elsewhere in the house, this is not good.

I see Mac and carefully make my way over to him. Thankfully he didn’t get much farther than when he just talked to me. “Our top priorities right now are Vito and Avery. No one can seem to find either one of them.”

The guys use flashlights on their phones, or flashlights that they’ve been able to find around the house. At least they can make out images on the floor better.

Vito was found in one of the hallways past the foyer over by Garrett and Arya’s office. Thankfully he was just knocked out, probably from the blast. Most of us let out the breath we’ve been holding when Vito walks out with other guards.

“I got knocked on my ass,” Vito says as he fights to regain his consciousness.

Within a minute, all of us are searching for Avery. Most have moved on to different areas, but not Mac. Mac starts thoroughly checking the guys that have fallen in the foyer, right around the time it happened. Others have fallen that came running in after.

“Got her,” Mac yells as we all start to work our way over there.

Every inch of floor isn’t covered in wounded men or dead bodies. They are awkwardly spaced out. Unluckily for them, though, the only thing that matters is Avery. I move fast, I try not to step on anybody but I know I’ve accidentally kicked a couple of men, but no noise followed. My heart tightens at that fact. This has to be killing Mac. He’s like a father figure and an older brother to all these guys.

I bend down next to Mac, my hands won’t stop shaking. Right now I only see two guys laying on their stomachs.

I inch my head a little closer and look down. That’s when I notice the familiar hand I love so much.

“Avery,” I shout as Mac and I painstakingly lift the two dead bodies of our guys off a beaten and bruised Avery, thankfully there’s no critical wounds on her.

My girl looks at me in shock, her eyes are wide open. I could tell she’s trying to talk but she just can’t seem to find the words.

“I got you,” I say to her as I lift her up. I glance toward Mac. “Everybody taken care of outside?”

“Yes, boss,” Mac says as he starts to make sure we have a good path leading out of the house.

Vito Romano is in shock. It’s apparent. You would think the more times you do this, the more you get used to it, but that’s not true. His humility is strong to go through this again, to see his granddaughter like that, it’s probably taking a major toll on him.

I glanced at Vito and Mac remembering that day. They’re doing the same thing, both of them are really deep in thought. We needed this today to help us move on because we lost a lot of people. It will never take away the pain, but hopefully this will ease it.

We offered Avery, Arya and Garrett to come with us but they all refused.

Avery just wants this behind her, and the Stones haven’t had to deal with any of this shit for so long, since they were silent members of the Romano’s, and now it’s blowing up in their face, so that can’t be easy.

I go outside and start to walk around, I’m able to pinpoint a few areas that the sharpshooters were at. Some were close, but most were a few blocks away. Easier escape that way. When our guys started taking out the closer shooters, the other’s packed up their shit and left.

I smile when I remember how much the guards have taken to Avery. Not one of them sat and watched when things started to go down. When they saw those red dots on her chest, they all moved into action. They were willing to give their life to save hers, and some of them did.

Avery knows this, as well, and that’s why she’s having a hard time coming back from everything. Vito’s a lot better now, I think he’s just more pissed.

When I get into the backyard over by the shed, I hear a strange noise. There shouldn’t be anything out here making noise. The shooters that were still here going after us were either killed or they just left.

I look a little closer and open the door to the shed and then I start to laugh. “Well damn, you’re going to make everybody’s day, aren’t you?”

It’s the little things that matter. This surprise isn’t going to fix everything, but the pain will be lifted.