Chapter 7 - 'Partners'
1606 Words
'Good day, Anderson'
'Mr. Peter, it's nice hearing from you again', Anderson responds.
Anderson Brown is one of the top tax lawyers in the U.S and he's also well versed in criminal law.Anderson is also the CEO of Truth Court law firm and He's Peter's lawyer.
'I'd like to see you regarding the business later today, are you available?'
'Yes, i'm at the office'
'Alright' - Peter hangs up.
He's not the only one setting appointments though. Ray's called Angie early to make sure she's fine and ends up with another hangout at her place for 4pm.
At Anderson's office, Peter comes in.
'Good morning Anderson'
'Yeah, good day Peter.... What brings you by?'
'I'm having some problems with the taxing on my two galleries and the bars could use a little legalities'.
'Okay, i'll look into it'
'The revenue on these businesses is not enough to justify our income as it is, I want to clean up more', Peter confesses.
'Is there something wrong?.... Outside legalities, I mean', Anderson asks.
'I want to end it all.... Might be in love too... I'll need to rewrite my will soon, but first things first, we need to get clean', Peter says convicted.
'That's quite good news, i'll have my reports and recommendations in at the end of the day.... I take it this love is new and outside your home?' Anderson probes.
'You can put it like that', Peter says as he leaves.
Ray meets up with Angie at her house. He finds her dressed for some walking.
'Wanna join me down the corner?'
'Where exactly are we headed?'
'To get crack', she replies, too blunt for honesty.
'Alright', Ray agrees and they leave for a street half a mile away from her own. They stop at a bar and she leads him to her suppliers dome, inside the bar.
'This is Rick.... Rick meet Ray', she introduces Ray to one of her suppliers boys
'What's up dawg?' Rick asks, high as a kite, immersed powder white in coke - 'Larry said to pay up before new supply', he says to Angie.
Angie gets her supply on credit, most times and she sells every once in a while. This was one of those times.
'Here, that's a quarter grand, i'll have the rest by weekend'
'Cool... Don't be late', Rick says as he motions her to take a pack of coke which she puts in her bag and she leaves with Ray.
Outside the bar, she gets to work, standing around the street corners, not for long, wary of the police and trying to sell off some of her product. Ray helps her cover the distance by standing at a distance within eye view from her and dealing too. They work like clockwork for the rest of the evening, almost sold out.
In the meantime, Peter joins Obi to overlook sales and distributions. The shootout with Tommy, cost him two men and a severely injured boy from the hood, who's mom he'd just visited, attempting to compensate her for her troubles.
'You know what would really make me glad, Mr. McJones?... That people like you died before they could corrupt my poor boy. God must be sleeping on your sins and evil, but if my baby boy dies, I promise to bring you all the judgment and pain you've caused'- Mrs Gibbens, the mother of the boy fighting for his life from a gunshot wound to the stomach, confessed to Peter.
It had been quite the solemn noon and more was to come. Word out on the street was that Tommy had joined up with the Serbs to battle Peter, for his turf. Word wasn't wrong.
Peter however, couldn't care less about the threat to his life.
'I need you all to be ready... Listen to Obi and no one will have to die anymore', he charges the men around and leaves everything to Obi.
The Anderson calls Peter.
'Peter, good evening.... I have the reports and recommendations for your ventures',
'Great, i'm 20 mins out, i'll be there soon'
'Okay', Rick hangs up. It's past 6pm.
Ray joins Angie home. They celebrate mouthing their success to any who'd care to listen. Including a drunk with a gun. It's quite dark.
'Hey, you two have any crack left?' A sturdy looking man asks, his face covered in s**t and beards.
Angie ignores him, but Ray takes him serious and attempts to sell him a wrap. Moving to a corner, away from any direct eye view, Ray unpacks to get a wrap he's sure is in there. Only that when he finds the wrap, he also finds a gun pointed to his head, with the bearded man motioning Angie into the corner slowly and dropping all they've got for their lives. Angie, who's with the money, barely responds. Frustrated, he shoots in the air.
Angie stands stone cold, all iced up, unable to move a muscle. He goes over to her and attempts to frisk her, forgetting about Ray.
Ray realizes this opportunity and without a second thought, dives the beggar in a fluster of punches, getting the gun off his assailant's hands. They throw a few punches in a fist fight and ray ends up beaten up, flung right by the gun he'd thrown off the assailant. He grabs Angie and picks out a pocket knife, threatening to slit her throat if Ray doesn't pass him the gun.
Ray drops it. He surrenders with both arms up in the air and kicks the gun right in front of the assailant. Only that, Angie after seeing Ray risk everything to save her, doesn't accept being the liability in this robbery.
As the assailant bends to pick up the gun, she steps on his arm and kicks the gun and knife further away, earning herself an elbow dive to the belly from the assailant. But that was what it took.
Ray on seeing Angie resist, ran to get the gun and knife. He stabs the assailant in the back right after the elbow punch on his girlfriend. Points the gun at the robber and shoots.
Angie ran to him, hugging him in tears amidst a moth wound. It was his first kill. Ray felt elated.
They rushed to Angie's home where he dropped her off and took his battered self home. However, he wasn't the only one getting battered up this evening.
The serbs did attack Peter's distros, stealing away his product and shooting the minimal resistance they'd encountered. Peter lost a sizeable fraction of his product. He didn't know of this development until the next morning, though.
'I have looked into the assets and liabilities of the ventures you run and i've put together a list of options that would help ease things out', Anderson says as he hands Peter a file.
'I'm listening', Peter says, keeping the file for later.
'The most solid's is a incorporating the business... You can do this separately for each venture or incorporate them all together. The benefits of the joint and segregated incorporation, as well as their limits is right here in the file'
'How do I incorporate?'
'You can do that through me, that part's easy... I'll need you to pick a body to incorporate as... Like a Partnership, Limited Liability company,
Limited Partnership, heck you might even want to go Nevada style, just take your time and reach a decision'
'Anderson, what would you rather I do? I'm a very busy man'. Peter responds, lost in thought.
'Well, I'd like you to know all your options and for it to be your choice.... I'd recommend a limited partnership'.
'Okay, what do I need for it?' Peter asks, rather confident in his lawyer.
'I took the liberty of drafting up a list of ventures, associates and entrepreneurs that might suit your needs... People I consider business oriented'.
'Alright... Can I see it?'
Anderson hands him a list of enterpreneurs, business corporations and what they do.
'Alright, can you give them all a call, asking for partnership and weigh out the seed from the chaff?'
'Yes, that's possible... I'll let you know their various offers and which one will be most suitable, in a week'.
'Thank you', Peter leaves with the file. He's been running a sole proprietorship so far and has been really lucky.
Maybe he was twice as lucky with clean money and half as lucky with his empire, since Mary.
'Ray, what happened?' Grace asks as she watches her son enter the house at dinner time, battered and bloody.
He just rushes to his room - 'Fought some bully'. His dad isn't home yet.
His mom follows behind him, intent on the details - 'what happened?'
'Angie was in danger, someone attacked us when we went hanging out and he beat us up'.
'Where was this? She queried.
'I'm not sure.... Mom, I killed him', Ray confesses.
Grace was shocked - 'Out on the street?'
'No.... He drew us into a corner attempting to buy crack from us and robbed us'
'You what?'
'It was my first time'
'And you say this girl's from school?'
'Yes'
'There's no time, we need to burn these clothes, do you have the gun?'
'Yes' - he says as he hands her the gun.
'I'll get rid of it... Did anyone see you?' She queries.
'No.... I don't think so', Ray responded sure.
Grace takes his clothes off him, leaves him to burn the clothes in the chimney. She wipes the gun and hides it.
'Hello Peter.... We need to talk', Mary arranges a meeting with Peter through a short phone call.
- Writer
