Prologue
Nick
By appearances alone, it looked like any other Friday evening. The boys and I were gathered in the expansive basement of our luxury office suite where we had a full bar, pool tables, gym equipment, desks, computers, and a projection screen for presentations. It was part bar, part boardroom, and part gym. Hell, we even had a hot tub in one corner.
We called it our Think Tank where we would go to blow off steam or brainstorm our newest ventures. Aside from our individual offices with their massive windows overlooking New York City, our basement hideaway was like a second home and had been for the past five years.
But no matter how it looked, it was not like an ordinary Friday night at all. Ben had rallied us together on that particular evening to talk big changes. He was proposing a full relocation of everything – our lives and our businesses. Holding his pitch in our Think Tank was probably not the best move on his part because looking around at everything made me that much more reluctant to even hear him out on this crazy idea about giving all this up to move away.
And yet...there I sat on the leather couch as he pulled up slides on the screen that outlined all the details of why moving to some city down south that I had never even heard of before was the most genius idea he ever had. I sat there, stroking my chin and listening carefully, while Ben raved about his big idea with that mad spark he always got when he was fired up about something new.
Cherry Falls, North Carolina used to be an unheard-of small town nestled on the edge of the mountains. But after a few celebrities had their mansions built in the quaint area and started drawing attention to all the little community had to offer, it was quickly becoming one of the top ten up and coming “it” cities in the country. And Ben was determined to plant us right smack dab in the middle of it by moving there now and buying up everything we could.
Damon was sprawled out on the couch adjacent to me, but it was anyone’s guess as to whether he was actually listening or not. He was swiping through his phone, likely through chicks on Tinder or whatever new designer suit or shoes he was buying that day. All while Joey lifted weights in the corner, stopping every so often to listen more carefully to a specific point or projected dollar amount.
“This is a list of all the major publications that have name-dropped Cherry Falls just in the past week as one of the trendiest up-and-coming cities in the country,” Ben explained. “Within five years they’re saying it will be as big and popular as New York and Los Angeles. Imagine if we could have been around buying properties in NY or LA back in the day? We’d be filthy rich old money by now. That’s how huge of an opportunity this is.”
“Ain’t no way some bumfuck town in the middle of North Carolina is going to be as big as LA,” Damon argued, not bothering to look up from his phone.
“Projected growth,” Ben replied, flipping back to one of his previous slides as a reminder.
Damon studied it more closely before turning his attention to his phone once again. He seemed unimpressed, but it was hard to tell with him. He was too smooth to show big emotions about anything.
Ben gave his closing spiel and turned to me with wide expectant eyes, waiting on bated breath. Because truthfully it didn’t matter what Damon or Joey thought. If he didn’t convince me, it wasn’t happening.
Ransom Realties was my baby through and through, even if I couldn’t have done it without Ben, Joey, and Damon by my side. Ben may have coined Wilder Properties as his own spin-off to funnel all his starry-eyed, pie-in-the-sky ideas through, but Ransom Realties was still the cornerstone of everything we did. It may not have given lump sum one-time payouts in the millions like some of the Wilder Properties ventures did, but it was the bread and butter for our baseline income...which was plenty generous and not something to be shrugged off by any means.
Ben could sense my reluctance and was growing anxious. It wasn’t uncommon for him to come up with big ideas and cling to them like a child who pitched a big fit if I didn’t see the same potential. But I could tell this was even bigger than usual to him. He was convinced this was our next move and wasn’t going to take “no” lightly.
“Nick, you wanted to take your trust fund and use it as a stepping stone to billions,” he added with an urgent expression. “This is our chance to do that.”
The four of us had been thick as thieves since we were in diapers, and while we may have moved to the better side of the city, it all started in the ghetto. We were determined to not be broke like our parents. We rose above the odds and worked our asses off, learning everything we could about investing and business. No one ever expected four broke inner-city troublemakers like us to become self-made millionaires.
I certainly never expected my life to take the turn it did when I turned twenty-one. My blood still boiled every time I thought about receiving the news that my absentee dad who I always assumed was a deadbeat was actually a billionaire who had been sitting on a hefty trust fund for me my entire life.
To know this guy had been a billionaire all that time, but let my mom nearly kill herself day in and day out as she struggled just to put food on the table – it was the last straw to teach me to never trust anyone outside my circle of Ben, Damon, and Joey. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let a penny of the fortune I didn’t ask for go to waste. I’d quadruple it and then some...just to prove a point. And I had been well on my way to doing just that, even without Ben’s new crazy scheme.
“We’re already in the billions,” I countered. “It just seems like there are tons of other things to get into right here in New York...that don’t involve us uprooting our entire lives and moving out into the middle of nowhere.”
“I could use a change of scenery,” Damon said as he finally perked up and slid his phone into his pocket.
Ben looked pleased to have a little back-up. “Why be little fish in a big pond when we could go to a place like Cherry Falls and rule everything?”
“He’s right. Real estate moguls are a dime a dozen here. And NY is getting tired.”
“You’re just excited about the potential for your dating life,” I shot back to Damon. “It only took you thirty years, but you’re finally running out of women to sleep with in this city.”
He waved me off, leaving Ben to continue reviewing why this wasn’t just a good idea...but the only idea according to him, as if we’d be idiots to pass it up.
I turned to Joey, who I noticed had stopped bench pressing a while ago so he could listen and gather his own thoughts on the matter. He was part Italian and a quintessential New Yorker. I couldn’t imagine him ever wanting to leave the city and was counting on his flat-out rejection to save me from having to actually consider the thing.
“Let’s hear what you have to say about all this, Joey.”
He was quiet for a long time, wringing his hands and staring down at the mat in front of him. But finally, he raised his dark eyes to us and replied, “It sounds like good money. And I’m ready to get the hell out of New York, honestly.”
I hung my head. Dammit. Joey was supposed to be my saving grace, but now it was three against one. I looked back up at Ben’s slides and tried to weigh up all the potential. Leaving the city we grew up in was scary. But then again...the biggest payouts didn’t come without big risks. And I had never been one to shy away from something just because I was scared of the unknown.