“You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?” he turned toward me.
There was one time in the sixth grade that a bully had started to pick on me because of the sports team I liked. I felt almost the same way as I did in that very moment as this big dude in a suit moved closer to me. I couldn’t think of a way out of the situation, and I didn’t want to think about how easily I would cry when he laid his hands on me.
“If you touch him, I’ll kill you,” Josh said with all the confidence of the nerd he was.
By that point, both Josh and I were visibly sweating, and it was pretty obvious we were scared to death. Neither of us were the fighting type. People loved me – I didn’t have to fight with anyone. People liked Josh, too; he was the funny guy everyone was friends with.
“I think you should leave,” I managed to say in a solid voice without quivering.
I would have fought him. No doubt about it, I would have thrown some pretty damn good punches and put up a fight. But I would have lost. Hell, both Josh and I together couldn’t have taken this guy; not to mention he looked like the type who was probably carrying a gun, as well.
“Kiss my ass,” the man said as he quickly turned and walked out the front door. “The next time I come here, I won’t be so forgiving.”
This was not happening. My hands turned clammy, and I tried to get a good look at the man’s license plate as he sped off, but I couldn’t. Nothing about the situation seemed right. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt fear like I did while he had been in my house.
If I was under investigation, they wouldn’t just come to my house with one guy. Any investigation would have required two interviewers; no federal agency would send just one. Plus, the pure size of the guy made it unlikely that he actually worked for the Securities Exchange Commission; they were filled with brainiacs and number crunchers. Of course, it was possible that he worked there, but my gut was saying something else was going on and I had to figure it out.
“Now, it’s time to call your lawyer.”
“I have no idea what’s going on here. Is this about me or about Antonio?” I mumbled as I talked to myself and tried to figure out what was happening. “It seemed like it was actually about me. But he didn’t work for the government. Was he casing the joint? Maybe going to rob me or something? Perhaps going to try and blackmail me? This is so strange.”
“Yeah, it’s strange and dangerous. Brandon, you’re a billionaire. People come after men like you because they want money. Any number of things could be going on here. We need to get your lawyer involved, and we probably need to call the police.”
Josh was right about getting my lawyer involved. I had to make sure there wasn’t a real investigation, and I needed some help in figuring out who this guy was and why he was after me. I tried to lead a legitimate life and couldn’t think of anyone that I had pissed off so bad that they would have sent that beast to my house.
“No, no police. What if I actually did something and I am being investigated? I think we should deal with my lawyer first and then wait and see what your private investigator has to say.”
“Do you really think that guy works for the Securities Exchange Commission? Because if he works there, then I’m actually Brad Pitt.”
“Yeah, you look nothing like Brad.”
“That dude was scary looking. Did you see the size of his neck?” I asked.
“Yeah, Josh, I saw it and the size of his giant hands. I don’t want anything to do with that dude and it’s freaking me out. So, this isn’t a securities investigation?”
“I mean, I can’t say so one hundred percent, but it’s looking more like you have something much worse.”
“It’s funny how yesterday the worst thing I could imagine was all my bank accounts getting fro
zen. Now, I clearly see there are much worse things that could be going on.”
Life had a way of putting things into perspective for you. I had learned that lesson the hard way over the years, but it was true. There was always someone else who had it worse that you did. Always something worse that could happen to you.
After losing my son, I did my best to look at the positives in every situation. It didn’t always work that way, but I was getting better at seeing the goodness in the world.
In this particular situation, it was baffling me why this guy had come to my house and purposely tried to scare us to death. I tried not to think the worse of the guy, though. Maybe he really did work for some agency? But more than likely he was some guy or a friend of someone that I had pissed off somehow. I racked my brain to think of anyone I could have made angry enough to send a guy like him after me. There wasn’t a single person that came to mind.
“Dude, you really pissed someone off.”
The problem was, I had no idea what I could have done. As I scrolled through the people in my past, none of them struck me as people who would want to set something like this up. This guy, or his co-workers, had actually been following me. He was calling my date names and trying to work me up. It seemed personal to me.
“What if he wasn’t talking about Delilah?” I muttered. “What if he was talking about a different girl I brought home?”
“The prostitute comment?”
“Yeah, Delilah didn’t come back here. I guess they could have been following me when I went to meet her, but damn… I have no idea.”
“Here’s what we are going to do, Brandon. First, you’re going to call your lawyer and tell him what’s going on. Second, get your damn alarm system fixed. It’s been broken for a month. You could have any number of horrible things happen to you and no one would be notified. You spend thousands for the system; get them out here to fix it.”