Greed Buys Speed.
The morning had started like it always did.
Glass of scotch I didn’t drink, my phone on silent, and I glanced at my tie, knotted to perfection, and in control.
Control was everything.
Today was supposed to be a win, a fat contract with Calloway International, locked in after weeks of negotiation. Martin Calloway and his team were one signature away from pumping millions into Lancaster’s expansion project across Southeast Feni.
One signature.
One f**king stroke of a pen.
I’d done the dance, the dinners, and the calls. The board was expecting this contract to be delivered clean, neatly wrapped and bowed. It was supposed to prove that I wasn’t slipping, prove that the press didn’t matter, and Zyrah too.
With a soft smile, I glanced at the wall clock and suddenly, a knock broke my focus.
It was my secretary, she walked in, quiet, and professional.
“They’re here, Mr. Lancaster.” she announced.
“Good,” I said, brushing nonexistent lint from my jacket as I rose. “Let’s close this.”
I grabbed the sleek contract folder from my desk, heavyweight paper, branded seal, leather spine, and headed toward the boardroom, each step echoing with calm confidence.
The second I entered the boardroom, they all stood.
Martin Calloway, polished as ever in a slate-gray suit, his tie knotted in that meticulous way he always preferred. Be- side him, his two senior advisors, sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, quiet. A formidable trio, but I’d already bested them once in negotiations.
This was formality.
“Martin,” I said, extending a hand. “Glad to see you.”
“Ronan,” he said, firm grip, polite smile. “Appreciate the invite.”
We sat down as we exchanged pleasantries. I laid the folder in front of him like a declaration of victory.
“This is our final draft,” I said. “We’ve incorporated every amendment from your counsel. Once we get this signed,
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we can begin phase one rollout by the end of next quarter.”
Martin nodded as he opened the folder. His eyes moved over the pages, scanning with the slow deliberateness of a man who already knew what he was going to say.
Suddenly, I felt it before he spoke, there was a change in temperature as the faint static that comes before lightning.
Then I watched as he shut the folder, and didn’t even flip to the signature page.
“I appreciate all the work, Ronan,” Martin said evenly. “But I won’t be signing.”
My heart dropped into my stomach.
My chest tightened. “What?”
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“I’ve decided to go in a different direction.” Martin revealed.
My body stilled as every muscle in my jaw, my hands, and my spine locked.
“Martin,” I said, leaning forward, voice calm but edged. “We’ve been in talks for seven weeks, you said this deal fits your company’s growth model perfectly.”
“It did,” he said. “Until I found something better.”
“Better?” I repeated, blinking. “You’re saying someone else just swooped in last-minute and gave you a better offer?”
“I’m saying someone offered a better alignment,” he clarified. “Longer vision, and lower volatility.”
My brows twisted as rage began to rise inside me.
“Volatility?” I echoed, the word like glass between my teeth. “You mean me.”
He didn’t answer.
“You’ve seen the numbers, the projections. You know Lancaster can deliver better than any other…”
Martin raised his fingers at me.
“I don’t doubt your numbers,” he said, standing up. “I doubt the stability behind them.”
I stood too, sharper, my heart pounding behind my ribs.
“What changed, Martin?” I demanded. “Last week, you said this deal was ironclad, you shook my hand, and gave your word.”
“And I’m not taking it back out of disrespect,” he said coolly. “It’s just business.”
I took a step toward him, voice lower now. “Is this about the media? About Zyrah, my ex-wife?”
His eyes didn’t flicker, but the air shifted.
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“You’re backing out because of the scandal. That’s it, isn’t it?” I pressed. “My ex-wife walks out of prison and sud- denly everyone forgets who I am?”
“I don’t concern myself with gossip, Ronan,” he said. “But I do care about stability, I care about reputation, and lead- ership.”
“Then look at me,” I snapped, “and tell me you don’t believe I’m still leading this company.”
He paused, just for a second.
Then smiled, warm, professional, and final.
“Ronan, I don’t mix business with personal affairs,” he said. “And I suggest you don’t either, this decision isn’t per-
sonal.”
Bullshit!
He buttoned his jacket slowly.
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“Thank you for your time,” he said. “Good luck, Ronan.”
I didn’t respond.
I just couldn’t.
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I watched him walk out as his team followed suit,, and I stood frozen in place, fists clenched so tight I could feel my nails pressing into skin.
I lowered myself slowly into the chair, my limbs heavy, my pulse a slow hammer in my ears.
Calloway was gone.
The deal was dead, and the worst part was that I didn’t even see it coming.
The second I stepped into my office, the door didn’t just open, it slammed against the wall so hard the handle cracked the paint.
I barely noticed.
My vision was tunnelled as my breath came short. My entire body was
breath came short. My entire body was pulsing with rage like it was too big for my
skin.
Calloway.
That smug, polished son of a bitch played me, he had the guy, sat across from me, smiled to my face, shook my f**king hand like a man, then walked away like I was nothing.
Nothing
“I’m going with a better fit.”
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Bullshit.
He didn’t even have the spine to tell me who stole the deal out from under me. He couldn’t say the name, wouldn’t say it, like I was some wounded dog who couldn’t handle the truth.
I threw the contract folder across the room with a roar, papers flying like broken promises. They hit the far wall and fluttered to the ground in a useless heap.
“F**K YOU, CALLOWAY!” I bellowed, voice cracking.
My desk, clean, sleek, expensive, took the next hit. I slammed both fists onto the glass top, hard enough to rattle the monitor and knock over the pen set.
One of the crystal tumblers shattered.
“F**KING COWARD!”
I grabbed the edge of the desk and flipped the chair, watching it bounce and crash against the glass coffee table. It cracked, not enough, but I wanted it destroyed totally.
I stormed across the room and kicked the side table full force, sent it flying into the wall with a dull, hollow thud.
“YOU THINK YOU CAN SCREW ME?! YOU THINK I’M WEAK?!”
Another picture frame, some bullshit award, went sailing across the room and exploded against the window but the glass didn’t even scratch.
My hands were shaking, as my jaw clenched so hard it hurt.
He humiliated me, and for what?
A better offer?
No, someone is playing me.
My pulse thundered in my ears as my temple throbbed. My knuckles were stinging from impact and I barely noticed.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of my office.
The door cracked open and my secretary walked in, timid, and wide-eyed.
“Mr. Lancaster… is everything okay?”
I turned on her like a wolf, the sight of her irritated me at once.
“DOES IT F**KING LOOK OKAY?!” I screamed, chest rising and falling like I’d just run ten flights of stairs.
She flinched.
“Get the f**k out, Out! Before I say something I won’t regret.”
“But…”
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“NOW!”
She backed out so fast she almost dropped her tablet. The door slammed shut again, and I was alone with the mess and the echo of my own fury.
I stood there in the middle of my broken office, breath ragged, heart hammering.
My body was buzzing, like I could throw a man through a wall.
This wasn’t just a lost deal, this was an attack from a rival, strategic, coordinated, and personal.
Someone was behind it, I could feel it in my gut.
I stalked back to my desk, ripped my phone from the charger, and dialed the number of my investigator, a number I didn’t think I could ring in a while.
Cole Maddox.
My fixer, the ghost I paid to see through walls.
He answered in two rings.
“Mr. Lancaster.”
“Meet me,” I growled. “At noon, our usual place.”
“Yes, sir. What’s the job?”
“I want you to dig into Martin Calloway, find out who turned him in and make me lose a big contract, I want the name of the company. The f**king CEO. Their financials, location, weaknesses, I want it all.”
Cole paused. “That’s… sensitive territory.”
“I don’t give a f**k,” I snapped. “I don’t care if it’s offshore, shell-owned, or run by the Pope, find it, and fast.”
“I’ll see you at noon.”
I hung up without another word.
My chest heaved as my hand was still shaking as I stared at the broken glass across the floor.
You think you can steal from me?
You think you can humiliate me?
Good.
Let them feel powerful because when I find out who’s behind this, I’m going to burn their world to the f**king ground.
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The city blurred outside the window as my car sliced through the streets like a black bullet.
I didn’t speak the entire ride.
My driver knew better than to ask questions. He could feel it radiating off me, rage, sharp and suffocating, pulsing like a second heartbeat in the back of my skull.
Calloway’s betrayal was still playing on a loop in my mind. The look in his eyes when he said he found “a better fit.” The way he walked out like we hadn’t built that deal brick by brick over weeks.
There were only two options in my world, loyalty, or war.
And someone just started a f**king war.
The car stopped in front of The Grove, a private rooftop restaurant known for two things: discretion and silence. The staff didn’t gossip, the booths were soundproof, and nobody brought a phone out unless they had a death wish.
Cole was already there, seated in the far corner booth, back to the wall, like always.
Good.
He respected protocol.
I walked straight to him, my jaw clenched so tight I could feel the pressure in my molars.
He stood briefly when I arrived.
“Mr. Lancaster.”
“Sit,” I snapped. “Did you get anything?”
He didn’t flinch. “Not yet. It’s been a few hours, the move was clean, no paperwork trails. Calloway’s new contract isn’t in any public registry.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t ask for excuses.”
He nodded once. “Understood, but you should know, if they went private, offshore, or used proxies, it could take time.”
“I don’t have time, Cole,” I said through clenched teeth. “I need a name, a face, and a f**king company by tomor-
row.”
Cole leaned back slightly. “Tomorrow might be impossible.”
I didn’t even blink.
I reached into my coat pocket, pulled out my phone, opened my secure finance app, and without another word, en- tered a command.
At once I transferred one million dollars to his account.
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Greed buys Specu
Cole’s phone buzzed on the table a few seconds later.
He looked at it, and saw the number, and looked back up at me.
I leaned forward, voice low and lethal. “Is it still impossible?”
He glanced at the screen again,
Then pocketed the phone.
“No,” he said. “Not anymore.”
“Good. I don’t want speculation, I don’t want maybe, I want hard facts. I want to know who they are, where they live, who they f**k, what they eat, I want them exposed.”
“You’ll have it,” he said, nodding. “By this time tomorrow.”
I leaned back, finally.
My chest was still tight, but the burn had settled into something darker.
Control.
It was coming back because information was power, and power, I bought that sh*t wholesale.
The low murmur of diners, the clinking of crystal, and the ambient jazz floating through The Grove’s rooftop lounge felt miles away from me.
I wasn’t here to enjoy the view nor was I here to eat.
I was here to hunt.
Cole Maddox sat across from me in a crisp charcoal jacket, silent and composed, like the weapon he was. His fingers had barely curled around the glass of bourbon in front of him before I leaned forward.
“There’s one more job,” I said, my voice as calm as it was deadly.
Cole’s brow lifted slightly. “You just paid me a million for Calloway. Are you stacking cases on me already?”
I didn’t smile nor blink.
“This one’s bigger.”
He paused, the air between us thickened.
“Go on.”
I leaned in, elbows on the table, my tone dropping into something colder.
“My ex-wife. Zyrah.”
The name hit the table like a detonator.
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Cole didn’t flinch, but I saw the subtle shift in his eyes.
“She’s back,” I continued, jaw tight. “She wasn’t supposed to be, I paid to have her locked away, clean, and final. Charges so tight she’d never breathe daylight again.”
I leaned back slowly, fingers drumming once on the wood.
“And yet… she walked out of jail like a f**king ghost.”
Cole set his glass down without taking a sip. “You want me to dig?”
“I want you to dig until you hit bone,” I growled. “Find out how she got out, who pulled the strings. I want names, judges, lawyers, even bank accounts linked to her. Who’s paying her rent and making calls for her, who she’s working with, everything Cole.”
He nodded once. “You think she’s being protected.”
“I think someone with money and power decided to play knight in shining armor.” I clenched my fists. “And I want that knight’s f**king head on a plate.”
Cole studied me carefully now, eyes sharp, calculating. “You want this back by tomorrow too?”
My smile was slow, and dangerous.
“I want it tonight if you can manage it, but if not…” I pulled out my phone and tapped into the private account, my personal vault, no names, or history, just raw, untraceable cash.
I slid the phone toward him and he looked down as I had just sent him another million.
A few seconds later, his phone buzzed. He didn’t even have to check. He knew.
“You get me everything on Zyrah by tomorrow,” I said, voice like steel, “and there’ll be another million waiting.”
He picked up his glass again, this time taking a small, measured sip.
“Ronan,” he said slowly, “I’ve hunted people in Manna, buried CEOs in Yome, and hacked through sealed court records in Goury. But what are you asking for?” He paused. “This isn’t business, this is personal.”
“You’re damn right it is.”
I stood and adjusted the cuff of my jacket, jaw clenched so hard my molars ached.
“I don’t care how you do it, or who you have to burn to get it. I want every f**king name tied to her freedom.”
He stood too, towering but composed.
“Then I’ll deliver every one,” he said. “You’ll have your answers by tomorrow night.”
We shook hands, tight, silent, sealed.
Then I walked out into the night air, my chest burning, not from rage this time but from certainty.
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They thought they were clever.
They thought I was losing, but they forgot the most important thing about Ronan Lancaster.
I always find out, and when I do, I will end you.
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