Florence spoke about the company stocks and their valuation, and she also told Dante how they would need to do an overhaul of the current business structure in order to cement him as the new CEO, and Dante understood everything! Most of it were things that no one should be able to understand unless they had been in business for at least a few months, but it seemed like just another conversation to Dante, and Dante couldn't help but wonder where all this fucking knowledge came from!
Florence saw Dante nodding his head along with her, and for a moment, she thought that Dante was just nodding because he wanted her to finish talking as quickly as possible! Dante had only been introduced to this world of business a few hours ago, so Florence knew that most of what she was saying sounded like rubbish to him! But Florence needed him to know these things! It was important because they needed to get Dante up to speed before they would have the dinner the next day! But Florence was shocked when Dante suddenly asked a question!
"What is the current market valuation for the company?"
Florence blinked in surprise at that question, but she didn't need to think at all before she immediately told Dante that they were valued at just under two hundred billion dollars. Florence knew these numbers by heart since she looked at them every day, but Dante suddenly asked another question.
"What are our stocks selling for?"
"Our stocks?"
Dante turned to Florence seriously when Florence repeated this to him, and Florence quickly answered that each share was selling at eight hundred dollars on the NASDAQ. They had about three hundred million shares, so they were selling at a reasonable rate. Dante immediately frowned, and he stepped closer to Florence.
"Are you sure we only have three hundred million shares?"
"What? I-I'm sure of it. I check the books regularly."
Dante felt like cursing at that moment! Florence didn't look like she was lying, and Dante could see in her eyes that she was genuinely confused! But Dante knew that Florence was wrong! Dante had seen the books for the company before, and he was certain that there were shadow shares that had been created by the Boss, and those shares had been filtered into the Gang business to cover the expenses of guns and bombs. If Dante's fears were true, then they were going to be in a whole lot of trouble!
Dante turned to Risa and spoke to her seriously.
"Once we're done here, show her the books. Make sure she counts out the shares once again and reports back the actual value to me."
Risa nodded to Dante's words, and Florence was left looking between Dante and Risa with wide eyes. What in the world could possibly have happened!? Florence looked over her numbers again, and they didn't look like there was anything wrong with them! Did something happen that would make Dante so agitated? Dante didn't say anything more to Florence about the shares, and Florence couldn't bring herself to ask him about it since she was no longer sure of her own calculations. Florence decided that she would just wait to see the books that Dante had spoken about, and then she would figure out what was wrong afterwards!
Dante continued walking towards the barn, and when he got closer, he was met outside by Tim, the young explosives expert. Tim saw Dante from a distance, and his eyes widened as he quickly ran up to Dante while shouting!
"Boss! Boss! Hey, Boss!"
Dante raised a brow as Tim almost fell over while running towards him, and Tim just managed to catch himself as he leaned closer to Dante and whispered conspiratorially!
"There's this rumor going around, Boss! People are saying that you're the new boss of the family! I told them it was all rubbish! I mean, Fredrick's gonna be the new boss, right?"
Tim waited for Dante to nod in agreement, but when he saw Dante raise a brow at him, Tim's entire face turned white! Someone cleared their throat from behind Dante, and Tim felt his entire body shake from fear once he realized that it was Risa!
Risa spoke with authority.
"Tim, what did I tell you about being so familiar with the boss?"
Tim quickly took various steps back and bowed his head almost to the ground, and Dante felt a smile appear on his face when Tim shouted!
"I'm so sorry, Risa! I'm sorry, Boss!"
Dante knew that Tim was a very free spirit, and he didn't mind the boy talking to him in such a familiar way, but Tim had always been terrified of Risa from the moment he came to the family and Dante noticed that whenever Risa was around, Tim always composed himself and spoke respectfully. Dante could only imagine what Risa did to the poor boy to scare him so much!
Dante patted Tim on the shoulder and spoke kindly.
"That's fine, Tim. Did the men bring the prisoners here already?"
Tim saluted immediately!
"Yes, Boss! They're still interrogating them inside the shed! I couldn't go in cause I didn't want to puke from the blood!"
Dante nodded, and Florence paled from behind Dante when she heard blood! What in the world was happening?! Did that small boy just say that there was blood!? That means they're torturing people!? Florence immediately began to take steps back from the door as she spoke in a shaky voice.
"M-Mr. Dante. Maybe it'll be best for me to go back to the mansion. I-I'm not really good with blood or violence."
Dante turned to Florence with a frown! What the hell did she think this entire family was about? Without blood and violence, they wouldn't have anything that they had today! Dante pointed a finger at her and spoke up in annoyance.
"Don't move a fucking muscle. I'm not done talking to you yet. Tim, open the door."
Tim saluted Dante one more time before he opened the barn door and revealed what was on the other side. The inside was dimly lit with barely any light to see who was in there, and Dante squinted his eyes to try and get a better look! There were three men standing on one side and folding their hands across their chests, but the moment they saw Dante, the men straightened up respectfully. Two other men were standing beside a man sitting in a chair. One of the men was holding a baseball bat, and the other man was holding a bloody knife, and the man in the chair was slouched with his head drooping lifelessly. He was still alive, but there were various wounds around his body, and he was bleeding heavily.
[Due to repeated action, the user has developed a new specific Skill [Night Vision - C] under the General skill [Espionage]]
[Night Vision – This skill grants the user the ability to see clearly even in the darkest areas! Repeated use of this skill will increase the skill's rank!]
All of a sudden, Dante felt his sight sharpen into an otherworldly clarity! It was as if someone had taken a torch and lit up the entire barn because Dante could now see everything in the barn very clearly! There were a few chickens moving around the barn and clucking quietly, and another man was tied up in another chair beside the bleeding man with a cloth stuck in his mouth to prevent him from screaming. Dante could see that this man had a look of fear on his face as he looked towards him. The man hadn't even been tortured yet, but he must have heard the men torturing his comrade, and that put true fear into him, so Dante decided that he was going to talk to him first. Behind Dante, Florence looked like she was going to lose her lunch! The moment she saw the bleeding man, she turned away in fear, but she couldn't go anywhere because Risa was standing right behind her! She had no choice but to follow behind the boss as they walked deeper into the barn.
The men from the Lucas family gave Dante respectful nods and stepped back once he came closer. Dante nodded at them before he turned his attention towards the man who hadn't been injured yet.
"Why's this one still conscious?"
The man holding the baseball bat brought it up to his shoulder and chuckled before answering Dante's question.
"We're just getting warmed up with the first one, Boss. We'll get to him soon."