Chapter 3
“I don’t follow,” Brandon said.
“You will.” Gabriel slid a folder across the desk. Untouched. “Before we discuss what happens to your company, you’re going to understand what you walked into.”
Brandon opened it with two fingers, like it might be wired to something. Photographs. Financials. Shell companies he recognized and three he didn’t.
“This is my firm’s—”
“This is everything your firm owes to banks that answer to me.” Gabriel’s voice didn’t rise. It never needed to. “You came here today to ask for eight million dollars from a man whose wife you humiliated on camera for entertainment. You didn’t do your research, Mr. Pierce. That’s the first mistake.”
Brandon’s throat worked around nothing.
“I didn’t know she was your wife.”
“Would it have mattered if she wasn’t?”
Silence answered for him.
Gabriel closed the folder himself. “Here’s what happens now. You’re not getting the eight million. You’re going to spend the next six months explaining to your investors why every door in this city just quietly closed. And you’re going to do it without my name ever once appearing anywhere near the reason.”
May you like
“That’s— that’s extortion.”
“No.” Gabriel stood, buttoning his jacket, done with him. “Extortion is when I ask for something in return. I’m not asking you for anything, Mr. Pierce. I’m simply no longer interested in making you rich.”
