I hurried back over to my attorney’s office to meet with the guys and fill them in on everything. We really needed to come up with a plan to catch Carlos. I had a feeling he was already starting to suspect something was going on and would jet out of town at the first sign of real trouble.
We had him where we wanted him. So far, Carlos had to feel like he had the upper hand. His plan was working. Rose had come to me with the papers; Del had been afraid to talk to me because she thought I was a criminal. Now, it was just a matter of figuring out how to get the solid proof of what he was doing.
If we were going to catch him red-handed, there couldn’t be a question about his motive. I wasn’t about to do all this work just to have him tell the police that he really did find that legal document and I really owed Rose the money. We needed the proof that he’d broken into the online system with Dating the Rich, the proof he had frozen my accounts, and the proof he’d been breaking into my house looking for something.
“So how are we going to get the proof we need?” I asked everyone when I arrived back at Dick’s.
“I think you need to use Del and Rose,” Josh said.
“Hell, no! Why would I use them?”
“He trusts Rose and he thinks Del is angry with you and believes you are a criminal. You can use those relationships to get him to confess.”
“I don’t see how? And, I’m not putting the two most important women in my life in danger.”
“They are already in danger, Brandon,” Billy said flatly. “Rose has the man in her home, and Carlos knows how much Del means to you. He went after your relationship with Del because he knew it would hurt the most. Don’t fool yourself – she’s already in danger.”
His words hit me like ice water as the realization of what he was saying washed over me. I’d left Del at her house without any security. What if Carlos found out we were getting close to figuring everything out? He certainly was going to use Del to force my hand, I just knew it.
“I’ve got to go find Del.”
“No, we need to make a plan. You can use her to contact Carlos and say she has more information. She’s your best asset in possibly taking him down.”
“I won’t put her in danger!”
“Let’s call her and talk about it calmly. She’s an adult. Let her decide for herself if she’d like to be involved or not. You want to catch this guy, don’t you? You don’t want him running off with all your money, right?”
“Of course, I want to catch him.”
“Then, call Delilah and let’s figure this out.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Delilah
“I’m helping, that’s all there is to it. I’ll be right down.”
Brandon didn’t sound all that happy to be asking for my help in dealing with Carlos, but I was more than happy to have something to do that was useful. I felt horrible about my role in giving Carlos and his brother access to Brandon’s credit card information. This was my opportunity to fix things, or at least help out a little.
When I thought about Antonio and the pure size of his arms, I knew he and Carlos were capable of hurting me, Brandon, and anyone else. I liked the plan the guys had come up with and was pretty confident it was going to work. The biggest thing was that we needed to make sure Carlos didn’t get a whiff of what we were doing. If he got spooked, then he was going to freak out and none of us knew how that would turn out.
I arrived at the lawyer’s office and found it filled with everyone who was involved. Brandon took the time to introduce us all and I got to meet Rose face-to-face again, but this time things were a lot different.
“And, this is Rose; you two met the other day. Rose, this is my girlfriend, Delilah,” Brandon introduced me.
Instead of simply being his friend, I had now been introduced as his girlfriend. It felt like the right introduction, and I couldn’t wait for this mess to be figured out so we could get back to our boring dating life. I wasn’t meant for all this excitement. The danger and adrenaline had me literally shaking as I sat at the table with everyone and we went over the plan.
“It’s nice to have everyone here. I did call the Los Angeles Police to see if we could involve them, but it doesn’t look like we will be getting their help very quickly – apparently, they are very under-staffed and this isn’t a murder. So, for the time being, it’s just this rowdy group,” Billy said. “I’ve worked with Brandon and we have given a basic timetable of what’s going to happen and who needs to do each task. Let’s look it over and see where there are holes and what areas we might need to change.”
“Thank you all for your help. I know this is scary and dangerous, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you all sticking in here with me,” Brandon said sincerely.
We spent the whole morning going through the plan over and over. The guys didn’t seem to trust that Rose and I knew our parts, but we did. I even found myself rolling my eyes with Rose when they asked if we needed them to go over our parts one more time.
“We got it, guys!” she snapped at them. “Now, I need to get home before Carlos gets suspicious. I’ll be ready tomorrow when it’s my time. I promise.”
“I’ve got my part, too. I’ll call Carlos right at nine in the morning from my office. This is going to work. We got our parts,” I said as I grabbed Rose by the hand. “You men just make sure and get what you need so it can all be over.”
By the next morning, I was sitting at my desk and going over the plan again and again in my head. As much as I’d tried to be confident in front of the guys, I was still really nervous and wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull it off.