BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 61 – 70

EPISODE 70

Ricardo closes his eyes. “I’m not like my father, Alyssa.”

“Doesn’t matter. Your father took the most important person in my life from me and he’s about to do it again. I want him to feel what it’s like to lose the most important thing to him.”

He sucks in a breath and glances at Lou-Lou. “Yeah. I get that, Alyssa.”

His expression quickly changes to nervousness. “Wait, what do you mean he’s about to do it again? Where the fk is Jackson right now?”

“He’s working with an FBI agent. An FBI agent that’s going to set him up for the mu rder of your father. I have to get to him before that happens.”

“Sht. Can’t you just call him and warn him?” Lou-Lou asks, her voice cracking.

“He’s not picking up his phone.”

“Fk. No. Oh, my god. Sht,” she sputters, her breathing erratic.

I yank her hair. “As touched as I am about your sentiments regarding my boyfriend’s current circumstance, can you kindly shut up so we can get on with the program.”

She shakes her head. “I swear, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know it was Jackson. Oh, my god,” she squeaks.

Suffice it to say, she has both Ricardo’s and my attention at this point.

I pull the other gvn out of my waistband and put them both up to her head. “You better start making sense, Lou-Lou…or your brains are gonna be all over the carpet. What the fk did you do?”

“There was this guy. This FBI agent. He started talking to me, you know flirting, all that.”

“You talked to the Feds?” Ricardo screams at the same time I scream, “Was his name Ford?”

“H-how did you know?”

“Cut to the chase, Lou-Lou. I know how Ford pulls the females in. Tell me what he wanted you to do. And how Jackson is involved.”

“That’s the thing. This Ford, guy. He seemed to know everything about me. Things that no one knows.”

Ricardo lets out a cu rse and I scratch my head with one of my gvns. “And you didn’t find that a little suspicious? You can’t be that dumb.”

“I’m not dumb. Of course, I did. But then he offered me a deal.”

“Dmmit, Lucianna! He’s a double agent. He’s not legit, he works for us!” Ricardo screams at the same time I scream, “What kind of deal!”

I aim one of the gvns for Ricardo’s head and gasp. “What? What the actual fk did you just say?”

It feels like all the air just got sucked out of the room. The only reason I’m not collapsing right now is because I still have to save Jackson.

Ricardo runs a hand down his face. “Sht,” he says. “Look, Alyssa. Trust me when I say that you’re better off not knowing the truth. I don’t think you can take it and I’m not going to be the one to tell you.”

I shoot the wall beside his head. “Tell me. Tell me the truth.”

“No. You can shoot me de ad, but I will not be responsible for putting the same soul-crushing look on your face that my father did the day he ki lled your dad!” he roars. “My father’s eyes haunt you in your dreams? Well, yours haunt mine!”

“You—” I pause because my voice is wavering. “You were there that day? The day my father was ki lled?”

I look at him in disbelief. He’s only 5 years older than Jackson. The only young people I remember seeing that day were the teenage gang members.

“I was 18,” he says. “In fact, it was my 18th birthday. The day I officially became a man. My father wanted to celebrate by showing me what you do to rats. Or specifically, what you do when you find out that one of your men is an undercover agent.”

His face contorts in agony. “You weren’t the only one locked in a car that day, Alyssa,” he says gruffly before his tone turns somber. “I’m so sorry. I liked your dad. We did some runs together and became close. I looked up to him. Wanted to be like him. He used to talk about how much he loved his little goblin— ”

I shoot the wall beside his head again, much closer this time. “Shut the fk up. You didn’t know sht about my dad, you piece of sht! Your father ki lled him! He ki lled him and I watched every second of it and I saw the look in DeLuca’s eyes when he did it. So don’t you try and stand there and offer me your condolences or sympathy. Like this is some kind of hallmark moment…when you’re literally the spawn of fking sa tan himself!”

His eyes become glassy. “I didn’t want to be. That day changed me. You have no idea what that day did to me.”

“It will never compare to what it did to me.”

“I know,” he whispers.

In front of me, Lou-Lou’s trembling and I hear her sobbing. “You’re the little girl. The little girl in his nightmares.”

“Stop, Lou-Lou,” Ricardo warns.

Lou-Lou lifts her chin. “No. You need to know, Alyssa. He’s not Bruno. Trust me, you don’t know what Ricardo’s been through. He’s not the bad guy. Bruno is.”

“I guess it’s time to find out then, huh?”

Ricardo’s eyes meet mine. “What do you mean?”

“Call your father and find out where he is right now. If you don’t, I’ll ki ll her in front of you and give you another nightmare.”

Ricardo picks up his shorts off the floor but I click my tongue. “Are you armed?”

“Would it matter? I’m not going to ki ll you.”

“A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”

“You know, bch—you’re not the only one who watched their parent get murdered by the hands of DeLuca.”

“DeLuca ki lled your parents?” I question.

“Probably,” she scoffs. “Who the fk knows. However, I was referring to Ricardo.”

“He ki lled your mother?” I ask in his direction.

Ricardo closes his eyes and nods. “Yeah. After I told him that I wanted nothing to do with him and said I would never be like him. He tracked my mother down and taught me another lesson.”

This time, I see a tear fall down his face and I let mine fall with it. “How are you not more fked up? How did you save yourself from becoming just like him?”

“Believe me, he’s plenty fked up,” Lou-Lou whispers.

Ricardo turns around and I read the large tattoo on his back scrawled in black ink. Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.

“It’s from the Green Mile,” Lou-Lou offers.

I ignore her and wait for him to turn back around. “You going to call him?”

“I don’t really have much of a choice. I’m not letting him ki ll Jackson.”

“I swear I didn’t know it was him,” Lou-Lou whispers again.

I can’t believe I almost forgot. “Lou-Lou finish telling me about your involvement with Ford.”

She clears her throat. “Like I said, he tried to get in my p ants and he knew all this stuff.” Ricardo narrows his eyes and she quickly says, “Anyway, he offered me a deal. He said that he would set it up so that I could ki ll DeLuca. But seeing as he was FBI, he would make sure it wouldn’t get pinned on me. He said there would be someone else there, someone with more motive than I had to take the fall. I didn’t know it was going to be Jackson because he refused to tell me who this other person was. He said I wouldn’t find out until I got there…but I didn’t go through with it. I backed out at the last minute.”

Ricardo starts pacing. “Fk, he was playing you both.”

I always knew Ford was manipulative, but even I didn’t think he’d take it this far. “I guess that explains why he planned to take me to Mexico. There’s really no doubt in my mind that he’s setting Jackson up.”

When they both look at me I say, “Ford and me…our relationship is…was…complicated. It’s really fked up.”

Ricardo looks disgusted. “Trust me, sweetie. You really have no idea just how fked up,” he whispers.

My stomach knots with those words but I don’t have time to concentrate on that. “Ricardo, I need you to talk to DeLuca. Find out where he is right now. Tell him it’s an emergency and you need him to meet you at the docks near Jersey.”

“You want to do this there?”

“H’ll, yes.” Not only do I like my revenge served cold too but I need to get him as far away from Jackson as possible and still manage to ki ll him in the next few hours.

I look down at Lou-Lou. “And after that, I need you to call Ford. Tell him the fking jig is up and I’m holding both you and Ricardo hostage. Tell him to meet me at the docks, but warn him that if he brings Jackson it will be the last thing that he does.”

Ricardo shakes his head. “That’s not going to work. He’s going to bring Jackson. Especially if he’s already targeted him as the fall guy. Also, there’s no telling what Jackson will do to Ford if he finds out he set him up. There could be a showdown between them.”

Crap, he’s right.

“Well then get a hold of Jackson and tell him that something happened to me. Say whatever you have to say to throw him off the course. Don’t tell him about Ford just make sure he leaves.”

2 thoughts on “BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 61 – 70”

Sheemah

July 13, 2022 at 9:03 am

”I take care of what’s mine and what I love. Don’t you ever forget that.”
GOSH THAT WAS HOT…….plus I Love this BOOK. BEEN TRAPPED SINCE THE BEGINNING.
- Annie
  
  July 24, 2022 at 11:49 am
  
  Totally agree

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