Even as Frank shook his head, he soon had a better idea and told Bravo, “How about this? You probably won’t have any use for this land right after reclaiming it from the Salazars. Why not rent out the land and the factory along with the machines to me? I’ll pay you ten percent more than what the Salazars paid you before.”
“What?!” Bravo gaped and shook his head firmly. “No, absolutely not!”
Frank frowned in turn. “What about twenty percent?”
“No, you misunderstand, Mr. Lawrence.” Bravo quickly understood that Frank had the wrong idea when he raised his price. We’d never charge you the price we charged the Salazars—it’d be going against our conscience.”
He then added, “So, how about this? We’ll only charge you the rent for using our land. The factory and the machinery didn’t come from our money anyway, so you can have it on the house. Don’t turn us down now, Mr. Lawrence, or you’d be disrespecting myself and Mr. Stinson.”
Seeing that Bravo was determined, Frank nodded exasperatedly. “Fine. But I’ll still give you a ten percent cut on any products manufactured here—I’ll be needing some muscle for security.”
“No problem!” Bravo agreed to it right away. “Here’s to a pleasant partnership, Mr. Lawrence!”
“Yeah.” Frank nodded, splitting up the last treasures of the Salazars with just a few exchanges.
–
Donald Salazar only found out that his men were chased out of the factory a day later.
Crash!
He sent his plate of food flying to the floor, leaving his wife in stunned silence.
“Jaud White, you incompetent piece of shit!” Donald cried even as he knocked the entire dining table over before coughing up blood and collapsing unconscious.
Everyone was terrified and promptly did everything to resuscitate him.
After considerable effort, he recovered, when one of his men came in. “Sir, Bocek Ocean and his daughter are asking to see you.”
“Bocek?” Donald was delighted that Sage Lake Sect made contact.
Bocek came days ago and took the Goldeater Cane, but they had not heard from him since. Donald certainly had reason to believe Sage Lake Sect abandoned them.
“Show them in!” Donald cried even as he scrambled to get off the floor.
However, just as he seated himself, he was left staring as Bocek limped inside, needing his daughter’s mutual assistance to walk.
Donald’s pupils widened right then. “What’s this?”
Bocek said he would be using the Goldeater Cane as bait to set a trap to kill Frank.
Why had he and his daughter returned, looking beaten up?!
“Ahem…”
Bocek hacked violently even as he took his hand off Quinn’s shoulder, struggling to straighten himself as he turned to Donald. “Mr. Salazar, my daughter needs a favor—please transport us back to Sage Lake Sect.”
