“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 asked.
“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.”