Blame It On The Pain Episode 73
Thank you for choosing Siri as your online beautiful sweet story reading partner. Today we have “Blame It On The Pain Episode 73 Of Blame It On The Pain by Authoress Zion Stories Or Novels To Read with Siri.”
🧏 Blame It On The Pain SEVENTY THREE:
DeLuca claps his hands. “Good. Now that we’ve got that all sorted out and everyone knows where the other stands. Alyssa, I would like your attention.”
Ford’s eyes meet mine. “Don’t, Alyssa. Whatever he says isn’t true. You have to trust me. I love you. I have always loved you.”
Behind me, Ricardo coughs. “You are one fked up person, Ford. And I’ve seen some sht, but this right here…this takes the cake.”
Against my better judgment, I look at DeLuca.
“Please, DeLuca,” Ford pleads. “I’ve never asked you for a single thing, other than sparing her life. If you tell her everything. It will ki ll her.”
“I’m counting on it,” DeLuca sneers.
I look back to Ford. “Do you or do you not work for DeLuca?”
“Technically, yes. But I didn’t always. I am a member of the FBI first and foremost.”
Behind me, Ricardo says, “Yeah, he’s what we like to call a flipper-flopper. You know, when it suits him.”
“Why, Ford? How could you do that after you saw what he did to my father?”
“Because I became too powerful for him to keep trying to take down,” DeLuca interjects.
Ford’s face pales. “I couldn’t beat DeLuca. So, I had to join him. There was no other way.”
DeLuca takes a step forward and his face hardens. “Go ahead, Alyssa. Ask him what his first job for me was.”
Ford’s face contorts in pain and I feel so lightheaded white spots form in front of my eyes.
I shake my head and point my gvn at him. All thoughts of Lou-Lou as my leverage forgotten. “No,” I shout. “You wouldn’t do that to my dad. He was your best friend. You grew up together. He loved you. You wouldn’t set him up to get ki lled.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ford whispers. “I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice!”
DeLuca grins and it looks so sickening I have to look away. “And what a choice it was. He obviously chose to save his own as s. He came to me, worked out a deal and gave up your dear old dad in the exchange. You know, he was the one who suggested we do it right here, too. He said your dad liked the water.” DeLuca chuckles. “He even set up the two gang members to take the fall for it. I’ll admit that was brilliant.”
I look at Ford, not even trying to hold back my tears. “You’re so sick.”
Behind me, Ricardo whispers, “Yup.”
“I won’t deny that,” Ford says. “But I love you, Alyssa. You know that I do.”
I’m more certain than ever that what he felt for me wasn’t love, it was some gruesome combination of guilt, fixation, and control. I look Ford right in the eyes. “No, what I know…is that you were on the phone with me when it happened. You heard me cry my heart out. You heard my screams as DeLuca took my father from me.”
I have to put my hand to my chest just to make sure my heart’s still beating and it didn’t physically crack into a million pieces. “You picked up that scared and destroyed little girl and held her in your arms like she was your own. You held her like you would protect her…all while knowing you did this to me. To him! How could you?”
A guttural cry rips from my throat and DeLuca laughs like it’s the funniest thing in the world. “And that’s not even all of it.”
“What else could there possibly be?” Lou-Lou whispers. Then she gasps.
DeLuca gives me a sinister smirk. “Alyssa? Besides your father dying, can you think of anything else that might have ruined your life?”
“Sht,” Ricardo mutters.
“You were behind the sx tape, Ford?”
He stays silent.
“Answer her, Ford.” DeLuca directs. He shakes his head.
“You tell her the truth now. It’s the least you can do, you s¢umbag,” Ricardo says, low and deadly.
“DeLuca promised Gaffney that he would win the run for mayor if his son Dean did it,” Ford says. “However, it was my idea in the first place. I paid the Gaffney’s off and promised that Dean would never get busted on a DUI charge if he fked you and filmed it.”
“What is wrong with you? Why would you do that to me?”
“I needed to do something to—” he pauses like he can’t even say it.
DeLuca gives me a sht-eating grin. “To make sure your pretty face would never end up on the evening news. Where you could slip up and tell the whole world what I did to your daddy. Live from New York. You know, you really should have chosen a different major at NYU.” His eyes blacken and I take a step back, not even caring that Ricardo’s gvn is still digging into me.
“I run this city,” DeLuca shouts while taking a step forward. “It’s mine. My greed, my hunger, my money…but most of all my control and power. I let you live as a courtesy to Ford; after certain assurances were put in place, of course. But, I wasn’t going to have your stupid as s mess up what I worked so hard to build. I couldn’t take that chance.” His lips turn up in a snarl and he winks. “However, I would like to thank you for being such a willing participant. Nice t its by the way.”
I blink back impending tears…but there aren’t any left. There’s only darkness and pain.
I look at Ford again. “The way you treated me after it happened. I went to you for help and you—”
“Made her believe she was nothing but a wh’re. Broke her trust in everyone and everything. Hurt her beyond all repair. And this was all after you had already ripped her heart out. You really are one despicable mother fker,” Jackson’s voice booms from somewhere in the distance.
“No,” I say with my hand on the trigger. “He’s one despicable de ad motherfker.”
“No!” Jackson shouts, coming into view and halting me at the last possible second. “Don’t do it, Alyssa.”
In my peripheral vision, I see Ricardo aim his gvn at DeLuca.
“He deserves it,” I argue as Ford’s eyes close and he clutches his stomach.
“He does, baby. I know he does,” Jackson says. “But you need to let me do it.”
“What? No.”
“Yes,” he insists. “You’re not a ki ller, baby. I am. Your soul is still untarnished and I want it to stay that way. You don’t know what it’s like to take a life, Alyssa. Mike deserved everything I did to him and I would take his life again in a heartbeat. But, mu rder is a burden that I never want you to bear. I won’t let you destroy yourself again because I love you.”
He walks behind Ford and lowers his gvn to his head. “And you need to let me do this for you. And after this, I’m going to take out DeLuca. I’m going to take every single nightmare away, baby. I promise.”
“No,” Ricardo barks in DeLuca’s direction.
Ricardo moves closer to DeLuca and grabs Lou-Lou right before DeLuca has a chance to shoot Jackson. “Don’t you even think about it, Babbo,” he says before he puts the gvn to her head.
Everyone’s attention turns to DeLuca and Ricardo at that moment.
As thankful as I am to Ricardo for not letting DeLuca shoot Jackson, I’m equally petrified for Lou-Lou. I never thought Ricardo would ki ll her. I regret ever bringing her here now.
Then, before anyone’s brain can catch up to what’s happening. Ricardo leans down and ksses Lou-Lou’s tear-stained cheek. “Ti amo. Sii libero,” he whispers in her ear.
Lou-Lou reaches behind her and pulls a gvn out of her waistband.
She lifts her chin and aims the gvn directly at DeLuca’s head. He’s so caught off guard, he doesn’t even have time to aim his gvn at her. “Brucia all’inferno. Burn in h’ll, Bruno,” she says as she pulls the trlgger, four times.
In slow motion we watch DeLuca’s b rain spIatter all over the warehouse, his body falling to the floor with a heavy thud.
I can’t contain the smile on my face. I think it’s the brightest it’s ever been. I barely even hear the sirens in the distance.
I open my mouth to thank Lou-Lou but she runs out the back door in the blink of an eye.
The sirens get louder and blue and red lights illuminate the warehouse.
“Jackson Reid, put your hands behind your head. You are under arrest,” a voice says over a megaphone as the doors burst open.
My heart shatters like glass and I drop to my knees.
That’s when Ford lifts his head and smiles at me.
TO Be Continued
