Taming the Monster by K.J. Thomas
Chapter 9
Avery
Someone continuously knocks on the door. I’ve been able to ignore it for the past hour, people would come and go, knock here and there, and then leave me alone. When I woke up earlier, I got up and locked the door. I just want to be left alone to deal with my thoughts and how to piece this all together to where it makes sense in my head before I deal with everybody else.
The continuous knocking is driving me insane. I yank back the covers, ignoring the sports bra and basketball shorts of Asher’s that I’m wearing. At least I’m dressed.
I stomp my way over to the door, this is annoying. I plan to spend however long it takes in bed till I can get through my head, so I can get over the shit.
I yank the door open. How dare they keep fucking knocking, knowing my world is turning upside down.
When the door fully opens and my eyes adjust to the person on the other side, I start to sob, just as loud as they do. “V-Vito,” Tate can barely say the words she’s crying so hard.
I’m such an asshole, this is killing other people also. I grab Tate as we both fall to our knees. My best friend clings to me, identifying with the unimaginable pain that I must be going through right now. Tate only has Asher left, so this hurts.
She lifts me up by the arm and puts me back in the bed and she spoons me from behind.
We both cry, ugly cries for a man that we both love, Vito Romano. Everybody loves him. He just has a way of getting under your skin. He might be one of the biggest bosses on the East Coast, but he’s also my grandfather, and one of the sweetest men I’ve ever known.
For the rest of the day, I love the fact that Tate stayed with me in bed. Asher came in a couple times, but he would just look at us and leave. He knows I need this right now and I love him even more for it.
Even Carter came in, but I think he was more checking on Tate than me. Maybe he just wanted to know where she was, keep your enemies closer and all that.
Around dinner time that night my body forces itself out of bed, but it was my stomach that forced me to get up. At least I feel dried up now.
My stomach is growling like crazy but I’m still afraid to go out there and see Vito. I need to calm myself, my head can’t take much more of this crying.
I bypass the kitchen when I noticed everybody in their having dinner. I’m not being dramatic or trying to get more attention or whatever it is that young girls do. I just literally cannot cry anymore. I know if I see my grandfather I will break. If I see Tate I will break, because she will try to help me. If I see Asher I will break, because he will have no freaking clue what to do. I chuckle a little bit, at least he might make me laugh.
One of my all-time favorite things to do is eat with the guards and thankfully there’s a whole other building that’s dedicated just for the ones that are off duty or for dinner time and sleeping.
I haven’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. My first smile reaches my face when I see Mac in the kitchen cooking and I can smell Italian.
Mac turns around and sees me, that’s when my eyes fill with moisture again making everything look like a kaleidoscope. I rapidly blink away the tears.
Mac looks at me and then looks around. I know he’s trying to get my mind off of it really fast, trying to figure out something to do. He looks worried and freaked like were about to be bombed. I chuckle because Mac is more scared of a crying girl than a bunch of men with guns.
He whispers in the ear of one of the guys, he moves toward me and gives me a hug. He pulls back right away before he gives me a chance to melt into him and let the tears return.
My eyes are closed when he pulls back. I want to open them but before I get a chance, something fluffy is stuffed in my hands.
“Sneaker,” I coo to the little shit and he actually purrs. Maybe he knows that I’m upset right now.
I love him, I squeeze the furball and pet him, then he bites my hand and I drop him down. Three seconds of love from Sneaker is probably the most anyone’s ever going to get.
No tears and I’m feeling better. I smile at Mac as he wraps his arm around me. “Come on, I need help with dinner.”
I spend the next few hours with the guys. The guys that are off duty, anyway. Mac hangs out with us the whole time, but I swear he’s on duty at night, he must just be here for me. We laugh and we play card games. It was fun, it was a great time. Mac keeps texting on his phone, he must be telling the others where I’m at. They’re probably just happy I’m not in the room anymore.
“Thank you,” I say to everybody as I’m getting ready to leave. It’s two AM and I’m really tired again. I make sure to make eye contact with every single guard there. These guys didn’t have to do this. This was their day off and I imagine some of them are bored, but there’s other things they could’ve been doing and they took their time to make me feel better.
I sniffle and just swallow anything that might make me want to start crying again. I wrap my arms tightly around Mac. “Thank you,” I whisper in his ear as he gives me a tight squeeze.
“Anytime girl. Door’s always open, if this helps you to relax some, you come and hang out with us.”
I give him a nod and bend down and pet Sneaker. It’s time for my ass to go back to bed.
* * *
I wokeup a couple of minutes ago. I’ve slowly been trying to pry my eyelids open. That’s what happens when you cry for a long time. The next day it feels like your eyes are super glued together with gunk.
As soon as I open my eyes, I see the very entertained face of Asher looking right at me.
“Good morning,” I say as he bends over and presses a kiss to my forehead.
“How are you doing today?” I sigh a little bit. I don’t even want to think about yesterday, I just wish it never happened.
“I’m better,” I smile and I mean it. I am better, I say as I sit up.
Asher sits cross-legged right in front of me and takes my hands in his. “You know that every big bad boss woman has a right-hand man, right?”
I nod, wondering where Asher is going with this, but I have somewhat of an idea.
“The right-hand man does all of the shit for the boss that she doesn’t want to. Some bosses have the right-hand man do everything, kind of like a silent partner. Only around if needed to be.” Asher smiles at me, yeah I know where he’s going.
“When people try to find the right right-hand man, this is a person that they have to trust more than their own families. More than their parents, more than their blood.” Asher speaks quietly, then is silent letting it all sink in and let my mind wander. I don’t even need time to think who would be perfect for that job.
“Mac,” both Asher and I say at the same time. He’s not Romano blood or even close to looking like us, but he’s practically been running a lot of the Romano shit forever, plus he’s family.
“That could actually work.” I look at Asher and smile. I know I can’t let the end of the Romano empire happen with me. The business meant so much to Vito and my parents.
Asher presses his lips together and gives me a tight nod.
“You won’t always be able to check with him. You have to start making some decisions on your own, Avery. This all comes down to you, baby.”
I know Asher’s main intention was to make me feel better, but all of it is overwhelming. It just seems like too much right now, I want to leave and get away for a while and not even think about it. I don’t have that choice right now with Luca and my grandfather’s health. This shit has to be dealt with now.
“I love you more than anything and we will figure this out. It may not seem like it, but I know it’s important for you to hold on to your family name and everything your parents and your grandfather work so hard to keep, everything that Luca destroyed.”
I give Asher a kiss on the cheek and then get up and get dressed for the day. Normally our big thing is morning sex, but I’m just not into it today and he can tell, that’s why he’s leaving me alone.
But my spirits are lifted, I’m feeling better. It might not be what I want at this moment but this is my life and I need to take charge of it, or somebody else is going to do it, they might even take it away from me. Everything would be gone, which would be much worse than me in the driver’s seat.
* * *
I had just finished tellingTate everything I’ve learned over the past few days. Not insider shit, she doesn’t care about that, but everything with my grandfather, is what we talked about.
She knew most of it. I’m pretty sure Vito and Asher had her come to help me yesterday. They had to tell her what was going on. Today I told her everything.
“I can’t believe you’re going to be the head of the Romano family!” Tate squeals. I thought she would feel sad for me just like I was. I want out of this life, I just want to be a normal girl. Go to college and not do anything else. I don’t even know what else normal people do. I do know one thing, they don’t have to fight for their life all the time.
I give her a weird look, watching her look through my eyes to the shit storm that is my life.
“You’re going to be a Mafia bad ass,” Tate tells me as she starts to pace looking back and forth between me and the room. “Nobody’s gonna fuck with you. You can even start changing things for the good. Change the whole way the whole company operates.” Tate’s hands are flying in the air mimicking everything she’s talking about. “You could take the jillions of dollars, whatever this company is worth and make it legal.”
Tate’s eyes gleam with determination as she plops down in the chair. The doors open to the library, but then they shut quickly after a guard looks in. The guys have been checking in on us all day. Nobody comes in and stays a while or even talks. I think they just want to make sure that we haven’t ditched, gone crazy or flooding the house with tears.
Her thoughts at first were bullshit. I didn’t even really listen to Tate because I don’t have a business degree, and I’m not very smart in any of the shit, so I don’t know how to take millions from the drug industry and put it into something legal.
There’s a way, somehow. I just have to find it. I can do this, I can switch everything and make the Romano Empire a legal entity.
I look at Tate and smile. “The new Romano name will be based on how much it helps the community. It will be legal on every front. People will know us by how much money we make and not by how many lives we take.”
Tate smiles and sits up straighter, she likes where I’m going. Asher and her both knew how to get me going in the right direction. To let me see the whole picture, not just the things I didn’t want to see in the first place. Even though Vito has shown me a ton of shit, it’s not even close to everything that there is to learn. Starting tomorrow morning, I’m gonna work with him on everything. I want him to show me the shit I don’t want to see and know. He was just doing the easier stuff at first, now I need to learn the hard shit.
I laugh inwardly to myself. Most people are groomed all of their lives to take something like this over. I wonder if my mom was next in line. Maybe. When they’re younger, they are taught the bad way. I’m happy I wasn’t being groomed for the business since I was little. I bet Vito might be a little bummed that I’m the wrong gender. But who really cares as long as I’m getting the job done.
My grandfather told me he could go anywhere from six months to a year. It just depends on how his body reacts to the medicine and to the cancer. I hope it’s a lot longer, even though I need to learn everything. I want us to spend as much time together as we can.
You rarely ever hear about families turning their businesses all the way around. It’s going to be extremely hard, but we can do it. I have a team of great people that are determined and will help me.
I will take everything in this company, its people, its connections, its money, it’s worth and I will twist it around and keep twisting until everything comes out clean and beautiful. No more dirty.