Chapter 6 – The Next Morning Part II

Jake was furious, more at his own self than anything, but it didn't help with all the pressure that he was on. In the ride over to the Stock Exchange Complex, he had to review and memorize all of the things that he would bring up during his improvised PowerPoint presentation. He would have to sell it. He would have to convince these investors to invest sums of money into his company. Jake didn't really need their money, he had it covered with funds from NIGB, but if he was able to get large sums of money off of these people, it would take a lot of pressure off of the company.

National and International General Broadcasting Company wasn't in financial troubles as other companies were, it was churning out a profit of $1.5 Billion dollars a year. Not to mention the income that came from the side companies, which totaled to a little over $500 Million. But if he were to get a stable flow of money that didn't come from NIGB or any of its subsidiaries, his day would become a lot better. They were in the Limousine stuck in traffic. Jake had taken the time to review the profiles of the people that would be attending his presentation. They were all your typical rich people. They were members of boards of directors. They themselves were CEOs, some of them where just rich people that had their money from their families, "Alright, so with Mr. Barta, I complement him on how his bank is doing?"

Maggie's appointed replacement, a young man named John Yates, whom Jake had only meet maybe three times in the boy's career nodded approvingly, "You need to be oblivious to the fact that his family bank is technically tanking …"

"Oh lord," Jake chuckled and picked up the photo of the stuffy looking Bank CEO, "How bad is it?"

John rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Well at the end of last quarter, they hemorrhaged the few billion that they had made it profit. I guess their board had decided to allow the company to pay back their bailout from the Government."

"That's the good thing about Television John," Jake smiled at set the photo down, "We're not a bank and people will always buy our products, they need entertainment and information and we give it to them. So I'm pretty sure that we can make it through this recession without getting scratch on us. Speaking of which, how have you been doing?"

The boy almost looked delighted that had asked, Jake bit back a scoff, this kid wasn't subtle, "Well I finally graduated college, I finally got my masters in Economics and I already had this job as a starting point. Life's been good to me."

"Economics, you say?" Jake asked looking at the kid with a curious expression.

John nodded and picked up the last profile of a very last minute attendee that he had forgotten. The people at the NASDAQ had faxed this to Maggie last night and it was rather surprising if you considered their ability to be punctual on all things, but they didn't complain. The next investor had a large sum of potential capital for Publishing Max. Her name was Rose Thorn, she was the only surviving relative of a Gun Company Owner, and when he had died, she inherited his rather large fortune, "The last one that you need to know is this one, her name is Rose Thorn and she-…"

But Jake had stopped at that name, oh he knew that name, or as he knew it, guise, from anywhere. Snatching the picture and details out of John's hand, he almost felt his brain lose blood at the sight of Rose. Oh yes, there was no one in the world with that unique of a name and he knew that there was only person in New York with the name of Rose Thorn. She was going to be there! Oh this was not going to be good, Jake knew that. If there was ever a time that he wished for a stroke, or a heart attack, this would definitively be one of them. Sighing, he shook his head and looked down at her details, "She's the only heir to the Hunt Corporation, maker of the East Coast's finest guns. Oh please Rose even I can see right through that. Wha-…She has a net worth of …oh yubba… when did you become loaded? Seriously, when did she sign onto this?"

"A few hours ago," John asked, "Do you know this person sir?"

Jake looked up to him and smiled, "You could say that, but suffice it to say, she and I have some history and I have a feeling a lot of people are going to learn about it today."

"Do you need me to beef of security?" John asked, and Jake simply smirked. The poor little fool didn't know that an army of the biggest beefiest men could hold this woman back from giving him a piece of her mind. What was he going to do? He had to give this presentation to these people. But it could do well for him to have an entire team of men remove Rose against her will. And if everything on her background was true, the fact that from what he remembered about her Uncle confirmed this, then why the hell couldn't she stay. Jake felt stupid for even humoring that idea, there were several reasons why she couldn't stay, but what we he going to do, fight with her in front of them?

Sighing dramatically, he set the photo and sheet back down on the seat next to him, "Yes, but I still want her to come, however we need to be prepared to get the other investors and the press out of there on a moment's notice, when I last saw Rose, we didn't exactly part on wonderful terms and I have no idea what this woman is going to do with me. Can you do that fast enough John?"

John nodded and picked up his phone, "I'll get right on that."

"Good," Jake said before leaning forward and burying his face in his hands, this was not going to end very well.


"Identification Please?" The Guard asked, Rose was about to make her way through the complex to the conference wing. It wasn't exactly the highlight of the New York Stock Exchange, but she had no need to go onto the floor. She had one destination in mind. You see, she could be very well considered a rich woman. Though her Uncle's Gun Company was just a front to bring money into the Huntsclan, it technically was under her control as Huntsmistress and she had the rights to invest that money how she wanted. She had put someone else in charge of it, someone who actually knew something about running a business, but she controlled the money seeing as it went to fund the Huntsclan directly. So she wasn't committing any crimes. On her more professional side, she was seriously thinking about investing, it depended on good of a salesman Jake was and that was left to the imagination. And she wondered if he'd even take her money once he found out about this whole situation.

Rose smiled and showed the man her driver's license, "I should be on the list to attend the special presentation on Publishing Max. Can you direct me to where it's being held?"

"Right down that hall, and turn to the left," He returned the smile to her, "Should be in Conference B, I heard that Mr. Long is supposed to be there giving it himself, is that true?"

She nodded, "I believe so. You know I'm not good with this whole thing, I'm just a little rich girl who wants to double her money, what do you think about this Publishing Max thing?"

"Well, I already put down ten thousand," He swallowed, by the beads of sweat he looked as if he didn't know if that was a bad decision or not, "I'm hoping it pays off, that's my condo in Boca."

Faking a laugh, Rose nodded her head, "Well I'm sure you'll make a killing, after all, you know what they say about the finical genius of Jake Long."

"Everything he touches turns to gold," The guard smiled and nodded to her, "Thanks for the pep talk ma'am, you're presentation is set to start anytime soon."


Authors Note: Well, Rose thinks that Jake doesn't know that she's going to be there yet he does know that she'll be there. Wow! Anyway, I'm three for three. unfortunately I won't four for four. I'm switching gears to New Horizons! Please leave me a review and tell me what you think, my confidence with this plot isn't as established as it is with the Anything and Everything Stories, so positive re-enforcement!