Chapter 4

Late that night, I sat alone in my blacked-out office, staring at the wreckage across the floor by the light of the moon.

My phone screen lit up. Laurence had sent a voice message.

His laughter dripped with contempt.

"Sweet nephew, this doesn't feel good, does it?"

"You've got three days. If you can't come up with two million in cash and the signed contract, get ready to sleep under a bridge!"

"Oh, right. I hear your blind old mother still has a little pension coming in?"

"If that's not enough to cover the debt, I'll file with the court for forced enforcement, and the old woman won't even be able to afford her medicine!"

I didn't answer him. I just swiped the screen open and pulled up the encrypted letter the new plant manager at Tyler Textiles Group had just sent me.

It carried a bright red company seal. The legal public-notice period for the acquisition transfer had finally closed at midnight.

The moment the three-day deadline arrived, the factory gates were kicked open.

Laurence walked in wearing a designer suit.

Flushed and gloating, he strolled in with Egbert and more than a dozen fabric suppliers behind him.

They treated the place like their own home, setting up a long table right in my workshop.

A chilled bottle of top-shelf champagne popped open, and they'd actually started throwing themselves a victory party for the takeover ahead of time.

"Mr. Rivera, quit hiding up there playing dead. Come on down and have a drink with us!" Egbert bawled up the stairs.

I came down the steps and looked coldly at this pack of clowns.

Laurence pulled a document out of his briefcase and slapped it across my face.

"Silas Rivera. Transfer price, one dollar. Sign the factory over to me."

"Today, the only thing besides signing this is one road out, and that's taking your blind old mother out to pick through the trash on the street."

He blew out a smug ring of smoke.

Egbert chimed in from the side, snide and needling.

"Mr. Dickerson, those few thousand units of yours are all dead stock in your hands now."

"Oh, and I forgot to mention. On my way out, I took your core pattern blueprints for next quarter with me."

"Mr. Lambert's already taken over every one of your order channels."

"You're a stripped-bare nobody now, waiting to be carved up however anyone likes." Egbert laughed until his shoulders shook.

I watched them cackle in all their ugliness, then tore that one-dollar acquisition agreement to shreds and flung the pieces into the air.

"Silas Rivera, have you lost your damn mind? You want to die?" Laurence's face changed, and he cursed at me.

I straightened up and locked my eyes on him.

"Laurence, did you forget? Those exclusive core fabrics in your factory, which company has been supplying them to you all this time?"

Laurence froze for a second, then burst out laughing, like he'd heard the biggest joke in the world.

"Tyler Textiles Group? That's a listed corporation. What, a broke wretch about to go bankrupt like you actually knows the head of Tyler?"

"Then go ahead and call Tyler right now," I said calmly.

Laurence took out his phone and dialed. A few seconds later, the grin on his face froze solid.

"There's no way this won't connect!"

The words had barely left his mouth when sirens erupted outside.

Dozens of enforcement vehicles sealed off the workshop gates so tight there wasn't room to slip through.

Paywall