In Your Arms

“Broke? What do you mean broke? The way I had you set up; you should have been able to live comfortably.”

“It’s a long story, Marcus.”

“We seem to have plenty of time. We’re not going anywhere.”

Yvonne and Marcus lay on the bed quietly for the next two hours, sharing cigarettes, drinking and thinking. Marcus thought about how the events of the day would affect him. He was now an accessory to murder. Not only was he going to jail, but also he would be disbarred. In two days, he had lost his wife, his career, and his freedom. He looked at Yvonne, eyes closed, smoking the cigarette he had just handed her.

She opened her eyes and noticed him staring at her. She handed him the cigarette and closed her eyes. Marcus desperately wanted to know what was going on. Not only to satisfy his curiosity, but also to begin planning their defense. If those men were actually trying to kill her, then their deaths were, in reality, self-defense. But Yvonne had shut down.

Yvonne, for her part, had just a bit more on her plate. Things were pretty cut and dry for Marcus, but her world was much more complicated. She felt badly for involving Marcus in her mess, but what’s done is done. There was no turning back now, but he was entitled to an explanation.

“When I left here, Marcus, I was set. I was twenty-one, rolling a Benz, nice little condo in Northridge, and more money than I ever dreamed possible. And thanks to you, it just kept rolling in. I was getting dividend checks just about every week from companies I’d never heard of. I just knew it would never run out. I was spending money buying whatever I thought I wanted … clothes mostly. Bought a house for Mama and sent my whole family money. And traveling. I loved to travel. I had never been anywhere, never seen anything. My eyes had opened up to a whole new world, and it was mine to command. I went everywhere, did everything I wanted. Even took my newfound fake friends on a cruise. All expenses paid by me, of course. I was a fool, a foolish young girl with money. I remember my papa telling me that a fool and his money are soon parted. Well, that’s exactly what happened to me. I remember going to New York one day with this guy I met the night before. We had dinner at a French restaurant. After we left, we caught a cab to go back to the hotel and we were talking about how the food wasn’t that good and how the service was poor. He said, ‘Too bad we can’t have dinner in France.’ I told the cab driver to take us to the airport. Next day we were in France having late supper with a view of the tower.”

“You were out the box, Yvonne.”

“A fool. A damn fool. After awhile I found that I was running out of money. The checks were still coming, but that wasn’t enough.”

“You could have changed your lifestyle.”

“Marcus, that would have been too much like right. I had met this guy named Paris. He’s the type who’s into everything, knows everybody. You know the type. Anyway, we were hanging out and I was telling him about my money problems, and he asked me if I would do some work for him as a courier. I told him no, so he introduced me to Tom Mack.”

“The lawyer you gave power of attorney to.”

“The same. He told me that if I let him make some investments for me that I would be set for life. I would be able to quadruple my money in less than a month. So, I gave him fifty thousand dollars. Three weeks later he wrote me out a check for two hundred thousand dollars.”

“You want me to tell you what happened next?”

“Okay, go ahead.”

“Old Tom Mack tells you that you could have the check, or you could reinvest it, and since the market conditions are right, you could make half a million dollars.”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

Marcus smiled. “Old scam.”

“Yeah, well the fool fell for it. Two weeks later he called me and said that we were close to flipping that money, but he was on to something else that had the potential to be far more lucrative. I told him that I was just about broke, and that fifty I gave him was really all I had to invest. When I told him that—” Yvonne laughed. “I’ll never forget that conversation, Marcus. It changed my life.”

Tom Mack said, “Well, Yvonne, in another week you’ll have half a million dollars. But I hate for you to miss out on this.”

“I do too, Tom, but there’s nothing I can do until I get some more money.”

“Well maybe there is.”

“What’s that?” Yvonne said greedily.

“Paris mentioned to me that you had some investments that were providing you with a nice dividend income.”

“Go on.”

“If I had control of those investments I might be able to leverage those gains on this new deal and make it happen.”

“What would you need?”

“Who controls those accounts for you?”

“My lawyer, Marcus Douglas in Atlanta.”

“I would need you to fire him and give me power of attorney.”