Death Calling

"This emerald papal crown was authorized by King Riverdale to give to his third wife, Caroline, who bore him his first son, George, in the year 1915. There's been quite a few rumors that this tiara once belonged to Grand Princess Dowager, Eleanor Fitzpatrick in the late 1800s. Despite the first ownership, it was refined with a real paint made from gold in Germany but the emeralds were untouched." Kate carefully explained to the round chubby man with a red, faded beard.

He was Peitro Alejandro, a prominent man in Italy who was visiting and somehow he had been lured into that jewelry store. Having no idea that it contained con artists.

It was a barber's shop hired by a gang of thieves just to portray the outlook of an exquisite jewelry shop, consisting of duplicated jewelry and diamonds. Even the security outside was part of the criminal gang.

"Would you like to see more, Mr. Alejandro?" Kate offered the man a small smile. She was neatly dressed in a suit as the shop's manager. With big rimmed glasses hanging loosely at the bridge of her nose, to give her this serious and business-like look.

"Yes, please," Peitro already had his eyes fixed on the show glass with diamond pieces of jewelry on display.

Kate gave a wordless order to the man in front and he disappeared into a tiny room and returned with a beige box.

"Our new collections of diamonds just arrived yesterday and we have Queen Phoebe's diamond briolette."

The diamond briolette reflected and Peitro's eyes were almost as huge in their sockets.

"Now there is.."

"That one," Peitro interrupted Kate by pointing a beefy finger at the first briolette, "It'd look good on my daughter."

"Queen Phoebe's diamond briolette costs $15,000,000, Mr. Alejandro." Kate had the corners of her mouth curved upward. She was told to sell it off for $10,000,000 but she purposely added another $5,000,000 upon seeing how awe-stricken he was.

"I'd pay in cash," Mr. Alejandro offered, looking utterly determined to get the briolette. Unbeknownst it was a fake.

A few minutes later, Mr. Alejandro's guards were trooping in with briefcases containing stacks of dollars. Whilst the fake diamond briolette was packaged.

Kate managed to keep a straight facial expression while within her, she was doing a little dance of excitement.

Things ended with Mr. Alejandro leaving with the fake briolette, without the slightest knowledge that he was duped.

***

"One, two, three, Hurray!" The gang of thieves cheered and clicked their glasses of beer together. They were five in number, four males and just one female, celebrating their win on the rooftop of a building.

"You did great tonight," their leader, Bryan patted Kate's shoulder.

"As always, boss," Kate gave him a two-finger salute and then slurped her glass of beer. She was the only female they worked with.

"You'd still like to go on that road trip with me?" Bryan raised a brow.

"I think I'll have to pass," Kate shook her head and went to seat amid the rest of their gang. He seemed to be interested in her in some way, but she wasn't willing to be tied down to anyone.

They emptied all the briefcases on a table to feast their eyes on the money.

"This is crazy!"

"We're filthy rich."

"Peitro Motherfucking Alejandro just made us millionaires. Woah!" Kate had her hands at the corners of her mouth as she burst into this peal of excitement, her voice suppressing that of everyone.

"Tone your voice down if you don't want the cops coming at us," her boss cautioned her and she mumbled some words of apology.

"Now, we have to share this money amongst ourselves," he said.

Kate sat upright at this, completely letting her excitement fade off. They were about to get down to business.

"As your boss, 50% of the money is mine, 40% goes to you three and you'll split it equally," her boss paused to clear his throat and then he shifted his gaze to Kate, "and the remaining 10% is yours."

"There's got to be a misunderstanding here," Kate rose to her feet because she was utterly confused and upset.

"How do you mean?" Her boss folded his arms across his chest as he looked at her.

Kate who was already trembling with anger, exhaled calm breaths to keep her not-so-nice temper in check, so she could speak and be heard clearly.

"Why is everyone's money above mine, when I did the most of the job?" She threw him this question.

"Because you're a woman?" Her boss's reply came out sounding like a question.

"No, no. This is unfair," Kate shook her head, "I did the talking, convinced Mr. Alejandro to buy the fake briolette for $15,000,000 instead of $10,000,000 and all you had to do was to seat at some corner and drink wine." She accused, fuming in anger.

"If it weren't for my perfect communication skills, thanks to public speaking class, Mr. Alejandro wouldn't have bought the fucking Briolette duplicate!" Kate thundered at the top of her lungs without any ounce of fear.

"Don't be rude to our boss," someone said from her side, and out of exasperation, Kate picked up her glass of beer and emptied the contents on him. Leaving everyone baffled.

"I demand a fair share because I worked so hard," Kate gritted out, her chest rising and falling as she glared at her boss who was seated opposite her, "you have no right to shorten my payment because I'm a woman. Don't you dare bring gender inequality into this."

Kate's boss was silent as he watched her throwing a fit. No one knew what he had in mind.

"Have you forgotten how I picked you from the slums three years ago? You were drenched in rain with your toes sticking out of your worn-out shoes. And you had this look on your face like a starved stray dog," Kate's boss insulted her.

"I made you who you are today," he added with an intensified glare.

But Kate wasn't affected by this. She had grown a thick skin over the years, what she wanted was a 20% share because she was the reason they had that money. Even though her boss was the mastermind.

"Three years, I have spent working for you. Helped in plotting the Ponzi schemes and disguising all the time with different accents and languages, just to convince people to join. I head your loan sharking companies and I've been moving every month because I'm afraid I'd get caught and sentenced to spend a lifetime in prison." Kate was almost out of breath now.

Her boss rose to his feet and neared her side.

"You will take your 10%, sit down, and shut the fuck up!" He ordered.

But Kate wasn't willing to back down.

Her chest was rising and falling due to the way her heart was slamming against her chest.

"I deserve a fair share!"

"You need to work on your anger management! Woman!"

"And you need to do the right thing!"

Suddenly gunshot sounded.

It was Kate's boss. He had slipped his gun from his gun belt and shot fired a shot in the air.

Fear made goosebumps rise in Kate's pores when he aimed the gun at her.

"What are you doing?" She asked quietly as if she wasn't being borderline earlier.

But her boss didn't respond. He was murderously glaring at her.

"You crossed a line when you kept yelling at me, forgetting your place."

"Now you want to kill me?" Kate was bold enough to ask this.

"Looks like it," he tisked.

Kate took a hard hurtful gulp and rubbed the side of her arm. Her heart was pounding so loud in her chest that she could hear the sound of it within her ears.

"Don't do this, Bryan. I believe I have the right to demand a fair share." She told her boss, with tears brining in her eyes. The men at her side had already moved aside, completely afraid of their boss.

"You went too far, Kate," and with this, he pulled the trigger and fired three shots at her stomach.

Kate's mouth parted once the hot bullets slammed into her body. It made her have flashbacks of her past and then blurred her vision, as her knees gave out underneath her.

She placed her hands on her stomach and then looked to see them stained with blood. Even her white blouse and denim shorts were soaked.

Pain was transferring to her entire body which dropped to the floor in the pool of her own blood, as her vision kept blurring.

"Go, go, go!" She heard her boss's voice, he was barking his men to pack the money.

And the last thing she saw before darkness enveloped her, was running feet.