I will update "My cousin and I" soon!! enjoy, hope it doesn't disappoint.
Chapter 1: The beginning of our story the end of our friendship...
“So Barry did you manage to finish typing the proposal?”
“Yeah man, I think it’s my best work so far. I am sure we will attract some good investors.”
Three buddies and I started a little business in our home city, selling sport gear. We needed an investor who could help us launch our store and provide the capital. This was our last meeting before we sent our proposal onto the internet.
So far in my flat it was only me, Barry, I was 23 at the time, I am the brains behind the operation, with a business diploma. I have a fit body; I do triathlons so not overly muscular but a well-toned tanned body, (Average height and average hairstyle wearing average clothes).
Also Greg, 25, was there he was the computer whiz, our own IT guy. He doesn’t work out but he does go for a swim every now and then so he isn’t skinny or overweight just normal ol guy. He had dark curly hair and wore those typical ‘hipster’ glasses. He always wore those geeky shirts like Cisco from the Flash, and always had some quote from some tv show or movie ready.
Greg scanned through the proposal and edited one or two little things, before looking back at me and agreed that this was good work. My college diploma was paying off.
The intercom buzzed and I let Steven and Martin in. Steven,22, was the one who knew the sporting gear, in high school he would be your typical jock he played all sport and excelled it everything, he had a really strong muscled body, short scruffy blond hair and a killer smile. This was also the reason that he was our model in the images for our website kick-off, and some samples in the proposal, of the type of gear we would be selling, wrestling singlet, compression wear, football gear, soccer gear and general exercise wear.
Martin,23, was his buddy since high school. He too was a jock but after school decided to do some accounting studies so he would be our financial manager, he filled his suits very well with his athletic body that he had kept in check since school.
They walked into the flat and we all greeted. We cracked open a few beers and ran through the proposal to make sure we covered everything.
About two hours later Greg hit the publish button and it was out there in the world, now we only had to wait and see if someone would respond.
Four days dragged by…
I got home from the gym hit the shower and dried myself off, and headed for my PC. I opened the mailbox and there was a mail!! I hastily opened it read it but by the time I got to the end I was speechless.
It started off by saying he would invest and continued with some points we would need to agree on, and some fine print things, I was a fool, I should have read the fine print, I was educated to always read the fine print… I didn’t.
We set up a meeting with the guys secretary, signed the papers and got the money, we started our business, we launched our website and all was well.
Some months down the road, I get a call. It’s the secretary.
“Mr. Bills would like to enforce clause 8 subsection c point 4.” I wrote down where I would need to go read, “He will expect the parcel no later than tonight 8 o’clock.”
I open up my files and search the document for the specified clause. I was completely baffled by what was written in our contract.
‘when he deems fit the investor may request for the following:
a- Any of the investees to be delivered to his house bound and gagged
b- An investee must deliver the parcel and be present until the investor releases them
c- Not adhering to this specific clause will result in breakage of the contract and a penalty of $1 000 000.00’
And there at the bottom of the page were my initials. My mouth hung open and my heart rate tripled, I felt a cold sweat. What was this? I was totally fucked. We couldn’t break the contract. I called the guys to my office so we could discuss it. I didn’t know how I would break it to them.
Soon Greg and Martin were in my office but Steven was busy with a customer. I stumbled over my words explaining to them the situation and showed them the contract, my face blushing slightly. Martin was also confused and didn’t really know what to make of it.
What surprised me was the calm demeanour of Greg. “Guys, calm down. I know you don’t want to get bound and gagged I certainly don’t, none of us will do it voluntarily. We can’t lose the money. So there is only one thing left to do. We need to jump Steven get him ready for tonight and draw lots to see who gets to deliver him.”
We laid out our plan quickly and prepared for it. Steven was heading to the office and we knew we had only one shot. Martin would tackle him, Greg would tie his legs with a belt, and I would go for the arms with the tape I had in my desk.
Steve walked into the office, we jumped him and within a minute he was on the floor with his ankles immobilised and his wrists taped behind his back.
“what the fuck guys.” We tried explaining the situation to him but couldn’t explain anything over his “let me the fuck out, untie me right now. What the fuck.”
Greg was the one who was calm he pulled off one of Stevens sneakers and pulled the sock off then stuffed it in Steves mouth and held his hand out to me. I stared at it blankly.
“The tape moron, give me the tape.” I did and soon Steven was gagged and his yelling was reduced to muffled noises. After a few minutes he grew silent. We explained the entire situation to him, and proceeded to draw lots. Would you belive it Martin got the short straw. He would be delivering his buddy to some creepy guy. And it was all because of my screw up not reading the fine print.
Greg got up and left the office saying, “I need to get some things, keep an eye on him.” Martin and I sat in silence watching Steven try to escape. I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
About half an hour later he returned with a duffel bag, he dropped it on the floor. Inside was some hemp rope and a few other things I didn’t recognise.
“Martin, bring the car around the back.” Greg grabbed some hemp rope from the bag and started wrapping it around Stevens wrists and cinching it off. Steven was thrashing around trying to escape but his prison was becoming more solid. Greg looped some rope around Stevens chest above and below his pecs and biceps and cinched them. He quickly tied our friends’ ankles together with some rope before removing the belt.
I stood mesmerized by how well Greg knew what he was doing. This was clearly not his first time tying someone up.
“Help me carry him to the car.” We carried our struggling buddy to the back door and out, where Martin had parked the SUV, and opened the back. We dropped Steven in there; the struggling stopped and was replaced by a scared begging. We couldn’t bear looking at him like this so we shut the door. I ran back into the office, printed the directions and handed them to Martin. We looked as he left the car park with our friend bound and gagged.
******
What will happen to Steven? What will Martin be doing while he waits for Steven? What will Barry do with his guilt? How did Greg have ropes and how did he know exactly how to tie someone up? some questions to consider until the next chapter.