Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas

Chapter 5

Asher

I drop down into my office chair and lean my head back. My hands rubbing over my face and running through my hair. I can’t believe those two were listening the whole time.

I start to laugh. Tate explained why she didn’t want anything done with this area over here, any lights added or anything else. This was her eavesdropping zone. I laugh a little more causing everybody to look at me. It’s not like she’ll find another place to go.

Even Vito, Mac and Doppler are chuckling a little at both the girls, even though I am a little shocked to find Avery there. I expect this from Tate, she’s our wild child. Not Avery, she’s a good girl.

A heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but my heart feels constricted. For the longest time Vito and I couldn’t figure out how others were able to pin point our drop-off and pickup locations. Everything we had going on. Even some of our private meetings were disturbed.

Luckily for all of us, I’m still careful with everything. I always send a shit ton of my guys to meetings, to everything we have going on. Can’t take a fucking chance in this world.

God, fucking Rocco. I can’t believe he did this. His normal smirk is wiped off his face and replaced with fear. He knows what can happen and he knows there’s nothing I can do about it, I won’t do anything about it.

He put all of us in a dangerous situation, including himself. I am positive that he’s working for Luca. He’s family, I’m certain once Luca didn’t need him anymore, he’d get rid of him.

I shake my head, even Vito, Mac and the others are quite disturbed by this. Yeah, him and his brother are fuck ups but they’re still Mancini’s. They grew up with the notion our elders passed on to us. ‘There is nothing greater than family, protect the name at all costs.’ Which they didn’t do.

If his parents were here to see him now, they would be disgusted.

I growl out again at the same time that Vito and Mac look in my direction. They must be thinking the same thing. There’s no way in hell that Rocco did this himself. And everybody knows that Armani has played his hand in this.

Gino asked if he could leave after everything went down. We normally don’t let people out of the family, they’ll be on silent mode, that we can call up any time we ever need them.

Vito did this with the Stones, he was telling me. The Stones have been enjoying their life and haven’t had to associate or deal with the family in over ten years, until they got the call for Avery.

Arya is a loving woman, of course she said okay right away, so that’s why Vito shipped Avery to California away from her home and away from Luca. At least she was able to stay around family.

The message when it first came in from Tate irritated me. Everybody else knows not to disturb me unless it’s important. I knew that it wasn’t from any of my guys or they would’ve just said something. It took almost two minutes until I could check the message.

As soon as I saw the text message, I motioned Mac, Vito, and Carter over to look at it. All of them sprang into action immediately.

Carter ripped open the door and yanked a very shocked and surprised Rocco inside.

The guards grabbed their guns not realizing what the fuck was going on. When they saw who it was they put their guns back and helped assist Carter with dragging a very shit scared looking Rocco into the office.

I currently stare at my nephew sitting in the middle of the office in a single chair, as everyone stands around him in a circle.

Vito’s head looks like it’s going to explode. I’ve never seen an Italian so red.

I bet he’s wishing that he would’ve been released just like his brother, Gino. At least Gino has a chance in this world. The boy is studying to be a fucking doctor for God’s sake. That shocked us all.

And since he’s fully released, we can’t call him up like we were able to do with the Stones.

I glance in Mac’s direction. “We need to call everybody in. Station some of the men here and then get a few teams ready to go grab Armani. There’s no fucking way Rocco pulled this off himself.” I stare at Rocco the whole time I talk, making sure that my voice was loud enough for everyone and for him to hear.

His expression confirmed that his brother is involved. More than likely it was Armani’s idea.

I get out of my chair fast. My body shoots forward before I even realize what’s going on. I don’t even feel the hardwood floors beneath me, it’s like I’m floating toward Rocco, not even in control of my actions., “You fucking idiot. You know what has to happen now. Should’ve left like Gino and Armani.”

Rocco gasps for air, then starts to suck in as much as he can get into his lungs. Maybe he thought he would just always be okay with Armani. Now he realizes how much he fucked up. In this life you don’t fuck up like that and live to tell about it. If my enemies found out that I let him go, everybody would come after me. The fucker doesn’t deserve to live even though he’s my nephew. What will he do next time when Armani gets into his ear?

I look around the room, Mac and Vito are leaning against the wall both with their arms crossed holding stern expressions. Most of the other guys in the room are just shocked. They know that Armani and Rocco are fuck ups, but they still can’t believe the traitorous ways they went after their own family. Neither can I.

“Explain everything, and I’ll make sure this ends fast for you,” I say to him with my voice slow and calm.

Rocco starts to shake his head back and forth. “No, no, no, don’t do me like this, man. We’re fucking family.”

I go to respond, but out of the corner of my eye I spot Vito stepping forward looking more enraged than I am. Avery is really all he is left, she’s the closest to take over the family name.

Without missing a beat and faster than I’ve seen anybody do it, Vito Romano whips out his gun and shoots Rocco straight in the kneecap.

He slowly walks forward listening to the screams and cries of pain. Drool slides down the side of Rocco’s mouth as tears pour down his cheeks, dropping off his chin.

“I don’t have time for this. If you don’t tell the man what he wants to know, I will start taking you apart piece by piece,” Vito says as he takes a step back and folds his arms, his gun still in his hand.

Rocco sobs louder, letting a constant trickle of liquid fall beneath his seat chair showing that Vito Romano has scared the piss out of my nephew.

A couple of the guards laugh, but quickly press their lips together. Rocco starts to sing like a fucking canary.

* * *

We listen happilyas Rocco goes on and on and on for a good hour. He told us everything, even shit we didn’t know. Mac started taking notes just so we wouldn’t miss anything. I bet it makes him feel better to get it off his chest, even though he was in severe pain. Well that and Vito scared the shit out of him. Torture is not a fun thing for anyone.

Luca had apparently got a hold of Armani and Rocco. I guess he wanted Gino, too, but he was already in school and he refused to have anything to do with the both of them. Smart boy, that’s why he’s going to stay alive.

Armani was on the deal in no time flat. Which still shows how much he hates and dislikes the rest of us. The little fucker thinks he should be in charge. He would be next in line if I were to die right now obviously, but if I had a child of my own they would be my heir, especially if it was a boy.

Luca had him keep track of everything. Anything he found out, even if it was mundane. He wanted to know everything about Avery; how she was doing, her mood, her clothing, anything he could find out about. That included every single person in this house.

Armani was here occasionally, but not that much. It sounded like he was doing jobs for Luca all the time. Leaving Rocco to take care of everything else. It makes sense now, while we didn’t see Armani that much, maybe once or twice a week and Rocco seemed to be here all the time.

Armani’s job is to make sure that our people stay straight. If there’s anything wrong with shipments or deliveries he takes care of that. Rocco helps him whenever he needs it.

I’m a little bit disappointed in myself. I should’ve noticed this shit before it escalated so far. Armani and Rocco have been trained their entire lives for their current Mancini jobs. I figured Vito and I got through to them with the beating that they both had, but I guess not.

“When Armani was here, he did help me install surveillance.” I stand straight up and all the other guys stiffen, especially Vito.

“Fuck,” I mumble out.

“Apparently I wasn’t able to get very good notes of everybody and their reactions to anything, I wasn’t able to get enough info on Avery. That’s when Luca put a knife to my throat and told me that surveillance is going in. He didn’t care how I did it as long as it got done.”

All of us groan, surveillance is a bitch to get rid of. To spend the time to make sure it’s all gone. Who knows everything they might’ve heard. Well obviously everything for the past several months since they’ve had it installed.

Rocco continues. “I was unable to install them in the bathrooms or the master bedroom. The bathrooms nobody ever talks shit in there, and nobody really wants to hear what they’re doing. The master bedroom because it’s always protected by guards and it’s impossible to break into with the eye scanner.”

I smile and thank my lucky stars. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to put in a security system to get into my bedroom, but I’m glad I did. It was just a nagging feeling I had, I trust all my men. It shocked the shit out of me when we heard we had a mole.

Mac and Carter grab a very seriously injured Rocco. They drag him around throughout the whole mansion to find the unwanted surveillance.

I would like to leave a message for Luca before everything is removed, but not at this time. “Fuck,” I say as I sigh. Tate, Avery and all of us were put in extreme danger by one of our own.

I turned my attention toward Vito. “Everyone needs to be interrogated and questioned to make sure we don’t have any other moles.”

Vito thinks on this for a second and then nods his head. “I’ll get a group of guys that I trust, that we both do, and I’ll have them start gathering people up. We could finish interrogations today.”

Vito smiles right before he looks at me, “I just had a new lie detector test delivered. Torturing methods are getting somewhat messy. Maybe I’ve been doing it for so long I’d rather just not. It’s not fun anymore.”

I stare at him for a second then burst out laughing. I try to stop because I’m afraid I’m going to offend him. Vito Romano is not the man I want to piss off. Thankfully he just starts to chuckle right along with me.

Everyone takes off to what they’re supposed to be doing now. Most of the guards are in interrogations. And the ones that pass are helping interrogate others to move things faster.

I watched a little bit of the routine as it was happening. I couldn’t stand sitting at my desk anymore.

Vito had an emergency call out for five more lie detectors. He was only able to get these older sets. They’d be delivered within an hour. Which works pretty well seeing how we have three-hundred and twenty-seven people to move through this process.

While one is inside a room being interrogated and questioned the others waiting outside are prepared with the stuff they need on their body and with how the process works.

With how fast they’re moving, this should be done in a couple hours. There’s no reason for me to be a part of this process, everything seems to be flowing smoothly. I’m tempted as hell to go up and check on Avery and Tate but one of the guards let me know that they both fell asleep. I know the girls are probably fuming mad with me right now, but I just need them to stay safe and put away.

I’ve got a lot of mindless shit work I need to catch up on. My biggest annoyance being emails. That’s what I decide to spend the next couple hours doing.

* * *

I honestly believedthat everybody else here with us was one hundred percent loyal. Vito squeezes himself through the partially open office door. As soon as I seen who it is, I get up from my desk and meet him halfway. I know he is here with the results.

“Out of three-hundred and twenty-seven employees we found two that have been wishing you harm.”

“No way,” I stammer. I’ve done everything for these people. “Who?”

“One person was for revenge, it was a maid. She’s only been here for a few months. The understanding is that your father killed hers so she’s here for revenge.” Vito looks at me and I can tell he’s feeling my pain. Yeah, this is eating me up inside and out. I decided when I first took over for the Mancini’s that the loyalty of my crew was going to be bigger than anything. I would make sure that I always heard everybody, and that my door was always open.

“The other was a spy sent by the Irish.” That one doesn’t shock me as much as the maid. I wonder if I could talk to her. Vito must sense what I’m thinking and he shakes his head no. “Both of them were taken care of. They had to be tortured to get the info out of them. The maid lasted longer than the Irish implant.” Vito smiles, too bad she was a traitor, it’s hard to impress that man.

We both sit down on the couch, taking a break and trying to let the day’s events soak in.

Now that the house is clean, it feels ten times better.

We need to figure out what comes next, but for now, we sit.