BXBX NOVEL Chapter 277: Money is just a tool
The girl was also innocent, most likely... He had been harsh. Still, it was too late to call them back. An Alpha can't admit his mistakes so promptly.
Luckily, Renato was useless when it came to business. Luciano could have solved the crisis without him. Then, once the war was over - or as soon as it turned bloody, which was more likely - Luciano would have called him back and bestowed upon him his old position.
Everything would have gone back to how it was as soon as Nathaniel Woods was done.
«Money is just a tool,» he scoffed, reading the reports and insisting on the numbers with the expected losses. Norwich was going to pay for that... They were losing their own money only to bring disadvantage to Mayford, and, this time, it didn't look like a decoy. Even if he had been expecting something to happen, the only things hit, for the moment, were their bonds and reputation...
Nothing else had happened to their bases. No attack, not physical.
Yet, he had received intel about Nate's warriors coming back from their mercenary missions. He had called for the best fighters, a sign that something was going to happen - sooner or later.
Could Mayford attack before Nate had time to assemble the troops? Oh, it was already late... Soldiers were pretty quick to organise.
He had even noticed how the attacks had intensified during the afternoon, for some reason yet to define... But it had calmed down just around the time Renato went out to look for the girls. He thought, for a crazy moment, that Norwich had found his sister.
Nathaniel Woods's actions were still a mystery, but Luciano Polenta knew there was something else coming his way. Losing a little money wasn't enough revenge for kidnapping and hurting his family.
«Not that he doesn't deserve it,» Luciano murmured. His eyes went back to reading the screen of his phone.
The answer came soon.
He received a text from one of his informants from the human ministry departments... How odd, of all times...
«Inspection tomorrow, tax evasion suspected.»
As if! He paid his taxes regularly. Humans knew how to be troublesome when it regarded fiscal matters. At least, wolves weren't required to pay the crazy amounts the others did since they weren't going to use hospitals, schools, and other services either way. The small remaining amount was paid without problem; the deduction would allow his company to breathe freer than the competitors.
It had helped him establish Blue Moon, especially in the first phases.
He didn't fear the inspectors because there was nothing wrong with his tax reports.
«Ah?» he moaned, receiving another text soon after.
«Someone tipped off about monopoly policies and cartels. Investigations will start early in the morning.»
Cartels? That was something everyone would do! His competitors have asked not to go under a range of prices, and he has accepted. Was that really a crime? Just a few words and the use of rationality?
«Espionage,» he read again, the third in a row.
All those text messages were from different people. He had many advisors, informants, or just people who would sell information to him - just like to anyone else.
«He's sending the humans at me,» Luciano realised. That bastard! «Do you think I'm the only one who can be brought down like this? Just your dream, Nathaniel Woods. You'll sink down with me if I can't come out of it.»
He wrote back to the messages, promising succulent information about another company. He would have found just as much about LY Corp. They would have losses in reputation, money, and trust from the human Government. Woods wasn't the only one who could play dirty.
«Oh, you'll regret it,» he said.
Then, just like a bolt in the blue, one of his men knocked at the door.
«Alpha, there's the police at the entrance.»
«Po-police?»
«Yes, Alpha.»
«What do they want?»
«They say they found evidence about kidnapped people being held in our bases.»
«Oh, don't joke with me. That's bullshit. How can they find evidence without us noticing? Oh... That base.»
It wasn't theirs anymore. The base in the outskirts they had lost while kidnapping Woods's family. But how could the police find proof? Had Nathaniel Woods planted it before leaving and calling the police?
«A group of kids were playing there, and they walked in. One of them found the ropes and posted a picture on the net. It's how the police decided to intervene.»
«You must be joking! We didn't even use ropes!»
«I don't know, Alpha. That's what they say. They want to talk with you now...»
«If they didn't come in, they don't have a warrant, right?»
If that was the case, the investigations were just for show. Some kids found circumstantial evidence, and the police would stick around just to check it was nothing grave and show it to the public.
«Fuck,» Luciano cursed. «I'll have their breath on my neck for days!»
«Shall I call Renato?» the wolf inquired. He knew the boss had been demoted to an Omega. Still, it was an emergency: there would be time for punishments once dealt with Norwich!
«No, don't. There's no need for him. Let's just solve one matter at a time.»
«Yes, Alpha!»
He opened his mouth to ask what had Renato done to be cut off from the pack, but he changed his mind just in time. It had been just a moment, and everyone knew he wasn't a Beta anymore. Renato was far from them, no matter how close he could be physically.
But no one really hated him for that. He was still one of them, and he would have his place back eventually.