Heirs To The City: The Quartet

Chapter Ten

The Media managers walked into my office as I stood looking over New York and the storm that was swirling over my city and pelting my tower with rain. I had noticed that I flickered between calmly running my company and brutally getting what I wanted this was one of those instances. Years of memories, of all the dark shit that happened to make me who I am now was coming back.

I also knew I had to come up with a plan quickly and I had a suspicion that there was a game being played to force me to act. I had entered just a year ago and it was my brutal practices that led to me even being where I am. Olivia had always called it my darkness the look I got when things went wrong, when people were in trouble like there was the man she saw, the version the world saw, and then there was the caged demon who I only let out to play when things were serious.

I just considered that part of me who I really was, that part of me had been able to pull guns, and box until my hands bled, that part of me had gone to save Olivia, and had ruined people.

I would admit Winters Group was majoritively legal, however I had my grey area activities that I kept so well hidden that no one would ever find any of them. Association with the Sorenko Crime Family in Europe was one as they had global influence and connections, and money could dispose of every problem I would ever have. But now I had to tread carefully, if I wanted to preserve my power over New York.

If I chose to completely destroy the media company against me I may never find out who was deep diving into all of my business history and how they had uncovered so much since all my business deals had NDA's put in them, and the signee knew every time. I may have been an expert in how to manipulate clauses and contracts but I was also a fair businessman. I knew that everyone had to benefit though my tactic of creating a union just to absorb that company was a very common practice. It was that same reason that approximately forty percent of all of the money I made in my first year as CEO came from takeovers. My other option was that I could accept the truth of what I was like as a businessman, allow more then just rumours about how I did things, to allow the world to know that I targeted companies with illegal activities and then collected all the profits afterwards.

I also knew that if an investigation started into the various internal operations I did with my friends to ensure that certain systems were undermined for all of our benefits I'd either end up with a fine or in jail, so I now had to find a way to ensure the safety of my own company and my friends integrity since if anyone wanted to dig, I had connections to almost a hundred companies, and the thousands of private deals we all agreed on had turned significant profit for all of us.

The one thing that the public didn't know was that I'd spend the better part of my youth designing all kinds of technology both digital and material. I had been manipulating stocks of other companies since I was ten just by putting in money in certain parts of its investments and pulling from another, it would drop the stock, and then build the value of another when the company tried to save itself. I'd also been able to break through firewall for around the same time period which led to me making my security software, and even to this day I could clear out the software of another company and make it so that an accident would happen allowing me to take it.

Nico hadn't known about that, but he had suspected when I destroyed Ambrose Engineering's reputation by planting all kinds of information and false deals, while having now gone shell companies do deals with Hunter's father. I hadn't ever minded Damon Ambrose but I did know he had neglected his son and so I simply ruined the company rather then the person. Damon had done that himself when all the stories of how he had treated his son who was simply reaching out in other ways to gain the attention of his father. That ruined him, and led to his divorce, and I wouldn't admit that I'd been behind almost all of the things that led to my friends gaining their positions in one way or another. Nico was the exception however it was with a joint effort between us that much of Harrington Industries had expanded it's security types. Though that was legal; trial and information tampering was not.

A knock then sounded from my door bringing me out of me thoughts and Kaylee stepped into the office.

"Mr. Winters the managers are here to speak with you," she says and I glanced to her before nodding.

"Have my security bring them in," I reply before taking my seat and watching as two of my PPO's walked in looking bored as they were supposed to with the group of three Managers in front of them.

"Mr. Winters, hello," the middle man says flashing me a smile though I could tell that he was uncomfortable especially since the top of his shirt was undone, something that even his striped tie couldn't hide.

"Hold off on the pleasantries, I'm not here to have pleasant conversations. See, you allowed your company to publicize information that I didn't agree to have brough to public attention. So you're going to remove it from the media waves, and take it down from all social media pages. It will be flagged as misinformation. And there will be no problems between you and I," I say my face void of any expressive emotion until the end when I fixed them with a small malignant smile.

"Your company is in the public viewing all the time, and you were in public when certain deals that are being used as reference were made into the stories," another one of the managers states puffing up his chest as he stepped towards my desk.

"I'd be more careful talking to me like that," I warn standing and all three of them finding themselves well beneath me.

"And why's that Mr. Winters?" the same man retorts, having to lift his chin to look at me.

"Because I have a right to enforce the privacy of myself, my employees, and my company. I have no need to let any of you know anything, I only report to the US government, who I have close ties to because I am the largest importer of goods on the East and West Coasts," I say, "make that into a story, but you won't it's businessmen like me that you will villify, and I will give you a reason too, you have twelve hours to remove the information you've released. It was going to be twenty-four but your proudest employee spoke," I say addressing the middle man again.

"And if we don't?" the asshole mutters.

"You would be surprised how quickly I can buy out your company, and media is allowed to be privately owned," I say, already imagining how easy it would be to slip a destroying code into the companies servers to leak all their sensitive information, and with the rise of AI I could have it turn all of it into a linked document, and have it so that if they wanted it to come down it would flash wipe their entire companies database.

They all would be targetted, though the one in the middle who had been rightfully worried would be spared the brunt.

"Now I suggest you get to it," I say before giving a look to my PPO's who began to escort them from the building and I returned to my work which began with the development of code on a private laptop that I could completely encrypt.

As I finished creating the code for what I was planning, and would be launched when that twelve hour time was up, I suddenly got an email on my main computer and glanced to it, only to find another forwarded email from Kaylee. Turning away from the saved program I hid the upload option and set it before turning off the computer and opening the email I'd been sent only to clench my fist around my mug.

This wasn't fucking good.

Before me I was staring at a highly detailed article page across a dozen different countries talking about the Ambrose Case, including all the webbed together pieces that were supposed to have been private, and that worried me in the slightest that whoever this was, had access to the courthouses historical documents, and the kind of power or influence to breach it without consequence.
    
    
So more has been leaked, what do you think will happen and how bad are any of you suspecting this to go, keep in mind that this is the area of Adrian's life where he was still building his reputation. Comment, vote, and share. Anyways

 Peace✌️