Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas

Chapter 2

Avery

After tossing and turning most the night, I finally give in as I roll over on the other side of the bed. The frustration is getting to me from not being able to sleep.

I groan as I wipe the sleep out of my eyes and drag myself out of the very comfortable but extremely lonely bed.

Damn I miss the guys so much. I just wish they would come back, even though they haven’t been gone that long. I know they wanted to check on the house to make sure that everything was okay. After everything that happened, I don’t want to be away from Asher or my grandfather for even a minute.

I was able to finish school online, far away. There are a couple people that I miss at Blackwood Academy, there are also a couple teachers I miss seeing. The teachers that make you feel safe, not the ones that are scared of everybody and everything and will bow down to one of the richer kids in an instant.

No, I miss the ones that love their job, that do whatever they can to make you feel like you’re at home and comfortable.

Getting used to doing school online wasn’t hard for me at all. Tate and I had done it for a couple weeks before. I’m not lonely, I still have everybody around me. All of us do our work together, for an hour a day.

Even Tate’s grades went up, most likely from us all helping her and I know I did some of the work for her, but we all deserve to graduate, and thankfully we did.

Nothing feels better than being able to get my diploma. I wish I could’ve had the experience in person, though.

I’m not that upset about graduation. My parents are not here to see me graduate. I think graduation day would be harder if I had to walk across the stage. On a good note, I do have a grandfather now.

I wash my hands quickly and dry them off as I make my way out of the bathroom.

Life throws you unimaginable curve balls all the time. Thinking about it, because of the loss of my parents, I now have Asher and my grandfather, but then again, I miss my parents so much.

I wanted to go to prom, have a normal teenage life, well as normal as I can for being a Romano. And really who’s to say I won’t run into my grandfather later.

I’ve already missed sixteen years with my grandfather, I’m glad I’ve been with him for the last year almost.

I lost something important to me, but from that loss I gained a lot, too. The world I live in is fucking crazy and things change instantly, sometimes way too fast. For now, I’m holding onto everything important. I refuse to lose anything else.

We have been in New York for six months now, ever since the Stone’s house turned into target practice.

We’re just sitting here, waiting. Luca is out there somewhere, we just don’t know where. And for some reason both my grandfather and Asher think he’s living right next door to the Mancini compound.

If I go out too far, for sure I’ll end up dead. Well, they told all of us that.

I know that the guys are just being careful. For God’s sake, Vito Romano and Asher Mancini decided that we were going across the country. They failed to mention it or ask any of us. Just packed us all up and told us to leave.

The one I thought would hate this the most would definitely be Tate. But, ironically she was the most excited to get away from all the drama. I also believe that she was happy to go back home and not have to worry about being killed or beat to shit by her brothers.

I would have to say that I’m the one that’s most bummed out. Not just about graduating since I had to leave. I’m always on guard, yeah, I know that comes with the lifestyle. But I am always on guard more so than other people are. It seems like so many want to hurt and kill me.

Before my life was easy, not easy but more normal and less stressful.

I knew something was going down when Asher and my gramps disappeared into closed meetings for a while. I figured we had to leave but I expected we’d go back to Chicago. I know Chicago, I miss Chicago. I barely knew New York at all. From what I understand, the Romano’s don’t even do that much business here. My grandfather likes it that way and chooses not to go after the whole East Coast.

I am extremely grateful for this decision. But, I’m fucked either way. The man I love runs it, or my grandfather runs it. There will always be shit I have to deal with. Death will always be around me. And life will be so little, so short and unexpected.

Don’t get me wrong, we had to leave California. I refuse to throw a tantrum like a toddler, over and over again, except for in my head. California was out for good now, unless Luca dies, and after talking to my grandfather I learned that Chicago is, too.

Even though I’m almost positive it was Luca, we still need to be careful. We’re not one-hundred percent sure who ordered the attack on us.

Deep down we all know it was Luca. Chicago would be one of the first places he’d go to look for me, at the Romano compound. It’s the smartest thing to do and that’s what I would do. Go to where everything started.

My parent’s house is long gone, which is a good thing because it doesn’t even look the same after the fire. It’s a total tear down. My grandfather still owns the land. I don’t know what he plans to do with it but I’m hoping that he’ll put in like a sweet little park for the kids or something with a happy memory, not a memorial.

We’ve been at the Mancini estate for six months now, six very long months. And in that time I have still not been able to see this whole place.

I remember the day we got here we were also shaken and upset. Nobody wanted to go through this again, nobody wanted to do this again. This is the new normal for us, I guess.

I can tell myself that twenty times and I’ll never get used to it.

When we came up on the house, it felt like we were going into an old plantation estate. But I’ve never seen a house this big before. I’ve had my share of being in big houses, because my family and we’re definitely not poor, but nothing can compare to the monstrosity that is this house.

I figured it to be cold and lonely, no, it’s very warm and welcoming. There’s wood everywhere accented by natural paints; brown, green and yellow. It makes it feel so cozy. Asher’s a freaking clean freak, especially the floor. Something to do with his childhood.

My favorite room is the library. The whole thing is painted black. I never thought it would work in a library, but it does, it makes it more masculine. A perfect fit for the Mancini’s. I fell in love instantly, there’s eight freaking full size sofas in here. They’re mostly rugged leather that looks like it’s been beaten to shit. I bet they bought this brand-new for fifteen-grand, yeah, that kind of furniture.

Now, if I can shorten the size of this damn castle, it would be perfect. Asher and Tate were telling me that there’s almost thirty-thousand square-feet in here with eight bedrooms and twelve bathrooms.

I find it funny how they say only eight bedrooms because I’ve been walking around and viewing part of the house, when I’m not locking myself in the library. There are multiple spare bedrooms; changing rooms, wrapping rooms, playrooms, there’s even a movie theater room, but we haven’t used that one yet. Not sure why, we all love the movies.

I was shocked when my grandpa decided to stay with us. I know that had to be hard for him, because this isn’t his domain, this isn’t his area, and these are not his people. Even though he probably brought around seventy-five guys with him. Luckily the property has houses and shops all over it. I don’t know exactly what’s here, there are over seven-hundred freaking acres.

Between the Romano men and the Mancini men, we’ve been held up here and safe. That’s all that matters until we decide to make our next move. I have no clue what that’ll be, maybe one day they’ll tell us.

I was shocked that the guys decided to wait this long but they wanted things to cool down before we figure out what we’re going to do.

Tate is looking at colleges, I know she wants to go. Which is a shocker because my friend at school is not a go-getter. I believe she just wants a life out of the one that we have, and I don’t blame her. Did I mention that there were three pools, three? Three damn pools. Who in the hell needs three pools?

Everybody’s located in different wings of the house on different floors. Sometimes, it takes for freaking ever to find someone.

Asher was working a bit when we first got back, so Tate decided to give me an awesome tour.

Now if we could only split this house into fourths, then I would be happy.

It’s just an aberration really. I don’t even understand how people can find their children unless they have tracking software in here.

It’s weird going to bed at night with Asher in the master bedroom. I’ve seen houses smaller than the master bedroom.

I go back to my favorite leather couch in the library and curl up. I like to read but I’m not obsessed with it, I just like the comfort, the simplicity of being in here.

“There you are,” Tate says as she skips toward me.

“Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.” Tate is very quiet when she moves around, but she has a fiery storm that follows her everywhere. Calm in the beginning followed by whatever she decides to rain down on you.

“Sorry.” She is sorry, but she thinks it’s funny. “Have you heard anything?” I shake my head no. We’ve both been waiting for news. The kind that will dictate our lives and what the future will hold for us. College for Tate, but for me, I have no freaking clue.

“Bummer,” Tate mumbles to herself. She looks back up at me and plasters her face with a beautiful, welcoming smile. Not fake, very real. “Okay, I’ve got Marcus coming to do my nails.” She gives me a wink and then skips right back out of the library.

Marcus is one of the local guys that is a master at nails. I wouldn’t know, I tried it once and have never done it again.

Since we’re not allowed to leave, I imagine she paid out the ass to get him to come here, we’re not exactly close to town, either.

Every single person we know or have been hanging around with, has gone with us to New York. I’m not talking about Paisley and her bitch crew, only our people, the one’s we’re close to.

Arya and Garrett stayed for a week or two, but then they went off to London. I’ll be honest, I do miss them a lot, but I know how happy they are right now. Most of their business trips take them to London, anyway, so why not just move there? The only reason they kept coming back was for me.

I love the Stones so much. They went out of their way to make sure I was okay and had a safe place to go after the hell I went through.

We still talk like once every couple weeks. It’s like it was before, Arya still makes sure I’m eating and doing everything I’m supposed to do. It’s different with Garrett, because he would ask questions about the house or tell me what to do. Now he just has nothing to say, it’s kind of awkward but it’s more awkward for him, because he feels uncomfortable, but he tries.

Sadness fills my eyes, even though we’re not exactly sure who attacked the Stone’s house, we know. We know that it was Luca, we know that his sick and twisted mind made them come after us, come after me, I know that Luca is not doing this because he loves me, or he wants me to be the mother of his children. No, Luca is doing this because it’s all a game to him.

I imagine this is his finest and deadliest game that he’s ever played, to date.

It’s a challenge for him since he wasn’t able to kill me when he killed my parents. He was unable to get to me when he destroyed the Stone’s house. And he was unable to get to me when he got into the Stone’s house, killing several guys, and pissing off Mac, one of the few people I respect.

Mac, that guy hasn’t been able to relax since that day. He’s a father and older brother figure to all of his guys. I love him just as much as they do.

Luca is more deadly now since I have his attention. He will do whatever it takes to win. More lives will be lost, innocent and undeserving. Those are the ones that matter to me. I never wanted to be in a position where somebody else can die because of me. Even though it’s not directly my fault, I’ll have to live with this for the rest of my life.

I’ve had this talk with Asher and Tate so many times they tell me I need to get out of my head and get on with my life. The world that we live in today, all of this is the normal everyday occurrence. Hold on to the ones you love and don’t take anything for granted.

That night when I was heading back up to Asher, all the images fled back into my head. Maybe because I’m thinking about Luca right now, who knows.

I couldn’t realize why Mac, several of the guards and Asher were freaking out when they looked at me. And I didn’t find out until one of them straight up tackled me like a football player.

The laser lights were invisible at first but after Mac tackled me and then Asher jumped on me, I could see them everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, coming in through the glass. It seemed like every inch was overtaken by them. They must’ve had hundreds of guys outside.

I start to chuckle to myself and whisper. “That’s funny.” The HOA is just as sick as Luca.

At least one-hundred guys attacked us, I’m not exactly sure. Vito and Asher don’t tell me anything, so that’s a guesstimate. The outside of the house is blown to shit. Chunks of concrete have fallen, glass is shattered everywhere. The lawn looks like a bomb went off.

We expected to have problems with the HOA demanding everything to be fixed up. What we didn’t expect was only one complaint and that was for the windows. Not the hole in the roof, or the chunks of the house lying on the ground. No, windows were the only problem. They got them fixed and left everything else alone.

Vito hasn’t talked that much about it, but I’m fairly certain the Stones will never move back to that house. They couldn’t get away fast enough after it happened. I never told anyone, but they begged me to go with them. My eyes water at that thought. I miss them so much, just having that closeness with family, and Arya has been like a mom to me.

My head snaps over to the door and I yank the blanket off my lap. I can hear screaming coming from the foyer. Not the kind of murder, death, Luca is here, the happy kind. One that is promising very good news.

Now I’m up and jogging to the front of the house where I heard the noise coming from. Thankfully the library is close. If it was on the other side, I would’ve never known anybody entered.

As soon as I reach the foyer I start screaming and the tears freshly flow down my face. I run awkwardly past my grandfather, Asher and all the other guys. I drop to my knees, carefully trying not to hurt him. I wrap my arms around a very pissed off Sneaker.

Tate is sitting on the floor next to me crying. Even though this little shit is a total ass, he’s family. Damn, did we miss him. No one could find him, we even had people looking all the time. Arya is heartbroken. I look up at Asher with tears in my eyes as I stand up, cradling a usually grouchy asshole, but he seems very content right now. He missed us, too.

I kiss Asher and then give my grandfather a quick hug.

“In the shed in the back.” I have no idea how that little shit survived but he did, he definitely deserves to be a Mancini and Romano.

Tate and I take a selfie with Sneaker as we send it off to Arya. It won’t be long till we hear her screaming. Even though they’re a world away, Sneaker is their baby just as much as he was ours.

He might only be a cat that I didn’t get along with very much, but he’s also a symbol of hope, I feel that we’re all going to be all right. Welcome home.