The Conglomerate: A Luxorious Tale (39 page)

             
“I know that we agreed to talk about my brother’s murder when we get back to the states, but I need to know something before I can go on another minute with you.”

             
Gage huffed, he didn’t want to ruin the evening with the topic, but he knew that he owed her as many answers as she had questions. Not to mention he was interested to see where she was mentally on the issue.

             
“Ask me whatever you want.”

             
“Evan admitted to me that she fired the shots that killed Marshawn, after he had been shot by you. I’ve grown up since my brother died. I know that robbery goes hand in hand with what he was and that things can go left during one.”

             
“Are you asking did I shoot your brother?”

             
“Yes... no... I mean yes. Did you shoot my brother?”

             
“Isadora I did shoot your brother in the leg to keep him off of me, not to kill him.”

             
“Did you go there planning to kill him?”

             
“Hell no. I did plenty of jobs and no one ever died until Evan did that bullshit. It may be hard to believe, but murder is bad for robbers too. A simple stick up is just that, but killings always attract police. Robbing your brother was never personal it was strictly business.”

             
No matter how much Isadora tried to justify, rationalize or make excuses. She had to admit that Gage was just as guilty as Evan of murdering her brother. And there she sat madly in love with him. Deeply conflicted she stood up.

              “I thought I was ready to talk about this and clearly I’m not. I’m going to lay back down for a lil bit.” 

             
Gage rose up, “you want me to come?” he asked nervously.

             
“Not really and I’m not angry or mad. I just want to be alone.”

             
Isadora disappeared into the bungalow leaving Gage confounded. He couldn’t fathom which direction their relationship was going to take. Gage didn’t want to think about or imagine losing Isadora. He hoped with every fiber of his being that she’d stay, because he truly loved her, and if she could not be happy with him he would not hold onto her. Gage had already decided that he would give her half the money and let her go. Feeling that it was best to give Isadora breathing room; Gage grabbed the bottle of champagne and stretched out on one of the plush beige outdoor loungers at the edge of the dock.

             
Laying back staring up at the stars, Gage drank from the bottle as he tried to think of the right words to say to Isadora to keep her in his life. His thoughts were interrupted by creaking wood beneath feet, over his shoulder he said, “You changed your mind about laying down babe?”

             
There was no answer.

             
“Dory I know that this shit between us is crazy, but please don’t shut me out.  You’re all I got.” Gage got up so that he could see Isadora. He was stunned to come face to face with a lean curvy figure in a head to toe black scuba suit. For a moment he was transfixed by the beautiful eyes and soft lips peeking from the facial cut out. Snapping out of his trance, he asked the mystery woman.

             
“Who the fuck are you?” 

 
              Silently she glared at him and made a swift movement with her hands toward his torso. Gage saw her coming at him, but she was so quick that he couldn’t get out the way or block her. He attempted to swing at her with the champagne bottle, but he couldn’t move. 

             
“What the fuck?” he questioned aloud as the Dom Perigon bottle slipped from his hand and hit the wooden dock making a loud thud. Gage’s entire body locked up and he fell face first onto the wood making an even louder thud. He could not move a joint, limb, or muscle from the smallest to the largest due the succinylcholine filled needle that had been jabbed into the side of his abdomen. The poisonous paralytic was a nasty little monster; it would take five to seven minutes for him to die. Still fully conscious, Gage would experience every excruciating second of his lungs slowly collapsing and his heart grinding to a halt.

             
Concerned by the loud noises, Isadora stepped into the bungalow’s doorway,               “Gage are you-” she saw him stretched out on the dock and the scuba suit clad woman over him. “Oh God!”  She screamed in a panic, the murderous female glanced up, turned toward Isadora, and locked eyes with her. Immediately recognizing Mish, Isadora froze in fear. 

             
Mish stepped around Gage’s body and moved expeditiously down the dock’s walk way to the bungalow’s entry. 

             
A burst of survival adrenaline surged through Isadora’s veins. She spun around and made a desperate dash for the bedroom to get a gun that was stashed beneath the pillows on the bed. Crossing the threshold Mish raised a silencer capped pistol and fired off two hollow tip bullets. The back of Isadora’s head exploded from the impact, splattering a mixture of brain matter, skull chips, and blood on the bed and walls. Death was instantaneous. 

             
Mish went back out onto the dock to check on Gage. It appeared that he’d already slipped into the afterlife. With Gage’s history of surviving the impossible, Mish wanted to be sure that he’d cross to the other side. She placed the silencer’s muzzle to the back of his head and pulled the pistol’s lever four times for good measure. Satisfied that her job was done, Mish slid the gun into a holster on her inner left thigh. She dipped down into the water and swam a quarter of a mile to a waiting jet ski. 

             
Sitting atop jet ski was Mish’s long time business associate, Nacinda, a wildly attractive Belizean-Creole woman in a bikini top and cut off shorts. Mish climbed onto the rear of the jet ski and Nacinda sped the three miles across the rough dark ocean to her lavish San Pedro beachfront home.  Before going into the house, Mish peeled off the scuba suit and gave it to Nacinda to be burned in the home’s backyard fire pit.

             
While Nacinda discarded of the evidence. Mish went into the house and took out her untraceable satellite phone. She dialed the number to another satellite phone. It rang a few times and then Joey answered.

             
“What up?”

             
“It’s done,” Mish stated.

             
Joey smiled, “Good.” 

             
“That paper will be back where is supposed by morning.”

             
“Nice. Wonderful doing business with you.”

             
“If you ever need me, you know what to do.”

             
“We may need you real soon.”  Joey sighed.

             
“Damn y’all got more issues already?”

             
“I think that some are about to rise.”

             
“Why you feel like that.”

             
“It’s Indictment Time.”