Monk Paletti: Commanding Love, page 17
“I’m your man,” Goldberg said proudly, too, as Greta reached down to grab Monk’s gun.
But Monk knew he couldn’t allow it. Greta’s hatred would propel her to shoot as soon as the opportunity arose, regardless of any plan she and Goldberg may have hatched. Mick and Teddy knew it too. Either they acted now, or faced the barrel of guns later.
They acted.
Monk kicked Greta in the teeth as soon as she was close enough, and Teddy flipped Goldberg onto the floor just as Goldberg’s gun misfired. But he still had it. And he and Teddy struggled for control.
Mick watched the struggle. He watched his son’s every move. He wasn’t going to intervene. Teddy, he knew, could take care of himself.
And he did. He outmuscled Goldberg and took possession of that gun. And then he fired it twice, killing the man who had no compulsion against killing him.
Monk, too, had grabbed his gun and had Greta pinned to the floor too. And he had his gun trained on her. But killing her wasn’t going to be as easy for Monk as it was for Teddy to take out Goldberg. He had his gun trained on Don Bonaducci’s wife. That was the difference. And he couldn’t get pass that difference. “You put me in an awful spot, Gret,” he said with pain in his eyes.
“You killed Sammy!” Greta proclaimed. Her rage was still her only emotion. “You killed Sammy!”
“An awful spot,” Monk said again, his face anguished.
But then he thought about Ashley. He thought about all that carnage on yesterday. And his will returned. “What you did to the family,” he said. “All those people that died. And what you tried to do to me and Ashley?” He shook his head. “That shit can’t go unpunished,” he said, as the sirens drew nearer. Mick wanted to tell him to wrap it up, but Monk was a boss now. He knew what he was doing.
And sure enough, Monk did it. He fired his weapon at pointblank range and took out the wife of Don Bonaducci. He killed the Don’s wife.
He never thought he’d see the day.
Then Mick took over. Time was up. He grabbed Monk. “Let’s go, son,” he said to him. “We don’t have enough explanations to satisfy cops.”
And Monk didn’t delay. He, Mick, and Teddy took off out of that side door again, down that narrow walkway, through the inch-thick forest barrier, and into the waiting Escalade. And as soon as they got inside, Big Daddy took off.
“In and out,” Mick said. “Just like I like it!”
“You could have helped me out, Pop,” Teddy said.
“You had it in control,” Mick said.
“And what if I didn’t?”
“Then that would have been your ass, wouldn’t it?” Mick said. Then he gave Teddy a hard look. “You had it in control.”
But Teddy only shook his head. His father had no idea how close a call that really was.
And Ashley was looking at Monk. His look made it clear that Greta Bonaducci didn’t make it out alive. Because he looked as if he’d just killed his best friend. His mentor’s wife, she knew, was close enough. But what else could he have done?
She took his hand and placed it in her hand, holding him tightly. And he squeezed her hand as if her presence, her contact, was as needed in his life as air.
EPILOGUE
It was considered the wedding of the century in Jericho, Maine. Everybody who was somebody, and all of those naysayers who never thought Ashley had it in her, stood at attention that day. Ashley’s high school friends Jane and Dee wanted to be there, but they weren’t invited. Mainly because they still hadn’t apologized to Ashley for calling her a tramp. For insisting that a man like Monk wouldn’t marry a woman like her. All of those men who had used and abused her weren’t invited either. All of those men who had treated her as if she was as dispensable as trash. But they had no choice. That wedding was the talk of the town. They took notice too. Ashley wasn’t simply getting married. She was getting married to the crème of the crop. She was slated to have the greatest wedding many in Jericho had ever seen in their lifetimes. And Monk wouldn’t have had it any other way.
He was the one who insisted that she get married in Jericho, not Jersey. He was the one who insisted that they go all out, sparing no expense. He was the one who insisted that Ashley, for once in her life, was going to rub it in their obnoxious faces.
The ceremony was held in the largest church in town, and every member of Monk’s syndicate from Jersey, including Raymond and his crew, along with the Gabrinis and Sinatras, and Trevor Reese and Ashley’s kid sister Carly, packed the pews. Hammer Reese couldn’t be there, but Amelia Sinatra-Reese was there and was happy to see her niece get hitched. Happy to know that she finally found her knight in shining armor. Because that was how the family felt about Monk. He was her knight.
Big Daddy, on the other hand, was nervous. He was in the back of the church, waiting to walk Ashley down the aisle, and all he could do was pace the floor.
“Why are you so nervous, Charlie?” Jenay asked him. “She’s going to be just fine. Monk truly loves her.”
Charles nodded. “I know he does.”
“And he’ll treat her right.”
“I’ll break every bone in his body if he doesn’t.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
Charles finally stopped pacing and placed his hands in the pockets of his blue tuxedo. “I’ll miss her,” he said.
“Ah, Charlie,” Jenay said, and placed her hand through his arm.
“She used to work for me, remember? She couldn’t get anybody in town to hire her, so she came and worked in my office. She thought it meant she was a failure. She thought it meant I had to rescue her. But she did a good job.”
Jenay stared at him. “What’s really bothering you?” she asked him.
“She’s taking on a lot,” he said. “And I just pray she can handle it all.”
Jenay nodded. “I believe she can. I’ve known her since she was a little girl, and she was always resilient. Everybody gave Carly credit for being the sharp one. Ashley was just an airhead to most people. But if you really knew her, you knew that wasn’t true. She made poor decisions, yes, but she made some darn good ones too. And I sincerely believe that Monk is one of her good decisions. Maybe her best one yet.”
Charles looked at Jenay and smiled. “I hope you’re right.”
“Am I ever wrong?”
Charles laughed. “Like every day, yes!” he said. Jenay punched him on the arm. But just like that, he was relaxed again.
And then it was time. And Ashley finally appeared. Looking like an angel, Charles thought, as he and Jenay smiled. Their little girl was all grown up now!
Monk stood at the altar sweating like a pig. Teddy stood beside her, as his best man, and couldn’t help but smile at his friend. But then the musician began playing Here Comes the Bride, and the audience stood on their feet, and then Big Daddy Charles Sinatra began that long trek up the long aisle to give his daughter to Monk.
Monk’s throat tightened when he saw Ashley walking toward him. She looked as if she was his dream come true, he thought, in a gown he had specially designed for her straight from Paris. It was a flowing, white Princess gown, the kind with so much lace and beads that it weighed almost as much as Ashley weighed. And that chapel train was long and flowing and beaded too. The people of Jericho would talk about that gown for months to come.
But all Monk’s heart could talk about was Ashley. He finally found what he’d been searching for all of his life, even if he didn’t realize he was searching at all. But he was. Because of the emptiness. Because, when he found Ashley, he finally had all those gaping holes in his life filled in. Always alone. Always holed up in that house that looked so dark and dreary from the outside: hiding from the world. Now, he didn’t want to hide. He had Ashley. He had somebody special to come home to. And he wasn’t going to blow it.
It wasn’t all peaches and cream. The Don had swore revenge on him for what happened to his wife, and Raymond was still plotting and scheming to wrestle control of the family away from Monk. But the Don wasn’t so angry that he was willing to transfer power back to the man who had put them in the hole in the first place. Monk was still in charge. But it was still a badly fractured family.
But he had Ashley. He felt he could manage anything with her by his side.
When Big Daddy finally handed her over to Monk, and Ashley smiled that sweet, pure smile as Monk took her hand, Monk’s heart melted. She was going to be his wife. He could hardly believe his good fortune.
But it happened. “Dearly beloved,” the minister began, and they recited their vows. And when the minister asked if there was anybody there who objected to the union, and that they should speak now or forever hold their peace, Monk placed his hand on his hip as if he was about to pull out a gun if anybody objected. Everybody laughed. And they said their I Do’s.
“You may kiss the bride,” the minister finally said to Monk and Monk, lifting the veil, gave Ashley a passionate kiss that had the audience clapping and whistling.
And as they grabbed each other’s hand and ran out of that church to the loud sound of wedding bells, both of them were overwhelmed with joy. Outside, Ashley threw the bouquet. Her friend Marina almost caught it. But Teddy’s fiancée Nikki caught it instead. She wasn’t even trying to catch it. Teddy had long since put a ring on it. But it fell right in her arms.
Teddy looked slightly alarmed. Why would she catch the bouquet? Then he looked at his father. Mick was laughing his head off.
And then Monk and Ashley got into the limo. And sat down. And looked at each other as if they were shocked that they actually pulled it off. And then they laughed.
“After the reception,” Monk said, “you’re all mine, Mrs. Paletti.”
Ashley’s heart fluttered at the thought of that name. And then she smiled. “I’m all yours already,” she said. “The question is,” she added, “what are you going to do with me? And if you say put me on a corner and work me, I’ll break your fingers!”
Monk laughed out loud. “Now you know I would never do that to you,” he said. And then he took her hand, and his look turned serious. “I’ll love you,” he said, “that’s what I’ll do with you. I’ll love you unlike you’ve ever been loved before. Because you deserve it, Ashley Paletti.” Then he looked at her with loving eyes. “That’s better?” he asked.
“Much,” Ashley said, her heart filled to the brim. “In fact all.”
And they leaned over, and kissed again. When they finished, Monk exhaled with great relief. “Life is good,” he said, and Ashley nodded her head too.
Because finally, for both of them, it truly was.
Visit
www.mallorymonroebooks.com
or
www.austinbrookpublishing.com
or
www.amazon.com/author/mallorymonroe
for more information on all titles.
Mallory Monroe, Monk Paletti: Commanding Love
