by Claire Adams
“You’re right, that would be weird,” she finally gave in and relaxed into the bed.
“Please tell me you have condoms here,” I asked as I realized I had not come prepared, at all.
“Of course, they are right there in the drawer,” she leaned over and opened her bedside table.
“I was not expecting that,” I said in total shock. “I think you have a better supply than I do. Wait, I know you have a better supply than I do.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not having that much sex. My girlfriends just gave me a ton of condoms last year when we went to a bachelorette party. They had decided it was time for me to move on and thought it would be funny to give me all of these. I’ve got flavored ones, glow in the dark ones, and condoms of all sizes.”
I had to laugh at her friends, and I was pretty damn thankful they had supplied Del with the necessary protection we needed for our morning of fun. I reached into the drawer and pulled out a purple condom.
“I guess we’re doing it with purple today.”
“It is one of my favorite colors.”
As my lips pressed against hers, I felt the softness of her love wrap around me. Slowly my thrusts grew inside of her, and I relished in the sound of her desire for me. With each stroke of my body, Del was welcoming more and more of me. Together, as our bodies thrust and moved, we found a new confidence in our relationship.
I grew harder as I thrust and her voice drove me to deliver more and more to her. I loved how vocal she was that morning, how she let herself go and screamed when my final thrust entered her. This was what love making was supposed to be like. No concern for what the other thought, just two people giving each other as much pleasure as they could possibly give.
We wrapped our morning up with a quick shower and some eggs in her kitchen. It was relaxing to be at Del’s house instead of mine, and I couldn’t wait to do it again sometime very soon.
“I’ll call you later today when I have more information. I’m meeting with my ex-wife first and going to try and figure out what she knows. Then Josh, Billy, Dick, and I will put together a plan to bring this all to an end.”
“I want to be involved in the plan if you need me. I’m willing to do whatever is needed. I feel so bad about letting that guy come use my computer at work. I should have insisted on doing the work myself. I’m really sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. We have it figured out now and soon it will all be over. Please don’t beat yourself up too much about it. He was really convincing and really scary.”
“Okay, I’ll try not to, but you call me later and fill me in on everything. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I playfully saluted her.
I made my way over to my lawyer’s office so Josh, Billy, Dick, and I could all share the information we had so far and what we could do next. As much as I wanted to storm over to Rose’s house and punch Carlos in the face, I knew that wasn’t the best solution. If I did that, I would look like the maniac ex-husband who was attacking him for no reason. No, I needed all the evidence before I put a plan into action.
“So, what were you two able to figure out last night?”
“First of all, in case there was any question about it, I did confirm that Carlos Rodriguez does not work for the SEC,” Billy said as he slid a folder across the desk toward me. “I also confirmed that his real name is actually Carlos Ramirez, and he’s been arrested a half dozen times for fraud in three other states.”
“I knew there was something wrong with that guy!”
“Brandon, there’s more than one thing wrong with him. Not only does he have a history of fraud charges, his brother was recently released from prison after serving twenty years for murder.”
“This is his brother,” Josh burst out loudly and slid a picture across the table to me. “The giant neck dude!”
“Wow, now this is getting crazy. Do we know if Rose is involved or not? My gut is saying she has no idea what’s happening. What do you all think?”
“She doesn’t know. I’m almost certain of it,” Dick said as he joined the conversation. “I talked to her attorney early this morning. Apparently, Carlos came in with Rose and they had a document saying that you had gifted her ten percent of your company when you divorced and you never paid her for it.”
“What? No, you know that’s not true. You handled the divorce.”
“Her attorney was concerned, but the document seemed legal and Rose said Carlos had found it in a box in the garage. I think their intention was to get you to pay for that ten percent. Perhaps Carlos had frozen your bank accounts as insurance for the payment he was going to have Rose ask you for.”
“But Rose got a huge settlement when we divorced. She was happy with it. We didn’t have any issues.”
“It’s possible Carlos has been in her head and filling it with ideas that you tried to trick her. Look what happened with Delilah; it’s very easy to get things twisted around when you don’t have all the details. I think you should talk to her,” Dick said.
“I agree,” Josh added as he grabbed the folder and looked through it. “What I don’t get is why the big neck dude has been breaking into your house and not stealing anything. How does that fit in with all of this?”
“I have no idea.”
“Maybe they needed to see your signature on something so they could forge it?” Billy asked.
“They could have looked at the divorce documents.”
“Yeah, his signature is all over the place. There has to be something else in the house that they wanted,” Dick suggested.
“Or maybe they were just trying to rattle him?”
“Maybe,” I said. “It was working. Last night I stayed with Delilah and it was the first good night of sleep I’ve had in days.
“Okay, so I’m meeting with Rose this afternoon. I’ll get a feel for what’s going on and if the time is right, I’m going to tell her what we know about Carlos. If she really isn’t involved, I can’t let her be around the man without knowing what he’s been up to. It sounds like he and his brother are really dangerous.”
“We should probably involve the local police, as well,” Billy added. “Things could get really complicated if we are trying to catch them in the act all by ourselves. It’s better to at least be in communication with the police, even if they decide not to get involved.”
I was all for having the police involved in what was going on, I just wasn’t sure we could get them to care. So far my house had been broken into three times and the police didn’t show up for nearly an hour. I tried not to be too bitter about it all and understand that Los Angeles was filled with much more urgent issues that they needed to take care of, but I didn’t think my financial issues with Carlos and his brother would rise to the top of the police department’s list, either.
“That’s a good idea,” I said as I gathered the file and prepared to go see my ex-wife. “Wish me luck, guys. This could either go really horribly, or just a little bad.”
The guys wished me luck, and I called Rose to meet me at the local coffee shop near her house. I pretended like I planned to sign the papers she had for me, but I certainly didn’t intend to sign anything she and Carlos had put together.
If Rose needed money, I had no problem helping her out. I still cared about her a lot and she would always be part of my life. If there was something I could do to help her, I would do it in a second and not even think twice about it.
But what Carlos was trying to do wasn’t just take a little money: he was turning Rose against me and making her believe that I didn’t care or that I had tricked her. That pissed me off because I would never purposely hurt Rose. She was the mother of my only child, and I had a big spot in my heart for her.
“Hey, thanks so much for meeting me,” Rose said as she gave me a hug and sat next to me. “I’m not sure what this is so please feel free to have your lawyer look over it.”
She handed me the legal document and I read it over. It wasn’t
something I’d ever had drawn up and I knew it. I certainly would have remembered if I’d agreed to give ten percent of my company to her.
“I need to tell you something, and it might piss you off a little at first, but please hear me out.”
“Carlos said you might be angry,” she looked defeated at the idea of having to listen to me. “Fine, what do you have to say?”
“Rose, I think Carlos is a fraud. I’ve found out some information about him that you should know.”
“Brandon, I don’t know why you’re so afraid to let me move on. You and I just didn’t work out. It’s okay, I’m okay, we are both okay; let’s just move on.”
“No, Rose, look at this. I had a private investigator do a background check on Carlos. First of all, did you know his real last name is Ramirez?”
I could tell by the look on her face that she hadn’t known that information. Her arms were crossed and she leaned back in her chair, but she was listening to me. I had to tell her what I knew. If this guy was dangerous, I wasn’t going to allow her to be around him, not if I could help it. We might not be good together, but I wasn’t going to let anyone else hurt the mother of my child.
“Maybe that was his mother’s maiden name or something. I really don’t know what you’re trying to get at here, Brandon. Carlos said you’d try to protect your money at all costs. This document was in our files. It should have been executed, and I should have received ten percent of your company when you sold it.”
“Rose, listen to what you’re saying. When we divorced, was I even thinking about selling my company? No, I loved my work. You even complained that I worked too much. Carlos faked this document. You have to know that.”
“I don’t know what’s true right now.”
“Okay, let me show you this,” I said as I pulled more evidence out of my folder. “Carlos went to my girlfriend’s work and pretended to work for the Securities Exchange Commission. He said that he was investigating me. He had a man hack into my credit cards and then gain access to my bank to freeze all my accounts.
“I believe he intends to blackmail me with this legal document. If I sign this, he will unfreeze my accounts. If I don’t, I will spend months fighting with the bank trying to have access to my money.”
“No, no, he wouldn’t do that. He asked me to come and have you sign it. He didn’t want to be involved.”
“Or he thought by making you come do it, then it wouldn’t place the legal blame on him?”
She was silent, and I gave her the time to process what was going on. I couldn’t pretend to understand the hurt she felt at that moment. I had only felt hurt for a few hours when I thought Del had something to do with freezing my account. But the evidence was piling up against Carlos and soon Rose would have to believe he wasn’t the man he said he was.
“Well, he works for the government. I’ve seen his identification,” she said stubbornly. “Maybe he does work for the SEC.”
“Rose, you and I both know he doesn’t work for them. What else is going on? What else has been unusual that you’ve been ignoring? Because you know I would have given you anything you wanted when we divorced. I paid for the house, gave you alimony, I’d give you another million dollars this second if you said you needed it.”
She broke down crying as she looked from the legal papers to me. We might have been broken as a couple, but she knew me; Rose knew me better than almost any other person in the world. She knew I would never have tried to trick her out of money.
“I don’t know why I believed it…”she sobbed. “He was so convincing. What do I do now?”
“Well, there is something else I should tell you,” I pulled a picture out of the file of the big neck guy, Antonio. “Have you met this man?”
“No, who is he?”
“From what we’ve been able to find, it sounds like this is Antonio Ramirez, Carlos’ brother. He just finished serving a very long prison sentence for murder.”
“Is he going to kill us?” She sounded panicked.
“No, I don’t think so. He did come to my house and threaten me, though, so I don’t think you should be around Carlos. We are filling the police in on what has happened so far, but I’m not sure they will be much help. My investigator and I are trying to figure out a way to catch Carlos red-handed so we have the proof that is needed to send him and his brother to jail.”
“He’s not going to go to jail if he works for the federal government.”
“Rose, I don’t think he does. I think his relationship with you and that story is all a lie. I think he connected with you because he planned on stealing from me.”
“Of course you do, Brandon!” she said angrily. “Why earth would a guy like him and a girl like me be together? Maybe he was right. Maybe you really do still love me and you’ll say anything necessary to get me back?”
“I do love you, Rose, I’ll never deny that. But our time together is over. We can’t go back to those happy days and together, all we think about is Noah and how much we miss him. We are both moving on and that’s good.
“You know in your heart that I wouldn’t be telling you all of this unless it was true. You know me, Rose. How hard do I research every business deal before making it happen? Real evidence, remember, I always said I needed hard evidence that a company was stable before I’d buy it. It’s the same here. I made sure there was real evidence before I came to you.”
“I’ve slept with him, Brandon. I’ve loved him.”
Her hands began to shake as the tears continued to flow. It was a lot for her to take in all at once. The man she had loved and shared her bed with was a fraud and only using her for the money she could get access to.
“I know. I’m so sorry.”
“He listened to my stories of Noah. He comforted me. He has access to all my money. Everything.”
Suddenly, I got worried for Rose and her financial safety. If he had the ability to gain access to my accounts, he certainly had the ability to drain her of all her money.
“You need to take his name off of everything and have new cards issued. Get a post office box and have everything sent there. Go to the bank first thing on Monday and get it all done.”
“That mess with your bank account when I met you down there... I had to use that account because my account went negative. My account never goes negative, so I asked Carlos and he said he had to buy things for the wedding. Oh, Brandon, he’s probably wiped out all my accounts. I wasn’t even paying attention.”
“We will figure it out; don’t worry. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. Let’s just figure out how to catch this guy. For the time being, I don’t want you going back home. He’s dangerous and so is his brother.”
“If I don’t go home, he will know something is up. I need to go back if we are going to catch him.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“In case you forgot, I’m an adult and make my own decisions. Call me when you have a plan. I’m going home, and I’m making sure my life is protected.”
Rose stood up and gave me a hug before she turned to leave. I knew I couldn’t stop her, and I wouldn’t try. She had a lot at stake and was a strong woman. If she insisted on going home, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“I’m going to call you later tonight. We will catch him,” I said as I ran after her.
“You do what you can, but I’m going to do what I can, too.”
“Deal.”
I hurried back over to my attorney’s office to meet with the guys and fill them in on everything. We really needed to come up with a plan to catch Carlos. I had a feeling he was already starting to suspect something was going on and would jet out of town at the first sign of real trouble.
We had him where we wanted him. So far, Carlos had to feel like he had the upper hand. His plan was working. Rose had come to me with the papers; Del had been afraid to talk to me because she thought I was a criminal. Now, it was just a matter of figuring out how to get the solid proof of what he was doin
g.
If we were going to catch him red handed, there couldn’t be a question about his motive. I wasn’t about to do all this work just to have him tell the police that he really did find that legal document and I really owed Rose the money. We needed the proof that he’d broken into the online system with Dating the Rich, the proof he had frozen my accounts, and the proof he’d been breaking into my house looking for something.
“So how are we going to get the proof we need?” I asked everyone when I arrived back at Dick’s.
“I think you need to use Del and Rose,” Josh said.
“Hell, no! Why would I use them?”
“He trusts Rose and he thinks Del is angry with you and believes you are a criminal. You can use those relationships to get him to confess.”
“I don’t see how? And, I’m not putting the two most important women in my life in danger.”
“They are already in danger, Brandon,” Billy said flatly. “Rose has the man in her home, and Carlos knows how much Del means to you. He went after your relationship with Del because he knew it would hurt the most. Don’t fool yourself – she’s already in danger.”
His words hit me like ice water as the realization of what he was saying washed over me. I’d left Del at her house without any security. What if Carlos found out we were getting close to figuring everything out? He certainly was going to use Del to force my hand, I just knew it.
“I’ve got to go find Del.”
“No, we need to make a plan. You can use her to contact Carlos and say she has more information. She’s your best asset in possibly taking him down.”
“I won’t put her in danger!”
“Let’s call her and talk about it calmly. She’s an adult. Let her decide for herself if she’d like to be involved or not. You want to catch this guy, don’t you? You don’t want him running off with all your money?”
“Of course, I want to catch him.”
“Then, call Delilah and let’s figure this out.”
Chapter 21
Delilah
“I’m helping, that’s all there is to it. I’ll be right down.”
