Legitimate Businesses
Legitimate Businesses
“I’m so very confused,” Presley rubbed her forehead and with her other hand reached for Cruz. She needed his strength as all of hers seemed to have seeped from her body to pool somewhere under the table. She felt comforted as his large hand engulfed hers completely and then he moved sideways and pressed his lips to
his temple.
The lawyer spoke, “Miss Brookmore, my name is Atticus Marella. I am the legal advisor for multiple families
associated with the Phoenix Initiative.”
“Phoenix Initiative?”
“Yes,” this time it was Belkin. “When we were coming up with a name of the organization where five families who usually fought one another for territory and profit were teaming up together, we came up with this name. Our goal is each woman we rescue to be like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. Liborio, when drafting our insignia, insisted we use the same shade of auburn in the flames which matched the hair of his sister and mother in tribute to them. I digress of course,” Belkin sighed, “however the five family heads meet once a month at locations nobody else could find us. We review possible targets, rescue operations and next steps. We also drink some exceptionally good wine.”
She gave a laugh, “you strike me as more of a vodka guy.”
“Stereotyping,” Belkin rolled his eyes playfully and then patted his chest, “I go nowhere without my flash of vodka. Like you with your water bottles, I carry my flask.”
“Knew it!” she giggled in spite of the serious conversation.
Atticus cleared his throat, “the five families do meet monthly with me in attendance. I also remain on retainer to manage any potential issues which arise in our business. I am an international law lawyer with my own company and several exceptional talents who report to me. I am legally able to represent you in more than nineties countries all over the world.”
“Holy s**t. You need to be brilliant.”
“I am.” Atticus gave her a serious look, “which is why I know the will which was drafted is ironclad and not a single person could ever win if it was contested. As of this morning the word is traveling through the Bartoli family how Liborio left everything to the woman he intended to make his wife. There will be questions of course and I will be there, at your side to navigate it all.”
“Aside from Phoenix, what does this all entail?”
“You are now the sole beneficiary of an estate worth roughly six hundred billion dollars,” he paused, “in American dollars. While Bartoli does have some holdings here in Canada, the bulk of his businesses were American and Italian with a few spattering throughout Europe.”
“He is mobster.” She whispered, “at the risk of insulting you Belkin, you guys run drugs and money, engage in racketeering and I’m not even sure what it is, money laundering and what else?”
“You are right. We do engage in a lot of illegal things however we may have a solution for you if you choose not to engage in those aspects of business,” Belkin commented. “I am going to leave you with Atticus to go over the rest of these documents as the full extent of your entire business portfolio was never shared with anyone else in the past.”
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“I want you stay,” she shook her head. “Belkin,” she shot a smile at Rami, “I haven’t known you long, but I consider you my family. I might have questions Cruz or Atticus might not be able to help me with. Please
stay.”
“I am honored to be your family.”
She looked and noticed Rami had stepped closer to her and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“My sister, I will be here as long as you need.” Rami squeezed her shoulder and then moved back to the spot
where he was standing guard over her.
“Mr. Bartoli has several legitimate businesses.” Atticus commented seriously as he opened an attaché case. He set a pile of documents in a brown folder in front of him, “I will send you an electronic version of this, but I do prefer in some instances having paper in my hand.” He smiled, “digital copies are great, but they are not as impactful when we’re sitting side by side.” He opened the folder, “this document details the legitimate holdings we’re about to go through.”
“This is real?” Presley interrupted him and then shook her head apologetically. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“I assure you, Miss Brookmore, there is not anything on this earth more real than what I am about to share with you.” He slid the top page across the tabletop towards her.
She pulled it in front of her and felt Cruz edging his seat closer to her to look at it with her. It was an itemized list of several businesses.
“The first business on this list is Bartoli Entertainment. It is a series of casinos, which in and of themselves are worth billions. It is the bulk of your inheritance.”
“This is where the laundering happens, I imagine,” she huffed as she traced the name.
“Some,” Atticus agreed, not sugarcoating anything. “The next line is his resort business, Bartoli Luxury Resorts and this too is worth billions. With a net worth currently sitting at thirty billion, it is only a few billion short of your casinos. Some of your casinos, such as the one in Monaco, are on resort property.”
“I see,” she whispered. “There’s a resort and casino in Monaco?”
“Yes.” Atticus gave her a warm smile. “It is a frequent playground for many of the world’s richest and elite. I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, Belkin, your friend, the prince is currently staying there with his entourage.” “Yes.” Belkin made a face and looked at Cruz, “do not trust your woman around him. He is charming and apparently hung like an elephant. More men have lost their wives to his giant c**k than you can count. My own mother told me she would give up her life blood for ten minutes with the man. I’m convinced he’s part vampire and hypnotic.”
“Cruz can trust me.”
Belkin huffed, “Presley I would bend over for him.”
She snickered, “on a scale of one to ten how hot is this guy?”
“Ninety–nine point ninety–nine,” Atticus commented with a smirk. “Not in a million years would I let my wife,
my daughters, or my mother alone with him. I swear he’d talk their panties off en masse.”
“I need to meet him. He could be a great inspiration for my next book.”
“Not in a million f*****g years,” Cruz commented dryly.
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“You’re all acting like cavemen. Jealous possessive ones who don’t trust women to keep their skirts on.”
“Guilty!” Belkin held his hands up. “I do not have a wife but if I did, she would be nowhere, and I mean. nowhere alone with this man. I will say, when he frequents your casino, he is dropping a lot of cash. He will be your best customer over the years.”
“Can’t wait to meet him.”
“Not alone. Never alone,” Cruz grunted.
“Make certain of your own sexuality of you go with her,” Belkin mocked him. “He’s not gay but you might be inclined to let Presley be with him just to watch him in action.”
“Enough!” Presley slapped the table. “Can we move on? This is foolish.”
Belkin laughed, “Cruz, I will give you all his information later.”
She snorted, “as if he’s ever been able to control me a day in his life.”
“Fair point,” Cruz agreed. He looked to the third line, “what is Farfalla?”
“This is the wine business established by Mr. Bartoli.” Atticus commented. “It is an internationally renowned
winery.”
“I have a vineyard?” she gasped.
“Several.” Atticus commented. “Two in California, three separate ones in Tuscany, one in the South of France and all under the Farfalla label. It was named after his sister’s favorite thing in the world, the butterfly.” “Liborio told me once of a story where his sister would sit in the garden in their home in Sicily surrounded by flowers and dream of being as free as the butterflies flitting around her. One day her father grew tired of her pining to grow wings of her own and so he banned her from the gardens. She was sixteen. She snuck away from home one evening and when she came back, she showed Liborio she’d gotten a tattoo on her ribcage where her father would never see it of a butterfly.”
“Wow.”
“She said he would never keep her from seeing the butterflies. A few weeks later she was dead because her desire to be free caused her to sneak out again, go in search of the man who tattooed her and asked for a kiss. She didn’t want her first kiss to be taken by the man she was supposed to marry later that month. Her father killed her in a fit of rage.” Belkin gave a sad sigh, “the man her father wanted her to marry was twenty years older than her. She was sixteen. He was thirty–six and she would have been his third wife. The first two died at his hands. It was a business deal. Phoenix is our way to make sure these types of transactions do not
happen.”
“I will make sure to honor her with this vineyard. Despite her brother losing his marbles, she sounds like a wonderful person.”
“Bartoli definitely made her out to be.”
Atticus directed them back to the list, “there is a handful of restaurants next on your list though for the most
part, they are investment opportunities which Liborio took over. There are also multiple businesses under the miscellaneous company De Facto.”
“De Facto?”
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Legitimate Businesses
“It simply means by way of fact. Liborio thought it funny to name one of his subsidiary companies this name because it was where he would do much of his loans from. In his mind it was a fact the company offered him for collateral on a loan would be part of his organization entirely. He was a brilliant businessman and could
see flaws in businesses easily. He would exploit them and then take the company; make it work and prosper and then wave it in the face of the person he took it from.”
“The last one,” she didn’t want to talk about De Facto anymore as it sounded like it was based entirely on cruelty, “Banca.”
“Simply means bank but it is the company which is a legitimate legalized enterprise which acts as his loan company. Personal loans, not the business ones under De Facto, but the personal loans, all go through this
company.”
She traced the name, “then my brother’s loan was through this.”
“Yes.”
“If I’m the beneficiary, it means my brother’s debt is now to me.”
The room went quiet at her words and then Atticus cleared his throat.
“Yes. Your brother’s loan would now be payable to you since the conditions of his loan were not met.” He met her eyes as if apologetic.
A thought occurred to her like a wriggling worm, and she shot Cruz a sideways smirk, “then tell me, was Mr. Hawley of Hawley Telecom indebted to Liborio through De Facto or Banca?”
Atticus displayed a hint of a smile, “it would be through Banca. It was not through the company but through Mr. Hawley’s personal accounts.”
“I’m meeting with my soon–to–be father–in–law later today. We’re supposed to be there now. How possible is it to get this loan information in my hands with confirmation his debt is now to me before I meet with him.” Cruz choked beside her and then erupted into laughter as Atticus was sending a text message on his phone to an administrative assistant who was allegedly in another room somewhere in this rundown building. “Ladybird, I was thinking you might not be a good fit as head of a mafia family but maybe I stand corrected,” Cruz was holding his sides as he, Belkin and Rami let their laughter echo around the room.
Presley shrugged, “I might not be able to do the killing and maiming thing, but I’m not above kicking someone in the balls or a bit of blackmail.” She almost rubbed her hands together villainously.
She couldn’t wait to see Cruz’s father’s face when she told him she owned him now.
