Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas

Chapter 16

Asher

The smell of gunshots and copper is overwhelming. I know I’ve got to get out of this house and soon. If I can smell all the other shit, then whatever has knocked everybody else out is going to end up doing the same to me. If that happens then I consider all of us dead. There’s no way I’m gonna let anybody take Avery from me.

I’m hiding in a small enclave on the first floor, not far from where we originally came down. Luca, I have no idea how Avery can tell it’s him, but she knows for sure, and what has to be his right-hand man, Seth, are the ones down at the end of the hall. My eyes have adjusted and now I can make out the two figures and see what they’re doing, see their movements. Their outfits did help, but that was more for surprise. When you’re in complete darkness, it takes a while until your eyes are back to normal.

Where the fuck is everybody? There’s no way in hell that everyone would’ve been knocked out. Unless it’s circulating through the air, right at that time is when the air conditioner decides to click on again. I can’t smell anything over the gunshots. Everything smells like copper and metal. That’s gotta be where it’s coming in. At least now I have a freaking plan.

My gun is in my hand and a couple of clips are securely tucked in my pocket. Thankfully I remembered to grab them when we were coming down from the atrium. I need a better advantage so I can see those guys a little more. I’m not worried about getting rid of both Luca and Seth, but I don’t know if there’s anybody else way down at the end of the hall. Hopefully they just thought I up and left with Avery, because they haven’t been firing anymore, just looking in my direction.

I decide not to take a chance and army crawl. I need to make it somewhere I can slip out. I need to get outside to that air conditioning unit and shut it off. That makes me think of where the actual control is at. If I can shut it off from inside, I wouldn’t have to go through all that other shit.

Dammit, I don’t know where the controls are, but I did see air-conditioners outside. I can fuck those up at least, then whatever’s coming in won’t be coming in anymore.

This will only work if that’s the cause. One of the housekeeping staff could’ve just dropped something in our dinner or put something in our drinks, I doubt it though. Our staff is too loyal and paid too well to ever turn. Besides, they know what will happen to them and their families.

I’m disoriented after a couple minutes. I know I’m breathing in too much, I try to wrap my shirt around my face, but that doesn’t work very well.

“Fuck it,” I say as I yank the whole shirt off. It’s a darker color so it was helping to keep me hidden. I wrap the whole thing layered around my mouth and nose.

I stand up as soon as I’m out of view from Seth and Luca. I have no idea what those two are doing, but their focus is intently on each other.

Luckily for me, I’m by the laundry and kitchen area which has a convenient little back door. The power’s off, at least in here it is. I did briefly think about activating the alarm that’s located by the door I want to exit through.

It’s in our best interest to call the police, but then it’s also not. The guards won’t call and neither will any of the staff. It will come down to me, Vito or Avery who decides to call. I’m pretty sure Avery’s not even thinking it is an option.

In the world that we grew up in, no matter what happens, you never call. If somebody wrongs you then your whole damn family will make it right. It goes the same way if you wrong somebody else, they’ll make it right. The families decide to fix their own problems, delivering justice that they see fit, definitely not in the eyes of the law.

I have some handyman skills, but I would rather deal with guns and knives and other shit. My handyman skills vary just from basically watching TV and being asked to help with something by Avery or one of the other guys.

The blades are turning in the air conditioning units. There’s a long thick cord that angles directly back into the house. I can see lights in different sections of the house and the AC units are working, so they must’ve just disabled the alarm system and left everything else alone.

“Fuck!” I wish they would’ve shut everything off.

There ain’t no way I’m going for that big cable and frying myself, possibly starting a huge fire. If everybody’s knocked out inside, they’re all going to burn alive, if they don’t have a bullet in them.

I do the next best thing in the limited amount of time I have. There are some unused boards leaning against the side of the house for when we were helping to reconstruct the fence that’s been down for years. In six months, we still haven’t finished fencing in this huge estate.

There are three AC units and luckily there’s several boards, so I have enough. I look around to make sure nobody’s watching as I jab one of the boards right through the top easily breaking through the metal protection grate. I make sure my grip is good before I slam the post down in between the blades. It makes a grunting noise. I quickly do this to the other ones and then run away. Everything I’ve seen on TV, if you stop something like this it ends up blowing up and scattering shit everywhere. I know it’s not going to be quiet and I don’t care. This is the only option I have to get those things busted.

I run quickly back the way I came, shutting the door softly behind me. I need to find Avery and I need to find Vito. Thankfully my sense of direction is back as I press myself against the wall and slightly curl down making my way to Vito’s room.

“Fuck,” I say quietly as I tiptoe down to Vito’s room. I was by the garage, I should’ve looked in there for more weapons.

There’s an area on the side of the garage, it’s basically locked storage. A lot of the guards keep their weapons here so they don’t have to take them home with them. Only Mac and Vito know the codes, but luckily for me I’ve seen them use it.

For now I’m pushing forward, I need to get to Vito.

I put myself in a little corner of the wall when I can hear screaming followed by a couple shots popping off. The three men that run by covered in pure black don’t even notice me, thank God.

I wait till they reach the end of the hallway and turn and then slip inside Vito’s room.

Thankfully it’s not locked, and he’s not waiting with a gun at my head.

“No,” I gasp as a single tear runs down my cheek. I pull the pillow back on Vito’s head and see that they got to him first. “Fuck!” I can feel my heart clenching and breaking right in my chest. This man didn’t deserve to go out like this. This is going to break Avery. These last few precious minutes with her grandfather were everything to her. She didn’t have much time left and they took it, they cut it short.

All I want to do is scream and rage, but I’ve got to get my shit together. I take a deep breath and I start frantically searching Vito’s room as quietly as I can. I’m glad I did that, I find another handgun, four clips and a knife.

The knife was under Vito’s pillow. It looks like when they grabbed the pillow to kill him, they left it in plain view. How the idiots didn’t see it, I have no clue.

Now it’s time for all these fuckers to die before they get to Avery. There’s no way in fucking hell I’m going to let that happen, not on my watch and definitely not while I’m alive.

The shirt around my face is blocking half of my vision, so I yank the thing off and then put it back on hoping that it will be a deterrent, or at least maybe somebody won’t notice me. I got lucky about five minutes ago but that’s because their attention was focused on something ahead.

I angle my way out of the room, silently telling Vito goodbye and then shut the door behind me, my back is still pressed against the wall listening and figuring out where that son of a bitch is.

It doesn’t take long till I can hear noise coming from my left toward the foyer and Vito’s office.

It sounds like Luca’s talking to one other person but I can’t make out the words, I’m still too far.

“Where the fuck is she? Have you guys searched the whole house?” I move closer, but I can barely see them, it looks like Seth nods his head.

“She’s got to be here somewhere, I can still see their cars, so she hasn’t left yet. She’s just hiding well. Get the remaining guys together, we need to take out Asher and Avery before all that shit wears off and everybody wakes up.”

“Got it boss,” Seth says on a whisper, but luckily for me I inch myself closer. I’m lining up the perfect shot. I don’t have a silencer like everybody else has been using. The silencer has hurt us, because we cannot figure out where everybody’s at. It was smart on their end to bring it, even though they planned on killing everybody anyway.

I would aim for Luca a thousand times over Seth, but the right-hand man is blocking his boss. I’m not waiting for a perfect chance again. I need to get this over with, both of them need to die.

I aim up my shot perfectly. The boom from the gun is deafening in the silence, making my ears ring. I glance up a second later and see that Seth has fallen. A big hole is right in the back of his head.

Luca is giving me a look right now that if it was possible in our world, I would be dead, if looks could kill.

I jump up from my hidden position and get ready to engage the bitch, both of us are aiming our guns at each other.

This is something I’ve been waiting for ever since I met Avery Mila Romano. The woman of my dreams, the woman I’m going to marry, this fucker needs to die, hopefully painfully.

“Asher.” Both of us snap our heads in that direction. Avery is hidden behind a door but between the cracks I know that Luca can see her. My body is angled toward her now. I’m about to start yelling for her to run away when Luca gets off a shot.

Avery starts screaming as a bullet enters my upper left thigh and exits through the right side of my right thigh. That fucker double penetrated me. If we were friends, this would be an epic joke at lame parties.

I go straight down, I don’t tip forwards, backwards, to any of the sides. No, I fall like a bag of fucking bricks, straight down right on to my ankles. I can hear the bones crack as I land. The pain is excruciating and unbearable.

Avery starts running to me, and Luca starts to laugh as he fires in her direction. I’m barely staying conscious. I know I’m losing a lot of blood. The fucker probably hit an artery. I need to get her out of here and make sure that she’s safe before it’s too late.

Another shot rings out and Avery jerks painfully to the side, sliding down the wall. “No!” I scream. I know I’m close to death, so my scream probably came out as a whisper yell.

The room is filling with darkness. I try to fight, scream, drag myself toward her. The pain and the darkness are calling for me to surrender. All I know is that if I go under, we’re all as good as dead, but I can’t help it. The pain is too strong. I have no choice, the light is getting sucked away from me by the second. I don’t smell the metallic of guns or the coppery smell of blood anymore. I don’t smell anything.

I can barely even see. I just want one last look at Avery, nothing ever works the way we want to as the darkness pulls me under.