But then he heard a sound that stopped him in his tracks. He heard a sound that was unmistakable to his ears. And it wasn’t some sex sound. It wasn’t any kind of pleasure in that voice. He heard Ashley suddenly start screaming for help!

  As soon as Monk heard her scream, he ran the few remaining steps to the door of that storeroom, knocked it open with his shoulder, and saw, with his own two eyes, what was really going on. Three men, one of which had his pants down already, were ripping Ashley’s blouse open. Ripping open the blouse of his Ashley. What the fuck!

  Monk grabbed Arnie Lectin first, since he was the one who had his pants down, and threw him across that storeroom so violently that his back hit against one of the steel shelves and he screamed out in unbearable agony.

  Then Monk grabbed the other two men, who were holding Ashley down, and punched one, kicked the other one, and then began punching them both. One after the other one he was punching life out of them.

  But Ashley didn’t just lay there. She jumped up too. She was so angry she wanted in on the action too. She hurried to Arn, the ringleader. He was the one she wanted. And despite the fact that he was immobile with pain, she began kicking him with her stiletto shoes with all the force she could kick with. “Can’t take no for an answer?” she was yelling at him. “Can’t take no for an answer? Then take this you piece of shit! Take this, motherfucker! Take this!”

  She was so angry with his stupid ass that she began kicking him in the face with her heels, drawing blood on his face as soon as her heels went down on him. He tried to grab at her, to knock her away from him, but she was too wily, and he was fighting against the pain.

  Monk was beating the other two men into submission. He kept beating them until they were unconscious. And he kept on punching even after they were unconscious. They were holding down his woman so that they could take turns raping her? Oh, no, Monk kept thinking. None of their asses were getting out of this alive. And he kept on punching as if he was punching raw meat.

  But then he saw the third guy, the one who had his pants down, the one he was saving for last, finally succeed at grabbing one of Ashley’s shoes and knocking her on her butt. Ashley got back up quickly, to keep putting that pain on Arn, but by knocking her down Arnie had just moved back to the top of Monk’s list.

  He left the two unconscious men alone, and hurried over to Arnie.

  He moved Ashley aside, grabbed Arnie, sat him up, and began punching the shit out of him too. He punched and he punched. Arnie was long since unconscious, just like the other two, but Monk punched and he punched. Ashley’s kicks had already drawn blood. Monk was drawing meat. And he kept on punching.

  Until Ashley realized Monk wasn’t going to stop. Not until Arnie was dead. He was already within an inch of his life as it was. But that wasn’t good enough for Monk. And he kept on punching. She’d never seen Monk so angry.

  But Ashley wasn’t willing to go down that road. What Arnie and his gang were trying to do was criminal. It was wrong as hell. It was worth the ass-whipping Monk put on them. Monk had already achieved that goal. But was what they did worth a death sentence?

  Not to Ashley. She didn’t want that kind of blood on Monk’s hands when she could do something to stop it from going that far. She decided to stop it.

  “Monk, stop!” she yelled to him. “Don’t kill him!” She grabbed for his fist. She could tell he was zoned out. “Monk, stop! Monk? Monk?!”

  It took several more Monks before he heard her. He would have been angry toward any man who would do something like that to a defenseless woman. But for them to have tried it on his woman? She wasn’t defenseless. Ashley had kicked the shit out of that man. But she was Monk’s. She was his. Nobody was touching his.

  But Ashley’s voice, and her hands, pulled him away. “Don’t kill him,” she pleaded. “He’s not worth it. Please, Frankie, back away.”

  But even when Monk allowed Ashley to pull him away and he stood up on his feet, just looking at those three slobs rekindled his anger and he pulled out his gun. But Ashley placed her hand on the gun too. “Monk, no. You can’t! They got the message.”

  Monk let out a sigh of anguish. They both knew it wasn’t just them. They both knew it was him. Monk was feeling guilty that he wasn’t there when Arnie first walked into that store. He felt guilty about what could have happened had he not had that dream and felt compelled to go to Jericho. What if he was a few minutes too late? What if they would have done what they set out to do, and he was too late? What if they would have killed her, which he knew they would have had to do, to cover their heinous crime?

  Ashley had her ideas of justice.

  Monk had his.

  “Go get in my SUV,” he said to her. “Leave the store key on the counter. You’re closing for today.”

  “But Monk--” Ashley began to plead again.

  But Monk wasn’t hearing it. “Go, Ashley. Now.”

  “But they didn’t do it,” Ashley said. “They were going to, but they didn’t do anything. You got here in time.”

  That, to Monk, was beside the point now. He wasn’t about to leave them around to torment her again, or to kill her because they didn’t finish the job. “Go get in my SUV,” was all Monk would say to her.

  And Ashley understood he was not going to back down. She understood that Monk was about to become the head of a syndicate, not because he didn’t know how to handle situations like this, but because he did know how to handle them. He knew better than she would ever know. And she had to accept that truth if she ever had hopes of being his ride or die. This was that life she was signing up for. There would be no picking and choosing. Either she was all in with Monk, or she wasn’t. That was the choice.

  She made her choice.

  She left the storeroom, grabbed her purse and left the store key on the counter, and gathered her torn blouse together as she went and got into Monk’s SUV. His driver had jumped out and opened the door for her.

  But even in that SUV, outside of her store on that quiet country highway, Ashley could still hear the gunshots as Monk did what Monk do. He handled their business.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  He took her to his plane. But the plane did not take off. He ran a bath for her, removed her clothing, and she got in the tub. While she bathe the stench of those boys off of her and tried to relax, he went and made a few phone calls. By the time he made it back into the luxurious bathroom on his luxurious plane, she had almost fallen asleep. Too much drama did that to her.

  Monk saw the anguish still all over her face. She was relaxed. She was safe with him and she knew it. But she was still anguished about how he handled that situation. He knew that too. He didn’t listen to her. He did it his way. He knew he had to make her understand why.

  He removed his own clothes, kicking them aside as they were bloodstained too, and then he got in the tub behind her. He repositioned her, so that she was now sitting between his legs, her back to his stomach, and she appreciated the support. His penis was against her butt, and she was amazed at how quickly his erection was growing beneath her. He had just gotten in the tub with her and within seconds he was already full blown hard. One thing Ashley knew she didn’t have to worry about. Her man definitely loved her body.

  But it wasn’t his love for her body that was bothering her. Most all men loved a naked woman’s body. And her body had been “loved” in a used and abused way by more men than she ever wanted to think about. Maybe that was why a gang rape wasn’t the end of the line for her. She’d been there before. More than once. Which said a lot, she knew, about her love-life before Monk.

  But his love for her body wasn’t the issue. His love for her opinions, for her judgment, for her ability to make decisions for both of them, was the issue. She wasn’t playing in a one man band. Monk had to understand that too.

  “I phoned your father,” Monk said.

  Ashley was shocked. “You told him what happened?”

  “No! You know better than that.”

  “Then what did you phone him for?”

  “I told him I was back in town and you and I wanted to meet with him and his wife. He agreed. He said for us to meet him at his office.”

  “For when?”

  “He said they could meet me after they both got off work. At six this evening.”

  Ashley relaxed again after realizing they didn’t have to rush over there. “What are we meeting them about? The marriage proposal?”

  “Yes,” Monk said. “It’s time for them to know. I also called Teddy.”

  Ashley quickly turned and looked at Monk. “Teddy Sinatra? My cousin? Why?”

  “He knows me like that. Your old man and your mother? They don’t know me like that. They respect Teddy. That much I know. They’ll listen to Teddy. I know that too. I figure I could use some backup because Big Daddy already showed his hand when he came to Jersey. He tried to tear us apart even then.”

  “He wasn’t trying to tear us apart,” Ashley said. She was always quick to defend her beloved father. “He just wanted me to think things through.”

  “Call it whatever you like,” Monk said. “But I call it like I see it. He didn’t want his little girl with me. That’s what I saw. Now I’m talking about marrying your ass? Excuse me for being born a Jersey boy who don’t give a shit about what people say, but what people do, because I didn’t see him jumping up and down with happiness when he saw us together.”

  “And you think my cousin Teddy can help us get Daddy to understand?”

  “Teddy’s my best friend,” Monk said. “He knows me like that. It can’t hurt.”

  Ashley knew her father didn’t like to be pressured or ganged-up on, but she also knew Monk was probably right. Teddy being there wouldn’t hurt. She turned back around. But she still had other concerns. Mainly about the dynamics of their relationship and if Monk was going to treat her as a partner, or as his spawn. And right now, her concerns were focused on what happened at the store. “Frankie?”

  “I’m right here.”

  “What if Donnie drop by the store later today and find those bodies ---”

  “He won’t,” Monk said quickly. He had a cleanup crew, an experienced team that flies with him wherever he goes, already dispatched with the key in hand. “My men are doing a clean sweep of that area as we speak,” he added. “Donald won’t notice a thing if he drops by.”

  Ashley let out a long sigh. Monk knew what that meant. “You disagreed with my decision,” he said. “Didn’t you?”

  Ashley nodded. “Yes, I did.”

  “Putting the emotions aside,” he asked, “why? Or was it all emotion?”

  “It wasn’t about emotion, Frankie. If it had been about emotions, I would have killed those assholes myself. But you made it your decision alone. You wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say.”

  “I listened.”

  “You listened, but then you did whatever you wanted to do.”

  “I did what I knew was best for that situation. And I will always do that,” Monk made clear.

  Ashley turned around again quickly and looked at him, with Monk noticing her big breasts bouncing with her turn. He was still getting hard, but he knew they had to handle this.

  Ashley knew it too. “So what I think, or what I say is best for us,” she asked, “will never matter? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “When it comes to your safety, and anybody disrespecting my woman in any way, that’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Monk said. “That’s my lane. You aren’t getting in that lane ever.”

  “Why not if it concerns me?”

  Monk frowned. “Because you don’t know shit about it. That’s why not!”

  “But they didn’t do anything!”

  “That’s because I showed up! What is it about that little fact that you don’t understand? What if I didn’t come to Jericho, Ash? You think those motherfuckers would have gang-raped you and let you live to tell about it?”

  “They might have,” Ashley said. “But we’ll never know now, will we?”

  “You can’t leave baggage behind, Ashley. Your ass better understand that. They start it, I have to finish it.”

  Monk was animated now. “I can never let any fucker walking the face of this earth think they can rape my woman, or attempt to rape my woman, or even touch her in any way disrespectfully and get out of that situation alive. Not gonna happen. I can never let that get out about me or that’ll be the end of me. It’ll be the end of your ass, too, because you’re now linked to me. Strength is what keeps my enemies off my tail. If I tip my hand with that kind of weakness and let them think that I won’t even protect my old lady, it’ll be a bloodbath.”

  Ashley continued to stare at him. Her eyes had a way of narrowing in a way that Monk always found sexy, the more serious she became. And she let out another tension-filled sigh. “So this is the life I’m signing up for?” she asked him in a voice so low it barely registered.

  But Monk heard her loud and clear. And a sadness came over his big eyes that startled Ashley. But he nodded his head. “Yes,” he said. “Unfortunately, yes. This is the life.” Then he tried to smile but only succeeded in looking terrified. “Get out while you can,” he added, as if it was a joke.

  Ashley didn’t try to smile. Her look remained serious. Shit was getting real to her now. She was signing up for something so dangerous; something so beyond her wildest dreams of danger that she couldn’t even picture it. But the alternative was leaving Frankie. The alternative was living her life, free from that kind of danger, but also free from Frankie.

  She couldn’t imagine her life without him.

  She turned back around, and leaned back against him.

  Monk had been holding his breath. She could leave him! He lived in grave fear of that very fact. But he had to make her understand the stakes. He had to make her understand that there was a lot of risk, and very little glamour, if she became his wife. “It’s a tough life, Ash,” he said to her. “I’m not gonna lie to you. It’s the kind of life I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I hate myself for putting it on you.”

  “That comes with the territory,” she said, “but you come with the territory too.” She turned and looked at him. “I’m on board to be with you.”

  “Come hell or high water?” he asked.

  Ashley smiled. Was that some line from one of those old movies he liked to watch? “Come hell or high water,” she said, and then leaned against him.

  Why she wanted to lean against him? Now Monk’s erection was painful. Now he had to have her in the worst way.

  But he knew he couldn’t do it. She had just been traumatized by those fools at that store. He wasn’t about to add to the pile.

  He, instead, held her until she turned around, straddling him and facing him, and then she laid her head on his shoulder. And fell asleep.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Monk and Ashley rode in silence to Big Daddy’s office in downtown Jericho. Ashley, who sat beside Monk, kept taking peeps at him as they rode. After that drama with Arnie and his craziness, and after their conversation on Monk’s plane, was he rethinking his proposal to her? He was about to take on more responsibility as the head of the family in Jersey, and she was giving him problems too? Was she more trouble than she was worth to him?

  She wanted to ask him all of those questions. But she didn’t ask him a thing. She had to let it play itself out. Monk was a big boy. If he didn’t want her anymore, he wasn’t the kind of man who would beat around the bush. He’d let her know straight up.

  She looked away from him and relaxed. And then they approached her father’s office. That was when she saw it. “Wow,” she said.

  “What?” Monk asked.

  “Uncle Mick’s here.”

  Monk didn’t know what she meant. He looked at her, and then looked where she was looking: in front of her father’s storefront office as their SUV drove up. He didn’t see anybody standing outside. “Why you figure he’s here?” he asked her.

  “That’s his Escalade,” Ashley said.

  Monk did see a big, black, shiny Cadillac Escalade parked in front of Big Daddy’s office, next to the Jaguar Monk knew Big Daddy drove. But he was for certain Mick Sinatra didn’t have time to drive all the way to Maine. He would have flown to Maine on his big-ass private plane had he come. He looked at Ashley. “How would you know that’s his Escalade?”

  “He’s the only person I know who drives a big tank like that. And I know for a fact he keeps one here in Jericho for whenever he comes to visit Daddy, just like he keeps one in New York, one in Vegas, and one in Seattle too.”

  “Well damn. He gets around, doesn’t he?”

  Ashley smiled too. “He gets around and he gets around in an Escalade, his tank of choice.” Then she looked at Monk. “But I thought you said you called Teddy, and Teddy said he’d be here. You called Uncle Mick too?”

  The idea that Monk would have phoned Mick Sinatra for backup regarding his love life was laughable. Ashley didn’t understand the absurdity of it. Nobody outside of the Sinatra/Gabrini family ever just picked up a phone and called Mick Sinatra for anything. Not ever!

  “No,” he said to his sweet girlfriend, “I didn’t call your uncle. Teddy apparently told him and he decided to come too.”

  Ashley smiled. “That’s nice of him. Everybody loves to talk about how terrible he is. And sometimes he is! But sometimes he’s nice too.”

  “How about that,” Monk said. But unlike Ashley, he wasn’t so sure if Mick Sinatra’s presence was a good thing for them. Because he knew Mick’s world. He knew it was one thing to want to fuck his niece. Everybody needed love sometimes, even Mick the Tick understood fucking. But it was an entirely different ball of wax to want to marry that niece. To want to become a part of that Sinatra/Gabrini clan too. Monk wasn’t singing hallelujahs like Ashley was just yet.

  And as a testament to his reticence, as soon as he and Ashley got out of the SUV his nerves began to overtake him. Which irritated him. What the fuck was that all about? He was never nervous in the worst of circumstances, but he was nervous about this? He took Ashley’s hand. And not just because he wanted to. Even more so because he needed to. And they headed across the sidewalk and into Big Daddy’s office.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17