Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas
Chapter 13
Asher
The nudge against my right arm has me jerking my eyes wide awake. Vito Romano is in my fucking room in the middle of the night nudging me awake.
At first my fighting stance was in position, I was ready to knock a bitch out until I saw who it was. It could only mean one thing if he’s in my room in the middle of the night trying to wake me up.
“What’s wrong?” I whisper snap at him.
Vito doesn’t say anything, he just glances from me to Avery, who was thankfully still passed out. He then glances from me to the doorway letting me know that he needs to talk to me.
Thankfully, Vito waits for me in the hall as I try my fastest to get ready. But everybody knows if you try to put pants on while you’re half-asleep, your ass is going to end up on the floor. The good news is I’m much better than everybody else. I chuckle to myself as I walk out the door.
My body stiffens right when I walk out and I catch Mac and Vito with grim expressions on their face. I don’t even get a chance to ask what’s going on before Vito starts talking. At least we’re far enough away from the door that we don’t have to worry about Avery hearing or waking up.
“The Delano’s were attacked last night. From the reports and from what we’ve been able to gather, they were dead before their house was burned down,” Vito says. Something else is on his mind.
I keep rubbing my eyes and I’m grateful when Mac and Vito start in the direction of the kitchen, because I need some fucking coffee.
The guys let me make some coffee and sit at the island, inhaling a few sips before we continue talking about this. It has to relate somehow or there’s no reason that they would’ve woke me up in the middle the night.
Mac leans against the counter next to the fridge, a ways from me. He’s keeping tabs of everything. He’s guarding us while we’re talking. Always a soldier.
“One of the housekeeping staff called me a couple hours ago.” Vito can see the confusion on my face. “Delano’s housekeeping staff. Apparently Luca decided to end his parents last night and take over their rein.”
“No shit,” I say staring straight ahead, my thoughts occupying every second of my mind. I feel no sympathy for those people whatsoever, and I doubt if anybody else does, either. They deserve it.
I snap my head up to Vito and Mac. “What does this have to do with Avery and us?”
Vito sits down next to me. His skin is slightly pale, grayish looking. Dammit, this guy needs to go lay back down, but I know he won’t, there’s still too much to be taken care of.
“The housekeeper’s staying with us right now. She’s scared for her life since she came and told us everything that happened.”
I can understand the asylum, but what is she so scared of? “What happened?”
“Luca killed both of his parents. He told everybody they could leave if they wanted to, or they could stay, but they have to remain loyal.” Vito smirks at me before he continues. “Only eight people stayed.”
I start to laugh, not a full-blown belly laugh, but enough that it’s entertaining and amuses me right now. “I mean, I guess he should be happy that he got eight, he’s a piece of shit.”
“Apparently him and his new found men did not check the house thoroughly before they started talking about what they were going to do.” Vito runs a hand through his hair looking a little bit disturbed. Even Mac looks like he’s having trouble adjusting to all of this.
“Luca has three targets: me, you and Avery.” My fists clench as my coffee cup lands hard on the island.
I know that Luca’s always had trouble with Avery. I figured he wanted her more now since she’s going to be the heir of the Romano Empire, but hearing there’s a hit on her... I’m having trouble dealing with that. No motherfucker in this world is going to put a hit on my girl and live to tell about it, nobody. Even if it’s his own personal hit. No one threatens Avery and lives.
“She couldn’t hear all of the details, but she was able to get a few. She wasn’t sure but she thinks that she heard gas or something to put everybody to sleep. She knew if she was caught she’d end up dead, so she escaped and came straight to us. And that’s why we’re waking you up.”
I look between both men. “Have you guys interrogated her?” It’s not really something that we like to do that much, but who knows if she’s a plant sent here by Luca in the first place.
Vito shakes his head back and forth and so does Mac. “There’s some you have to interrogate and there’s some you don’t, this one we don’t. She’s barely making it right now, the girl was absolutely terrified.” Vito takes a breath, the man should be in bed. “She’s pissed herself twice and we haven’t even given her anything to drink. We’ve even had to stop her from talking a couple times because when we ask a question, she just word vomits every fucking thing. Even stuff that has nothing to do with any of this,” Vito says as amusement sparks in his eyes. He can’t get any better witnesses, except for the ones that have photographic memories.
I look at Vito, I expected him to be a little more pissed off, but he’s not. Maybe he’s relieved. We’ve talked so much and we’ve got over a lot of things that we want done in planning for Avery, what’s best for her. One of the things that Vito was adamant about, was ending the whole Delano line. It looks like Luca just saved them a shit ton of time and energy. I just hope he’s not upset he didn’t get to do it himself. Those were the people that called for the deaths of his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
“Let’s reconvene in a few hours, maybe late morning. We can figure out what the hell we’re going to do about the situation.” Vito looks over to Mac. “Give the girl a couple tranquilizers, so that she can actually sleep. I bet you she’s been up for over twenty-four hours. Her health will deteriorate if she doesn’t relax soon.”
Well shit, I’m on my second cup of coffee now, and I’m feeling pretty awake. I nod my goodbyes to the guys as I grab my cup and slowly work my way back to Avery.
After I shut the door and take a look at my girl, a devious thought goes through my head. We have a few hours anyway, why not play.
Avery is sleeping curled on her side with the blanket barely covering half of her body. I can make out the milky smooth skin of her back in the moonlight as I slowly strip away my clothes.
I don’t know why I feel almost a sense of urgency right now with her, maybe because I know that things are going to come to a head very soon.
When I crawl in bed next to her, I’m grateful that I don’t have to figure out how to take off her clothes before slipping inside. She’s still naked from last night.
I gently start to kiss and nibble at her back while my hands brush up and down her legs on the inside of her thighs and out. She starts to moan slightly and move. Maybe it’s because of the coffee or everything that’s happened but I really just want to yank her up and throw her against the wall and pound into her. My dick jumps at that thought, making me realize he’s on board, too.
Avery starts to move around, slowly opening her eyes looking at me, “Asher?”
“Lay on your stomach, baby,” I say as I maneuver her over. She gives me a big smile and practically jumps on her stomach making the whole bed shake. My girl is such a slut.
Avery slightly bend her knees giving me the perfect viewing position. I don’t take long before I’m right at her back lining myself up and pounding myself into her.
She muffles her screams by stuffing her face into the pillow.
“Oh fuck,” I snarl as I can’t stop pounding. I’m relentless in my endeavors.
Less than two minutes in, Avery starts to scream, “Asher!”
Her body starts to clench around me, not releasing my dick, milking the bastard dry. I let the trembling slow down before I plop back on my back grabbing my girl to my side.
Nobody’s ever gripped me that hard. My girl can make me come in an instant without even trying. It’s like her body needs me to live, she just sucks and cleans me out every single time. I fucking love it.
Now, if only we can snooze for another hour or two.
* * *
“Vito wantsus to meet him in the kitchen.” I glance over at Avery, she’s still messing around on her phone. Neither one of us were able to go back to sleep, even though we’re both exhausted.
And shockingly enough after our third time, we both decided to get dressed. If I could be inside Avery all day, I would. Sometimes a man needs to eat and use the fucking bathroom. I never met another woman that can go as long as my girl, thank God.
“Are you ready?” Avery asks me as she holds out her hand waiting by the bedroom door. I grab her hand to my side as we both walk awkwardly down to the kitchen to meet with Vito.
I know exactly what he’s showing us, and I respect that fact so damn much. Vito Romano is an awesome man, and from our many talks, I know that he respects me, hopefully just as much as I respect him.
He’s helped with multiple situations in my own family business, he’s like the father figure that I’ve never had. Shit, even the grandfather figure that I never had. I’ll take him over any of my own family, definitely.
Vito smiles as he sees Avery walking into the room. She removes herself from me and wraps herself around Vito. At first I thought he might be annoyed every time that girl sees him now, she’s always grabbing his hand and hugging and kissing him. Making up for lost time is what she told me once. Vito said he’s missed out on this for so many years, and if she wants to hug him every second, then so be it.
We follow Vito until we’re down in the basement in a makeshift gaming room that the guys and I threw up pretty fast. We’re guys, we needed something to do, don’t blame us.
Avery starts looking around awkwardly and then glances in Vito’s direction. “Ping-pong tournament today?” We all chuckle, she’s at least trying to break the ice. I know she hates not knowing what’s going on. I can understand Vito not wanting to announce it.
He told me about this area, but I have yet to actually see it. Even Mac and the other guys don’t know that it’s here, only Vito and now us.
He grabs Avery’s hand. “When you and Tate were searching for anything that you shouldn’t find, you guys just didn’t look hard enough.” He heads into the closet off the bar that’s been there since we got here.
We both watch with wonder, instead of turning the light switch on, Vito grabs it and turns it to the side, revealing the hidden open door in the back of the closet.
“Oh my God!” Avery shrieks as she runs toward the hidden area.
Yeah, Tate and Avery were pretty excited to go snooping yesterday, I can only imagine how much screaming they would’ve done if they would have found this.
The room isn’t much to boast about. There’s no hidden treasures and gold crowns littering the opening.
There’s a huge safe in there, like one of those styles that you would see when you walk into a bank vault, not the big ones, but the ones in small towns that they leave in the corner. Boxes litter the edges of the walls, stacked up to three high.
I know Avery doesn’t notice it, but I tear up just seeing the sadness and the love in Vito’s eyes as he’s watching his granddaughter gasp and run all over looking at the different things in here.
One day I’ll tell her that, but for now I just want to remain invisible and let those two have their moment.
I wait outside the doorway where I can still hear what they’re saying and make sure that everything’s okay. It sucks now, though, because it just gives me time to think and remember the long talks I’ve had with Vito and how much he loves his granddaughter, and how much he respects me. I shake that thought away as I hear Avery laughing and squealing.
“Now, there’s five-hundred grand in the safe. Some other families keep a larger amount of money, but all it takes is one break-in. Also, do not let anybody know what’s down here besides just you and Asher, not even Tate or even Mac. I trust those two with my life, but slip-ups can always be made. You never want to say the wrong thing to the wrong person.”
Vito angles his head toward the boxes lining the walls. “This is everything that I’ve amassed and gathered against the different families. Their most personal secrets, their enemies, even their extended family and immediate family. Anything that can give you a heads up if you ever need it.” He gives Avery a hard look before he continues. “Don’t be afraid to use something that they don’t want to get out, if it’s going to be the difference between life and death. Use it for whatever you need. Some of it might seem kind of shady but if this saves your life, it’s definitely worth it.”
I totally agree with Vito. Avery’s got a good heart and soul but she needs to use everything to her advantage, especially in the world we live in.
She glances between the boxes and Vito. “Why not just put them all on a computer? A hard drive, then you don’t have everything just sitting there. If a fire or something happened, you would lose it all.”
Vito smiles, I know he’s ingrained in his old ways just like a lot of the other bosses. “This would be something for the new boss to take care of. But I would recommend to not get rid of these, there’s a lot of notes, info and age in these documents. The original seems to scare the shit out of people more than the technical version.”
I glance at Avery, she’s nodding her head up and down in total agreement with Vito. That makes me realize that mine is slightly nodding up and down, too, which also makes me chuckle, causing those two to stare at me.
“In the safe you’ll find other shit like gold bars. Stocks and bonds. Deeds to all the different properties that we own. When I pass away…” Vito looks sternly at Avery saying this with as much determination as he can. I know he hates to talk about this, because it seems to crush her every time. “Let the lawyers and everyone else take care of this. I’ll have Mac get you a folder of cards and shit of my trusted people.” He looks around the room again. “I think I’ll put the folder in here to make sure it’s safe. The lawyers will handle everything, you won’t have to worry about anything and all the properties will be transferred to your name.” Avery’s mood is turning somber now.
This talk has to happen, she needs to understand, and she needs to come to terms and deal with it. I give a nod to Vito, letting him know that I’ll help in case she’s not able to. He gives me a slight nod of his head back as a thank you. Man, this shit is fucking depressing.
“We have many accounts offshore. Business and personal accounts. Any kind of account you can think of, they probably have one of them set up.” Vito wraps his arm around Avery. “Make sure you always have your money spread everywhere. I like to do at least fifty to one-hundred different accounts, even if you don’t have that much money in each of them. They can’t freeze all of your accounts when you have multiple ones in different countries. If you know something’s coming down, you have a chance to pull at least some cash out. Only if you need more than what’s in the safe to keep the businesses running. The IRS is the bigger bitch of an obstacle you will face over all of the other agencies. So watch your back with them and make sure that you’re up-to-date.”
Avery keeps nodding with wide eyes. She’s been talking about going to business school and this is a lot of the shit that she has to learn. Vito lays out the account stuff right now, this will hurt, but I understand what he’s saying. I’ll do whatever I can to help her with that later.
We start to work our way back up to the kitchen after securing the area downstairs and making sure that no one followed us. Vito told all the men that the basement was off limits today, he just wants to be prepared.
“I don’t want to move again,” Avery says on a sigh standing between both Vito and I holding onto both of our hands. We told her about the maid that was brought in.
“Then we’re not going to,” Vito says as he looks at Avery, then glances in my direction. I give him a nod in total agreement. “This is our house and we’re not moving anymore. We’ll just have to be stronger, faster and deadlier. So much fucking smarter than Luca.”
Vito and Avery can see my grim expression and they understand me. We worked too hard and we fought too hard to run every time that little bitch comes around.
“There’s no fucking way in hell we’re moving again,” I say as both Vito and Avery smile. We walk our happy asses upstairs because nobody’s going to bring us down anymore, not even the Delano’s.