Chapter Nineteen
“Another bad day on set, Elizabeth?” Sonny asked as he joined Billy and me, at our table in the hotel restaurant later that night.
“The worst,” I grumpily answered. “How do you know when I have a bad day?” I asked, shoving a meatball into my mouth.
Billy and Sonny both laughed as I stared at them, confused.
“You always have spaghetti and meatballs when you have had a bad day,” Sonny explained. “Then on good days you always have the chicken parmigiana.”
“Seriously?” I questioned. “Am I really that predictable?”
“Yes,” they answered together. I had never really thought about it before but I guess they were right.
“What happened, buttercup?” Sonny asked as he sat across from me.
“I hate him.” I shoved another meatball into my mouth.
“Antonio, I assume.”
“Yes,” I answered with a mouthful of food.
“I think it’s time we have a chat about how to remedy this situation.” Billy lowered his voice, then hesitated and faced me.
“If you’re waiting for me to object, I’m not going to,” I answered with another mouthful of food. “It’s been two months of pure hell working with this asshole. I’m done.” Normally, I wouldn’t partake in such a conversation, but I just couldn’t handle working with Antonio any longer. It was getting to the point that I didn’t even want to go on set anymore. He was always being malicious and critical towards me, especially when Billy wasn’t around. However, threatening me earlier that day was the last straw.
“Great.” Billy sounded pleased with my response. “Then it’s settled.” He turned to Sonny.
“I’ll take care of it,” Sonny informed us. “Let me make some calls.” He got up from the table and was about to leave.
“Wait,” I practically shouted. Sonny stopped and turned back. “Don’t hurt him,” I lowered my voice and plead.
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know, but not that. I don’t want him hurt in any way.”
“Why not?” Sonny seemed genuinely confused.
“He was fired from the last movie we did together and then on this one he mysteriously gets hurt, or worse? It doesn’t look good on me.”
“Good point,” Billy chimed in. “Is there any way to convince him to just quit?”
Sonny looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think that can be arranged,” he said. “I can be pretty persuasive when I want to be.”
“I have no doubt,” Billy agreed.
Sonny left with the promise to have Antonio quit the movie without being injured in any way.
***
“What did you two do?” Al desperately asked the next morning when I answered my cell.
“Al, I’m not even out of bed yet,” I complained sleepily. “If you need an actual answer from me, you’ll have to be more specific.”
“There was another accident last night.”
I sat upright in bed, “Antonio?” I panicked. Sonny had promised no injuries.
“No, Brianna Thompson. She was almost killed in a car accident last night.”
“What?” I was confused. “Brianna was in a car accident last night?” I repeated.
“Yes, and Cal has made a statement in the news blaming you and Billy for orchestrating it.”
“He what?” I yelled, jumping out of bed in one quick motion.
“You swear to me you both had nothing to do with this?”
“I swear.”
“Okay, good.” Al sounded relieved. “Unfortunately, there is police involvement and an investigation has been started. They may come there to question you and Billy today, so do not make any statements to anyone before you call that fancy lawyer of yours.”
I could hear someone pounding on the door of the suite.
“Cops?” I asked as I ran down the stairs in my pajama pants and tank top.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
I opened the door to a very pissed off looking Billy.
“Is that Al on the phone?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Tell him not to say anything to the press just yet,” Billy started. “I just got off the phone with my attorney and he’s dealing with it.”
“I heard him,” Al responded before I could relay the message. “Tell him—”
“Wait,” I cut Al off. “Talk to each other.” I handed the phone to Billy and picked up my iPad on the table to read the news.
The story was all over the Internet, saying Brianna was driving in Los Angeles when she was rammed from behind by a mysterious car and pushed off the road. Brianna survived the accident, but the baby she was carrying did not.
In full Cal idiocy, he blatantly blamed Billy and me citing we hired the Micheletti family goons to cause the accident. His reasons for the accusation were, as he put it, because Elizabeth was mad that he had cheated, and Billy did whatever Elizabeth told him to do.
“He’s such an asshole,” I said as Billy hung up the phone.
“It’s possible he could be a dead asshole soon. Sonny is screaming mad about the accusations.” He put my cell on the table and sat on the couch opposite to where I was sitting. “What was he thinking saying shit like that?” Billy asked.
“I don’t know.” I thought about what Cal had said in my trailer the day before and how he was going to try to take me down. He couldn’t have orchestrated Brianna’s accident on purpose, could he?
“This is about revenge, for telling the press about him and Brianna,” I concluded. “It seems he killed his unborn child for it.” My stomach turned at the thought.
“He’s out of his mind.” Billy shook his head. “Not only do we think he planned this, he also has the balls to publicly accuse one of the most powerful crime families in the country.”
“He’s an idiot, Billy.” A sudden thought came to me. “I don’t think he could’ve done this on his own, though. He’s too stupid to put something like that together.”
There was a knock on the door and my stomach tightened. I hated being questioned by the police. I had a bad experience when I was younger and never forgot it.
“Do you want to know how stupid this Cal guy is?” Benny Micheletti asked as he came into my suite after I had opened the door. “He’s a complete amateur at this kind of thing.”
“What makes you say that?” Billy asked.
“He has the nerve to accuse my family and crew without checking if we had solid alibis.”
“What do you mean?” I was confused.
“Sonny and I were at the fights here in town last night and Tony and Vince were there with us.”
“Was the fight televised?” Billy asked.
“Damn right it was. Sonny is talking to the detectives now in his office downstairs. There is no way they can pin this on us.” Benny seemed pleased. “However, I can’t be too sure what Sonny is planning to do to Cal.”
“I can only imagine,” I absently answered. “Did the detectives say anything about coming up here?”
“More than likely.” Benny confirmed my fears. “They probably just want to make sure you were both here in Vegas and nowhere near Los Angeles.”
I couldn’t relax. I really did not like speaking with the police.
“There’s no need to be nervous, Elizabeth,” Billy soothed. “We did nothing wrong.”
“I know.” I tried to steel my nerves.
“Unless,” Benny regarded me coldly, “you did order the hit but used someone else to carry it out.”