“Yes, this has been a very big misunderstanding. I never intended for any of this to happen. I don’t know how much Yvonne told you, but—” Marcus cut him off.
“I’m just the delivery boy.”
“When she didn’t come see me, I simply had to take steps to recover the items. It was easy to track her movements and it was obvious that she was heading for Atlanta. Unfortunately, I underestimated her abilities.”
“Right.”
“May I see the items?”
“Excuse me for a minute.”
Marcus went into the bathroom and returned with the bag. He handed it to Paris.
“Here you go.”
Marcus stood over Paris and watched as he opened the bag and looked over its contents. Once he had satisfied himself that the items were intact, Paris got up and walked toward the door.
“Please tell Yvonne that I meant her no harm.”
“She’ll find that very comforting.”
As soon as they were outside, Yvonne drove up quickly and to Marcus’ surprise, she fired one shot to Paris’ head. Paris fell to the ground. Marcus started to pick up the bag.
“Leave the bag!” Yvonne yelled.
Marcus ran to the car. Once he was in, Yvonne drove away.
“Why did you kill him? It was over. All he wanted was his shit back.”
“How naïve are you, Marcus? As long as Paris was alive it would never be over. Can’t you see that? He would just keep sending people to kill us.”
“Why’d we leave the bag?”
“I’m glad to be rid of it. Let the cops worry about what those papers mean.” Yvonne and Marcus drove back to Santa Barbara. They caught a flight back to San Francisco and bought tickets to Seattle. Yvonne knew someone there who could get them new passports; and would help her get out of the country. They sat at the gate waiting for their plane to begin boarding.
“You know it was the right thing to do, Marcus.”
“I know. But you could have told me what you were going to do.”
“If I told you, would you have gone along with it?”
“No.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell you.” Yvonne said with a smile. “Tomorrow we’ll be safely out of the country. And I’ll spend the rest of my life in your arms.”
“You still could have told me.” Marcus kissed Yvonne on the cheek. “I’m going to get some water.” Marcus walked away. Yvonne watched him walk until a lady walked up and stood before her.
“Is anybody sitting there?”
“No, have a seat.”
The lady sat down, slowly removing a .38 with a silencer from her purse. Yvonne looked at her and the lady shot her five times. The lady got up and walked away as Marcus returned. Yvonne struggled to her feet.
“Marcus.” He caught her as she fell. Marcus looked around for the lady, but by then she had disappeared into the crowd. He held Yvonne in his arms and thought, There is only one way out of the kind of life Yvonne was living.
She died in his arms.