Chapter 136: Locking Away the Secrets

Thank God Chelsea kept this away from them, Jude thought, his eyes narrowing.

If Jacob Ward had gotten his hands on this drive last night, the Snyder-Ward syndicate would have owned the whole city by breakfast.

Now it made total sense why Ward let the Snyder family bet five billion dollars on a single club...

"Since you’re the sole owner now, Chairman Lawson, both the book and the hard drive belong to you," Vanessa said, pointing to the table.

"Keep them locked in your safe for now," Jude said, sliding both back across the glass. "I don’t need them today, and they’re safer under your lock."

"Understood," Vanessa nodded, putting them back in the safe and locking it.

She paused for a second before turning around. "Chairman Lawson... there’s one other thing from this morning I need to tell you."

"Go ahead," Jude said.

"Earlier today, word came down that the Snyder family bought out the Triumph Club, four blocks south on Park Avenue," Vanessa reported with a frown. "Their crews are already there, and they’re reopening in a few days. Everything shows Arthur Snyder and his backers are coming straight for us to steal our members."

"Coming straight for us?"

Hearing that, Jude let out a laugh, leaning back into the couch. "Since when does Arthur Snyder have the right to sit at the same table as me?"

"On his own, he wouldn’t have the guts," Vanessa warned. "Which means Jacob Ward and bigger money are funding him from behind."

Knowing damn well that Jacob Ward was pulling the strings, Jude smiled faintly.

"Backer or not... if they’re begging for a fight, it’d be rude not to give them one."

Vanessa looked at him, unsure. "How are you planning to hit back, sir?"

"By smashing them before they even open their doors," Jude said smoothly, issuing orders without missing a beat. "First, lock down our own house. Send out a memo today: every single employee at the Heavens Club gets an immediate fifty-percent raise."

Vanessa’s eyes went wide.

That single move would kill any doubts or gossip from the staff in the halls!

"Second," Jude continued, "tell the bar downstairs that starting tonight, every cocktail and bottle is thirty percent off, and all draft beer is totally free on the house. Third, for the next week, cut the one-million-dollar entry fee for the middle floors in half... five hundred grand gets you in. As for the big dogs upstairs in Heavens Commerce, those people don’t care about pocket change, and with their dirty secrets sitting in your safe, not one of them is going anywhere near Park Avenue."

Listening to the plan, Vanessa’s face tightened in panic. "Chairman Lawson, hitting them like that will definitely choke out their reopening... but the cash we’ll burn through will be insane!"

"How much cash are we talking?" Jude asked casually.

"Between the fifty-percent raises, free alcohol downstairs, and cheap membership fees, we won’t make a single penny. We’ll be bleeding massive amounts of cash every single day!" Vanessa said.

"Bleeding cash doesn’t matter," Jude said. "Keeping our staff loyal and choking their club to death is all I care about right now. Didn’t Arthur Snyder leave five hundred million dollars sitting in our penalty pot last night, along with the rest of the pool? Unlock that cash and burn every single cent of it. The day that runs out, call me, and I’ll wire you another billion."

Vanessa gasped, staring at him across the desk in disbelief. "Chairman Lawson, are you actually serious?! Once word gets out about these deals, the money pit will be bottomless!"

"You don’t need to worry about my bank account, Vanessa. Just do what I said," Jude replied. "I want the Snyders’ Triumph Club starved out and out of business within sixty days, no matter how much cash we have to set on fire to do it."

Vanessa stood frozen by her desk, breathing hard as she tried to process this guy’s insane confidence.

In all her years dealing with Manhattan’s richest, she had never seen an owner treat fortunes in cash like pocket change to burn on a bonfire!

How does any businessman on earth not care about losing money?!

What Vanessa didn’t get was that out of everything on this planet, money was the one thing Jude Lawson had an infinite supply of.

To him, cash was just bullets... and using Arthur Snyder’s own lost five-hundred-million-dollar deposit to pay for a price war that buried him alive was sweet karma.

It was the quickest way to show everyone in New York that messing with Jude Lawson was just digging your own grave!

__

Even after hearing Jude lay out the plan so casually, Vanessa couldn’t completely shake off five years of manager habits...

Looking across the desk with a frown, she asked carefully, "Chairman Lawson, starting a full-on price war like that is going to cost a fortune. Are you a hundred percent sure you want to go through with this?"

"A hundred percent," Jude nodded.

Seeing that look in his eyes, Vanessa kept any other doubts to herself.

Whatever she thought about burning millions in cash every week, Jude was the only name on the deed now.

When the boss gave a direct order, her job was just to make it happen...

"Understood, sir. I’ll have the memos for the raises and discounts sent out immediately," Vanessa said with a nod.

Just as Jude was about to get up from the couch, another thought crossed his mind, stopping him in his tracks.

"One more thing, Vanessa," Jude said, keeping his voice down. "In that VIP list upstairs, are there any members tied directly to the Vanguard-Rockefeller syndicate... or anyone close to their top bosses?"

Vanessa thought about it for a second, then slowly shook her head. "No, Chairman Lawson. The real bosses in that syndicate are paranoid. None of their top people would ever put their real names down on a private club registry. Honestly, the guys actually calling the shots almost never show their faces in public anyway."

"Makes sense," Jude said.

Part of him had hoped that taking over the VIP roster upstairs might give him a direct lead on the syndicate bosses tied to his parents’ past.

But thinking about it realistically, an organization that lived in the dark for decades wouldn’t be dumb enough to leave their top names on a paper list where one slip-up could drag everyone down.

"If that’s everything for now, I’ll let you get to work," Jude said, standing up and buttoning his jacket. "If anything weird happens with the new prices, call me directly."

"Of course, Chairman Lawson. I’ll walk you out," Vanessa said, stepping around her desk to lead him to the door.

Two steps from the heavy wooden doors, Jude paused for a moment before turning with a relaxed nod. "Keep up the good work, Vanessa. We have a club to run."

"Thank you, Chairman Lawson. Have a good afternoon," Vanessa replied with a bow.

With a quick nod, Jude opened the door and walked out down the hall.

Stepping out through the revolving glass doors into the bright Midtown sun, Jude checked his watch.

With his classes wrapped up and his lunch with old man Liu concluded earlier, the rest of his day had seemed clear.

Before he could flag down a cab on Madison Avenue, the phone in his pocket began buzzing.

Pulling it out, he saw the caller ID: Walter Bai, the senior director at Voyager Animation.

Normally, Walter handled the studio’s day-to-day work quietly and never called Jude’s personal cell unless it directly involved Evelyn Chen.

Did Evelyn finish her meetings out West early and fly back today?

A slight spark of anticipation lit up Jude’s eyes as he swiped to answer. "Afternoon, Director Bai."

On the other end, though, there was none of Walter’s usual easygoing tone.

His voice was shaky, and serious.

"Chairman Lawson... do you have a minute right now?"

Hearing the clear panic in Walter’s voice, Jude’s smile vanished instantly. "I’m free. What happened?"

"Chairman Lawson, something serious just came up with CEO Evelyn Chen," Walter said in a hushed voice. "I can’t talk about it over an open line... if you can get away, can you come straight to the studio right now?"

"Stay at your desk. I’m on my way."

Jude didn’t waste a single second asking questions over the phone.

He hung up immediately, stepped off the curb, waved down a cab, and gave the driver the address for the Voyager Animation building.

As the taxi cut through the heavy Midtown traffic, a knot formed in the pit of Jude’s stomach.

Over the past twenty-four hours, with the Heavens Club handover and the revelations about his mother’s past taking up all his focus, he hadn’t checked in on the details of Evelyn’s business trip to Los Angeles.

Pulling his phone back out in the backseat, Jude tapped Evelyn’s direct number and held it to his ear.

The number you have dialed is currently powered off or out of the coverage area. Hearing the automated recording, Jude’s jaw clenched hard as the bad feeling in his chest got ten times worse.

Just last night before the party, he had talked to Evelyn on the phone for five minutes.

She had sounded happy and full of energy, telling him the West Coast movie distribution deal was basically ninety-nine percent done, and that she’d be catching a flight back to New York in a couple of days.

For her phone to go completely dead less than twelve hours later while Walter Bai called him in a full-blown panic meant something had hit out of nowhere.

Staring out the cab window at the passing streets, Jude prayed that Evelyn hadn’t walked straight into real danger...