Page 12 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
Raymond followed me closely as I marched through the office. I showed him where my office was and, of course, the waiting room. Then, we walked through the storage space, which was about the size of a four-car garage, before heading to the second floor to the full gym. I showed him the equipment and the specialized training schedule.
“I like to make sure all our guys are in the best shape possible… and have access to learn anything they may be weak in,” I explained.
“That’s brilliant.” Raymond looked around the equipment. “Not something we currently do, but I’m sure that will be a practice shift for us as well. If you don’t mind me stealing your idea.”
“I’m not the first to do it, and besides, it's better for your men if they have every possible advantage when it comes to their job.”
“That’s true.” He nodded.
“Well.” I clapped as I led him back to the front entrance. “That’s everything.”
“The facilities look great, and I can tell you take great care of your staff here,” he complimented.
“My people are my top priority.” I nodded and reached for the door. “I find the happier they are, the better job they do.”
“That makes you a brilliant leader. Not enough people understand that. Unfortunately, the ones who don’t are usually the ones in leadership roles.”
“Can I take that to mean you’re good with working together now?”
“Not quite.” He rubbed his thick beard with his hand. “How long have you been running this business?”
“Didn’t you say before that you had done your research on me? I’m surprised something as simple as that hasn’t come up.”
“I said your name came up during my research,” he corrected me. “I never said I remembered anything pertinent.”
“Ouch.” I nodded. “I guess I deserve that, but to answer your question, I’ve been in business for about a decade now. I got things going a few years after Rose did. Actually, I had shared my ideas with her, and you can say she took inspiration from my notes.”
“Did she take inspiration, or did she steal your idea?” He raised a brow at me.
“I never said that.”
“You don't have to. Actually, I know a lot more about you than I let on.” The long locs swayed at his sides as he leaned back on Natalie’s desk just outside my office door. “Rose had a whole folder on you. It contained your original plans for your business, and a few notes about your encounters after you both got started.”
“A folder?” I took my hand off the door and walked over to him. “What else was in this folder?”
“Articles about your success. She kept up with everything you had going on, but I think you know that. I assume that's why you guys weren't that close.”
“How did you know we weren’t close?”
“Jericha, you didn’t even know she had sold the business.” He laughed. “It’s not that hard to figure out. Actually, I'm surprised you called her your friend when you came in. She’s more like a snake, if you ask me.”
“What can I say? I was in a desperate position.” I shrugged. “The things we do to make our businessa success.”
“Been there before.” He sighed. “When I first started this path, buying and selling businesses, it was a hard start up. But in just a few years, I’ve managed to make good headway for myself.”
“You’ve been in desperate positions? How desperate?” My eyes narrowed.
A dry chuckle escaped him. “Desperate enough to ask for help from someone I knew stabbed me in the back before, just like you.”
“Happy to hear I'm not the only one. So, what do you think? Is this gonna work out?”
“Everything you sent over looks good. The facilities are great, much better than the ones we're working with. So, if you don't mind, we'll be using this more so than mine. I'm not really trying to build up that business. I just want to make the books look good enough so someone wants to take it off my hands.” Raymond switched into business mode, and I could already see why he’d been able to garner the success he boasted about. “There are a lot of things there that we can pull over here, inventory and such. If there was one thing Rose liked to do, it was buy things she didn’t need. Actually, if we could put that into the contract, I'll sell all of it to you at a discount.”
“What about your other clients?” I questioned. “If you move everything here, won’t that make it difficult for you to do what you need?”
“Our other clients don't require nearly as much stuff as she purchased. Honestly, I'm not even sure why she has half of this stuff there. I think Rose got so caught up in trying to look like she was successful, she forgot to actually do anything to secure success for herself. From the outside looking in, that business is doing great, but when you get into the paperwork, it's just a bunch of inventory, very low sales, and a team of people who are ready to walk out the door. Actually, I already reached out to a few of our guys and asked if they would be interestedin this partnership, and they're looking forward to it,” he reported. “That’s what took me so long to get here today.”
“You talked to your team before meeting me?” I raised a brow.
