I arrived at the lawyer’s office and found it filled with everyone who was involved. Brandon took the time to introduce us all and I got to meet Rose face-to-face again, but this time things were a lot different.
“And, this is Rose; you two met the other day. Rose, this is my girlfriend, Delilah,” Brandon introduced me.
Instead of simply being his friend, I had now been introduced as his girlfriend. It felt like the right introduction, and I couldn’t wait for this mess to be figured out so we could get back to our boring dating life. I wasn’t meant for all this excitement. The danger and adrenaline had me literally shaking as I sat at the table with everyone and we went over the plan.
“It’s nice to have everyone here. I did call the Los Angeles Police to see if we could involve them, but it doesn’t look like we will be getting their help very quickly – apparently, they are very under-staffed and this isn’t a murder. So, for the time being, it’s just this rowdy group,” Billy said. “I’ve worked with Brandon and we have given a basic timetable of what’s going to happen and who needs to do each task. Let’s look it over and see where there are holes and what areas we might need to change.”
“Thank you all for your help. I know this is scary and dangerous, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you all sticking in here with me,” Brandon said sincerely.
We spent the whole morning going through the plan over and over. The guys didn’t seem to trust that Rose and I knew our parts, but we did. I even found myself rolling my eyes with Rose when they asked if we needed them to go over our parts one more time.
“We got it, guys!” she snapped at them. “Now, I need to get home before Carlos gets suspicious. I’ll be ready tomorrow when it’s my time. I promise.”
“I’ve got my part, too. I’ll call Carlos right at nine in the morning from my office. This is going to work. We got our parts,” I said as I grabbed Rose by the hand. “You men just make sure and get what you need so it can all be over.”
By the next morning, I was sitting at my desk and going over the plan again and again in my head. As much as I’d tried to be confident in front of the guys, I was still really nervous and wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull it off.
I liked to act, I had loved it in high school and college, but it was much scarier when the acting could result in you being murdered. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but with Carlos and Antonio’s history, we were rightfully a little worried.
“What’s wrong with you this morning?” Mattie asked as she hung up with a customer. “You look like shit.”
“Wow, I love you, too.”
“Seriously, are you sick? Maybe you should go home; I don’t want you getting me sick. You know I’m going out with that Josh guy at the end of the week. He was really funny and he’s not at all like Markus.”
“I’m not sick.”
Though, I really did feel pretty sick. The stress of thinking about what I needed to do and worrying about it all was really taking a toll on me. I couldn’t wait until my part of the whole thing was over. Only a few more minutes, and I’d be able to make my call. My job would be over and the next person would take over in our plan.
“You know, I think I stayed with Markus because I didn’t think there were other good guys out there. How weird is that? I actually thought he was a good guy, but after talking to Josh, I can see what a really good guy is and I just can’t believe I thought like that,” Mattie rambled on as I pretended to listen.
“You were so right about Markus. He was only in it for himself. He didn’t care about me and he certainly wasn’t going to stop flirting with women for me. I feel like I was blind and now I can see. I know that’s really a cheesy line, but I actually feel like that.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I said. “I’m glad you two are going out. I’m feeling all right; I’ll tough it out for a bit. I just didn’t sleep very well. I’m just going to try and get this work done before I decide if I’m going to head home early. I might need to get a little sleep.”
The truth was I hadn’t slept well since Saturday when I had Brandon at my house. The last couple of days, I’d been up worried that someone was going to break in and hurt Connor and me. Brandon had hired a security company to patrol my house and installed an alarm, but it just made me more nervous because I thought someone was breaking in at every noise that happened outside.
I watched the clock closely and when it hit nine, I hurried off to one of the empty conference rooms and called Carlos. My hand was shaking as I held the card he had given me in my hand and tried to remember everything I was supposed to tell him. This was it: it was my time to shine. I felt ready to give it my all and I knew just what I was going to say.
Once I finished telling Carlos my part of things, he was going to go to Rose and try to convince her he found a new legal paper. Or something like that; I wasn’t positive on the rest of the plan, only on what I was supposed to do.
“Hello, this is Delilah Hunter. You asked me about Brandon Baker the other day,” I said as I tried to control the fear in my voice.
My hands continued to shake, and I felt like I couldn’t get a full breath in as the nerves took a hold of me. I was really glad I could talk to Carlos on the phone and didn’t have to be right in front of him. It would have been impossible to convince him what I was saying was the truth if he could see just how nervous I was.
“Oh, yes. How can I help you?”
“Um, I remembered something about the stocks he was buying. I was watching the news and saw that TM Entertainment just went public. Brandon was buying a lot of shares of that; I think he might even own the company.”
“Oh, really? Well, that is totally illegal if he was doing that before the company went public. I’m going to come down to your office, so we can talk about it.”
“No, it’s okay. That’s all I know.”
I didn’t want Carlos coming to my office. The whole reason I’d agreed to help out was because I could do it over the phone instead of having to see him in person. He sounded very dangerous, and I certainly didn’t want to be in a room alone with him. I couldn’t let him come to my office.
“I’ll be there shortly and you can tell me what you know. I prefer to do my investigations and questioning in person. It’s easier to tell if someone is telling me the truth.”
Carlos hung up, and I started to freak out. We hadn’t planned on him coming to my office. I was simply supposed to make him think there was more money out there and that Brandon might have actually been committing fraud.