Lies, Lies, Lies

by David A Max

  “Am I going on the trip alone?” Emilio asked.

  “Yes you are,” Kevin answered.

  Emilio told Déborah what Kevin said when he got to their room, “I have to leave tomorrow,” Emilio said.

  Déborah stared at Emilio, “I’m going to miss you,” but she was also thinking in her mind, that she had a bad feeling about the trip.

  The next day Emilio left for Indonesia. Kevin sent a driver to pick Déborah up; she met up with Kevin and they flew in his ten-seater helicopter which had a lavatory, closet space, work area, snack cabinet, and top-of-the line audio system, it was a luxurious helicopter.

  “I haven’t seen this before, did you just buy it?” Déborah asked as she sat down.

  “One of my new toys,” Kevin replied.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “I’m taking you to Monaco,” Kevin answered, “I want us to meet with the Prince of Monaco and some of my associates.”

  Déborah changed in the bathroom and they landed in Monaco. They had dinner with the Prince and some of Kevin’s business associates, and after dinner they flew in the helicopter to Kevin’s yacht, where the helicopter landed on the helipad of the yacht.

  They got on the yacht and sat on the upper deck. The yacht sailed while they enjoyed the fresh air, Kevin poured both of them a glass of wine, and they both drank and relaxed.

  “Why did you send Emilio to Indonesia alone?” Déborah asked Kevin.

  “It’s his turn to go,” Kevin answered.

  “Andreiá is still around, why didn’t you send both of them?” Déborah asked.

  “I wanted him to cover some ground on his own,” Kevin answered, “can we not talk about Emilio,” he said as he kissed Déborah.

  “Wait Kevin,” Déborah pushed him back a little, “just tell me he will be safe,” Déborah said staring into Kevin’s eyes.

  “He’s a grown man so he should be safe,” Kevin said. Kevin got up and took Déborah into his room on the yacht.

  Emilio arrived in Jakarta and started his search alone for Greg. Kevin told him to start in Kemang, “It’s a popular location for expatriates.” Emilio asked around and nobody had ever seen Greg, and after searching for two weeks without a lead, Kevin called Emilio and told him to go to the Bahamas were they had tracked Greg before.

  Emilio landed in the Bahamas; he started his search at the airport, trying to gather as much information and watch video footages of the past few months. He was working alone and talking to airport officials, it was a tedious ordeal.

  After another week of gathering all the information he could, Emilio went for a drink one evening at a bar close to his hotel. There were a number of foreigners in the bar, a beautiful brunette, a tall and curvy lady who kept staring at Emilio. Emilio looked round to be certain she was staring at him, and after about ten minutes she got up and came over to Emilio. “Hello my name is Lisa, Lisa Hanson.”

  “I’m Emilio Santos, you are American?” Emilio said.

  “Yes,” Lisa answered.

  “I can tell from your accent. I’m from Brazil,” Emilio said. He was surprisingly confident, he thought to himself, ‘it must be because I’m with Déborah, so I’m more confident around beautiful women.’

  They talked for hours in the bar, and at around 2:30 a.m. Emilio wanted to call it a night but Lisa insisted they should talk and drink a little longer.

  When Emilio got back to the hotel late, he found out Lisa was staying in the same hotel. They both got in the lift and Lisa tried to kiss him, but Emilio leaned back, “No Lisa, I think you are tipsy,” he said and helped Lisa to her room. He collected her key and opened the door. As she leaned on him, he put her on the bed, removed her shoes and covered her up with a duvet. Lisa pulled Emilio closer and kissed him but Emilio quickly stopped the kiss. He covered her up and sat down on the chair until she fell asleep, then snuck out of Lisa’s room and went to his room. He was so tired he quickly removed his shoes, jumped on the bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.

  The next day, Emilio knocked on Lisa’s room door, “Who is it?” Lisa asked.

  “It’s me Emilio.” Lisa opened the door and let him in, she was still in her robe.

  “How are you feeling today, hope the effect of the alcohol has worn off?” Emilio asked.

  “Yes it has and thank you for yesterday, you are such a gentleman,” Lisa answered, but why didn’t you try to take advantage of me yesterday, I was all over you,” she said.

  Emilio smiled, “I have a girlfriend so I couldn’t.”

  “But you are all the way in the Bahamas on your own,” Lisa insisted. She got up and walked towards Emilio, removed her robe and stood naked in front of Emilio. She tried to kiss him, but Emilio bent down, picked up her robe and put it on her. “Lisa, please we can be friends and that’s it.”

  Lisa sat on the bed and told Emilio to please sit down. “You are actually a very nice man,” Lisa said to Emilio, “but you are in great danger,” she said.

  Emilio got up, “What do you mean I’m in great danger?”

  “I’m going to regret doing this,” Lisa mumbled to herself, “if you walk out of this room you will be killed, I was hired to kill you,” Lisa said, and she started putting on her trousers and shirt.

  “Please, who sent you to kill me?” Emilio said in shock.

  “You were having an affair with Kevin’s girlfriend Déborah, that is why he wants you dead. Whenever they fight, whoever Déborah dates ends up missing or dead.”

  Emilio covered his mouth and gasped, “I didn’t know Déborah was Kevin’s girlfriend!” Emilio said hyper-ventilating.

  “It’s too late for that now. I was going to poison you, but because you are an absolutely nice person I couldn’t, but there are other people around waiting, if you leave the hotel alive you will be killed,” Lisa said. “We don’t have much time, we are going to go out through the fire exit,” she said, as she opened a briefcase and brought out two pistols and a combat knife. “Hold the pistol.” They both snuck out of room and left via the fire exit.

  They both snuck through a back street, and hid behind a car. Emilio and Lisa heard a gunshot and the bullet shattered the window of the car they were hiding behind. “Run, follow me!” Lisa shouted, and she got up and ran towards a shop with a big glass window. Emilio ran behind her, a barrage of gunshots was heard behind them as they ran. Lisa shot at the glass window and jumped in, with her inside, Emilio followed; the glass shattered as they jumped in, and they both quickly hid behind a counter. Lisa peeped out to see the people shooting at them, she could see only two men running towards them; she quickly got up and shot one of the two men in the head, he fell straight to the ground. The other man started shooting back at Lisa, she quickly hid again, then as the man cautiously approached, Lisa shot him in the chest and he also fell to the ground.

  Lisa peeped and saw an SUV pull up with four men getting out, “We have to move now,” she told Emilio. They snuck through the back of the building, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the other street. Lisa pulled out her phone and made a call, “I am at Russell Street, not too far from the hotel, I need to be evacuated now,” and she dropped the phone.

  They ran to the corner of a building; Lisa kept peeping as they hid, to see if any of the men were coming in their direction. About fifteen minutes later a Mercedes Benz car pulled up, “Let’s go,” Lisa said and they ran and got into the Benz as the car screeched off. There were three other men in the car, Emilio tapped Lisa as the car drove off and pointed at the men. Lisa sighed, “They work with me, whenever I go on a mission I have my own mercenaries that work with me, just in case my client turns on me, just like in this case, Kevin wants both of us dead.”

  The driver drove into a street and a lorry came out from nowhere and blocked them, the driver put the Benz into reverse immediately, some men came out from behind them with sub-machine guns and started shooting at the Benz. But the Benz was bullet proof, the bullets hit every part of the car and hit one
of the tyres but the driver of the Benz kept reversing and he hit one of the men shooting at them. The driver turned the car around, sparks were flying out from the rim of the tyre that had burst; the driver drove for another ten minutes, then parked the Benz on a street corner and the five of them ran out. One of men quickly ran to a parked black SUV and picked the lock; they all got in, the driver of the Benz got in and picked the wires and he got the SUV to start. The driver screeched off and he drove to a harbour where they all got out of the SUV and ran to a boat and they sped off. After about thirty minutes they parked the boat by an isolated house in the middle of nowhere; one of the men quickly got out and tied the boat, the rest of them got out and went into the house, but they were all looking around to see if they were being followed.

  “We need to get out of the Bahamas,” Lisa told Emilio, “I don’t think we can survive for long in this country any more. Kevin must have hired battalions of mercenaries,” and Lisa shook her head.

  The three other men looked out the windows to make sure no one was coming towards the house. “We need to plan and see how we can get both of you out tonight, you cannot use the airports any more to leave, I’m sure Kevin and his men would have paid some airport personnel to alert them once they see you,” one of the men said. “We have to get you to join one of the big cruise ships sailing out of the Bahamas and then you can travel from the next country’s airport,” the man said. “I’ll call one of my men, he works on one of the cruise ships, he will get you out.”

  They got Lisa and Emilio on the cruise ship later that evening. They were given a nice room to share; it was a big cruise ship and a lot of people were on holiday, so Lisa and Emilio blended in and walked round.

  Chapter 13

  “I found out the itinerary of the cruise ship, it ends up in Miami, which is where we will stay until we find out where to go next,” Lisa told Emilio, “I will tell some of my mercenaries to meet us in Miami, they will bring us passports and money, we will be fine,” Lisa said.

  “Thank you,” Emilio said, “if you hadn’t changed your mind, I would be dead already,” Emilio shook his head.

  “Stop worrying about what happened before. I really like you Emilio, you are a good man, I don’t see any of those any more,” Lisa said as she applied sun screen on her body. Emilio and Lisa and a number of people on the cruise were lying down on sun loungers enjoying the fresh sea breeze.

  That evening Emilio and Lisa had lovely dresses and jackets delivered to their room; they both dressed up and went for cocktails at one of the bars downstairs on the ship and after having some drinks, they went to a salsa bar. Emilio got up to dance and he was so good at dancing salsa, all the ladies admired him and all took turns to dance with him. One of the ladies invited him to her room, immediately Lisa noticed it, she cut in and held Emilio close so that the other lady had to leave. “Emilio, were you going to go with that lady?” Lisa asked.

  “She was pretty,” Emilio answered.

  “Am I not pretty enough for you?” Lisa said.

  “You are stunning,” Emilio replied, “you should know I like you a lot, so stop being stiff and take me to the room right away,” Lisa said. Emilio grabbed her hand and pulled her to the room quickly.

  “I hope you have finally forgotten about Déborah?” Lisa asked Emilio.

  “I’m just shocked because she never mentioned it to me,” Emilio said.

  “Déborah and Kevin cannot leave each other, or more like Kevin cannot leave Déborah, he loves her but because of all the attention he gets from other beautiful women, because of all his money, he strays at times but always comes back for Déborah, no matter what,” Lisa explained.

  “But are you sure Déborah loves Kevin?”

  “Yes she does, she always goes back to him no matter what happens.”

  The cruise ship docked at Key West which is part of the Florida Keys. “We have two nights to explore the island, we have a lot of sightseeing and fun activities to do,” Lisa told Emilio. “There are a lot of tourists on the island.”

  “It’s a beautiful place so it will keep attracting a lot of tourists,” Emilio said as he looked round.

  “Let’s go snorkelling,” Lisa pulled Emilio, and after they had put on their diving mask they dove in the water. The ocean was clear and blue; wearing their snorkels, Lisa and Emilio swam to the reefs, it was beautiful, it had different colours. They swam for some time then got tired of swimming, “Parasailing would be nice,” Emilio pointed to a boat. “Yes,” Lisa agreed.

  Lisa and Emilio glided through the air wearing an open parachute while being pulled by a speeding boat, “This is so much fun,” Lisa said as she screamed, and after parasailing they both jetted around on a personal watercraft, driving fast on the ocean, it was exhilarating. They finally went kayaking through the mangroves.

  As Lisa and Emilio headed back to the cruise ship, they were both really exhausted, “It’s been a hectic day,” Emilio said, “but it was worth it.”

  “Yes it was,” Lisa said. When they got to their room, they both took a shower and went to sleep, they were really exhausted.

  The next day they looked at different attractions on the island, and took a stroll through the island.

  That night back on the cruise ship, Lisa and Emilio dressed up for dinner. There was a live band singing, and Lisa and Emilio ordered lobster and seafood meals. Emilio enjoyed the music and the ambience was perfect; he held Lisa’s hand as the music played. “I want to use the bathroom,” Emilio said, in the middle of dinner. Lisa asked, “Just a quick one?” Emilio got up and rushed out, two minutes later he came back with a rose and gave it to Lisa. “That is so sweet Emilio, you are really a gentleman,” Lisa said. Emilio took her hand and kissed it.

  That night they kissed and went to bed, it was such a pleasant night, ‘Being with such a gentleman is a nice feeling,’ Lisa thought to herself.

  They both fell asleep, then while they were sleeping a light noise woke Lisa up, she gently opened her eyes and saw a man covering Emilio’s mouth and trying to choke him on the bed, a second man was walking towards her. Lisa carefully slid her hand under her pillow and grabbed her combat knife, and as the man got close to her, he leaned over and tried to cover her mouth. As he leaned forward Lisa brought out the knife and stabbed the man in the chest; the man fell back and grabbed his chest, and the other man choking Emilio turned to grab Lisa, she stabbed his hand and stabbed him twice in the chest, the man fell down backwards. The first man Lisa stabbed got up and tried to grab the knife from Lisa, but she quickly got up and kicked the man in the stomach, he fell back and she stabbed his throat. Both men died on the floor in their room. “What do we do?” Emilio panicked. “Stop panicking, I know what to do,” Lisa said.

  That night Lisa and Emilio tied the bodies up, and at around 2:45 a.m. while everybody was asleep, Lisa and Emilio pulled the bodies to the deck, looked around and threw the bodies overboard into the ocean. They went back to their room and cleaned all the blood stains off the floor. “That was dangerous,” Emilio said. “Everything is dangerous,” Lisa said and nodded her head.

  A day later the cruise ship arrived in Miami. Lisa and Emilio came down from the ship; one of Lisa’s mercenaries met them at the port and handed her two passports, some money, a key and an address. Lisa and Emilio got into a taxi and went to the address she was given; they went into the building, they key was for an apartment on the fifth floor, so they got into the lift and it took them to the fifth floor. They entered the apartment, which was furnished and had all that they needed, “This is a nice hideout,” Emilio said as he looked around.

  The next morning Emilio opened the front door to go downstairs to get some milk from a grocery store across from the building. As he opened the door, he saw Elsa and Déborah standing in front of the door, Emilio was taken aback, “What are you both doing here?” Emilio asked.

  “We came to see you,” Déborah answered, “are you going to let us in, and how come you are not excited to see me?” sh
e asked.

  Emilio looked around and let them in. Lisa saw them and was shocked, “How did you know we were here?” Lisa asked Déborah.

  “I put a tracking device in Emilio’s wristwatch.” Emilio quickly removed his wristwatch. “We are here to help,” Déborah said.

  “I know from your reaction, Emilio, that Lisa told you about me and Kevin, but that isn’t what matters now, the two of you need our help,” Déborah said. “Lisa, we both know that Kevin will not stop until he gets both of you, I think the person that can help you now is Greg,” Déborah suggested.

  “But we don’t know where he is,” Emilio said.

  “How can he help us?” Lisa asked.

  “Well he is on the run like you guys and because he worked with the CIA for a number years, he is well trained in hiding in plain sight,” Déborah said. “Greg contacted Lisa a couple of weeks back and offered her some money to give him information about how Kevin is tracking him. Kevin initially thought Greg stole twelve million dollars from him, but so far Kevin has found out he stole over forty million dollars. Kevin is determined to get him, which I know will be difficult,” Déborah told them. “I told Kevin I had some leads on Greg in the US and that I would come with Elsa and leave Elsa here; Elsa has agreed to help you and take you to Greg,” Déborah said and turned to Emilio, “I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you about Kevin, I was hoping he wasn’t going to come back this time, but I will try my best to keep you all safe.”

  Déborah flew back to France alone; she went back to the mansion and it felt quiet, it was just Gina, Carlito and Andreiá that were left. Déborah was jet-lagged and needed some rest. Kevin got to the mansion an hour after Déborah got back and he told one of his maids to call Gina. Five minutes later Gina met Kevin in the living area, Gina sat down, “Where is everybody else?” Gina asked Kevin.

  “I came to see you Gina. I’m going to go straight to the point, I want you to go back to your company, and I will give you the fifteen million dollars I promised you so you can expand and I am going to give you five hundred million dollars to invest for me, I need to make some real money,” Kevin said. Gina got up and asked if she could hug him, “Yes you can,” Kevin replied. Gina hugged Kevin and thanked him, “It’s been a while I was in my office.”