Chapter Seventeen: RangeMan Trenton Mid-December
Julius arrived with an attorney two weeks before Christmas for a mandatory meeting of the Core Team for RangeMan Miami and Trenton. Lester, Bobby and Tank, finally up to working part time in the office, were with me in the conference room and Silvio was connected via video link when Julius got to his feet.
"As you all know, we have a mole in RangeMan, which compromises our ability to maintain the confidentiality required for our government contracts."
We all remained silent- After the mole was identified, I set the Wonder Twins and Hector to the task of tracking him, with the hopes of gathering information about where Carlos was being held and who had taken him. This information had been held close by the men in the room and my small team outside of RangeMan. Silvio were unaware of our findings because there was no safe way to contact him with the information, according to Hector, without the mole knowing. A virus infected all the systems of RangeMan, except for the silo being used by Hector, Melvin and Charlotte. Hector believed it to be a government level infiltration that we would have to address once Carlos was safe. And because the government was involved in some way, we decided not to share the information with Julius.
Today's meeting, however, was not about Carlos. Why was he here?
"I am going to buy all of you out of RangeMan Miami and RangeMan Trenton. You will all be well off and the problem will be sorted." And he proceeded to name a price that was nowhere near what the two branches were worth. He outlined his plan to close both branches by the New Year, thereby leaving the mole out in the cold. Then he informed us that all of the employees living in the Trenton building would need to move out ASAP as the building would be sold to defray some of costs involved in buying us out. "Let's face it. The value of RangeMan was in Ranger and Tank and with Ranger gone and Tank here still in recovery and unable to work full time, there is no way to continue this business model."
What he left unsaid was that unlike Miami and Trenton, the branch Julius ran in Boston did not hire those with gang ties or criminal pasts. It was a common complaint we heard from the Boston men.
Silvio, on the monitor, was cursing in rapid fire Spanish, as best I could tell. Those of us in the room were shocked into silence, I think. At least I was.
When I finally found my voice, I was firm. "That will put all our men out of work right before the holidays, and some without a place to live…" My mind was whirling. "We can't do that to them." My eyes burned but I refused to let my tears fall. How could Julius do this to his family? How unlike Ranger this man was… He believed Ranger was dead… He thought our guys were responsible for the leaks.
Julius practically sneered at me. "Well it isn't like my brother's side piece could run the company- it is bad enough you trapped him into marrying you…"
I have no idea what else he was going to say because Les leapt to his feet and slammed Julius against the wall, both of Les's hands around his throat. Bobby and Tank attempted to pull him off, and while I can't be sure if it was because Tank was still not back to full strength or that neither he nor Bobby were trying too hard, they were not successful.
Finally, I stood and touched Les lightly on the shoulder, whispering, "This won't help."
Les immediately released Julius and Tank looked at the shell-shocked attorney at the far end of the table.
"Leave the documents and remove your client." Julius started to protest and Tank stared at him. "Get Out!" Wisely, Julius gathered his things. "I will be at my mother's house in Newark until Tuesday," he said as he pulled on his over coat and straightened his tie. "I expect this to be resolved by then."
Silvio was still speaking in Spanish but at least Les was involved in the conversation. After a few minutes, Les ended the video feed.
"Silvio has a larger staff than we do, and more of those guys depend on RangeMan housing because of how high the rents are." Lester filled us in on all of Silvio's concerns."
"Can he do this without our consent?" I asked, wishing for the thousandth time today that Carlos was here, this time to reign in his brother.
"He is the acting CEO and he is thinking about the Boston RangeMan bottom line. They depend far more on government contracts than we do- they didn't diversify when Ranger's financial planner advised all the branches to consider other investments." Tank looked angry.
"Not to mention how high the overhead is in Boston. Over the summer, Julius talked about buying the adjacent building but he couldn't afford to." Bobby looked grim.
"That's probably why he is lowballing the purchase price." Lester clenched his fists in fury.
"We need the original documents from when RangeMan was founded and see if he really has the right to do this if we don't want to sell. Then we will know what our options are." I told them all.
"Your brother-in-law, Albert, is here to see you, Mrs. Manoso. He is in the first floor reception area" Jose Almonte and Luis Fernandez, two of the RangeMen I met in Miami, appeared at the door to the conference room. It was weird to be called Mrs. Manoso, but neither could be convinced to call me Stephanie. At least they had stopped calling me "Ma'am". We had been reviewing the paperwork the RangeMan attorney dropped off for several hours. "Also, we are heading to Shorty's and thought you might want dinner."
"Oh God yes!" I had read over the contracts and other paperwork till my head hurt. "You both know my favorites- why don't you surprise me?"
Bobby, Lester and Tank- less adventurous when it came to meals- wrote a list for the younger RangeMen to take with them. I walked with them to the lobby to meet Albert.
"Guys, don't forget, the baby has a sweet tooth," I called to Jose and Luis before they headed for the garage and then waved to Armando Gonzales, who was at the desk. "Albert is with me." Armando pushed the visitor log to Albert and after he signed, I signed beside his name as he clipped the visitor pass to his collar. "How are the kids?"
On the ride up in the elevator, he filled me in on all the news about my nieces. "Val has all of them involved in Sally Sweet's new jazzercise classes. He always has some new venture."
"I told him he needs to add a "Mom and Me" class once the baby gets here." I added, as we got off the elevator and headed for the conference room.
"Sally told Val he was looking into it, but you should probably follow-up on that." Albert, like all of my team outside of RangeMan, knew about the Mole and the need for caution in open spaces, even here. Maybe especially here.
We joined Tank, Bobby and Lester in the conference room. All three looked tired and worse defeated. The legal papers were spread out and we each had a pad of notes, but were no closer to solving the problem. Julius could close the two branches if he compensated the Core Team. He had the right to sell off the building.
Albert glanced over the papers. "What are you all working on?"
Lester launched into a detailed list of crimes he thought his cousin Julius was guilty of in his attempt to take apart the two branches of RangeMan piece by piece.
"Can I look over the original contracts?" Albert asked.
Tank pushed the paperwork toward him and Albert got to a clean sheet of paper on one of the legal pads, a sharp pencil in hand and went to work.
Our food arrived and we all ate and Albert just kept going through the contracts, with an occasional question.
"Who is Pierre?"
I could swear Tank may have blushed as he choked out, "That is my legal name."
Albert made a note and continued.
"Can I review the profit/loss info for the last two years?"
Bobby left the room and came back with the two reports.
Finally, Albert set down his pencil.
"I think it works in your favor that Mr. Manoso made you such a low… well, below market value offer for the assets."
Since I am used to Albert and how his lawyer mind works, I asked him to walk us through it.
"Well, in the original documents, it addresses what to do if one or more of the principal partners disagrees with the sale of the assets." He fumbled in the papers and found the passage he was looking for. He read it to us and by the time he got to the end, I had forgotten how the passage started- the legal papers might as well be written in Greek.
I asked him to explain the passage to me in simpler terms.
"Well, it clearly stated that if the offer made is not to your liking, you can offer the same amount to buy out that person and own all the assets yourselves with no further negotiation. You just give him the check within 3 business days and he has to take it since he made the original offer." Albert paused. "I have to assume the attorney is either unaware of this option or he is betting that you are." He looked around the table. "The assets are worth at least five times the offer price."
"But where are we supposed to come up with the money to buy him out. I don't have access to any of Ranger's investments." I looked around the room and the Core team confirmed they could not either.
"Stephanie, you can just use your money initially and these gentlemen can repay you in time."
My mouth hung open. "My money?" If I had a month's worth of expenses in my bank account at any given time, it was a good day.
"Did you not read my e-mail from Tuesday?" Of course I had not.
Albert, Val, my mom and Dad, Lula, Connie and Mary Lou each e-mailed me a positive affirmation every day since the memorial. Some were funny, some were moving and they did brighten my day… But if I am honest, I haven't opened one since we found out who the Mole is- I was focusing all my attention on that, quite frankly.
"I must have missed it…"
"Well, in summary, I told you that the FBI has dropped the case against Dickie Orr and released his assets, which, with interest now sit at just below seventy-five million dollars, not including the building in downtown Trenton."
The rushing noise in my ears had me shaking my head. "What did you say?"
Albert repeated himself. I looked around at the men in the room. Carlos loved these men and his team like brothers. I would stand by them. "Tank, let Silvio know we found a solution. Albert, we need to send Julius a check."
I was pretty sure Julius was going to lose it when the check arrived at his mother's house. And I could not wait!