I paced on the balcony of my suite, a glass of wine in hand.
The billionaire lifestyle was exactly as I’d pictured it. With the money ca freedom. Freedom to do whatever the fuck I wanted.
If I liked, I could’ve just put soone in charge of Imperium Holdings but I couldn’t. Because I had a war coming.
I needed soone I trusted in charge of my most prized possession. The number of people that fit the bill can be counted on one hand.
, Matt and recently added, Jenny.
I didn’t know when but after the partnership with Ward Impact Ventures, I realized that sohow, I had begun considering her my family.
I now... trusted her.
It was weird and at the sa ti, okay. And that was a good thing.
If I could trust Jenny, it ant that I now had an ally in my war to sit on the throne together.
With Apex and Imperium fighting together, a lot of things are possible.
As for Matt, he was finishing up his degree. When he was done, he’d join as my right hand man at Imperium Holdings.
Matt on the right and Tom on the left. A deadly combo.
I smiled to myself and took a sip of my wine, watching the morning sun shine down on New York City.
What a ti to be alive.
I downed the rest of my wine and walked back inside the suite.
The ti for dilly-dallying was over. It was ti to clean up so loose ends.
First, I called Elsa. After a few rings, she picked up the call.
"Nico?"
"Hey, Elsa." I greeted. "How are things going with NovaGen?"
"Smooth." She answered. "At this point, we don’t need to push things so much anymore. Both NovaGen and the public are doing the rest of the work."
"Good." I nodded. It was ti to wash our hands of this. "Stop all our efforts and let’s watch the way things will fall."
"Alright."
As I’m sure you’ve already puzzled out, I’m not targeting a random company for nothing. Every one of my actions has a reason behind it.
At this point in ti, anyone who wants to buy NovaGen has two options. They can either buy the now overpriced company or walk away from the deal.
Fortunately for , I knew what was going to happen next.
Either way, I ended the call with Elsa and dialed the number of the next loose end.
Harrison & Co.
The whole deal had been a waste of ti and resources. A trap that I’d willingly fallen into. A mine with no gold left inside.
But it was... necessary. At least in the beginning of this war. Now, we didn’t need to keep up the facade anymore.
It was ti to end it.
After a few rings, the phone was answered by a professional sounding voice. "Mr. Voss?"
"Yes." I replied, taking a seat on the most comfortable armchair in the room. "This is Nico Voss."
"Mr. Voss. To what do we owe the pleasure."
"I wanted to inform you that we’ll be discontinuing the negotiations regarding our potential partnership with your firm."
There was a pause on the other end of the line and I could almost imagine the dude’s surprise at my words.
He might be an old hand at this because he quickly composed himself. "May I ask why, Mr. Voss?"
"No offense intended to Harrison & Co but after further consideration, it’s clear this partnership doesn’t align with the imdiate goals we’ve set for our endeavors at Apex." I said. "Thank you for your ti."
The dude began looking for a way out. "If there’s anything we can do to change your mind-"
"I’m afraid the decision is final." I cut in politely. Let’s kill the plant before it grows roots. "Thank you again and best of luck with your future initiatives."
Before the man could continue with his prepared protests, I ended the call and tossed my phone on the table.
That was one chess piece off the board for both Jenny and Jasmine.
That was what it had been all along.
Jasmine was smart. The mont the competition was announced, she’d made a move to begin negotiations with Harrison & Co.
When your opponent is moving that fast towards a gold mine, the best thing you can do is stop them.
Jasmine had made the move, knowing Jenny’s first thought would be to steal the deal from right under her. And that’s what we’d given her.
But even as we negotiated with them, we’d made sure to drag things out so that we could cancel it when the ti ca. Which is now.
We’d made sure Jasmine saw us negotiating with Harrison & Co while we worked on our actual partnership with Ward Impact Ventures.
The whole thing had been a wild goose chase ant to slow us down. In fact, I’d ended up owing Nancy Draconi a favor in order to make this work. And it worked.
Now, with the date fast approaching, we’d use this opportunity to pull the rug out from under Jasmine.
For now, Jenny had Alia Ward, the partnership resulting in Apex’s new division and the injection of funds from my $8 billion war chest working in her favor.
From the mont the interim vote was cast, our PR machine would begin its work and spin the public perception in our favor.
Before long, Jenny would be seen as the new force needed to guide Apex.
On second thought, Jasmine wasn’t as powerful as I’d thought. Yes, she had the Apex board mbers on her side and that was important but that was the only thing she had.
If the board mbers were yanked from her, she had nothing else.
She had a lot to lose and we? We had a lot to gain.
Jasmine had influence among the board but the board mbers wanted one thing only. Profit.
Blinking out of my thoughts as my tablet buzzed, I picked it up to see that it was an email notification.
I opened the email and just from the subject line, I knew what it was about. My ticket to the show, given to by the gamaster herself.
I read through it, a smirk growing on my face. Jenny had been right.
Clarisse Newton didn’t just invite to her office but to also attend the upcoming interim board vote eting at the Apex Investnts headquarters where both candidates will present their vision.
I replied to the email, confirming my attendance. I’ll get to see for myself where we would be starting from.
Sweet.
Reviews
All reviews (0)