“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.