BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 61 – 70

BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 61 – 70

EPISODE 69

(Alyssa)

“Ford, it’s me again. I need you to call me back, please. It’s important,” I say before I hang up.

I never thought I’d find myself in this position again. However, I know it’s the only way. We can’t beat DeLuca on our own and he’s the only resource I have.

Despite how much of an asshole he is, I know that Ford wants to nail DeLuca. And now that I know for a fact that it’s his club…I’m going to help him come up with a plan to do it.

I’m going to have him use me as bait like he originally intended. Then, Ford will take care of him and Jackson and I will be free.

Well, that’s what I’m hoping will happen, but Ford has yet to call me back.

It’s been almost a week since I first reached out to him. It’s strange that he still hasn’t contacted me.

I was hoping to see him and finalize a plan before Jackson has to fight again tomorrow night. There’s no telling what will happen in that cage after Tyrone’s last fi ght.

Since Jackson’s currently at the hospital visiting Tyrone, I’m taking the opportunity to slip out and go to Ford’s house myself.

It’s too close to Jackson’s fi ght and I can’t take the chance of him getting hurt, I’ll do whatever I have to in order to protect him.

The cab ride to Ford’s is over an hour away, so I take the time to formulate the start of a good plan. I know that going to the club won’t work since DeLuca never shows up there himself. Not to mention, setting up some kind of meeting there would harbor too many witnesses. There’s no way Ford would take him out with that many people around.

I have to find a way to get DeLuca secluded and completely alone, but I don’t know how to go about that.

My mind’s on the verge of figuring out a way to do it, but every time I get closer, I hit a mental block and I can’t work my way around it.

The cab finally pulls up to Ford’s house and what I see causes me to freak the h’ll out.

There’s a red Mustang parked in his driveway.

Ricardo’s here.

What the h’ll is Ricardo doing here?

“Miss, are you getting out or not?” the cab driver grumbles. “Not,” I tell him. “Take me back home.”

With a cusse, he starts to drive away.

I’m more confused than ever now. It’s obvious that Ford and Ricardo are doing business together, but what?

I sit up straight in my seat when I realize. They’ve got to be trying to take down DeLuca? That’s the only tie those two have to one another.

My cell phone starts ringing and I almost want to ignore it because I don’t want Shane to ask me to work tomorrow night. My life is hectic right now and there’s no way I’m going to be able to focus on working at the bar while Jackson could be getting ki lled in the cage.

I rub my temples and answer the phone anyway. “Hey, Shane.”

“Do you have a twin?”

Okay, that’s not what I was expecting him to say.

“No, I’m an only child,” I say, pushing down sad memories.

“I was joking, Alyssa.” He laughs. “Besides, the chick I’m staring at is hot but she looks like an older, more sophisticated version of you, no offense.”

“None taken.” Then it dawns on me. “Does she have blonde hair?”

“Yup. And she just asked to speak to you. Hold on.”

Why is Penelope sitting at Finnley’s right now?

“Hey, Penelope. Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. You tell me?” she replies in a snarky tone.

“Um…you’re the one sitting at my job. What’s going on?”

“I thought you learned your lesson when it came to Ford?”

Sht…she must still be checking his phone records.

“I did. I only reached out to Ford because I’m having a personal problem that I need to involve the police with. I figured calling him would speed things along, but he still hasn’t called me back.”

I can practically smell the wood burning from her thinking so hard on the other line.

“Don’t lie to me, Alyssa. Look, I’m not jealous. I don’t want him back, but I am concerned about you going back to him because you and your current boyfriend are having problems.”

I blow out a breath, trying my hardest not to go off on her for sticking her nose in my business. “Penelope, I’m never going back to Ford. I’m in love with Jackson.”

“Then why the h’ll did I find plane tickets and passports with both your names on it?”

Say what?

“I’m sorry. I think I misheard you.”

“No, you didn’t. I went there to pick up my mail yesterday—since the id!ot insisted on keeping the house that he bought in the settlement. He wasn’t home so I used my key and out on the coffee table were two tickets to Mexico along with two passports. One for you and one for him.”

“Oh my god. That’s crazy.”

“Exactly—” she starts to say.

“I’m not leaving the country with Ford. I have no idea what’s going on or what he’s planning. But I need you to promise me that you won’t mention a word of this to him. Don’t tell him that you know me and please don’t tell him that we had this conversation, okay?”

“Sht, what’s going on, Alyssa?”

“I don’t know,” I answer, before I hang up.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I look out the window and see city buildings.

I quickly take into account all the things I just found out—Ricardo and Ford have some kind of dealings going on together. My guess, is that it involves DeLuca. The only thing that doesn’t make sense— is why the h’ll Ford’s planning on whisking me off to freaking Mexico.

The only thing I can think of, is that Ford probably doesn’t know that I’m with Jackson because we haven’t had contact for months. He knows I’ve never kept boyfriends in the past and he probably just assumed I’m single.

On the plus side, Ricardo and Ford must be gearing up to take DeLuca down. And if my suspicions about Ricardo are correct, who better than him to help do it?

On the negative side, Ford’s going to attempt to woo me and take me on vacation. Clearly he has another thing coming, but I’ll gladly accept him getting rid of DeLuca for me and Jackson.

What I don’t understand is why the heck he never picked up his phone for me if he’s planning on doing all this? But then again, it’s Ford. He’s about as predictable as a tidal wave.

I pay the cab driver and walk into the apartment. Now that Jackson gave me a key, I don’t have to knock on the door anymore.

“Hey,” a deep voice says.

I turn around and practically have a heart attack when I see Ricardo standing before me.

How the h’ll did he make it back here so fast? Then again, he does drive a mustang.

He looks at me and makes a face. “Look, you’ve been acting a little strange around me ever since that fi ght. I hope you know that I really didn’t mean to pun¢h you. You don’t have to be scared of me, Alyssa.”

“Yeah,” I squeak.

He scratches the back of his neck and it’s only then that I notice he’s wearing a sweat stained t-shirt and a pair of shorts. His hair is wet and his skin is glistening. He looks like he just finished working out, not driving back from Long Island.

“Where did you just come from?”

“The gym. Why?”

“Are you sure?”

He leans in and gives me a peculiar look. If he wasn’t so intimidating, he’d be ridiculously good looking. “Am I sure I got back from the gym?” He smirks. “Yeah, I’m positive. So, I’ll ask you again. Why?”

“No r-reason.” I turn around and attempt to get my key in the door as he walks across the hall to his own apartment.

Then it occurs to me. He could have let someone else borrow his car. Or, maybe it wasn’t Ricardo’s car in the driveway after all?

There’s only one way to find out. “Hey, Ricardo? I was wondering if you would mind giving me a ride.”

“I would, but I don’t have my car.”

Before I can question him further he says, “But you should already know that Jackson’s borrowing my car until tomorrow morning because he’s going to Boston.” He shrugs. “Kind of surprised you didn’t go with him actually.”

“Going to Boston?” I whisper.

Jackson definitely never mentioned going to Boston this morning.

No. This can’t be happening.

I open my mouth to cover my fumble but Ricardo says,“He’s going to Boston to visit Lilly’s grave. Today’s her birthday.”

He takes a step forward and gives me an odd look. “Did he not tell you?”

“Of course, he did.” I laugh nervously. “I just forgot is all.” I give him a big smile. “I am naturally a blonde…we do have our moments.”

He co¢ks an eyebrow. “Yeah. Okay, then. I’m gonna take a shower. Talk to you later.”

I give him a wave before closing and locking the door behind me. Then I start hyperventilating.

Now it makes sense. It’s not Ricardo and Ford working together. It’s Jackson and Ford.

Which means that Ford does know I’m with Jackson.

But those plane tickets and passports…they can only mean one thing.

Ford is setting Jackson up to ki ll DeLuca and Jackson has no idea.

I wish he didn’t shut me out when I tried to tell him everything that happened between Ford and I. Then he would already know not to trust him.

I pick up my phone and dial Jackson but it goes straight to voicemail. I leave the longest message I’ve ever left detailing everything that Ford did to me, including what happened that day in his office.

I also dial Ford, it rings a few times before going to voicemail. I close my eyes. In the back of my mind, I always knew this day would come. I used to be ashamed that I was so terrified about my date with DeLuca.

I mean, who doesn’t want vengeance for the de ath of their father?

I thought I would cry and fall apart when it happened. But surprisingly, I feel like I’m finally thinking rationally.

It’s time to have my dance with the D’vil.

It’s time to protect the man I love and inflict retribution on DeLuca for the one that I lost. Even if it’s the last thing I do.

I walk into the bedroom and start going through the boxes that I moved in over the past week.

Covered in a pile of old clothes I find my lock box. I take it out, punch in the combination and open it. I eye my revolver and my semi-automatic p!stol. The one good thing that came out of my relationship with Ford was him teaching me how to shoot a gvn and taking me to the firing range when I was younger.

I make sure they’re both loaded and ready to go before throwing a sweatshirt on and tucking both gvns into the waistband of my jeans.

It’s funny how a plan formulates itself when you find out the person you love is in danger.

I knock on Lou-Lou’s door and wait for her to answer. I know her and Ricardo have some major problems and still haven’t worked any of their sht out.

But quite frankly, I don’t really give a fk at this point. I just need someone to use as leverage against Ricardo and that someone is Lou-Lou.

She answers the door and although she looks surprised to see me, she invites me in.

As soon as the door is closed, I take out the revolver and put it to her head. “You crazy ch!” she screams. “I thought we were friends now? What the fk are you doing?”

“We are. This is nothing personal, Lou-Lou. I just need a hostage.”

I pull her hair and position her in front of me. Given she’s so tiny, it’s easy to push her around. “However, feel free to think of this as payback for being such a bch to me.”

She starts screaming, but I dig the gvn into her head. “Scream and I’ll ki ll you. Trust me, you don’t want to fk with me right now.”

She takes a deep breath. “Can you at least tell me why you’re doing this?”

“Jackson’s in trouble with a certain mob boss.”

“Bruno,” she whispers.

“Ah, I see you’re on a first-name basis with the id!ot. Good to know, that might come in handy.” I shove her in front of me. “Now open the door and start walking down the hall to Ricardo’s. If you run…I swear I’ll ki ll him.”

She opens the door with shaky hands and starts walking. She knocks on his door but he doesn’t answer. That’s when I remember. “Sht, he’s in the shower.”

“I have a key,” Lou-Lou offers. “It’s in my back pocket.”

“I’m not falling for that.”

“Then you can get it,” she insists.

I dig the gvn into her temple as I get her keys out of her back pocket and hand them to her. “You attack me with those and I’ll shoot.”

“I know.”

Part of me is wondering why she’s being so cooperative, but I don’t have the time to question it.

We walk into Ricardo’s apartment and I walk us to the bathroom, with Lou-Lou as my hostage.

Since there’s no point in knocking on his bathroom door. I have Lou-Lou open it.

The look on Ricardo’s face when he see’s that I’m holding a gvn up to Lou-Lou’s head is one for the record books.

He reaches for a towel and quickly wraps it around his waist before he steps out of the shower.

That’s when I silently pat myself on the back because the fact that he’s nked as the day he was born means that he has no weapons on him.

However, what bewilders me is why he isn’t more freaked out about this. I know he’s worried about Lou-Lou, that’s more than evident by the way he looks at her. But the fact that he’s not puzzled by his current predicament is unnerving.

“How did you find out?” he says, his tone solemn.

I open my mouth, but Lou-Lou cuts me off by screaming, “I didn’t tell this bch sht, Ricky.”

I wha ck her head with the gvn. “No talking.” I look at Ricardo. “You have his eyes. I’ll never forget his eyes. They haunt me in my dreams.”

BLAME IT ON THE PAIN : EPISODE 61 – 70

Click 10 below to continue reading