Back To The Stars: ROMANCE: ALIEN (Alien Invasion Abduction SciFi Romance) (Fantasy Anthologies & Collections) (24 page)

Chapter 17:

I bid goodbye to Victoria and we both knew that it was the final one. I won’t be coming back – never. We both had some great memories with which we were supposed to live the rest of our lives with. Being with Victoria was a life-changing experience. She made me a brand new person and saved me in every possible way, a person can be saved. And for that, I was utterly grateful to her.

I kind of knew that it was a mistake all this time, but it was when I met Theo, he made me realize how foolish I was. Someone as good and smart as Theo was ready to give everything in his life to have a second chance. Even someone as good as him wanted to come out of the mafia. When I got the same chance in the form of Victoria, I let it go.

I became the creator of my own catastrophe. I destroyed my own happiness and there was no going back. I couldn’t leave Ila and Rick hanging in between like that. It would not be the right thing to do. I knew that they were naive and the entire mafia was looking for them. Leaving them alone like that was certainly not a wise decision. Victoria, on the other hand, was a smart and independent woman.

The only person who was trying to kill her was Natasha. Thankfully, even she was gone and I knew that Victoria would be able to live her life in peace. I knew that she was safe and that gave me a sense of satisfaction. When I think of it once again, I realize that maybe, I came to Victoria’s life for a reason. She was right when she said that I was her savior. I did save her from Natasha and then my job was done. I completed my assignment and moved on to do something else, something bigger.

Maybe, that was my life. Not everything in this world deserved to settle down. Not everyone gets a place to call home. There are people like us who carry their home inside of them, wherever they go. Ever since I was a kid, I was craving for a place to call home. I have been to a lot of places, but I couldn’t really find it. Now, when I am mature enough I know that I was looking for my home in all the wrong places.

I was looking for a place to settle or a few things with which I could tie my feelings with. I completely forgot that it was my heart that I should be with. I was not destined to be with someone else. I was my own home and the one place where I belonged – well, I carried it all the time with me in the form of my heart. My heart and soul were my home and it was the only place where I belonged.

Chapter 18:

I drove back to the hotel, hoping for the kids to get up. As I parked my car at the back and tried to walk to our room, I saw Ila sitting at the restaurant that was located on the ground floor. She was all dressed up and was sipping a glass of strawberry shake all by herself.

“Can I join?” I asked her as I walked towards her and thought of having a conversation with her. I wanted to know more about what happened the day before. It was only Ila who would answer me properly. I wanted to ask her a few questions last night, but I knew that she was not in a state to answer them correctly.

“Of course. You don’t need to ask, Larry!” she said and smiled as I sat in front of her.

I looked at her red lustrous lips and couldn’t stop admiring how beautiful she looked in that navy dress that she was wearing. It was the same one that she was wearing the last night and I realized that she didn’t really get some time to cleanse herself.

“You know they say that after having The Green Ruin, you crave for something sweet. Something natural and full of flavors,” I said in order to initiate the conversation.

“Something like a strawberry shake!” she said and we both started to laugh.

“How have you been, Ila? What happened to you guys after I left?” I asked her in order to know her side of the story.

“Oh! I don’t even know from where I should begin. I don’t know if I should talk about Rick who has not been himself lately or that dick, Anthony who used to abuse me all the time. My life has turned a complete mess after when you left, Larry. I didn’t know how much I needed you. It was only after when you left, I realized your importance. I should have never let you go. I should have come up with a plan to stop you!” she said and started to curse herself.

“What happened to you, Ila?” I asked her.

“Anthony was really… really bad. Every morning, he would give me work to do, which was pretty fine. I had to make a few calls, look after a few things, to get in touch with other gangsters, and such, which was fine by me. But every night, he would rape me, Larry. He would make me have sex with him forcefully. I was not into him. I didn’t like him at all, and having sex with someone like him was the last thing that I could think of.

I could scream for help every night, but no one would come to rescue me. I tried to contact Sal in order to know more about you, but when I figured out that you are gone, I thought that it all happened for a reason. You got your way out of the mafia, something that everyone wants and I didn’t want to inform you about everything that Anthony used to do to me, Larry. I started to believe that you have found your happiness and I didn’t want to take it back from you,” she replied and became emotional. I could see her eyes getting wet and realized that she was about to cry.

“I am here. I am right here, Ila. I came back from you and I promise you and I will never leave your side,” I held her hand in order to let her know that all the bad days were gone. It was all over and that she could be happy again.

“Anthony used to torture me in every possible way that you can think of – mentally, physically, and sexually. He would take me out to various kinds of dirty orgies and let other gangsters have their way with me. If I would resist in front of them, then he would either threaten me to kill or will simply drug me. You know that I often lose myself after getting drugged and he would use that weakness against me.

I was his trophy and he used to take me to all those parties and gatherings of the mafia. He would introduce me to his friends and I would later be asked to please them in bed. They would be worse than Anthony. They would treat me as if I was their property. Like I was not a person, but a thing. I was a thing for them to be used, Larry. They won’t even look at me how we look to a fellow human being. They were all monsters and I just wanted it to end!” she said and started to cry.

“Did you kill him, Ila? You can tell me! I promise you that your secret would be safe with me!” I said in order to let her know that she could trust me.

“No, Larry. I agree that there were times when I wanted to kill Anthony, but he was giving me money. He was giving me shelter and food, and I knew that if I will do anything against him, I would be dead. The entire mafia would come after me, which is precisely what is happening right now!” she said and made me realize that maybe it was not a right decision to leave her alone. I got them from Mexico and their safety was all up to me.

“What about Rick? Where was he all this time?” I asked her as she didn’t mention a thing about Rick.

“He had not been himself lately, Larry. All he thinks about are drugs and he can’t seem to function without it. He needs to be high in order to do everything. He can’t even prepare The Green Ruin without being high and often fucks up the entire batch. He would fuck everyone around and be substituting sex for god knows what! He started sleeping with maids, colleagues and other girls in the mansion.

I thought that if we both will move in together and start creating our small world, then things would get better, but they didn’t. It was as if I forced him to start living with me. He didn’t want to do it with his heart and soul. He moved in with me just to make me feel happy, but that was not what I wanted. I wanted him to be by my side with the whole of his heart!” she made me realize how right I was. From the start, I knew that Rick wasn’t the right guy for her.

“What happened then?” I asked her, as I wanted to know the complete story.

“What else was I supposed to do? I accepted my fate, Larry. I realized that I wasn’t meant to be happy and that this is the life that is given to me. I would be a slave to Anthony and will keep on serving him for the rest of my life. The only person whom I thought I was in love with didn’t turn out to be the right guy. He left me in between and that too at the time when I needed him the most.

When I told him all about what Anthony used to do to me, he didn’t react at all. He simply told me that we are supposed to follow his orders. He owns us now and we can’t disobey him. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I started to accept it and let Anthony torture me. I used to cry to sleep every night, hoping for a miracle to happen. You know what? It did. Anthony died. I don’t know what exactly happened to him, but he died and I was freed. After months, I was able to sleep peacefully last night, Larry. Do you know how good it is to sleep freely like that!” she said and made me realize exactly how I felt a few months back.

“I was also his slave, Ila. Trust me, I am the only person who can understand what you must be going through right now. I was just a slave too and it was after years when I was set free. I know how it feels like to sleep freely. It’s like you can do anything in this world. But I do have to ask you to remember anything about last night. What happened? Don’t you remember anything at all?” I asked her in order to make her remember something to give me a hint.

“I remember that Anthony told me to get a glass of whiskey from the bar. He was resting alone in his bedroom and wanted me to fetch some alcohol. That was his daily schedule. After drinking, he would fuck me every night and would keep fucking me until he sleeps. I, on the other hand, I would simply lay there lifeless, waiting for him to deep sleep so that I could leave the room and go back to my place and cry.

I knew that the day was no such exception. I remember going to the bar and meeting a man in between. I met Rick in between as well and then there was a chef who asked me about the menu for the next week. I fetched the drink and then I don’t remember anything at all after that. I remember holding the drink and walking back to him room, but I can’t remember anything after that. It’s like I am completely blank,” she said and tried to remember anything at all. I knew that she was being honest with me. I could see that in her eyes.

“Then what else do you remember? When did you wake up?” I asked her.

“I woke up after a few minutes next to Anthony. He lay lifeless on his bed and I realized that he was dead. He turned pale and was covered in his own mess. I couldn’t figure out the gravity of the situation. All I knew was that I couldn’t stay there anymore. I knew that the place would be guarded and that his staff would come and find me anytime. I simply left that place and ran. I ran towards your house, knowing that you were the only person whom I could trust,” she finished telling me the entire story, and I realized that there was nothing else that she could add.

“You already know what happened after that!”

“Yes, I do know what happened after that, Ila.”

There was nothing more to add. Everything was said and done. Ila had told me every piece of information and it was all up to me to connect the dots. I knew that she was not the one who killed Anthony and that she was getting framed. There was only one way to figure out the person who poisoned Anthony and I was already on it. The trouble was that the police came to know about it too and they were now all over the mansion.

Chapter 19:

I knew there was a missing link somewhere. There had to be something right under my nose which I was unable to spot. If Anthony had actually died because of the poison in the whiskey, why didn’t Ila remember giving it to him?

There was something a lot more shady and fishy and I wanted badly to know it. You would think that all those years working as a PI would make me sharper and give me an edge when it came to investigating any case, but the more I worked on this case, the more confounded I got.

I was living with two people under the same roof and though they were like strangers, I knew them. It had been some time since I had run with both Ila and Rick. Even though a part of me had forgotten what Rick used to be like and the queer circumstances wherein I had found him, Ila was still deep rooted in my memory.

I could easily recall the way I had woken up to the sight of her voluptuous breasts right in my face and how it had taken me one moment to fall for her. The fact that I had later realized that she was in love with Rick had hurt me.

Ila was visibly scared and I knew she needed me. She couldn't hire a detective or a lawyer on her own and so she needed someone to save her. Saving Ila had become my mission. There was a part of me that wanted to tell her to screw herself and I could go back and live with Victoria and have my way.

But, was this really the deal? I mean, Victoria was surely hot and she had the fire in the bed, but then she could never match Ila. Ila was one of those perfect faces that could make everyone feel the need to be with her.

I needed to get down to the root of the matter and I knew we had to start from somewhere. I had to look at the whole case from a neutral point of view, but it baffled me. Somehow, I knew that I couldn’t simply trust Ila. The thing about Ila is that she was naive. She was still the same foolish girl I had met a few months ago and despite the time she spent working with Vecchhio junior, rarely anything had changed.

But, damn she had a body and a great one too. Every time I looked at her, I wanted to run my hands over her breasts and to strip her and have my way with her. Deep down, I knew that I did care for her as well.

“Do you think you can save me from this mess, Larry?” she asked and no matter what she said, I simply wanted to kiss her.

“I am trying my best here. But, it all looks so shady. I mean, all evidence point out to you. Are you sure Ila you didn’t poison Anthony?

“Of course, I do! Why would I lie to you? Is it so hard to trust me Larry McGee?” she asked definitely furious even though I see no reason as to why she should be so furious because I was the one doing her a favor by helping her out.

I wanted to tell her that she was a drug addict and a sex addict and she slept with a dopey guy and her boss wasn’t much of a great guy either. So, I really didn’t have a lot of reason to trust Ila, but I knew there was no point telling her this.

“Oh babe, I trust you, but you know being a private investigator makes you question every damn thing. I am the kind of guy who doesn’t trust my own dick,” I said and chuckled, hoping my great sense of humor would make everything a little better, but, as soon as I finished my statement, I saw both Rick and Ila had no expressions whatever and I realized that maybe, my joke sense wasn’t as great as I thought to be.

When I realized the gravity of the situation, I knew that I wanted to help Ila. Despite all that she had been through and my reckless way of living and casual love affairs, Ila was one woman who was really glued to my mind and I wanted to save her.

I knew that if she was caught in Vecchio’s murder, it would jeopardize her whole life and such a young life shouldn’t die such a sorry death.

I closed the gap between the two of us and looked in her honey brown eyes and wanted to kiss her right there. I knew that she was seeing Rick, but Rick was always with a lot of other women too and they were all in a sort of open relationship which was twisted but heck who cared.

I kissed her briefly and when her luscious red lips met mine, I could taste her and it brought my senses to life. I had been with a lot of women, but the taste of her kiss was still fresh in my mind and I immediately wanted to do so much more with her.

“Damn looks like Larry here still has a thing for you, Ila baby,” Rick said from behind. He didn’t mind me kissing Ila at all perhaps because he didn’t really love her. Ila was nothing more than a body he used to satiate his senses when he was on a high, but I knew there was so much more to Ila than this.

I knew I was not a saint and I loved sex. I mean, the thrill of sex after the green ruins were amazing and even though I preferred not falling a prey to the drug, I could remember the way I had craved for sex when I had it in Arizona.

So, I couldn’t completely blame Rick either for craving for Ila’s body. If Ila was always so willing to throw her body on Rick, any fool would be foolish not to fuck her. But, we had a lot more important things in mind.

I couldn’t let myself go astray when I had to solve the whole case. I have been in the line of private investigation for long and there are a lot of people I helped and even a lot of lives I damaged because I needed money and yes, I was selfish, but hey everyone has needs.

Ila sat down in one corner of the room and she had a brooding look on her face. I knew she was sad and when you are not at fault but you still are a prime suspect for one of the hyped murders in the city, you couldn’t help but be scared.

“Ila, don’t worry. I am here to fix this. I am going to head to the Vecchio mansion and I will see what I can get. Sitting like this with such an expression is not going to sort out the issues. Cheer up and try and engage yourself in some kind of an activity so that I can go and look for some clues.

But, darling, when I come back, I want to sit down with you and you are going to tell me everything that happened with all details.”

As I moved out of the room, I knew that the moment I would leave, there was a likelihood that Rick and Ila would bang each other, but Ila had seemed to grown a little mature if not much. I wasn’t yet sure what feelings she had and if she was still in love with Rick.

Having spent some time away from Ila, Rick and even Vecchio, I didn’t quite know what to make of any of them yet. We had a lot of time and I knew I could figure everything out after all I always did! The Vecchio mansion was the place where I would get all my leads.

I had worked with Anthony long enough to know what a badass he really was. It would not have been easy to kill him and I was sure that whoever had killed Anthony must have done it quite tactfully. That man could smell a dead rat and find it and have the throats slit, he was so shrewd. Then, who could possibly be behind the murder?

It was rather sad that such a mean gangster died because of poisoning in his whiskey. I mean it was such a non-grateful way to die, isn’t it? It was surely not something that Anthony must have fancied for himself. Over the years, Anthony had spread his business even far and wide and his access to Rick and consequently the green ruins made him a lot popular and one of the top names in the drug circuit.

I remember how once I had got a call from Anthony when I was still working for Victoria. He had asked if I wanted to be back on the same circuit. He would give me a huge lot of money, but I knew Anthony could never make a great bargain. If he was offering me huge money, he surely had some high stake work to be done.

When the call had come, I was banging Victoria and had one of her breasts inside my mouth. I loved the part of my job and I chose to skip his offer, hoping to bump into him soon and meet just for old time’s sake. Little did I know at that time that it would end up being my last conversation with Anthony Vecchio as he would be no more!

I had served a lot of time at his mansion and I knew very well where he lived, who the gauds were the secret passages and more. Even though I wasn’t a direct suspect and I was nowhere in the scene, I had no fascination whatsoever to run into the police.

I didn’t particularly have a very clear track record either. While I was still a private investigator at one point of time and a guard in my last job, the years in between – I had done my fair share of crime. When one of your longest jobs is to serve a gangster because you owed him a shit lot of money, the police is the last thing you wish to run into.

So, I decided that the smarter and the better solution would be to head to the surveillance room. Anthony was always surrounded by a lot of cameras because the guy didn’t even trust his own mother, how would he ever trust someone else.

If someone who had killed him as an intruder, he would not know about all the cameras. Could Ila possibly be the one who killed Anthony? I mean, I didn’t really know how Anthony had treated her or if she was happy being her puppet.

From what I heard and I found out, Anthony often used Ila as his little sex toy. He used to have his way with her and Ila, being Ila never really objected as long as she could be satisfied in bed. Maybe, this is what Anthony really wanted but could Ila have acted the whole plan?

I knew that asking Ila wouldn’t lead me anywhere because she would pretend to be butt-hurt. The more time the three of us spent together, the more I started detesting Rick because, to be honest, Rick was a dick. Over the months, Rick was the one who had changed a lot.

Maybe, he was so used to getting attention at his own place where he was the only one to make the sacrament or the green ruins that he couldn’t possibly adjust to the new environment. While Anthony did give Rick a lot of money for making the green ruin, but then again, did Rick get the same respect or the sex?

I knew that Rick wasn’t averse to sharing Ila, but the monster dick he had needed more than one woman to satiate him and I wondered what he did. There were just so many loopholes in the whole story and I has no one who could help me figure it out.

Was I getting bad at private investigation or this was one case that was testing each of my skill was something I really wasn’t sure of.

***

I stood outside the Vecchio mansion and I could vividly remember the time spent there. I had complete recollection of all the things I had indulged in. There was a part of me that was sad for Anthony’s untimely death. The guy was a gangster, but he wasn’t as terrible as he could have been. Yes, he ran after money and power and fame, but then most humans did.

I wanted to know the whole thing that had led to his death. As it was a huge case, the police were looking into too many details, but I knew that police would be confused at the kind of details they would get.

As long as Anthony was here, he knew how to roll his ball without getting it dirty. This meant that he could easily keep his dirty work and illegal stuff hidden. On the surface, he was like any other rich bloke out there who had too much money and just spent his time sitting on his ass. But, it was only his inside guys who knew the slick bastard Vecchio Jr. really was.

Having worked for him for so long, I knew the kind of work he dealt in, the trades he participated in and the reasons and sources of his endless income. I knew that even the police had an idea of the life of the gangster, but even in their wildest of thoughts, they could never know the extent of crime Anthony Vecchio Jr. had already committed.

So, it was natural that the police would be distracted as they would try to find who murdered him. This meant that I had to do my work because if someone could get into Vecchio house and poison him, the same murderer could be dangerous enough to frame Ila and once she was caught, it would all go downhill from there.

I knew I needed to head to the surveillance room as the camera footage would at least help me be sure if Anthony had consumed any whiskey of sorts. The lab reports by the police had found a large amount of poison in the whiskey. And it was rumored to be the reason of death. But, this is the difference between police and a private investigator.

When police found a clue, they were happy to have found something which led to an assumption. But, we private investigators are never happy – not even with clues. We need clues to ensure that the clue is legit because what if the whiskey was not even intended for Anthony? Didn’t the whole thing turn out to be an accident rather than murder? And if it was not intended for Anthony, why was the whiskey poisoned at all? Was there someone else who was in danger? My mind was one mess of too many questions and I had to go to the surveillance room before I could jump to any more conclusions.

Of course, I couldn’t just barge in tee house via the front gate and head to the surveillance room. There were too many policemen who would immediately jump on me. If they came to know that I had worked with Anthony for a long time, I would soon become someone they would love to harass too. Who knew the police would frame me as a suspect too as I hadn’t actually paid him any money. Anthony had simply exonerated my debt because of my sacrifice made at Arizona and my impeccable bravery in getting him his golden fish – Rick. Of course, Ila was the bonus which he thoroughly enjoyed and fucked big time too!

Though I never had to sneak in Anthony’s house before, but I knew all the secret passages here. Call it a part of my job or whatever, but I loved looking for these snarky little bit of details. I knew that on the left wing of the mansion, there was a wall that looked like an ordinary wall but it wasn’t. The wall was actually a door that led to the mansion.

Anthony often used it for his secret trades and he even had meetings wherein his illicit members of the trade were brought in and out from the passage. I was quite sure that none of the policemen here would be aware of the gate as it was close to the garden which was quite boring.