“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 toget
her 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,” Rose said.
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,” she said. “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 a part of 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.