The Conglomerate: A Luxorious Tale (5 page)

             
“They are so pretty,” she got up and hugged him. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to give me these.”

             
“I wanted to. Consider them a token of my appreciation for keeping me company. What time does your plane leave tomorrow?”

             
“At four forty-five in the afternoon.”

             
“I didn’t know you were leaving that late. That means we can hang out and hit a few spots tonight.”

             
“I want to stay in tonight,” she purred, rubbing his leg with her foot beneath the table.

             
“And do what?”

             
“I was thinking you could make some of that Texas Tea you turned me on to and I could model some of the lingerie you bought me from Vickie’s.”

             
“I’m with that! Aye,” he called out their waiter. “Let me get that check right now.”

              Carl Thomas’
Emotional
pumped out the surround speakers spread throughout Reza’s town-home. Wearing only a pair of basketball shorts, Reza held Evan firmly in his arm as they slow-dragged in living room. She was scantily clad in a purple sheer one-piece thong bodysuit. They both were feeling good and tipsy from the glasses of Texas Tea they’d consumed. Reza was all over Evan kissing and licking her mouth, ears, neck, and chest while rubbing her body.

             
Reza spoke softly in her ear, “Enough of this dancing, let’s go upstairs and lay down.”

             
“Okay,” she replied.

             
Holding Evan’s hand, Reza led her up to the bedroom.

             
“Damn it,” Evan hissed. “I left my glass downstairs.”

             
“I’ll go get it,” Reza said.

             
“No baby,” Evan placed her hands on his chest. “I can get it. You lie down and relax.”

             
Evan returned moments later and laid down next to Reza. He didn’t waste any time getting back to business. Reza massaged her breast while glazing her lips with his tongue. He slipped his hand between her legs feeling her wet warm middle through the thin sheer material.

All of a sudden, Reza felt a painful whack on the back of his head, then the cold muzzle of a gun against his temple.

              “Do not move. If you move one inch,” a gruff voice said. “I will put a bullet in your head.”

             
Gripping the back of his head in pain, Reza followed the gunman’s directions. Evan leapt out the bed. She yanked open the nightstand drawer and grabbed Reza’s nine millimeter pistol.
Whew,
thought Reza,
baby girl is on point
. Then he realized that Evan had the gun aimed at him.

             
“Put the gun on him,” Reza barked.

             
Evan stared at him blankly with a stoic face. Between the Texas Tea and the blow to the head it took a few extra seconds for him to process the situation.

             
“What’s up with you Mika?”

             
“You know what it is,” she said coldly.”

             
“Damn, bitch you sure had me falling for your grimy ass.”

             
The gunman struck Reza in the hand once more. “Shut the fuck up!” He tossed a pair flexi cuffs to Evan. “Restrain your pretty ass boyfriend then put some fucking clothes on.”

             
“He is not my boyfriend,” Evan snapped at the gunman, who was actually her boyfriend, Gage. Lately he was becoming difficult to deal with.

             
“Shit, you act like you feeling him. If I would’ve waited another minute his dick would have been inside of you.”

             
“Whatever,” she got the cuffs onto Reza and pulled them tight. Reza was scared, nervous, mad, and humiliated at the same time.

             
Evan threw on a black Juicy velour suit. She picked up a set of keys from Reza's dresser, and told Gage. “Bring him down the hall. We’re going to need him for the safe combination.”

             
“Okay, pretty boy,” Gage said. “Get up and don’t do nothing to make me blow your head off.”

             
Reza looked on helplessly as Evan unlocked the deadbolts on the door to his stash room. She went straight to the trunk that held the cocaine. By now, there were only ten kilos of cocaine in the trunk. Evan tossed them into a black leather duffle bag then moved over to the first safe.

             
“What’s the combination?” she asked Reza.

             
“Fuck you bitch.” he spat.

             
Gage hit Reza in the jaw with the gun. Blood gushed from his mouth as he crumpled to the floor.

             
“Tell her the fucking combination!” Gage ordered.

             
Reza spit out the thick blood that was filling his mouth. “Y’all better take those bricks and be happy ’cause I’m not telling you shit. I don’t care what you do to me.”

             
“Aight tough guy,” Gage laughed. “Will you care what I do when I drive over to 11457 Prescott Lane? You know that real nice mansion where your mama and your kids at.”

             
Reza cut his eyes at Evan. “You conniving bitch. You told him where my kids lived?” Gage kicked Reza in the side.

             
“Kids or the combination.”

             
Reluctantly, Reza said, “12 19 80 09.”

             
Evan punched the numbers on the electronic keypad. She raked the stacks of money into the duffle bag and moved over to the second safe. She simply looked at Reza with a raised brow. He didn’t say a word. Gage kicked him harder than the first time. Reza spit out the combination. Moving fast Evan cleared out safe number two, and then drug the heavy duffle bags out to the hallway. Gage bound Reza’s wrist to his ankles with another pair of flex cuffs.

             
When Evan walked back into the room, Reza glared at her hatefully. He could not believe that a chick that he really liked had played him so badly.

             
“When I catch you,” he said to Evan. “I’m going to kill you.”

             
Gage pulled his gun and aimed it at Reza’s head. Reza’s eyes widen as fear gripped his body. Evan pushed Gage’s arm down.

• “Why the hell did you do that?
  ”
  

  
• “
  Because you feeling this nigga just like I said.”
  
• “No, because of the rule, no killing unless it’s necessary.”
  

              Gage shoved his gun back into the small of his back, snatched up the two duffle bags, and stormed out. “Hurry the fuck up so we can get out of here,” he barked over his shoulder. Evan reached for the knob to close the door.

             
“I will kill you.” Reza said.

             
“You should show some gratitude. I just saved your life.

             
“Fuck you. On my kids I’m going to kill you.”

             
“You have to catch me first.” Evan cut the light off, slammed the door, and locked the three dead bolts.

              “Did you kiss your boyfriend goodbye?” Gage questioned Evan from the passenger seat as she drove down I-85 in North Carolina. He had been silent for the first two hours of the ride. Evan wished that he stayed quiet for the remainder of the ride.

             
“That’s not the first time you’ve seen a nigga all over me when we’re working. Why are you trippin so badly about this one?”

             
“I saw how you were all into it. Like it felt really good to you.”

             
“I was acting like I always do. If you think I’m starting to like these niggas out here. I can stop doing these stick ups. Quite frankly I’m getting tired of this shit anyway.”

             
“Maybe I am tripping,” Gage said changing his tune. He couldn’t afford to lose Evan’s help. She was critical to his operation. “I’m sorry baby.”

             
Whatever
, Evan thought,
as soon as I graduate, I’m done with him and these robberies.

             
At twenty-one Evan was living a double life. She was in her senior year at Clark Atlanta University. Evan was set to graduate with honors in the spring of 2001. Never in a million years did she imagine that she would be one-half of a stick up team. However, life had thrown her a few curve balls that had rendered her indigent. Growing up, Evan an only child, she was the classic daddy’s girl. Her father Richard Teague started out in mid-level management of a fortune five hundred company the year that Evan was born. Seven years later, he worked his way up the ranks to CEO and seven-hundred thousand dollar base salary plus bonuses. When it came to Evan and her mother, Sherlynn, he spared no expenses to make them happy.

             
Sherlynn had every major credit card, charge card, and department store card. Sherlynn loved to shop and she did it without a conscious. When the credit card bills came in from his wife’s insane shopping sprees he paid the bill and never once discouraged her reckless spending habits. The good pay wasn’t the only thing that came with Richard’s CEO job. It also came with an enormous amount of stress. That only worsened with each passing year.

             
During Evan’s sixth grade year, Richard suffered a massive heart attack and died at the young age of thirty-eight. His death devastated his wife and daughter. Sherlynn dealt with her grief by exercising retail therapy. She also splurged even more on Evan, hoping that would take her mind off her father’s death.

             
Sherlynn had not worked since she gave birth to Evan and had no means of income. Therefore, there were large amounts of money going out and nothing coming in. It only took a little under three years for Sherlynn to burn through the insurance money, their life savings, and Evan’s trust fund. The only money that Sherlynn was unable to get her hands on was Evan’s college fund. Sherlynn hid her money problems from Evan and just as the money ran out, she married a prominent pediatrician. He had three successful practices in the Charlotte area.

             
Once again, Sherlynn had access to plenty of money. She resumed her wild shopping sprees, but now with Evan by her side. Now that Evan was in high school, she only wanted the freshest and most expensive designer clothes. Her mother was all too happy to oblige her daughter’s wants. She even put her daughter behind the wheel of a Lexus GS 300 for her sixteenth birthday.

             
Sherlynn’s new wonderful world came crashing down only a week after Evan graduated from high school. Multiple parents began alleging that her husband had molested their young daughters during physicals. He was arrested after a nurse gave the police videos that corroborated the allegations. The good doctor was shot and killed as he walked out the courthouse on a one million dollar bail. The shooter was the father of a five year old girl that the doctor had molested.

             
Unlike when Richard died, there was no money at all for Sherlynn. The doctor had willed everything to his children from his first marriage. There was no certainty that his children would receive anything. The court froze his estate, because it was facing multiple lawsuits by the victims.

Sherlynn was embarrassed, hurt, and humiliated by the scandal surrounding her late husband. The thought of being broke sent her into deep depression. Unable to cope with the circumstances, a month after
burying her second husband she took sixty Xanax and laid down to never wake again.

             
After Sherlynn’s suicide, Evan learned the truth about her financial situation. She was broke and no job at the mall or waiting tables would provide the lifestyle that she was accustomed. Before Evan left for college, she sold a few pieces from her mother’s fine jewelry collection. She made a nice sum of money, but not enough to carry her through the first year of college.