Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
HUDSON
W ith the first breaking rays of the sun, I stir awake. Juliette has her head on my shoulder, and her body is fully relaxed against mine. She trusts me now. I can see in the way she’s let herself be totally free with me now.
Last night was amazing. After we made love, the two of us were totally spent, and for a while, we considered just passing the night up there in the tower but doing that was risking getting found in the morning by my workers. I could call Darry and tell him to order that no one is to come into the lighthouse until I ask them to, but I didn’t want to disturb him, so we dressed and found our way to my suite in the industry complex. There, we both went to sleep immediately, welcomed by the soft cushioning of the bed, and we saw we made a good decision to come up here.
Now, the day has broken, and there is a lot to do. Even though I don’t want to, and I want to keep watching her sleep, I shake Juliette awake. She stirs in her sleep and turns away from me, evidently not ready to get up yet.
“It’ll be a long day,” I tell her as I get out of bed, walk to the window, and pull the blinds apart. Light floods into the room, causing her to groan. But finally, she gets out of bed.
“Why can’t we stay in all day today?” she asks.
“I need to see my workers this morning before we head back into town, and I promised to show you how things work here. We don’t have much time to spend here. I have to be back in town before noon.”
There are some final touches I have to put into the plans that are already underway.
She frowns but gets out of bed. We take our showers together, and that takes longer than planned. After having our shower, we dress, and soon, we’re out of the suite, heading towards the industry complex. Just as we’re about to get into the car, Darry pulls up beside us in his minivan. He jumps down, and by the look on his face, I can tell something is wrong.
“What is it?”
“I think it’s Frank,” he says.
“Frank? Is he here?”
“No, but there are men at the main office saying they’re from the SEC. They have a stack of documents that says they’re allowed to put a stop to production. We have to harvest the salmon today, Hudson. If we don’t, we won’t be able to meet the demands we have on the ground already.”
Frank, the thought of him fills me with fury. Elizabeth said he’d do something like this. I just didn’t expect it to come this fast.
“If you stretch production, speed to its maximum, how long can we delay the harvesting and still meet the demands?” I ask Darry.
“Two or three days. Anything beyond that, and we’re in dangerous territory,” he says.
“I’ll take care of it,” I reassure him. “Come on, let me talk to the men and reassure them.”
“That’ll be great,” he tells me, jumping back into his van. I drive ahead of him, returning to the industry complex. We park in the central parking area, and the eerie silence is disturbing. I get out of the car with Juliette right beside me. Having her here fills me with pride. This is my girl, and I want to tell the world but first, I must handle this Frank business.
I look at my wristwatch to find the time is already past eight and on good days, the industry should be running at full power already. I walk into the common area and can see the men from the SEC. They are gathered in a corner, looking absolutely clueless as to what they’re supposed to be doing. They are doing a perfect job of disturbing production already. I’m sure Frank will be proud. Or at least proud of whoever he strong-armed into sending his people here.
“Get the men to meet me in the main area in three minutes,” I tell Darry as he walks over to address the men. I head towards the main area, which is a big hall large enough to accommodate all my workers. At least all the ones working here in my Manhattan factory.
“Do you want me to stay back here?” Juliette asks me, looking around, and not sure what she is supposed to be doing.
“No,” I say to her, reaching for her as I open the door to the main communication area. “I want you right by my side.”
She looks very satisfied with that and follows me into the room. I stop at the front of the room. She stands by my side, and we both watch my workers enter. When they’re all gathered, Darry walks over to me and whispers into my ear that they’re ready for me.
I cough to get their attention, even though many are already watching me, waiting to see what I have to say to them.
“It’s nice to see all of you again. I had hoped we’d meet this morning under better conditions. You all, I’m sure, know my fiancée, Juliette.”
They say hi to her, and Juliette waves to them.
“I hoped to show her how we run things here. We’ll have to visit that some other time. For now, I have to address the situation at hand. We will provide to the men out there whatever it is that they need. We have committed no crime, but Frank wants to bully us into surrendering. I want to assure you, like I have always done, that will never happen. Mr. Dubois won’t get ownership of this company, not as long as I’m alive. Production will be temporarily put on hold for now, but we’ll be back up again soon. So, if you have your loved ones around, go spend the day with them. If you don’t, go enjoy what the town has to offer.”
I see hands raised. They have questions.
“Will this break affect our pay for the week?”
“No, you will be paid as usual.”
“What about our salmon? We were supposed to start harvesting today.”
“Let the fish enjoy the water for a little longer,” I say, and the crowd laughs.
“We’ve heard that Frank Dubois will finally pull some lever to buy you out,” someone in the crowds says.
“All of Frank’s levers are broken. He would have pulled them a long time ago if they weren’t. Frank has no leverage over me, and as long as we remain solid as a team, each member diligently carrying out their duties, we’ll be just fine. Frank wants us to worry; he will try to sow dispute within our ranks, but we must make that difficult for him. Tomorrow, you’ll resume work, and you’ll be addressed by your team leaders; for now, have a good day.”
My tone is simple enough: Enough questions.
They all pick up on that and walk on, leaving Darry behind.
“Will you talk to them?” Darry asks me, referring to the men outside.
“I see no reason to. I should head back into town.”
I walk out of the room and start towards the main entrance, but Juliette and I get accosted immediately by one of the men from SEC.
“Mr. Sinclair, please give me a minute of your time,” the man says and runs over to me.
“Just a minute,” I tell him.
“I wanted to let you know we were sent here by Ruffy Lark.”
I know him, not so much, but enough to know he is one of Frank’s lap dogs. No wonder they were here before the factory opened for the day’s work. Frank is intent on absolute sabotage.
“I see Mr. Lark does a thorough job,” I say.
“Yes, he does. He also wants to speak to you,” the man says, handing me his cell phone. I have the urge to ignore the call and walk away, but I take it and talk with the man on the other end.
“Mr. Sinclair. I’m lucky to find you at one of your industries this morning.”
One of my industries. So, they’ve successfully shut down all my units this morning. Well done, Frank.
“What do you want?” I ask Lark, my voice letting him know we’re not buddies and I don’t intend to waste time socializing with him.
“Frank can’t make it to your industries. He’s occupied with a lot of work. If you were to turn on machines, my men there would be deaf to it all and would report to me at the end of the day the results of their investigations. I hear there are some very nice resorts around town where they can spend the next ten hours or so.”
He is trying to warming himself up to me. This is another one of Frank’s lackies who can see that the man might not win this and doesn’t want to make an enemy of me. Unfortunately for him, I want to win this fair and square.
“Your men have a duty to fulfill here, Mr. Lark. My men won’t get in their way and will provide all that they ask for and that they’re legally allowed to access. I think this is what keeps society functioning. Everyone doing their job perfectly well.”
“Of course, of course,” says Mr. Lark with a note of disappointment in his voice.
“They’ll get to work immediately.”
I have no intention of getting indebted to one of Frank’s men. That is a terrible idea.
I end the call, hand the phone back to the man, and finally walk out of the hall.
“Are we returning to the ranch?” she asks me.
“Yes,” I say. “We’ll pack up and leave. Frank has said we’re not welcome there anymore.”
This action is a clear indication that the faux civility we both were practicing is done with. In war, there are casualties and no mercy for who comes out the loser.
We get into the car, and before we drive out, I call my other factories. Everything is at a standstill. No work can be done, and everyone is waiting for my directive.
My directive remains the same. We don’t go on the offensive just yet. We watch to see what more Frank has up his sleeve.
As we finally drive out of the complex. I get a call from Alison.
“I just heard,” she said. “Where are you?”
“Leaving the Manhattan complex. I was going to show Juliette around, but that isn’t possible anymore.”
If Alison has any objections to that, she keeps it to herself. But I can hear her displeasure in her voice. “What do we do?”
“The only thing we can do. We sit and wait,” I tell her.
“We need to retaliate,” she says.
“No, not now.”
“What do you mean not now? We can’t afford to have the industries shut down for two days. We can’t let ourselves begin to have trouble with revenue. It’s the only thing working for us now.”
“We’ll take a small hit. We’ll survive this pain. Just hold on,” I tell her.
“Do you have a plan?” she asks me.
“Of course. I know exactly what to do.”
Elizabeth gave me all the ammunition I needed. Now, I just have to find the right time to fire.
“We still have revenue coming in from Rakeem’s company, right?”
“Yes,” Alison says.
“Good. That will suffice for now. Is there anything else?”
“Yes,” Alison says. “You need to go to the mansion. Go with Juliette. There is someone there for her. He says his name is Benny, and her mother sent him.”