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“Of course,” Grey replied He stepped forward and smiled a mouthful of white “And what is that price, sir? How much?”
Brian rocked back on his heels “Well, I… I’d have to get the financials together you know? Don’t you wanna see the books?”
Grey shook his head “Nope How much?”
Brian began to turn his head towards uidance on how to handle this maniac
“Don’t look at her,” Grey snapped His voice boomed with the command of a tycoon “She doesn’t own the place How much do you want? Name your price Come on Brian, you knohat your place is worth Name it Now”
“Seven hundred thousand”
Grey nodded and without wasting another second, began to scribble in his checkbook After he finished writing, he slipped his pen back in his pocket and with a single swipe, tore the check out and passed it to Brian
Brian’s eyebrows tented upwards I couldn’t tell if it was a look of disgust or surprise
“Uh,” he stuttered “Are you… sure about this?”
“Absolutely,” Grey said
“It says three… million… dollars”
“Not enough?” Grey asked, as he motioned for Brian to pass the check back to him
In a haze of disbelief, Brian glanced at uy for real?”
I crossed ust “Unfortunately, he is”
“Well shit, buddy,” Brian said, folding the check and sticking it in the front pocket of his shirt “You got yourself a goddamn deal Welcome to the coffee b’ness”
Grey took his hand, but as he did, he said, “I do have two conditions to my offer, however”
Brian nodded “Name ‘em”
“The first is that you stay on long enough to train soement team to take over”
“Okay,” Brian said, nodding “What’s the other?”
Grey turned towards me “That you fire this woman at once”
“No problem, buddy”
He nodded at et out”
My jaw fell open in disbelief I stepped back and slapped him across the upper arm
“Uh! Brian!”
He shrugged “What? You heard the man”
“Fine,” I said, as I untiedit on the counter, I reached underneath, grabbed et out of there as fast as I could Brian’s head moved on a swivel as I raced by him and headed for the exit but before I could reach it, Grey stepped in front ofmy escape
“Get out of my way, Grey,” I warned “So help me, I’m in no mood”
“All right,” he said, as he stepped aside and opened the door for o”
I turned my head away from him and as I did, he reached inside of his pocket and pulled out his checkbook Brandishing it in front of my face, he continued, “No matter where you work, I will buy the place and fire you Go where you wish, you will not escape ain”
GREY
Was Maddie Olsen worth three million dollars?
I’d bought and sold billions of dollars’ worth of shit over the years Businesses, stocks, bonds, cohts, and on and on If it had profit potential in it, I’ve probably purchased it at one time or another
Even so, the most valuable resource any successful business has is its people and when it ca enterprise, none were more important to it than Maddie She was the one ouldenough to understand that
And so, is that why I came all the way here, to the epicenter of ‘fly over country’? To get the person responsible for running the business back?
Yes
And no
Yes because I’d be a goddamn fool of a business indifficult as Maddie was to control, soer on it All I kneas I had no interest in letting her disappear on me