Jake Cullingham

8

Jake arrived to the restaurant Tom and the butler had fully booked and found the owner of Metro-corp sitting in a corner drinking an expensive wine.

All around were bodyguards of the man which had Jake smiling.

He had only one plan, and it was to dissuade the man from going into any business with the Hendrix family.

They were leeches who stole from businesses to thrive. All he had to do was make sure that Rashid was not going to sign anything with the contract with anyone from the Hendrix company.

That way, he would still keep his pride and his business.

As he entered the restaurant, he was stopped by security.

“This restaurant is closed,” the guard said to Jake who raised his brows.

“I know,” said the heir. “I’m here on business with Mr Rashid.”

The guard laughed as another guard joined him.

“Sure, and I’m here on business with the president of the country. Beat it boy, before I give you the first class ticket to the emergency room.”

Before Jake says anything, Tom intervenes. “He was sent here by Master Jake himself. Now either you keep on acting like animals or you have to deal with the owner of Technova himself.”

The men shivered after hearing it and seeing Tom wave his phone around. They could see that he wasn’t bluffing as they let the two of them walk into the restaurant.

“I know you didn’t want to out yourself so I had to improvise,” Tom whispered which had Jake nodding and walking to the table Rashid was drinking at.

“Mr Rashid?” Jake called as the man sized Jake with disgust.

“Who are you and how did you get in here?” The man asked rudely.

“I was sent…”

“Where is security when you need one?” Rashid asked, turning to look at the door in anger as he proceeded to call security.

“You do that and I am thrown out of here, that alliance you have with Master Jake would be gone and he would be ready to collect his seven hundred million dollars by tomorrow.”

Those words had Rashid turning to look at the man before him with squinted eyes.

Only those who had been in the inner circle of the company knew about the loan that had been borrowed. It had been done in secrecy.

“What do you want?”

“The same meeting that the CEO was to attend, I was sent to attend it. I am John, his best friend.”

At this point, Jake was thinking that if he met another person and gave another fake name, he would need to start writing down the names to avoid forgetting them.

“So let me get this straight. The CEO of technova, Mr Jake sends a… friend to handle this close knitted business.”

“That is correct. Also may I remind you of the vows you made to Mr Cullingham, Mr Jake’s father. To be there at all times and provide services to master Jake and all he needs.”

“I do remember all of that. You don’t need to remind me of what I already know.”

“Then if that is so, we can start now.”

Rashid gave a heavy sigh as he remembered the promise he had made.

“I’m sorry for not keeping the promise I made. I’ll try my best to give you what you need.”

“Great. Now it has come to my attention that you and the Hendrix family are about to expand your business and take it to further parts of the country?”

“Yes.”

“And why is that?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well you see, I just want to know why you want to expand so rapidly. You were doing well already. I’m sure with a few more years you would expand without the need of taking out more loans and having a partnership with the Hendrix family.”

“Look, I don’t know if you know this but I have more customers than ever. I listen to the reviews of my customers and they want me to expand. Plus it would be good for business. I would have come to you guys for the loan and partnership as I did last time to start up but as you can see, Mr Cullingham is not really on his feet to sign with me. Plus master Jake has been missing for years now. Showing up out of nowhere to set this meeting. If I had known he was around I would have spoken to him first but it’s no big deal. That is where the Hendrix family comes in. They also see potential in my business and they also want me to expand. They have the resources, they have multiple businesses all over the country and they have the ability to pull this off with me. It’s a win-win. I can’t see why this would not work for me.”

Jake listened to this with mixed feelings and decided to give out his own opinion.

“Mr Rashid, how many businesses who took out loans from the Hendrix family got to expand their businesses?”

The man thought about it before giving his own answer.

“None.”

“Exactly. Even my fa…” Jake halted as he noticed he was about to expose himself. “Even Mr Cunningham's business crashed into the ground after taking loans from that company. They were responsible for doing that to the business. Now, due to the fact that the Hendrix family is an enemy of the Cullingham’s I would advise you to stay away from signing that shady contract as they would never let you expand. You will give out your business as a collateral and in the end they would take everything you own. Cars, houses, businesses, until you are left with nothing. Do not go into partnership with them. It won’t end well for you as it hasn’t ended well for those who did.”

Rashid looked behind him in fear and kept his mouth shut as he tried to keep himself calm.

“That’s a lot to take in,” he finally blurted.