Jake Cullingham

Bird in the box

That same day after his meeting with his subordinate and his butler, he decides to go see his long time best friend and ally, Harry.

They had gone to the same college and graduated together. For a short time, Harry had worked for the Cullinghams before making something of himself and traveling to another location to find his own path.

He didn’t cut communication with Jake as they were friends and they kept in touch, so when Jake told him his plans of revenge, Harry who also hated the Hendrixs had plans to make it a reality.

“Good to see you Jake,” smiled Harry as he got up from his seat to shake his friend before gesturing to a seat across his table.

“Thanks man. You haven’t aged a day.”

“Dude, it’s only been a year or two. Cut me some slack.”

“I expected the Macdonalds to have caught up on you.”

They laughed at that joke before getting down to business.

“You know why I’m here Harry,” the heir said. “You know what I want.”

“And while I fully support you, I just want you to know that what you might be doing might be considered in this part of the world as a felony.”

“How so? It’s just revenge. I’m giving them the same treatment they gave me and my family.”

“Deliberate harm isn’t a thing the law smiles at. You could just… walk away.”

Those words were not something Jake wanted to hear and he frowned at the thought of leaving his plans behind.

“Have you seen my father as of late?” He said, going through his phone to pull up a picture of his father being hooked up to a machine. “Yep, that’s him. Now how do you think I wake up every morning to have video calls with my mother only for her to show me this. Those people destroyed my family, Harry. I am not taking anything back. I’m going down with the ship so stick to the plan and show me what you know.”

They had a staring contest to which Harry lost as he nodded and started clacking in his keyboard.

“Lucky for you I am in charge of the data of the company in this country and I am doing a routine check so it’s not against the law,” he smiled mischievously.

Jake wanted to know more about the family and the company. He wanted to know what he was working with.

He had already gone to the company earlier in disguise even when it wasn’t the ideal thing to do.

He had snooped around and gotten what he wanted. Now he had physical contact of what he wanted, he needed to see their online presence.

Harry showed him the data.

“This is against the law for you to go through since you are not a nobody and your family is already still in partnership with the company.”

“I don’t care,” Jake said, going through the names of the leaders of the company. “It seems like Camilla, their eldest daughter is the heir to the company and would inherit it when she gets married.”

“So what? You want to get married to her to get access to the company?”

“Don’t put so much pressure on me. I’m still thinking of my options.”

“The plan when last we spoke on the phone was for you to be her bodyguard. Getting up close and personal wasn’t the plan.”

“This is up close and personal to me Harry,” the man growled. “I will take them for everything they have.”

“Jake, listen to yourself. You’re blinded by anger. Maybe you should take some time off. Cool down. You’re in a new place. You have enough money to blow out. I can show you around. We could get some drinks, you could play a few games and even make a few investments and make a few…”

“…thousands? Millions?” scoffed Jake. “My father made multiple billions from his company. You expect me to roll over and start over like I’m playing monopoly.”

“You go after these people and you won’t have a life when you’re done. I’ve seen what they do to people and trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

They sat in silence for some time while Jake scrolled through his phone with an intense look on his face.

Harry, who was curious, looked across his table to see a live feed of people around a building.

“Is that a camera feed I see?”

“Yeah. I placed some around the Hendrix estate today as well as their building.”

“Invasion of privacy, felony and a jail time to boot without bail. And that makes me an accessory to whatever crazy this is.”

Jake dropped away his phone to look at his friend.

“I need help, Harry. And you are going to help me. I wish I had someone else to work with me on this but all I have apart from my subordinate Tom and my butler is you.”

“This could get me in jail.”

“I’ll get you a good lawyer.”

“I could lose my license for this.”

“I’ll… figure something out.”

“There was a pause. A very long pause and I don’t like it.”

“Will you stop panicking and help me? It’s not like you won’t be getting back at them for all they’ve done to you anyway.”

Harry sighed. “You know?”

“Demoting you for telling them the truth about their company’s acquisition sector? I’ve done my research.”

They both sighed.

Jake looked at the computer to see Camilla’s face.

She wasn’t bad looking but he didn’t want to marry her as he hated the family for what they had done, however he had plans for them.

He didn’t care if he would be a bodyguard or a romantic suitor anymore. Whatever would get the job done he would do it.

“So are you going as Jake Cullingham or do you have a secret identity?” Asked Harry, but Jake smiled and got to his feet.

“I’ll let you guess.”