by Claire Adams
“I’m at home. I’m ready. I’ll call you when I see him.”
“Be careful.”
“I can handle it.”
It was nearly three hours before we heard back from Rose and we were all freaking out. Delilah had come to Dick’s office to wait with the rest of us as we sat hoping for Rose to call us back.
“He said he found information that you’ve lied and have a lot more money than you said. He told me to come to you and threaten you so you’d sign the papers. What do you want me to do?”
We were ready for this. This was what we hoped would happen, but Carlos wasn’t going to be ready for what we had coming. He was about to go down.
“Call me with him in the room.”
“Okay,” Rose replied without questioning the plan. “I’ll call you back.”
It was about fifteen minutes before Rose called back and I answered. The plan was going exactly as we had hoped. Well, except for Carlos going to Del’s office – but other than that, we were on track and I felt like Carlos was putty in our hands.
“Hey, Brandon, I really need you to sign this form,” Rose said firmly. “We were together for a long time and you know that you can’t lie and trick me like this,” she started to cry.
“Okay, I’ll come over and sign it, you know I hate it when you cry. I didn’t mean to trick you, I must have forgotten,” I said as if Carlos could hear our conversation.
There was no way of knowing if he could hear it or not and I didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize Rose’s safety.
“Great, I’ll be waiting.”
We hung up the phone and turned to the next step in our plan. I needed to get wired up so I could record what was about to happen. Billy had everything we needed and together with Josh, they taped the wire to my chest.
“This is going to hurt like a bitch when you pull it off,” Josh joked.
“Yeah, if I don’t sweat it off first.”
“I’m coming with you,” Delilah said as I got buttoned up and was about to head out the door.
“Um, the hell you are. I’m not putting you in that kind of situation.”
“Hear me out. I think you could drag me with you and get angry with Carlos. Tell him you knew he was asking questions about him and you weren’t going to stand for it. He’s not going to back down. He’ll come out with his blackmail right then and there. It’s the perfect opportunity for him to say he will unfreeze your accounts if you just sign the paperwork.”
“Or he’ll shoot all three of us.”
“He’s not going to shoot you. Carlos is a money guy. If he thinks he’s winning, he’s going to take the money and run.”
“She has a good point. Otherwise, if you just show up there, he’s got no reason to come out with his plan. If he sees Delilah by your side, he’s going to freak out. He’ll have to admit to the blackmail.”
“Josh, you’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I am on your side, and I think Delilah’s right. We could be stuck in the back and forth with him for weeks if you just go over there and sign the form. No, I like her plan better.”
I had to admit the part of my plan that I had been most worried about was getting Carlos to confess on the tape. If I had Delilah with me, it would freak him out enough that he would put up his biggest offense. He wouldn’t have the time to get his brother there, and left alone with me and the ladies, he was going to try his hardest to keep his secret and still get the money out of me.
“Fine, but I don’t like it,” I grumped as Del and I headed to my vehicle.
“You know I’m a big girl, and I know what I’m doing?”
“Delilah, you’re a mother, and I would hate myself forever if I was part in anything bad happening to you. Please promise me that you will leave if things get dangerous. No matter what. No matter what sort of threat is against my life or Rose; you get out of there if you can.”
She looked reluctant to agree to any such promise, but I had to hear her say she would protect herself. I didn’t think Carlos was going to get violent, but I just had no idea what he would do when things started to get out of control.
“Fine, I agree. But I want the record to note it was a very disgruntled agreement,” she laughed.
“Your record is dually noted.”
“I’m nervous. The second he sees me, he’s going to know something is up.”
“Yes, he will. Stay behind me and play it off the best you can for the time being. We want him to be the one to crack first. Just pretend like I’ve brought you there against your will.”
“Okay.”
We walked up to Rose’s door and I knocked firmly. I had to pretend like I was angry, which wasn’t going to be very hard to do because I actually was pretty damn pissed at all the trouble Carlos had caused and the heartache he brought Rose.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I screamed at Carlos as I pushed past Rose. “You went to my girlfriend’s work and pretended to work for the government?”
I pushed Carlos into the corner and pulled my hand back as if I was going to hit him.
“Brandon, stop it! Carlos didn’t do any such thing. He’s just trying to protect me, and you were trying to trick me out of my share of the money.”
“Rose, you don’t even know what you’re dealing with here. Why don’t you stay out of it?”
“Don’t talk to my woman like that,” Carlos said as he pushed back at me. “You’re the criminal here. You’re the one illegally trading, and I will turn you in.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as I did my best to pretend to be a little afraid of him. “I’m not doing anything illegal.”
“Oh, so it’s legal for you to buy up stock in a company before it goes public when you actually own the company?”
“What? How do you know?” I asked in what had to of been the worst acting known to man.
“I think you should sign that document that Rose has. Do it and I won’t turn you into the police,” Carlos said as he seemed to gain some confidence in his situation.
“It won’t matter what I sign. My bank accounts are frozen. The government is already investigating me and they will take my money before I could even gift it to Rose.”
We had him exactly where we wanted him. He actually wasn’t as smart as I thought he was since he appeared to believe everything we were saying.
“I might be able to help you with the frozen accounts. You know I work with the federal government. For Rose, I will make this go away if you sign over the ten percent to the company.”
“See, he’s a stand-up guy, unlike you!” Rose said very convincingly.
“So, you know who froze my accounts?”
“I can’t discuss my job, but I have some information. I could get the accounts unfrozen if you signed over those assets.”
We had him. We had him on tape saying what we needed, but I just wanted a little more evidence to ensure he would go to jail. Solid proof was what I liked to have.
“There was a guy who showed up at my house and threatened me. Do you know who he is? He said he worked for the SEC.”
Carlos seemed to be contemplating what he should answer. All the lies had probably gotten confused in his head, and he didn’t know what would help him get the money or not.
“I know him, yeah. I work with him.”
“He’s not going to hurt me or anything, is he? Because he threatened me.”
“No, sign the papers and he won’t. I’ll even call him and have him come over. We can make sure he understands the agreement.”
Both Rose and Delilah looked at me in terror as Carlos dialed his brother up on the phone. If things went bad with Carlos, there was a chance I could handle him, but if they went bad with Antonio, I wasn’t going to win that battle.
“It’s okay,” I whispered to Del. “Remember what you promised me.”
“Yes.”
“It’s nice to see you’re so willing to stay with a cheat and a liar,
” Carlos said boldly to Delilah from the other side of the room. “Rose is so much smarter; she realized his lying, cheating ways and got rid of him. Maybe someday you will, too.”
“You are a liar,” Delilah yelled. “You don’t work for the SEC. He told me he works for the SEC, Rose. Is that what he told you?”
“Stop! What are you doing?” I whispered with my back toward Carlos.
“Carlos, what is she talking about?”
“You know, babe, I was just trying to get the details so we could get your ex to do what he was supposed to do. I couldn’t let him cheat you any longer.”
“So, you don’t work for them?” Delilah asked.
“No, I don’t. I work for another organization.”
“Rose, do you really want to believe a man who would lie to you like that? He doesn’t work for the government. Come on, he’s some sort of scam artist.”
“Delilah, what are you doing?”
“Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rose said as she moved closer to Delilah. “You’re just a cheap substitute for me!”
“Bring it on, little girl,” Delilah said as she grabbed at Rose and appeared to say something to her quietly that I couldn’t hear.
The two women wrestled around on the ground for a minute while Carlos and I just watched. It wasn’t in our plan, and I had no idea what was going on. But it appeared that Delilah wanted to tell Rose something.
“He’s here. We will get this all straightened out,” Carlos said. “You are going to sign that paperwork, right?”
“Yeah, I’m signing it.”
I had no problem signing the document. It didn’t give Carlos the money; it actually gave the money to Rose. He had just bet his whole plan on the fact that Rose and him would be married, and if the plan went wrong, it would look like she was the one who had lied and cheated.
As Antonio entered the house, I felt my confidence in the situation dwindling. Things weren’t going as planned, and I was alone there with Rose and Delilah.
“You’re his brother?” Delilah exclaimed very convincingly.
“Yeah, he was helping me with the investigation. You know this guy is bad news. You should stay away from him,” Carlos said in regards to me.
“I think we better go, Delilah. You’re going to unfreeze my bank accounts now, and this guy isn’t going to kill me, right?”
“Antonio, do you think we have everything we need now?” Carlos asked. “Can you go in and give him access to his money again?”
“I don’t know. It’s going to be a few weeks before I can get that worked out. Maybe if he offered a little extra for our efforts, I could work it out. Or I could take it out on him, if you’d like.”
“You don’t work for the government, do you?” I asked as I pretended to come to the realization.
“We don’t work for the government, bro,” Antonio said as he cracked his fingers. “But we are really good at getting what we want.”
“This document here is binding and once the money is transferred to Rose, she’s going to make sure I’m taken care of before I leave town. It’s a simple transaction and no one is going to get hurt.”
“Rose, come over here,” I said firmly as I saw the look in Antonio’s eyes.
I reached for Rose, but Carlos was closer and pushed her toward Antonio before I could grab her. We were screwed.
“I’m going to keep her so I have my insurance that I’ll get the money. It should only take a week or so, and I’ll treat her real nice,” Antonio said as his hand caressed Rose’s cheek.
“Brandon,” she cried out as his arm held on tight around her.
Delilah grabbed my hand and held me back from attacking the two men. I was definitely out muscled and didn’t know what I would have done, but I couldn’t let them threaten Rose like that.
“The police are outside,” Delilah whispered in my ear. “Don’t turn around. We need to get her free, though.”
“Shut up!” I screamed at Delilah. “Why don’t you two take this one, too? She’s a little mouthy and I’m tired of dealing with her.”
The shock on Delilah’s face only lasted a moment before I saw a flash of understanding in her eyes.
“I’m tired of all of this. I don’t want anything to do with any of you. I’m leaving,” she announced as she headed toward the door.
“Oh no, you’re not, little lady,” Carlos said and pulled her back. “I’d like to keep you around. Remember that little party the two of us were going to have?”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but Delilah seemed to have a plan. She got herself situated next to Rose, but Carlos and Antonio were on either side of them. I didn’t have a gun – I didn’t have any way of actually rescuing them and it felt totally helpless.
“Look at this mess you got me into,” Rose yelled and slapped Delilah.
“Me? You’re the one who has all these loser guys around. How about having a little self-confidence?”
Before I knew what was going on, the two women were at it again and rolling around on the ground arguing. Now the three of us men were watching as the girls argued and grabbed at each other.
They had done an excellent job of distracting Carlos and Antonio because before I knew what was happening, the front door had been kicked in and the living room was filled with police. The officers were yelling at everyone.
I looked over and saw Del and Rose hiding together on the floor. Carlos and Antonio seemed reluctant to follow the officers’ orders, but finally obliged because the officers had their guns drawn.
If Delilah and Rose hadn’t been on the floor, they certainly would have been used as human shields by Carlos and Antonio. But they were out of reach and the men had no choice except to put their hands up. Well, they had a choice: they could have drawn their guns and gotten their butts shot by the police officers, but that seemed like a bad idea, even for a couple of meatheads.
The whole scene was rather anti-climatic as the police put cuffs on the two men and hauled them out to their cruisers. Outside, we saw Billy, Dick, and Josh all waiting as the girls and I walked out to great them.
“Sorry for punching you,” Rose said to Delilah.
“No, it was great. Definitely believable.”
“You know, you two had me scared to death,” I told them as we walked toward the guys.
“You should have seen your face when we were rolling around on the ground. Man, that was funny. Did you see them?” Delilah asked.
“Oh, so predictable. They were all standing around with their tongues out like we were going to strip naked or something like that.”
“Can’t leave men to do a woman’s job,” Delilah laughed as the two of them hugged. “It was nice meeting you. Maybe we could hang out sometime when we aren’t punching each other in the face.”
“I don’t know how Brandon would feel about that.”
“Hey, I’m all for you two being friends. And, you can fight naked anytime you want,” I joked.
“What? Wait, was there naked girl fighting and I missed it?” Josh joined in the conversation.
“No, Josh, but I think you could convince Mattie to have a naked fight with you if you’re nice to her,” Delilah teased.
“Mr. Baker, Billy here says you have some evidence about this case? I’m Officer Michaels.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ve got this all recorded right here,” I said as I unbuttoned my shirt and exposed the wire that was taped to my chest. “It might take me a minute to get it off….”
“Oh, I’ve got it,” Rose said as she leaned over and ripped the wire right off my chest.
“Hell! Shit! Damn it!” I screamed.
The pain shot through my body as about half of the hair from my chest was pulled off with the tape from the wire. I saw the smile of contentment on Rose’s face, though, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She had probably been waiting a really long time to cause me to scream like that.
“Just trying to make things go a little more quickly,”
she smiled. “You know you deserved that, right?”
“Yep,” I said through the pain.
“Thank you, though,” she said as she hugged me. “I’m very grateful we found out who that guy was before I married him. I know things didn’t go all that great between us, but we will always be friends.”
“Rose, I’m sorry for how things ended. I truly am, and I wish it could have been different.”
“I think things turned out all right. Thanks again.”
“So are we friends now?” I asked.
“Always.”
Chapter 23
Delilah
“That looked like it hurt really bad,” I said to Brandon as we stood outside and wrapped up everything the police needed from us.
“It did. I’m going to need a massage to feel better.”
“Oh, you think so?”
“Yep.”
The police took longer than we thought they was going to take and I ended up having to call Mary and Steve to tell them I wouldn’t be able to pick up Connor on time. Of course, I wasn’t about to go into all the details of what had happened that day. But they were understanding and promised to take him to school the next day for me.
“Man, I’m really lucky to have them,” I said to Brandon as we waited.
“So, does this mean you have the evening free?” His eyes lit up.
“Don’t go getting any ideas, mister. I’m exhausted, and you look like you are, too. I think I’ll just head home when they are done with me.”
“You’re right, I should head home, too. I mean, I am so tired and if you’re not going to be giving me an awesome massage, what else could I possibly do with my evening?”
His boyish grin was all it took for me to change my plans. I didn’t really want to go home to an empty house. I wanted to stay right there with Brandon. I wanted to feel his arms on my body again and his lips on my lips.
I didn’t feel the same fear I had had before about being in a real relationship. Instead, I had an urge to have that with Brandon. I’d seen what he was capable of. I’d seen the love and caring that he could show and it was obviously that I needed to keep him in my life.
