Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas
Chapter 6
Avery
“Tate, wake up.” Tate starts to growl, she’s never been a morning person, neither one of us have. “Get up, there’s a ton of commotion out there, something’s going on. Please, I don’t want to go out there by myself.”
Tate groans some more, barely opening her eyes, making sure it’s me. I’ve been awake for thirty minutes, ever since the noise from outside the door startled me awake.
I know something’s going down, and it most likely has to deal with what happened yesterday.
Tate tries her best to quickly get dressed. I wait patiently for her over by the master bedroom door. I figured out earlier the commotion wasn’t outside our door, it’s mainly coming from downstairs in the foyer. I’m just thankful that the fucking door isn’t locked anymore.
“Get your guys in order, Lane, we don’t have time for this shit.” I can hear Mac growl at one of the other guards. I guess there’s layers of guards. It runs like a corporation.
Mac controls all the guards. On my grandfather’s side anyway. Doppler controls all of them on Asher’s side, but Mac had been taking over for him since he’s been gone. Where the hell has Doppler been?
Asher spots Tate and I at the top of the stairs when we finally made our way out of the room. The only thing we’ve been able to hear is the running of shoes and even the clicking of heels. Everybody’s freaking out for some reason.
“It looks like they’re packing us up.” Tate leans over and whispers in my ear. Damn, that makes sense.
“Everybody gather around,” Asher yells as he waits for everybody to make their way to the foyer area.
There’s so many men and a few women in the foyer. People are standing outside the front door, others are down the hallway. Tate and I just mimic others and sit on the stairs. From here at least we can still hear everything.
“As you all know, Luca has found us.” I look around the room in curiosity, but nobody seems shocked. “At this point in time he knows that we know, he’s right down the road a few miles. For our safety we have decided to head over to the Romano compound in Chicago.”
The chatter starts to go up a lot, to increasingly high levels. Both good and bad, these guards suck. I thought they were just supposed to smile and guard.
I can understand it, New York and Chicago are not close to each other and for most of the guys this is where their home is, where their family is.
“Our only goal for today is to make sure that we arrive there safely. Mac will get with each and every one of you about your location and area that you’re working in. Some will go, some will stay. For our normal guards this will not be an option for you either way, you will all be stationed in Chicago.”
I smile when I don’t hear one damn noise, if your guys are whining about their job that’s a big fucking issue, especially in this life. When it comes down to it; are they going to be too scared or whiny to stop that bullet that’s going to go through your head?
“Even though it’s still very early, at least the sun’s starting to come up. The SUVs have been arriving all night. I know many of you have seen them already. There will be eleven groups of thirty people, each group will have six SUVs.” Asher chuckles before he continues, “I know a lot of them look like shit, about ready to die. We had to go with what they have, and this will work a lot better.”
Asher points in the direction of me and Tate. “The girls will be riding in one of the older SUVs. Not one that is going to crap and break down, but one that we wouldn’t expect them to be in.”
Tate and I look at each other with a worried look. We’re both just going with the flow, right now we’re letting these guys do their jobs. Asher gives me smile. I’m not the happiest with him right now for locking me in the room, but I’m worried, because I know he hasn’t even slept at all.
“All lieutenants please get with Mac so you can find your assigned seating spot and car. The house is pretty much packed, only essential. We should be ready to go within the hour.” Asher glances around making sure that everybody is paying attention. They are. “Let’s get to it.”
The guys start all shuffling and moving in every direction. Several were running but most are just walking fast. If they weren’t ready, under an hour isn’t very much time.
Tate and I both look at each other and then we both run back up the stairs, she goes to her room and I go to mine. We’ve both moved around too many times and lost a lot of our shit. I’ll probably come out with one or two bags and my girl will have at least fifteen, she does love her clothes.
When Tate walks into the room in total black I start to laugh. “You look like one of the guards.” She chuckles and then blushes a little.
I noticed in her hands that she has some clothes. “In a second you’re gonna look like one of the guards, too. They want us to dress more as a part of the guards. We’ll be safer if we’re all wearing black, it’ll be hard to distinguish who we are.”
She’s got a point. I quickly take the clothes and change. They’re a little big. I must’ve received an extra pair from one of the guards.
My doors opened and two men I’ve seen a couple of times, I don’t know their names, run in and grab my luggage. I have one huge duffel bag and a carry-on. “Ma’am,” one of them says, and they both tip their heads to me and run right back out the room. They probably have a shit ton of other stuff to do.
Tate and I make our way downstairs feeling like a couple of bad asses, because we rock these outfits we’re wearing.
Asher starts waving us over once we reach the bottom of the foyer. Normally it should only take twenty seconds max in this huge colossal building, but it takes almost a minute to move around everybody making sure we don’t get knocked out with bags or boxes. This place is freaking hectic.
Mac, Asher, Carter and one guard I’ve never seen are standing by the dining room door, all four of them are in their own little huddle.
“No,” Tate whispers, she dramatically slows down while we’re walking. I have to drag her with my arm practically.
I look over to see what she’s looking at and her eyes are pointed right at Carter. “I don’t want him in our group, Avery.”
“I know,” I say. “This is the way they arranged it so this is the best way for us to get there safely. It’s not that long. I don’t think we’re driving the whole way, there’s got to be an airport nearby.”
We both groan at that. Tate and I really don’t like road trips that much. Not because it makes us miserable, we make whoever we’re riding with miserable. One of us always has to pee or we’re hungry, but of course never at the same time.
“You girls ready?” Asher asks as he wraps his arms around me. Tate stays slightly behind me, as far away as she can get from Carter without being too far.
“Yep,” I gave him a smack on the lips and then go back with Tate toward the front door. We were warned not to get too close to it, because they don’t know who’s watching. I don’t know what exit we’re going out of.
“Maybe we could trade Carter for your grandpa?” My eyebrows raise up. I wouldn’t mind if my grandfather was in there with us. I start to look around for the old man, but I can’t find him anywhere.
“Have you seen him in a while?”
Tate shakes her head no. “I heard one of them say he’s in Chicago right after Asher’s speech. He’s probably there getting it ready for us.”
I nod and release the breath I was holding. Now I’m not gonna freak out for however long it takes us to get to Chicago.
We follow Asher and Carter over to the garage doors. That makes sense, I think to myself as I watch six SUVs pull into the garage and close the doors.
“Over there,” Asher points to a red Ford probably made in the ‘90s. Looks in decent shape and the windows are tinted.
Tate and I squeeze into the back while Carter and Asher squeeze back in there with us. The guard I don’t know very well drives with Mac in the passenger seat.
This all makes a little more sense, not that many people recognize Mac as opposed to Asher or even Carter. Carter is the type that just comes and goes as he pleases. I don’t even think he needs to be here. I just think he does it for Asher, there’s no reason he has to do any of this.
“Where are we going?” I ask to anyone who’ll answer. All eyes snap in Asher’s direction waiting for him to answer.
“Vermont,” he kisses me on the forehead. At least I’m able to sit next to him. Vermont, not even that far since we’re right next to it, we don’t even have to go south down by Manhattan.
Once we’re done, we pull out and get in line with the other groups of waiting SUVs. They’re still filling up more people and more cars so we shouldn’t have to wait long on the side of the road.
I really want to ask what’s going on and how they’re going to do this but now I’m excited.
Within thirty minutes, everybody starts to make their way down the main road to get to the highway. They wouldn’t tell me exactly where Luca’s located, but I know it’s got to be somewhere here. The Mancini compound is the end of the line for the road we’re on.
Asher and I are way in the back. I don’t wanna look around too excitingly, I need to make myself more unseen. I know Tate is thinking the same thing, as she pushes her body against the window and sinks into the back of her seat. She probably did the former, because Carter happens to be sitting next to her. Those two are as far away from each other as anyone can get.
When we get down to the highway everybody starts to take off in different directions. Three sets of vehicles go to the left. Three sets of vehicles go to the right. Three sets of vehicles go forward. I can’t see the groups behind us, and I’m not sure where those went way in front of us.
We’re the second set of vehicles that goes to the right. And according to the guys we should be to the unmarked airfield in under two hours.
The set in front of us gets off at the exit taking them down to Manhattan. We continue forward.
In the next thirty minutes is when we slide to the right and take the off ramp that leads us to another major highway.
The second set keeps going straight.
I watch the roads off and on for the next ten minutes. There’s a black town car that’s been following us ever since we made our first turn off of the road.
“Asher,” I whisper and he gives me a weird look. “That town car has been following us ever since we left the house.”
“I know,” he says and wraps his arms around me. I guess I should be relieved that he’s not worried. This is predominantly his main job. Being a boss sucks.
I lean into him and I don’t say anything. He doesn’t even say anything, either. This is all I need for comfort right now.
We travel for another twenty minutes. Every time I try to look behind me Asher turns my head straight forward again. But I did catch a glimpse and the guy is still there.
“Is Vito in Chicago?” I ask Asher and he nods.
“We got a lot of people coming in. I think he wanted to make sure his stuff is together.” I nod. I find it a little strange, though. I know my grandfather has people for everything. Maybe he’s hiding something. I shake my head, now my thoughts are going all over the place.
The longer we drive the more removed everything becomes around us. Fewer warehouses, fewer cars and fewer people. Not trees, though, the trees are everywhere and they’re so beautiful.
I’m almost to sleep when Asher snaps loudly. “Now!”
Asher grabs me, yanking me into his body holding me tight, painfully tight.
Carter does the same to Tate. She tries to struggle and push him away, but it’s of no use, he overpowers her instantly.
I’m terrified and so is Tate as we both look at each other. How did the guy suddenly turn on us?
The car yanks violently to the right barely making a side street. Asher’s grip on me keeps me from tumbling around in the back, the same thing for Tate.
We do a sharp turn again, this one to the right. The driver slams on the brakes. Asher, Mac, Carter and the driver all jump out of the SUV and run to the end of the tree line that we parked behind.
I can hear another engine, which was likely the town car from before driving fast spinning gravel, and just making an awful humming noise.
Less than a few seconds later the guys start firing. The town car explodes in glass, metal and screams. Where are the rest of our people? Maybe Luca’s guards figured out that we were in this car, fuck.
“Tate, where are the rest of the guards at?” She scratches her eyebrows and then we both start looking through all the windows. The shooting has stopped outside and the men are making their way toward the car.
“There,” Tate says and points to an area that’s got to be at least a mile away through the trees. I can see a bunch of different colors of metal. And those are the same colors of the SUVs that we had earlier.
The men start walking back to us and quickly get into the car. The car takes off fast, most likely trying to get us out of there.
Usually I would want to look, but for some reason I turn my head to Asher right as we pass the car. I don’t want to see what he had to do or what could’ve happened to him or us.
“This was a good plan,” Asher smiles as me. “I didn’t have enough time to get guys together. I sent out orders for all the groups to get rid of the men trailing them.”
I smile, that was actually smart. I don’t like what will come of these innocent men, but can they really be innocent if they’re working for Luca Delano? No.
* * *
When we finally pull up tothe Romano compound later that night, my mouth pops open and stays that way.
Tate smiles as she comes up and wraps her arms around me. “We made it, Avery, this is your blood estate.”
My head snaps in her direction, she starts laughing. She probably spent the whole day coming up with that.
Doesn’t take a long time to turn my attention to the biggest fucking log cabin I have ever seen in my life. It’s gorgeous.
Like a soldier not even paying attention, I immediately just start following everybody into the house. My head snaps back-and-forth. When we first enter the house, it smells absolutely divine. Different scents fill me. The fresh smell of wood is overpowering. I inhale as my head keeps looking back-and-forth. I imagine I must look like a snorting pig.
The walls are wood, there’s beams that are wood. There’s fucking wood everywhere. I always thought that would annoy me but it doesn’t, it’s actually beautiful and homey.
There are rugs everywhere, too, there’s even one that looks like a giant bear. I want to ask if it is, but I’m not going to. The leather couches look like they’re at least one-hundred years old, but it’s most likely designed to be that way.
When I enter the kitchen I swear my heart stops. At least everything’s making a little more sense now.
A couple of months after I arrived at the Stone’s house, Arya asked me if I liked any of the countertop pictures she was thinking of. One of them was red oak, it was fifteen thousand a slab. Absolutely gorgeous, but holy shit, this is a magazine kitchen, it’s beautiful. I can’t stop rubbing my fingers over it.
I turn around and find ten people watching as I go through the house, one of them is Vito.
My head drops down quite fast realizing how stupid I must look. I imagine I look like a tomato right now.
I quickly shake it off and walk over and give my grandfather a huge hug. “This place is beautiful.”
He gives me a tight smile. His eyes shine with sadness and sincerity. “Your grandmother loved it. We’ve been working on it for a long time. I rarely ever stay here. I’m always working and on the move.”
Tate whispers in my ear to go explore. I grab her hand as we go to search through everything. The only rooms that aren’t totally covered in wood would be the theater room and several of the bathrooms. It balances it out some, I guess.
This place is probably only half of the size of Asher’s, but it feels so much more welcoming, comforting. I love it here.
When I reach the top of the stairs, I rotate and look at the winding wooden staircase. Vito calls out for me, “Avery.”
Tate and I walk over in that direction and enter the room that he was standing in.
“This was your mother’s room, and it’s only right that it’s your room now.” I wrap myself around Vito’s side as we start to walk through the room. The roof must be at least fifteen feet tall in here. There are beams up at the top and the rest of the ceiling is painted white. Pine is decorating the walls and my room has a huge canopy bed that looks like it was handmade from the wood on the land. I chuckle to myself, it looks that way, but it was probably bought for ten thousand at some ridiculously overpriced store.
“This will be yours and Asher’s room.” Vito moves away from me and looks at Tate. “Let me show you to your room.”
“Thank you,” she says and I know she means it. We are all fucking exhausted, the only thing we wanna do is crash.
I watch them walk out and that’s the first thing I do, lay on the bed. I should get out of these guard clothes, but I’m too freaking tired. It only takes several minutes before I’m out cold. A hurricane wouldn’t even wake us up after the day we had.