Trouble With Us

Chapter 10

Chapter 10........it's all about egos

Naturally after the surprise display in the office Will was front and centre of the gossip turn pike. Greg Larson was a business owner who dabbled in the stock market. A man with big dreams, little patience and no idea who he was messing with. He essentially did what Will did but on a much smaller scale. Where Will went after thriving successful companies Greg went after small fledgling companies that were struggling and near bankruptcy. Over the years Greg had experienced small to moderate capital gain allowing it to go to his head. Wanting to swim with the big fish he decided to try to take a chunk from Will. His thought was Will had become so large that he would be passive in his attention and to cocky to watch his back believing himself to be untouchable. Greg was clearly wrong in his assumption of Wills character. While Greg believing he was gaining momentum Will was actually setting him up to crash and burn.

Minutes before business closing of the previous day Will had unloaded all the stocks he had been quietly acquiring and methodically purchasing in Greg's company causing the price of the shares to plummet. Will then announced he had purchased four of Greg's competitor companies combining them into a conglomerate. While retaining the controlling portion of these shares Will then released the rest as open on the market. Investors panic and began to bail. Selling their stocks in Greg's company which caused the stock to drop into a negative value driving the shares of the conglomerate through the roof. The fallowing morning Greg's company was forced into receivership. With no choice left Greg had to declare chapter eleven bankruptcy which froze his bank accounts. The company was free falling and selling for dirt cheep.Will offered a very low payout to the remaining investors which they gladly took rather than loosing their entire life savings. This left Will as the only share holder of Greg's company so he declared it as private removing it from the stock market and folding it under Norsaks subsidiaries. By eleven o'clock that day the layoff and closure notices had gone out and the rapid dismantling and sell out of Greg's company had began. Greg was no longer a CEO. No longer a business owner of anything. All he had worked for and gained was wiped out by Will. Greg was now one of the unemployed masses with creditor and bill collectors demanding repayment of their losses. Will on the other had began to sell his shares of the conglomerate and made a profit. This was what Will had meant when this was only Greg's first day of hell.

Will was a man of his words if nothing else. If he levelled a threat you could count on it occurring. Will believed in knowing all the pieces of the puzzle and seeing the big picture. Part of knowing the big picture was knowing every detail about your competition. None of us knew it including myself but Will had a private investigator retained on staff at all times. Through the course of his investigation the private investigator had discovered Greg was having an affair with another married woman. While Greg was throwing his tantrum in the office that day three envelopes were quietly being slipped into mail boxes. Each envelope containing several pictures of the two at multiple locations caught in the act were sent to the wife, her parents and the mistresses husband. In the wife's envelope was a lawyers card with the name of the dirtiest lawyer in city. This lawyer was well known for mud slinging, playing dirty with no boundaries and winning his clients huge settlements. He owed Will a favour that I would hate to speculate on. None the less as repayment he agreed to do it pro bono and go after Greg for everything he could get. What was left after the bankruptcy anyways.

That night while we all returned to our homes and families Greg found himself checking into some lonely flee bitten hotel. A week later Greg's wife started divorce proceedings and to add insult to injury Will began to black list Greg in the business community. By then people had heard about Greg's failed attempt and Will let it be known that anyone who hired Greg that their company would be his next mark. As far as the views around the office people stood in awe and admired him all the more. Wills well earned reputation defiantly proceeded him. As far as I was concerned I couldn't help but be impressed. At the same time I could remember Will once threatening to destroy my family. Thank god I took him seriously was all I thought. Even tonight as I listened to Brad and a few of the others talk about Will with reverence and admiration I came to the conclusion it was time to tell Brad my connection to Will. I knew Will generally liked to keep his private life private but Brad had become part of my private life.