The Conglomerate: A Luxorious Tale (7 page)

• The front door of the house flew open and Mars
  hawn ran out yelling.
  
• “Tiff,” the alias that he knew Evan by.
  

              Evan got out the car, “I was just about to leave. I’ve been out here ringing the bell for ten minutes.”

             
“I’m sorry about that,” he told her. “My alarm shorted out today and the doorbell is connected to it. The alarm company can’t straighten it out until tomorrow.”

             
“Oh I thought you were playing games.
”



             
“Not at all. You wanna get something to eat?”

             
“I ate with my parents before they flew back to Cali.” Just as Evan’s other aliases, Tiff came complete with a background. This time she was a student at Georgia Tech that came from a wealthy California family.

             
“What about a movie and drinks?”

             
“Sure,” Evan replied and followed him into his home theater.

             
The room was like a mini theater equipped with an authentic popcorn maker and a wet bar.”

             
Wounds?”

             
“You wanna watch Ali, Baby Boy, or Exit?”

             
“Bootlegs?” Evan shrieked. “I don’t do bootlegs sweetheart. None of those movies you named are out on DVD.”

             
“I got guap ma, so I get my shit when Regal and AMC get theirs.
”

What a cornball
, Evan thought. “I want to see Baby boy,”

             
“Good choice. Fix yourself a drink while I put the movie on.”

             
“I need to run out to my car and get my purse.
”



             
“Go ahead, I won’t start the movie until you come back.”

             
Evan moved briskly out to her car. She got her bag then placed a quick call to Gage. “The door is open.” Was all that she said and went back into the house.

Not twenty minutes into the movie, Marshawn was all over Evan. He was smothering her with wet kisses while his hands explored her body. Marshawn knew all the right places to touch. Evan tried hard not to get lost in pleas
ure, but he was making it hard; especially when he dropped to his knees, pulled her ass to the end of the chair, and spread her legs apart. Using his tongue, he pushed her thong to the side and sucked on her swollen clitoris. He then slid two fingers inside of her. Marshawn moved them in and out while tracing her clitoris with the tip of his tongue.

             
“Oh God,” Evan screamed out in pleasure closing her eyes and tossing her head back. Gage’s blood boiled as he stood in the door watching them. Enraged he ran over and backhanded Marshawn with a closed fist dazing him. Gage yanked Evan by the hair and flung her across the room like a rag doll. Marshawn stood and lunged at Gage. Gage shot him twice, once in the right shoulder and once in the left thigh. Marshawn fell backwards and landed awkwardly across the theater chairs. He was conscious, in pain, and unable to move.

             
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Evan screamed at Gage as she rose from the ground in a great deal of pain.

             
“Why would you throw me down like that?”

             
“Be glad I didn’t put a bullet in your ass for letting a nigga eat your pussy.”

             
“He went down on me! What was I supposed to do?”

             
“Hold him the fuck off until I come in, not lay back like a slut.”

             
“I give the fuck up,” Evan shouted. “I’m done with this shit and I’m done with you. That shit you keep putting up your nose is turning you into a paranoid idiot.”

             
Gage rushed at Evan, wrapped his hand around her neck, and slammed her against the wall. “Ain’t nothing over and done until I say it.” he squeezed her throat. “Do you understand me bitch?” Evan nodded as much as she could with his hand around her throat. With a hard thrust, Gage released Evan. “Go round that paper up so we can get the hell outta here.”

Holding her neck Evan limped away her entire body aching terribly.
Gage is out his damn mind if he thinks we gone be together. I’m getting away from his ass by any means.
Evan went up to the second floor study where she believed Marshawn kept his money.

             
Evan rummaged through the massive wooden desk in study. In one drawer, she came across a chrome P-90 Ruger and a set of small keys. Evan zoned in on the custom-built entertainment wall. There were four ceiling to floor bookshelves along that wall. At the bottom of each bookshelf were two wide and deep drawers with built in locks. The keys look like they would be a perfect fit. Evan picked up the keys and went over to the wall. The first key she tried worked. This was no surprise to her. Over the four years that she’d been doing stick-ups, Evan had come across so many men who kept keys to safe or lock boxes in the same room. She never understood the logic in that. Evan opened the drawer. Inside were five medium cardboard file boxes. She lifted the lid off a box. There were at least twenty different stacks of tightly banded one-hundred dollar bills. Evan picked up a few of the stacks and thumbed through them. Each of the stacks appeared to contain a hundred one hundred-dollar bills. If each stack had amounted to ten-thousand dollars that box alone had two hundred thousand dollars in it.

             
Evan looked in the other four boxes they all were identical to the first box she opened. After opening the other seven drawers and finding the same setup, she knew that they’d hit the jackpot. If the numbers were what she thought they were, there was between five and eight million dollars in that room; enough money to keep her straight for a long time. Standing in front of all that money, she tried to think of a way to get half of it out without Gage knowing. He was under the assumption that there would only be like five-hundred- thousand dollars there.

             
I could take three boxes down and double back later. That’s too risky,
Evan told herself. “What the fuck is taking you so long?” Gage roared from downstairs.

Evan hated the sound of his voice. She hated him. And here she stood with two issues both involving Gage. Evan didn’t want to share that money with him nor did she want to be with him.

              Over the last year, he had become a compulsive gambler and cocaine addict. The more money he lost gambling the more cocaine he did and the more aggressive he became towards her.

             
“Bitch,” Gage yelled, “I know you hear me!”

             
Evan ran over to the desk, grabbed the gun, and began yelling. “Help me. Gage help please.” Although Marshawn was severely injured, Gage bounded his arms to the chair with a pair of flexi cuffs before going to rescue Evan. Following the sounds of Evan’s screams, Gage sprinted up the stairs. Evan stood very still with her back against the wall next to the door with the gun raised. When Gage crossed the threshold, Evan fired the gun three times shooting him once in the head and twice in the neck. His body slammed to the ground. Gage never knew what hit him.

             
Evan exhaled and stepped over Gage as if she never cared for him. In her mind, his murder was a necessary means to an end, because he would have never let her go.

Marshawn was barely conscious when Evan returned to theater room. His pain was too great to talk, but when he saw Evan approaching with gun in hand his eyes begged her for mercy.

              “I’m sorry,” Evan spoke, “but there is no doubt in my mind that if I let you live you will find me and kill me.” Grimacing in pain, he shook his head in disagreement.

Evan closed hers eyes and
shot him four times. When she opened her eyes there were four gaping holes in his chest. His eyes were wide open and blood poured from his mouth. She got her purse and ran back to the study.

             
As Evan tried to figure out how she was going to get the money out the house. She also had to figure out how she was going to get her Mercedes and Gage’s Navigator off the property. Both cars were registered to her. Evan looked down at her dress it was covered in blood splatter. After thinking for a few seconds she knew exactly who to call. She took out her phone made a call.

             
“Come on pick up-pick up.”

             
“Where in the hell are you Miss College Graduate?” Joey asked. “We’re ready to party!”

             
“I’m in trouble Jo.” Evan said somberly.

             
“What’s wrong Evan? What happened?”

             
“I need you and Cee to meet me. I need some jeans or sweats and a t-shirt.”

             
“I’ll bring some clothes,” Joey assured. “Where are you?
”

Evan gave her the directions to the house. As soon as she hung up, Evan got busy moving the file boxes to the first floor. It took close to twenty trips. Once she had all the boxes downstairs, she backed the navigator into one of the five empty garage spaces. Evan loaded the boxes into the rear of the truck. Just as she placed the last box in and closed the lift gate, Joey pulled up outside the garage and blew the horn tree times, as Evan had instructed her to.

             
Evan opened the garage slot next to Navigator and Joey pulled in. Joey barely had her feet out the car when she began to question Evan.

              “What the hell going on and whose house is this?”

             
“I’ll explain all that later. Did you bring the clothes?”

             
“Yes,” Joey replied. Cee exited the car with a bag of clothes in hand.

             
“Here,” she gave the bag to Evan.

             
Evan slipped off the dress and put on the jeans and shirt. “Gage is dead,” she announced nonchalantly.

Cee and Joey exchanged shocked looks. They didn’t know what shocked them more
the news of his death or Evan’s cavalier attitude. Joey placed her hands on Evan’s shoulders.

              “Wait a minute. Stop, stop, stop, what do you mean he’s dead? How did he die? and where is he at?”

             
“He got shot. He’s in the house”

             
“In this house!” Cee exclaimed.

             
“Yes.”

             
“Did you call for help?” Cee ran towards the door. “How do you know he’s dead?”

Evan caught Cee
by the arm and yanked her back. “Trust me he’s dead and he’s not the only one in there that’s dead. No, I didn’t call for help. This was a drug deal that went all the way left.” Evan handed Cee the keys to her Mercedes. “I need you to drive my car and stay in front of me.”

             
The talk of dead bodies and drug deals gone wrong scared the shit out of Cee. She snatched the keys from Evan. “Y’all get in them cars and let’s go. I’m not with none of this shit. I got two babies at home that need me,” Cee said. “I tell you what, by the time I get that car started y’all better be pulling out that garage or I’m out.” Cee ran out the garage to the car.

             
Staring silently at Evan, Joey thought about the conversation that she’d had with Zay six months earlier and wondered if this was really a robbery gone wrong.

             
Evan put her dress and shoes in the bag and gave it to Joey, “Put this in the car with you,” she turned to get in the Navigator.

             
“Un uh,” Joey said. “Not so fast,” she looked Evan in the eye, “you don’t have to do it tonight or tomorrow, but soon you will sit down and tell me everything that happened here. You owe me that because you called me here and I refuse to get caught up in something that I know nothing about.”