The Masked Emotions Book Two Redux: Longing

Ultimatums

     "As you already know, I am thinking about going public in a couple of months." He sighed, "But I am still on the fence."

     "Don't do it," Nadia spoke in a cold chilling tone. She took a long sip of wine before handing him back the manila envelope. "Currently, we are not subjugated to the SEC rules and although we cannot raise capital in the public markets, we have a long and respectable relationship with our banking institutions." She paused and looked at the wide smile on his face. "But you are already well aware of that. So why had you brought this up?"

     Akira then handed her the third manila envelope. "I am going to offer stock ownership to both outside parties and a selected few. Nadia opened the envelope and gasped, inside was a stock certificate with her name in golden letters. She looked up at him in utter surprise. "I am giving you and my daughters ten percent each."

     Nadia looked at his kind face and shook her head. "You know I cannot accept this Akira. This is too much and..."

     "You can and you will." His face hardened and his voice became stern. "Think of it as a business strategy."

     "A strategy?"

     "Yes." He took a short sip of wine and let out a dark smile. "You see, as I mentioned before, I will be offering shares to outside parties and I have a lot of enemies who would love to try to buy me out of my own company or at very least buy themselves into the board room."

     "So why are you doing this?"

     "Because my dear Nadia," he sighed, "my enemies are vast and hidden, but placing my shares out on the open market I can see who is trying to buy the majority of them and by doing so, my enemies are made known to me."

     Nadia then smiled at him. "That way you could crush them."

     Akira's face lit up, "See you are catching on quite well, plus by filling my board room with people loyal to me, I can make their lives a living hell." He reached out and softly touched her hand, she briefly flinched, but grabbed his hand. "How's your survivor's meeting?"

     "It's okay," she sighed "As you already know I go there early and help my sponsor set the chairs up and make the coffee. Sometimes I would go and get the crappy donuts from the supermarket. Other times I would..." she stopped short and watched the smile forming on his face. "What?"

    "Nothing." He giggled, "So tell me about this man."

    Nadia blushed "His name is Raul Ortiz." She sighed, "he's nice, very open about himself, nine years ago he lost his wife and unborn child to a drive-by shooting. He helps me a lot. He's very blunt, rude, but he's funny and caring and he's kind of cute, but he's also chunky and bald."

     "How old is he?"

     "Twenty-eight." She laughed, "What's with the interrogation?"

     Akira let out a loud belly laugh, "Nothing you just appeared to be a bit smitten that's all. Which is great considering what you have to do for your next step."

     His comment caused Nadia to frown. She did found Raul to be a little attractive, but she knew she was nowhere ready for a relationship, plus he's eight years older than her. However, she was confused by his comment and she swallowed hard. "I thought we covered all of the steps needed." she nervously laughed.

     Akira looked at her, pressing his lips together. "You did indeed perform all of my tasks needed and you've done them quite well... extremely well, you embraced it in a way I never thought possible; but they were all steps to reclaim what was taken from you. Your power, confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth. But there are still two more step needed and I will not force you to do it anytime soon, but eventually, you will have to do it, either it is a few months or a few years from now. It has to be done. However, given the circumstances and what we need to do, it has to be sooner than later."