THE
MIND ALTERING
ADVENTURE

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"I called Mac," Felicia tells Kevin who is sitting in the recliner in her den.

He nods thoughtfully. "That's probably a good idea. You can vouch for my whereabouts since you kidnapped me, and that should clear me."

"Only I want you to stay here," she tells him. "Mac needs to know about Tom, and I have the uneasy feeling that Tom is far more involved in whatever is going on than we think. Not that we know what's going on."

She pauses, pouring another cup of tea for Kevin. "Between drugging you and me with some mind altering concoction, and making strange calls, having his insurance canceled due to whatever happened in Africa, Tom appears to be deeply involved in something."

Kevin is troubled. "Do you think that he had anything to do with the murders?"

Felicia shakes her head. "I don't think so. Tom doesn't strike me as a violent man-but that doesn't mean much. It's clear that I don't know him that well."

At that moment, the doorbell rings, and Felicia goes to answer it, while Kevin quickly heads into the bedroom. "Hello, Mac," Felicia smiles, wondering why she'd ever let Mac slip away.

"Felicia-good to see you again. How are the girls?"

"Fine," she tells him. "Maxie is at school, and Georgie is with the sitter."

Quickly looking around, Mac asks, "Tom just left?" He sees the tea which is still steaming, and turns to look at Felicia.

"It's mine," comes a familiar voice from the bedroom door. Mac is stunned to see his best friend, Kevin Collins, leaning against the door jam.

"Kev?"

"In the flesh."

Just then, Maverick makes his presence known, and TC strolls out, as well.

"Felicia," Mac begins. "Explain."

"Remember the night Kevin disappeared?"

"How could I forget?"

"She drugged and kidnapped me."

Mac turns back to Felicia. "For real?"

"For real. I was going to drive him as batty as he'd driven me, and maybe kill him." She shrugs. "I hadn't made up my mind."

Mac shakes his head. "You want to run that by me once again?"

Felicia quickly runs down the sequence of events that have brought her to the point of calling Mac. "You see, once I'd stopped drinking the kiwi-lime juice, I began to think more clearly. Same with Kevin, only he'd been drinking strawberry-banana. Same manufacturer, and both of us were supplied by Tom." She finishes with the call Tom made to unknown parties, and says, "Somebody, probably Tom, framed Kevin for the stalking, and or inspired him to do it by suggestion and this mind altering drug. Trouble is, we don't know who he's working with."

"Then Kevin couldn't have killed Gina or Carly, and couldn't have attacked Bobbie."

"Nope," Felicia says. "He's been locked up in the basement-a secret one that can only accessed from inside my closet-ever since he came until Halloween.

"Eating dogfood, watching The Wizard of Oz, and Barney movies", Kevin injects."

Mac grimaces. "Felicia. That would break a lesser man."

Kevin smiles. "I've discovered previously unplumbed depths of patience," he confesses. "And, a love for my four-footed friends. They kept me company."

"So what are we going to do with you? If we let you out, then somebody may well try to frame you again, or worse yet, kill you and plant damning evidence on you."

"He can stay here. Tom is so preoccupied that he doesn't suspect a thing. In fact, he hardly notices I'm even here," Felicia says. "Kevin is safer here than he'd be anywhere else."

Mac nods. "I agree. Okay, stay here and I'll be in touch." Hmmmmmm





Lucy is hardly a paragon of patience, but it takes all of Luke's powers of persuasion to get her to go to Sonny's first. Standing outside Sonny's door, he says, "You can go to see Felicia later."

"But what if she's...he's...they're..."

"I doubt if they're doing that," Luke says. "After all, after you, Miss Lucy, what would he want with Felicia?"

"True," she nods. "But that isn't what I mean."

"And, if he'd killed her, or she'd killed him, then you'd know, right?"

"Right."

"So we check in with Sonny and see what's going on. He's been keeping an eye on Laura for me, and keeping an eye out for Lucky."

"No news?"

Luke shakes his head. "None. But, Lucky is not your average kid. He's got more street smarts than I had at that age, and he'll come home when he's ready." If ever, Luke thinks, but doesn't voice that. "Sonny was supposed to see Reggie, too."

Just then, Sonny opens the door. "Luke, Lucy-come on in." He closes the door, and confides, "Luke you aren't going to like this."

"Laura? Lucky?"

"No, everybody's about the same. It's Lila Quartermaine-she's onto us."

"Lila?" Lucy laughs.

"That sweet little old lady?" Luke asks, incredulously. "I thought I told you to handle Reggie."

Sonny shakes his head in disgust. "Man, you wouldn't believe them! Reggie and Lila are working together!"

"What are they after?"

"I can't believe that I was bested by an old lady," Sonny groans.

"Lila may be getting on in years, but her mind is very sharp," Lucy tells him. "She's sweet, but don't cross her."

"So I've learned. Man, my reputation is going to be shot to hell if word of this gets out. Sonny Corinthos beaten by a butler and a little old lady in a wheel chair!!"

"You think that they're fronting for Edward?"

"No. Something tells me that Ned may be involved, but I doubt if he knows that she knows everything about my workings, chapter and verse."

"That's bad," Luke winces. "And you can't..."

"You know I can't... I don't whack little old ladies and kids."

"Or butlers," Lucy admonishes.

"Can't do Reggie, either. Lila threatened me." He shakes his head. "I think I'm too soft for this business. Time to hang it up. Join the other side."

"That's an option," Luke reminds him. "Remember, you're legit with the ELQ stock."

Sonny brightens. "That's worth thinking about." Hmmmmmmmm





Nikolas has brought more food to Lucky down in the catacombs. "Have you learned anything?" Lucky asks him.

Nikolas is troubled. "Lucky, all I can say for certain is that something is going on, and my uncle seems to be involved."

Lucky snarls. "What'd I tell you? Man, you can't trust grownups!"

"No, I don't think that he's doing anything evil. He voiced concerns about our safety, his and mine. Something about playing for very high stakes."

"Yeah, he's probably afraid that my dad will kill you." Lucky sighs. "You know, there was a time when I'd have helped, but now..."

"I feel the same. Different fathers, different lives, but we share another bloodline, and that one binds us together."

"Yeah. Oh, by the way, I think that my dad is coming home today. I hacked into the airlines flight manifest list and saw one of his aliases."

"Excellent move. I've been at the hospital lately, ostensibly checking on our mother-she's no better-and I've noticed that one of the doctor's has been barred from practice-just after he'd been appointed to treat Laura."

"That's weird."

"Too convenient, I thought. So, I've been following him-and he's making secretive phone calls, and keeps looking over his shoulders as if he's afraid he's being followed."

"Who is it?"

"Tom Hardy."

"That's weird," Lucky says. "I'll see what I can find out about him." He gestures to his laptop and says, "You're going to get the cellular phone bill from ****."

Nikolas grins. "I'll consider it money well spent." Hmmmmmm





Stay tuned!!! How long can Mac and Felicia keep Kevin's secret?? Is Tom ever going to get suspicious? Will Sonny ever recover from the humiliation of being outdone by Lila? Is he about to go legit?? Are Lucky and Nikolas onto something??? Hmmmmmmmm

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