Little Fury: Book 1 of The deadly Little Thing Trilogy
Little Fury: Chapter 14

When Marcus was fifteen years old, he was gone for a week to see his family. A few days after he returned from his trip, we got word his younger half-brother and stepmother were killed in a car accident. Harry and I went with Marcus to New York for the funerals. Marcus’s father didn’t say much to us at the funeral. He shook Harry’s hand and nodded at his son; he barely looked at me. The funeral was large. The Mafia world has customs, all families acknowledge the death of a family member.

Marcus asked for a few minutes alone with his brother before they lowered his casket, so, Harry and I made our way to the waiting limousine. We’re the last ones in the cemetery while we wait for Marcus.

“So, Little Ava, what did you glean from today?” Harry asks me, with his training mode voice.

I sigh, knowing answering him isn’t optional. “Enzo was sad. I think he really did love his wife and son. He has none of that for Marcus. He dislikes you a lot, and I think it’s because you’re respected in his world, and he is merely tolerated.”

“How do you know he is barely tolerated?”

“Because while all the families were here, I’m pretty sure all the representatives were like fifth cousins. No one of any importance showed. That makes me believe the other families don’t respect Enzo Rossi.” I explain my logic.

Harry looks at me with the barest of smiles. “Correct. What else?”

“The Russians were absent even though we know they’re in New York.” I pause, walking through the funeral in my head. I close my eyes and twirl the ring on my finger. “All the families shook Marcus’s hand. All of them gave him a nod. None of that was given to Enzo. The families acknowledged Enzo, but no real respect was given.”

“Very good. Just a little reminder, Ava: you need to be able to do your mental walk-throughs with your eyes open. You need to be able to see what’s around you if you are not someplace safe and secure.” Harry reminds me. “What does all this tell you?”

I take a moment to double-check my observations and what I conclude them to mean. “First off, Harry, I don’t need to have my eyes open because I have your old ass watching my back,” I tell him cheekily. Harry guffaws beside me. “Secondly, it all tells me that the families want to see Marcus as the head of the Rossi family. I think that’s because of how much time the Russians have been spending with him. I think that has made the other families realize that the Russians will back the child, not the father.” I pause, gather my thoughts and continue, “Even though historically, the local families have had very little to do with the old-world Russians.” I use air quotes for the old-world distinction. “Marcus’s mother changed things. By marrying an American, she essentially opened a pathway between the two worlds.”

Harry smiles slightly, telling me he’s happy with my appraisal of the current situation. I feel a small bit of pride in that. Marcus makes his way over to us, and we climb into the waiting vehicle. We go out for dinner before heading back to the hotel.

Dinner is nice, just the three of us. We talk and laugh.

Back at the hotel, I make my way down to the pool and spa area, looking forward to relaxing. There are a couple of saunas. one dry and one wet.

I’d been in the pool for a little while, just floating and enjoying the quiet, when I hear a couple of voices enter the area. Looking over, I see two men in their early twenties enter. They don’t see me right away, so I watch them. Setting their towels on chairs they head to the hot tub. I hear them talking but can’t make out what they’re saying.

Getting out I plan to head to the wet sauna for a few minutes. I make my way to the stairs and the two of them instantly track my movements. I grab my towel, wrap it around myself and head to the sauna. As I walk into the sauna, I put my hair up in a messy bun. Feeling their eyes on me as I open the sauna door. My body is tense, all the relaxation I found in the pool is gone.

I sit close to the sauna door, leaning back and closing my eyes, breathing in the eucalyptus-infused steam. I hear the door open, and I open my eyes. They take seats away from me, both making sure not to sit too close. “Intuition should always be listened to,” I hear Miss Bennett’s voice in my head.

Ava, just leave. You’ve been here long enough. I stand up and move to the door.

“Don’t like our company?” one of them asks.

“Not at all; I’m sure you’re great people, but my brother and father are waiting for me, and I’ve been down here longer than I told them I would be. I don’t want them to worry and have to come down here to replace me.” I tell them as I open the door. I’m barely out the door when I hear them exit the sauna behind me.

If only you had been smart and told Marcus or Harry where you were going.

“Don’t run off! My name’s Albert, and this is my cousin Oscar,” the other one says to me.

Don’t do it, Ava. Just ignore the smart-ass comment in your head about their asinine names. Just keep walking.

My inner monologue audibly sighs at me the moment I open my mouth. “Albert? Did your parents want a 70-year-old cab driver for a son?” I inwardly groan. While I’m very proud of the funny thing I just put out into the world, I’m also aware that it was stupid of me. I’m a 15-year-old girl alone with 2 men, and I told no one where I was going.

“Wow, someone’s a fucking comedian,” guy number one, who I’m assuming is Oscar says to me.

“Sorry,” I say to them. “I sometimes forget not everyone thinks I’m as funny as I do.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You can make it up to Albert easy enough.”

“I honestly can’t. I need to go meet my dad and brother.” I try one last time.

I grab my key card because I can’t access the elevator without it, which gives them enough time to catch up to me.

“Come on, just tell us your name. We don’t bite.” Albert tells me. I can smell the beer on his breath.

Why do guys think it’s reassuring to a girl to tell them they don’t bite? I’ll never understand that logic.

Didn’t they read Little Red Riding Hood when they were little? The wolf tells Red something very similar, and he still eats her.

“Guys, look, I’m sorry if I offended you, but I’m just trying to leave, so please let me pass,” I ask them, doing everything I can to pacify them. I know what’s coming. I can see it in their eyes, the way they’re tensing up. The thoughts running trough their minds. They have no intention of letting me leave.

I drop my head back and groan out my frustration at this situation. Such a fucking cliché. Young girl alone gets attacked by two guys when they come upon the minor alone in a hotel pool but honestly, I’m just not having any of it.

I cock my head to the side as I look at both of them. “All right then, guys, let’s do this. I’m tired, and I want to order room service before I go to sleep; there is a bacon cheeseburger here that is to fucking die for. So please, if we’re doing this, can you make your moves so I can be on my way?”

Neither of them had expect the sass, so they have no idea what to say. Oscar, however, has already made up his mind. I can see it the second before he lunges at me; I punch him in the throat, and he drops, gasping for air.

Albert looks at Oscar, clearly shocked that his buddy has just been laid out. He’s faster, and I would bet a thousand dollars has some kind of training. He turns his body to me in a fighter’s stance, and I mirror him. I lift an eyebrow at him, tip my head to the side again slightly, and let the barest of a smile show on my lips.

I’ve learned over the last couple of years that because I’m small and pretty, everyone thinks I’m an easy target. When they see the cockiness in me, it makes them second guess what they think they see when they look at me.

I nod at Albert, telling him to get on with it. He swings at me, and I dodge it, allowing me to land a punch to his left kidney. He grunts at the contact, and I step back, giving him some space. He refocuses on me and attacks. He may have some training but doesn’t know how to use it. He broadcasts his moves before making them, making it easy to avoid them and land my own. Albert is sporting a bloody nose, and I’m pretty sure a badly bruised kidney after a few well-placed hits on my part.

I hear Oscar start to take a few semi-normal breaths, and I see him out of the corner of my eye get up off the floor. Albert sees this as well, and an evil grin crosses his face. “Two on one bitch; let’s see how well you do now.”

Oscar stays behind me, effectively blocking any way for me to get to the door, but he still isn’t 100% on his feet, so I know Albert is the bigger threat at the moment. Albert throws a right, and it hits me square on the cheekbone, and I feel it all the way into my eye socket. That pisses me off. I can see Oscar out of the side of my eye, so I turn to him and kick the inside of his left knee with all the power I have, and the knee gives way under my foot with a satisfying snap. Oscar screams in agony, and he is back on the floor. This time, I know he isn’t getting back up. And I’m pretty sure he peed himself.

“Stop fucking with them, Ava. Just finish it.” I hear Harry growl. I never even heard him enter the room. “Relax, Marcus, she’s fine. “

I smirk at Albert, reveling when I see it click for him that I was toying with them. “I didn’t want to hurt either of you too badly, but now I don’t care. I’m going to have a bruise on my face, and that really irks me.” I step towards him, and he takes a step back and drops his hands ever so slightly in what I think might have been a surrender gesture. But I don’t care. I take the opportunity it produces and clock him in the temple and once more in the nose, breaking it. Albert drops like a stone.

I turn and see Marcus standing beside Harry. Harry sits in a pool chair, feet up, drinking a beer. He’s bare-chested, looking like it’s just another ordinary day at the pool.

“Thanks, guys, for the help,” I tell them, my hand going to my cheek, feeling the swelling and the bruise I know is starting to appear.

“I wanted to help, but Harry wouldn’t let me,” Marcus tells me as he approaches me.

“She didn’t need help. She wouldn’t have even taken that one hit had she gotten over the idea of not wanting to hurt them faster.” Harry informs Marcus.

I look at Harry and stick my tongue out at him. He’s right. I played nicer than I should have and have the swelling to prove it.

“Answer me this, Ava, why didn’t you leave as soon as they entered? Why did you go into the sauna?”

“I don’t know. I ignored my intuition, I guess,” I answered without giving it any real thought.

We head to the elevator and up to our rooms.

“Miss Bennett will not like hearing that,” Harry informs me. I groan, knowing Miss Bennett will make me regret doing that.

We get off the elevator and head to our rooms. I go straight to the phone and order a burger, onion rings, and a vanilla milkshake. I hop in the shower to rinse off the pool and the little bits of blood I have on me. I step out of the shower, wrap my hair in a towel, then grab the robe from behind the door and freeze.

How fucking dare, he!

I rip open my room door, walk two doors down, and bang on it. Harry answers the door with his trademark red eyebrow raised. Not giving him a chance to speak, I brace my hands on either side of the door jam, using it for leverage as I jump and swing a bit. Using the momentum, I drop-kick the Scottish asshole right in the stomach. The door frame allows me to come back to standing. “You fucking set me up??!!” I spit at him, accusing him and stating what I already know.

Harry is bent over, gasping for air, so I stand there waiting for him to answer.

It takes a couple of minutes before he can answer me, “Jesus Ava, I thought you were going to punch me in the face, nae kick me in the’ tummy. Who the hell does that?” He says, his brogue thick.

“Me! I do that, Harry. I’ve been trained for years, that I need to do the unexpected because of my small size. And clearly kicking you in the stomach was the unexpected.” I yell at him.

“Why?!” I ask him again.

“Because Ava, I test everyone. It’s my fucking job.”

“Do you test everyone like that? At my age?”

“You’ve always been so nonchalant about everything. Always just accepted everything. Since you were a little girl, you’ve just taken this all-in stride.” Harry pauses, trying to catch his breath. “And your birth mother requested it be done now and like this.”

I look at him. The shock clear on my face. He never mentions my birth mother or the circumstances of my adoption and being placed with him after my parents died. “So, you’re reporting to her then? She decides how my training progresses?”

“I’ve always reported your progress to her. You’re a minor, and when your parents died, your guardianship went back to your biological mother. She signed you over to me while you were in the hospital. That’s how Beth was able to take you and bring you to the ranch.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Have you been sending her progress reports about me this whole time? And what? She sends you back notes? Tells you what training and tests?”

“No, Ava. Not once has she replied to an update, I’ve sent her. She’s never interfered once in your eight years with me. This test here in New York, while yes, she requested it be done now, I supported the decision, or it never would have taken place.”

“Fucking super. Fuck you, Harry, and fuck her.”

He breathes deeply and sits on the end of the bed. “It’s never once seemed to phase you. You hide behind your brain and your smartass mouth. I’ve seen you during training, and you’re good. You’ve always been good. It’s always felt like you were made for this life. But you never took any of it seriously.” He takes a normal breath, and it’s irritating right now how good of shape he’s in for his age; men half his age would still be writhing on the floor. I step into his room.

“What if you were wrong? What if I froze or something went wrong? It’s a fucking pool area shit is slippery!” I yell at him, and my anger begins to rise again.

“I was there. I was outside the pool area from the moment they arrived. I would never have let anything happen to you, Ava,” he tells me.

“And Marcus? Was he part of this?”

‘No, he just looked for you when you weren’t in your room. He tried to get into the pool area as soon as he saw what was happening. But I stopped him and explained the situation. He wasn’t happy about it, but we slipped into the pool area, so we were closer to you. The rest, you know.”

I look at him. “Well, I hope you and her feel like you’ve got your money’s worth from me.” I sneer at him, “Fuck you, Harry.” I leave his room just in time to see room service knocking on my door.

He follows me into the hall, the waiter looking between us. I’m in my bathrobe, and the Red-haired giant behind me is only in a pair of sweats. The waiter looks at me silently, asking if I need help. “Thank you,’ I tell him and sign for my food. “My dad and I were just having an argument about what it means to have someone’s back,” I inform the poor man. Opening my door, he pushes the cart inside, still looking very uncertain despite my reassurances that I’m ok.

I realize how it must look. I’m a teenager in a bathrobe with a huge welt on my cheek. And I come barreling out of this grown man’s room who you can clearly see is not my father. And there is just the imposing figure Harry is. He’s 6’3 with red hair and a beard; he’s a bloody monster of a man. Old or not, Harry is in shape and scary if you don’t know him.

The waiter accepts my answer that all was fine and heads to the elevator. Marcus pokes his head out of his room. “You guys good?’ He asks.

“You know what? Fuck you too, Marcus! Fuck both of you. And neither of you fucking talk to me until we’re back at the ranch.”

“Not sure how Beth would feel about all the f-bombs coming out of your mouth” Harry says to me. I swing around on him and take a couple of steps towards him.

“Trust me, Harry, your relationship with her may be close, but that woman has raised me like I am her own. She is going to fucking flay you over this.” I glare at him. “But go ahead, tell her what you told me, that you’re just doing your job, that my birth mother requested it. I’m sure she’ll be good with that.”

I turn away, ignoring him when he calls my name. I step into my room and slam the door.