The Loverboy

by Miel Vermeulen

  appearance.

  “I don"t want your money and I sure as hell don"t ever want

  to work for you again” Kim sneered, “I have plenty of money of

  my own now. My husband is very wealthy and I don"t care for what

  you do” and she showed him her rings. He looked at them mesmerized as if he was trying to figure

  out how much they were worth.

  “Then what do you want?” Jake asked still staring at her

  jewelry.

  “I want Ally, my sister. I want your goon to cut her loose

  before she gets sucked in like me” Kim said.

  Jake looked up from the jewelry and into Kim"s eyes.

  “My goon? Oh, my brother Max. Sorry, I can"t do that. We

  have invested in her and she is not like you. She is not as

  stubborn as you. Sure, she will never be the high grade you were

  but she will be with us forever. That"s a lot of money and I

  can"t just let that go” he said smugly.

  “I"ll pay you” Kim said as she pulled fifty thousand

  dollars from her large purse and threw it on the table.

  Jake gave her a look then said “Sorry, she is not for sale.

  She can easily bring me a hundred grand a year for four, maybe

  five, years then she is still good for another fifteen years at

  least for about fifty thousand a year. She"s not like you; she

  doesn"t ask questions and demand answers. She is a lifer and a

  cash cow. She"ll easily make me twenty times that” he said with

  a cool look in his eyes waiting for Kim"s reaction. Kim kept

  cool and paused a moment. “That"s not the offer” she said, “That"s an advance to let

  you know I am serious. I am planning to offer a lot more.”

  “And where did you get that kind of money?” he asked.

  “I told you I married rich and I don"t care about the

  money. I have plenty. However I only have one sister and I want

  to keep her safe” Kim responded.

  “What stops me from taking your money, still taking Ally

  and holding you hostage until your rich hubby pays up? And until

  he pays up you and I can have some fun” he said in a threatening

  tone again awaiting Kim"s reaction.

  To his surprise this didn"t seem to move Kim one bit.

  She just sat there very composed and said “You could do

  that, but I wouldn"t advise that course of action. You see when

  I was busted out of prison I was chained to the daughter of the

  leader of a powerful and ruthless cartel. Her daddy was in

  between wives and he fancied me. I"ve been helping him grow his

  business and together we are very successful. So he married me.

  We run the business together and when I mentioned my sister"s

  predicament he just suggested to have you and Max killed and the

  problem would be solved. I actually considered that option but

  figured it would be too traumatic for Ally and the last thing

  she needs is a dead boyfriend. So I opted to buy you out”. Then she paused a few seconds and continued with a sly

  smile “But if my plan proves ineffective we can always revert to

  Fernando"s plan”.

  “You are bluffing”, Jake yelled.

  “Am I?” Kim asked, “Look outside. All I have to do is push

  this button and those two will be over you like flies on shit”

  and she held up a garage door opener she had borrowed from

  Annie.

  Jake got up and looked out the window through the blinds.

  There he saw the large Hummer limo and the driver along with two

  very muscular gentlemen well dressed in suits. He swallowed and

  returned to his seat.

  “What"s it worth to you?” he asked.

  “Five million dollars and you can keep the fifty thousand.

  Consider it a tip” Kim said without flinching.

  Jake"s eyes grew twice their size. He tried to compose

  himself but failed miserably.

  “I can do that” he said as cool as he could muster which

  came out more like a kid that had just been offered a trip to

  Disneyland. “How does this work?” he asked hesitantly, “Is there a

  contract or something?”

  Kim laughed “No, it"s all verbal. The deal is simple. I

  give you five million and Max dumps Ally tomorrow. Have him be

  gentle about it, please. After that neither he nor any of your

  crew will ever contact her again. If anyone of your crew does, I

  will have them killed and you too. It"s that simple.”

  Jake swallowed hard then said “When do I get the money?”

  “Right now, if you want. Do you have WIFI?” Kim said and

  pulled the laptop out of her purse. She opened it up and turned

  it on.

  “Yes, the password is „Jake"” he said.

  She gave him a smile as if to say “You arrogant bastard”

  and then connected to the WIFI. Then she ran Matt"s program. It

  took a few seconds and then a screen popped up. The screen

  showed a five million transfer setup to a yet to be entered

  account number. She put the laptop on the table and turned the

  screen toward Jake.

  He looked at it with large eye and Kim said “You need to

  enter your bank account number and it will be deposited in five

  minutes.” Eagerly he entered the account number. She moved the laptop

  back to her and clicked the submit button. The transaction

  completed and almost simultaneously a dozen windows opened that

  started making hundreds of transactions each in various small

  amounts except for the ones that were going into the fake

  accounts of the rapists and Jake that Matt had setup. The flurry

  of transactions lasted about five minutes. During these five

  minutes they just sat in silence and Kim hoped that Jake

  wouldn"t get impatient and look at what was going on with the

  laptop.

  He didn"t though; he was too preoccupied spending his new

  found wealth in his head. The flurry of transactions stopped and

  the laptop starting deleting all the files that Matt had created

  automatically then it created new ones which were deleted again

  and it kept doing this for about thirty seconds. The screen came

  back to the windows screen and all evidence of the transactions

  was gone.

  She looked up and said “The money is there. You are a

  wealthy man now.”

  Jake pulled out his smart phone and began checking his

  account online. A large smile grew on his face when he saw his

  new account balance. “I trust by tomorrow Ally and Max are history? I hate

  having to arrange follow-up visits” Kim said as she got up and

  started for the door.

  “Oh and don"t ever contact me or my family again” she added

  sternly.

  Jake nodded then said “Wait, you forgot your laptop.”

  “I don"t need it anymore. You keep it or trash it,

  whatever” she said as she walked out the door.

  Outside with her back towards Jake she finally let a smile

  come to her face as she walked back to the limo. She couldn"t

  believe she had pulled it off. She had gotten her revenge and saved her sister at the same time.

  Chapter 38:

  The bodybuilders helped her into the limo and she resisted

  the urge to look back. There was nothing there for her. The past

  had been a nightmare a
nd it was finally over. When the men got

  into the limo with her and the door was closed she looked at the

  house as they drove away. Jake wasn"t even looking. He was still

  too busy thinking what to do with his newfound wealth. This was

  the man she had done everything for and in return he had

  arranged to have her raped, trick her into prostitution and

  finally sold her to a drug crime family as a decoy or bride for

  the officials. She had been a commodity to him and he had

  planned the same for her sister and god knows how many others.

  She felt a little bad about what she had done but that soon

  passed. There was no way she could let this go on and now Ally

  was safe.

  One of the men asked “How did it go?” She looked at him

  dazed and confused still lost in thoughts.

  “The prank, did he go for it?” he explained. Kim snapped out of it and nodded “Hook, line and sinker”

  she said.

  The man thought about asking more about the „prank" but Kim

  was already off in her own little world again and he left it at

  that. They got to the gym and said their goodbyes. She thanked

  them and told the driver to take her back where he had picked

  her up. Then she raised the divider again and got changed back

  into her normal clothes and shoved the clothes, purse and

  jewelry into the backpack. Then the pulled the money out of the

  backpack. There were three stacks left, sixty thousand dollars.

  She couldn"t believe she had spent that much in such a short

  time, but it had been worth it. She shoved the money in the

  pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and sat back waiting for the

  driver to drop her off lost in thoughts. They arrived at the

  corner and the driver let her out. She gave him a hundred dollar

  tip and he left her there.

  She didn"t want to go back to the hotel. She needed

  someone. She walked to her old apartment and on the way dropped

  the backpack with the clothes and jewelry into a trash can. She

  found the Honda and sat down in it. Not twenty minutes later the

  white BMW pulled up and Kim looked intently. Max got out and

  seemed in a great mood. This didn"t seem like someone about to

  break up with his girlfriend that was hopelessly in love with him. He ran the bell to the apartment and was buzzed in. Not two

  minutes later he walked out with Ally behind him. Kim watched as

  they talked for about five minutes and halfway through the

  conversation Ally started to cry. Max made no effort to console

  her and finished his spiel after which he got into his car and

  sped off. She felt bad for Ally but after seeing this unfold she

  knew it had been the right thing.

  Like Jake had felt nothing for her, Max had felt nothing

  for Ally and was just going to use her for his benefit. He

  didn"t even wait for the next day. She considered going out

  there to console Ally for a minute but the door opened and her

  mom came out and wrapped her arms around Ally. Kim wished so

  much to be part of that embrace but she couldn"t. There was

  unfinished business and Kim had to figure out what next. Ally

  and her mom went back inside and Kim got out of the car.

  She opened the mailbox slot of their old apartment and

  dropped one of the stacks of bills in it. Then she went back to

  the Honda and got in. She started it and for a moment wondered

  what to do now and for a moment she considered just turning

  herself in and serving her sentence. But she still had forty

  thousand dollars so she might as well enjoy that before she had

  to go back. That was what she was going to do she decided. She was going to live carefree for a while and see what happens. She

  pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and called Annie.

  Annie answered “Hello?”

  “Hi, Annie. It"s done. It worked” she said.

  “That"s great!” Annie said, “Come over and we will

  celebrate.”

  “I can"t. I have to move on. I am a fugitive and the longer

  I stick around the more danger the people around me are in. I

  just called to say thank you for everything, for all your help

  but most of all for being my friend. I am leaving now” she said.

  “Where are you going?” Annie asked.

  “I don"t know yet. I have a little bit of money left over

  and will see where I can get with that before they catch me”.

  “I understand, take care of yourself” Annie said.

  “You too” Kim said holding back the tears, “Say thanks to

  Matt from me.”

  “I will” Annie sniffed.

  “I love you” Kim said and hung up.

  As the line dropped dead the tears flowed freely. She

  whipped her face and started the car and put it in gear. She was about to drive off when the phone buzzed. There was a text

  message from Annie. She opened it and read the message:

  “Dear Gabriella, don’t forget to check your glove box

  compartment before you leave. I love you too!”

  Puzzled Kim opened the glove box compartment and in it she

  found Gabriella"s passport and a USB memory stick. Kim looked at

  passport and understood. Then she looked at the USB stick and

  wondered what that was for. She turned it over and on the other

  side was a sticker that said: “Switzerland – Gabriella Garza”.

  Kim drove to the nearest BestBuy and plugged the USB stick into

  a display computer. There was a file on it showing a balance of

  $96,529,586.56 USD in a Swiss bank account in the name of

  Gabriella Garza. She pulled out the USB stick and left the store then got into the car and headed west.

  Chapter 39:

  It took her three days to make it to Los Angeles. There she

  left the car and found a plastic surgeon. The surgery was

  fifteen thousand dollars and when the bandages came off a week

  later her nose looked exactly like it did in Gabriella"s

  passport. She was taking Gabriella"s identity. Gabriella was a

  United States citizen and had been buried somewhere in the

  Mexican mountain ridge.

  She had hesitated for a little while wondering if it was

  the right thing to do but this way at least Gabriella"s death

  would not be for nothing she figured. With the final twenty five

  thousand dollars she got a hotel room on the beach and spent as

  much time as possible in a tanning center. The skin tone was the

  only thing that was off but after a few weeks of working on that

  it was pretty close and she felt comfortable with it. She

  considered having the tattoo removed but it had become a part of

  her life and it had formed her in a way. Getting rid of it would

  not undo the damage and she decided to keep it as a reminder of

  how fragile happiness could be. Next she opened a bank account in Gabriella"s name and got

  an ATM card. She transferred some money into her new account

  from the Swiss account and obtained a transcript of Gabriella"s

  high school records. Next she went to UCLA and submitted two

  applications. She was informed that it would be tough to still

  get in with only a month until the semester started. Kim

  mentioned that she was planning to donate two hundred and fifty

  thousand dollars to the
school she was attending to update their

  legal library as she would be using that quite a bit. This

  promise made it so there was almost instantly place for the two

  late enrollments.

  She left the campus with the acceptance letters and found

  an apartment on the beach in Santa Monica. It wasn"t cheap but

  it had to be just right and this one was. It came fully

  furnished. She sat down in her new apartment and finally felt

  she was almost there. She had started over and made it but there

  was still one thing missing. She found the yellow pages and

  found herself a lawyer and instructed him to send a letter to

  Alison Brown in Milwaukee. The letter was supposed to offer a

  full scholarship to UCLA including room and board. There should

  be no mention of her in the letter and included should be two

  tickets to come check out the campus next week. Also he should

  contact Alison and her mom and convince them to come. A week later Ally and her mom were on their way. They were

  met at the airport by the lawyer and again they asked who had

  arranged this but the lawyer told them he had been sworn to

  secrecy. He drove them to the new apartment on the beach. Kim

  was lying in the sun on the beach about one hundred yards from

  the apartment. She was lying on a beach towel reading the

  newspaper and next to her was a list of all the books she needed

  for her first year of law school. On the front page of the paper

  was an article about a drug related murder in Milwaukee

  Wisconsin. The victim was Jake Juliano and it reported that the

  rumor was that he had stolen a large amount of money from a

  dangerous Mexican drug cartel and they had found him by tracing

  the transaction. It had been the last in a string of six murders

  that were all related to the Mexican cartel. They would never

  hurt anyone again she thought.

  She startled as the cell phone next to her buzzed, a new

  text message.

  It was from the lawyer and read: “Your guests have

  arrived.”

  “Let them in, I’ll be right there” she responded quickly.

  She looked over and saw the lawyer, Ally and her mom get

  out of a black Cadillac. They walked around the apartment and were clearly impressed and surprised. After they went around the

  building the lawyer herded them inside and Kim got up. She