Caged By Them (Descent Into Darkness 1)

Hopefully, now that I’ve snapped him away from his obsession long enough for him to see why I need him at the office, we can take it a step further.

“Yeah. You’re right.” He sipped his drink. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I know how you are, but just remember that all companies deal with this sort of thing. Our response has to be calculated.” I leaned forward and put my drink on the table.

As calculated as it can be with Reynard leading the charge, but I can’t do it alone, otherwise I would have already handled it myself.

“This all started after Wyatt took his own life.” Reynard stared at his glass. “That’s when the sharks started to circle—they’re just getting bolder as time goes on because we haven’t done anything to show our strength.”

“I think we should seriously consider closing the Chicago branch. Wyatt didn’t have a firm hold on that market, to begin with, and it’s spreading us thin. We’ve got some guys that would be a lot more beneficial here in New York.” I leaned back against the couch. “Now that Wyatt’s gone—we don’t really have a need to keep it open.”

“No.” Reynard shook his head back and forth. “That’s where they think they’ve got us, so that’s where we’re going to strike first.”

“You already have a plan?” I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

This escalated a lot faster than I expected. Hell, I’ve never seen Reynard this focused on Jackson Investments—but, I always had Wyatt to carry enough of the load that I didn’t have to rely on him much.

“Yes.” Reynard leaned forward and picked up a folder. “I’ve got a list of Josef Weber’s assets there. Firms, shell companies—everything. We’re going to roll a bowling ball down his lane and he’ll be so busy picking up the pins that he won’t have time to fuck with us anymore.”

“That’s definitely a show of strength.” I nodded in agreement. “But Weber Acquisitions is just one of the companies circling us…”

“The biggest shark.” Reynard chuckled. “If we kill it, the rest will have something else to feast on and they’ll be too scared of what might happen to them when they see what we do to him.”

“I like it.” I tilted my head in surprise. “That’s actually a very solid plan.”

Maybe he should be the fucking CEO. He came up with a solution for the shit I’ve been dealing with for the last year in a single afternoon. Of course—this is an aggressive move, and he’s good at those.

“I’ll get to work on it tomorrow.” He nodded and tossed the folder my way. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you. I know you needed me after Wyatt’s funeral—especially at work.”

“It’s okay.” I looked back towards the screen. “I get it.”

Putting Lizzy in the cage might have been a better decision than I realized. At least it is allowing him to focus on something else.

Two days later

The phones started ringing as soon as Reynard made his power play in Chicago. He emptied the office and had

boots on the ground—boots that marched into the offices of everyone who invested in Weber Acquisitions. We offered a deal with higher returns, less of a percentage off the top—and we had numbers to back it up. All they had to do was move their account to us. A few of them did so on the spot. Some of his more loyal clients wanted to hear what he could offer—smart, really—why make a deal with a new devil when you’re already in bed with one? We were making some risky moves though—and they weren’t all going to be profitable. Some were huge gambles. Luckily, we didn’t care. We were trying to damage Weber, not turn an immediate profit.

“We got him.” Reynard walked into my office with a huge smile on his face. “I just got the call—Jonathan Quinn is ready to dump Weber Acquisitions.”

“Seriously?” I looked up at Reynard and blinked in surprise. “That’s one of his biggest clients, and he’s not centralized in Chicago. Are we getting his accounts in New York as well?”

“You better believe it.” Reynard walked over and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. “I think this calls, for a drink.”

“Pour them.” I exhaled sharply. “Make mine a fucking double.”

“You got it.” Reynard filled the glasses and walked mine over. “I guess I was paying closer attention to all of Dad’s lessons than I realized.”

“This is our victory—for now.” I took my glass. “But Josef Weber will retaliate. He’s not stupid. He’s been doing this longer than we have.”

“He’ll be too busy picking up the pieces to fuck with us.” Reynard sat down across from me. “We just dropped a nuke on his entire operation.”

“Yeah, but what about the radiation?” I sipped my drink. “That shit spreads…”

“We’ll deal with the fallout.” Reynard shrugged. “With both of us focused on this, there’s no way he’ll recover. I’ve got two more nukes lined up tomorrow—one for Los Angles and I’m dropping the second one—right here in New York.”

“We don’t even have an office in Los Angeles.” I raised my eyebrows in concern. “We can’t sustain that market, even if we get some of his clients.”