BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 21 – 30
EPISODE 25
BY AUTHORESS ZION
“W-what?”
His grip tightened around my cheeks. “You heard me. They got to her. I don’t know how, but they traced everything. There must have been a mole working for us. A few of them.”
He sighed. “And now DeLuca’s got all of New York eating out of his pocket. He controls the politician’s, the news. H’ll, he’s about to have my department eating out of the palm of his hand soon. Your dad and I were trying to prevent it. We went undercover, without the FBI’s knowledge, on our own. Hannah was in on it with us. We were trying to snag him on something and put him away before he became too powerful…but we failed.”
His face fell. “We fked up big time and your father paid the ultimate price for it.”
“But he’s a bad guy. How is that possible?”
Ford looked at me hard. “Because sometimes in life, sweetheart. The bad guys win.”
His grip eased up and I rubbed my cheek. “So put him away for ki lling my father.”
Ford groaned and took a step back. “In order to do that, we need to have something called motive. Not to mention all the evidence points to those two gang members being responsible.”
“What’s motive?”
“A logical reason behind doing something. Usually in regards to committing a crime.”
“So tell them that you and my dad were trying to catch him doing something bad and he got angry.”
“I can’t do that,” he mumbled.
“Why not?”
He leaned his forehead against mine and put my hands on his cheeks. My breathing became uneven and I didn’t know why.
Actually, I did.
It was because I always thought Ford was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. Every time my mom would read me a fairytale, I would picture myself as the princess and Ford as my prince.
I never told anyone about that, though. I didn’t think my parents would have liked that very much, for some reason I didn’t really comprehend.
“Do you think I’m a good guy, Alyssa?” he whispered.
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “You’re one of my favorite people in the whole wide world.”
He smiled at me, showcasing his perfectly straight and white teeth.
“You wouldn’t ever want to see me behind bars, right?”
My hand flew to my face. “Never. That would ki ll me.”
“Then you can’t ever tell anyone about what your father and I did, okay?”
I bit my lip and looked down. “I won’t say anything. Ever. I promise.”
He tilted my chin up to look at him. “And you’ll tell everyone that it was those two gang members who ki lled your dad, right?”
I shook my head. “No. Because it wasn’t them. DeLuca deserves to pay for what he did.”
His nostrils flared and he grunted. “If you say it was DeLuca- do you know what will happen, sweetheart?”
“Yeah. He’ll go to jail for a very long time. Maybe even forever.”
He grabbed my face again and stared into my eyes. “No, he won’t. He knows you saw him, Alyssa. And he’ll come after you. Along with me, and your mother. And he won’t stop until we’re all de ad.” One hand wrapped around the back of my neck. “He’ll bash my $kull in and spread my b rains all over the concrete.”
He lowered his voice and whispered in my ear, “And then he’ll do it to your mom. And he’ll make you watch every single second of it before he does it to you. Just like with your dad.”
I couldn’t stop myself from dry heaving with those words. Ford reached for a garbage pail and held it out in front of me while he stroked my hair.
BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 21 – 30
After a few moments, my stomach settled and I was able to breathe again. “But that would make me a l-liar. Being a liar is bad. Those two boys were innocent.”He smiled and tilted his head toward me. “Do you think the beast was bad?”He sat on the chair in front of the table I was still sitting on and put my feet on top of his thighs. “I know your mom reads to you a lot. What’s your favorite fairy tale?”
I was put off by the change of subject, but I answered anyway. “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Well, yes…and no. It’s complicated, Ford. The beast loved her and Belle loved him. Despite how mean he was in the beginning. She saw past all that.”“No. I mean, at first, maybe. But he changed his ways for Belle.”
“And the beast rescued Belle in the end, right?”
BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 21 – 30
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