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“It’s done,” I said without reservation. “Whether you like it or not, Diamond Industries now owns this hotel chain.”
Was my acquisition legal? Absolutely not. Blackmail and extortion were involved with one shareholder. The other owed me money. A lot of it. He was willing to give me his shares to forgive his debt.
I came out on top of that deal.
The other men muttered and murmured amongst themselves drawing my ire. “You are all dismissed,” I say roughly.
“You can’t do that!” Brenton, a thin, graying man with a pinched face declares.
“I can. Under Diamond Industries by-laws, board members can be dismissed by a majority vote with the chairman breaking a tie. I have twelve board members, all of whom agree, your services are not necessary.”
The door to the conference room opens with six of my men walking in. They’re more for show. The old fucks pose no threat to me or anyone else, but I really enjoy watching their eyes widen in fear.
They each rise with their indignant noses in the air to leave. When the last one exits the room, I wave my men out.
“That was probably one of the best things I’ve ever seen,” Tristan says with a slap on my back. “I swear those old fuckers were about to have a coronary.”
I smirk at his enthusiasm. “I hate people like that,” I grumble. “It’s always fun to knock em’ down a peg or two.”
“What do you think will happen when Rossi finds out you bought another business?”
“He is going to come at me – us – harder,” I say with a growl.
Antonio Rossi is Boss of the River City Mafia. He is a well-hated, selfish asshole who cares for no one but himself.
When I bought my first business, a club on the east side of town, he was thoroughly impressed and proud of me. I was his promising protégé. He believed he was teaching me to be his successor. He wasn’t wrong about that.
“We’ll be ready when he does,” Tristan smirks.
I nod. We will definitely be ready.
Sitting at my office desk I look over the paperwork for the hotels. Nothing too mentally straining. There are four hotels in the small chain. The flagship is right here in River City established over one hundred years ago. The original owner’s children sold it nearly forty years ago to two men who did a decent job of expanding to a few other tourist cities in the state.
Everything appears to be in order with the three offshoot branches, but some strange math has me narrowing my eyes at the founding location. I learned a long time ago how to cook the books. I recognized the signs immediately of someone not very good at it. The paper trail leads straight to the general manager.
I pushed the intercom button on my desk. “Get me Adam Jessup in my office,” I tell Derrick Newman my executive assistant.
“When should I tell him to be here, Mr. McCabe?”
“Yesterday!” I growl. It’s not Derrick’s fault, but most who know me know that my personality IQ is miniscule.
It’s always best to deal with these things quickly. Fortunately for Jessup, he wasn’t stealing from me. If the previous owners were too stupid to catch, then that’s on them.
Accounting should have noticed something I realize. “Get me Erica Lam, as well,” I say into the intercom again.
An hour later, Francisco and Christian lead a man in his mid-forties and a petite redhead into my office. I nod a Francisco and Christian, telling them they can go, and gesture for the other two to sit.
“Do you know who I am?” I ask plainly.
The woman, visibly nervous, shakes her head. Jessup, on the other hand, is practically pouring fear from his pores. With a hard swallow he nods. “Rory McCabe,” his voice shakes.
His body language and tone suggest he knows exactly who I am. Not Rory McCabe, businessman and owner of Diamond Industries. He knows Rory McCabe the enforcer of the River City Mafia, although that hasn’t been my role or title in years.
I flash him a saurian grin, showing lots of teeth. “I am Rory McCabe,” I affirm for him, “and as of twelve oh one a.m., the new owner of the Riverside Hotels.”
The man’s face turns ashen. Beads of sweat begin to appear on the man’s forehead. He knows why he is here, and his guilt is showing.
“Congratulations, Mr. McCabe,” Erica says with a look of confusion on her face. She obviously didn’t understand her presence here today.
