“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.”
“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.”