Two days blew by in a blur, and Jake hadn't had a single moment to breathe. With opening day bearing down on him, the to-do list never seemed to shrink.He finally exhaled, staring down at the business license in his hands, then climbed up on a stool to hang it on the wall behind the counter."Jake, give me one more day and I'll have that AC unit fully installed, I swear!" Tyler wiped sweat from his forehead, breathing hard."No worries, take your time. I already checked, we're opening the day after tomorrow." Jake pulled a folded stack of cash from his pocket and counted out three hundred dollars. "Here, for all your hard work these last couple days. Take the crew out for a good dinner tonight. I've got somewhere to be, so I won't make it.""This... man, I can't take this..." Tyler rubbed his hands together, hesitating. Two days of work hardly seemed worth this much."Just take it, I'm telling you to. Get everyone something decent to eat tonight, my treat."Tyler finally gave in, fol

Jake settled back into the booth, where Pete and Marcus were still deep in animated conversation. He hesitated a beat, but ultimately decided to just cut to the chase especially with no idea what might happen next.He didn't particularly enjoy places like this, and the sooner he could wrap this up and leave, the better. Meanwhile, the young woman seated beside him had grown increasingly annoyed, Jake hadn't touched his drink when she'd toasted him, hadn't so much as glanced her way.Most men who came to a place like this were here for exactly one reason. Tonight, Jake wasn't one of them.He'd been sitting with Marcus for a while now without bringing up the phones, but he hadn't lost sight of the goal for a second he was walking out of here with that inventory."Pete, let's talk business." Jake shifted in his seat and nudged Pete's arm, signaling him to cut the bragging short."Oh, right! Right, business, that's why we're here!" Pete, credit where it's due, snapped back to focus immedi

Jake had already worked out the resale math on this phone shipment. Current retail on that iPhone model was running north of eleven hundred dollars. Even selling them at a steep discount, say seven hundred each, he'd still be clearing four to five hundred dollars profit per unit. Multiply that across seven hundred phones, and the total profit landed somewhere north of three hundred thousand dollars.Jake had lived over twenty years without ever once seeing that kind of money in real life. And now it was practically sitting in front of him, ready to sprout wings and fly off into the night. There was no way he was letting that happen.He dropped his footsteps to a near-silent tread, staying close behind Danny.Sneaking around like this definitely up to no good, Jake thought, irritation bubbling beneath the surface.His confidence wasn't misplaced, either. With his enhanced strength, taking on two guys at once wasn't even a real concern anymore, and Danny's slight build didn't worry him

Jake had been plenty nervous in that taxi himself, but thankfully his system had come through. Draping the Invisibility Cloak over Marcus made him completely undetectable, Jake could still feel him there, but couldn't see so much as an outline.That's exactly how the two of them had slipped past the checkpoint without a hitch.By the time he got home, it was late and he was running on fumes after everything the night had thrown at him. A quick wash-up and he collapsed into bed, out cold within minutes.The smell of breakfast cooking pulled him awake the next morning.Jake rolled out of bed in one smooth motion, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Replaying the night before, it all still felt slightly unreal. He wondered if Marcus had managed to get picked up but given the guy's connections, he figured it had probably worked out fine.He wandered into the kitchen, ruffled Amy's hair, and took over the stove while she helped prep on the side."So, bro, where'd you disappear to last night? Y

Nicole slipped effortlessly into full management mode, breaking down every task with sharp clarity, and within minutes the whole shop was buzzing with activity.A few people got sent off to print flyers for distribution, others tackled a second round of cleaning, someone else started sketching out the promotional sign for the storefront window but by far, the biggest shock of the morning didn't come from Nicole.It came from Jake.Because Jake calmly announced the shop's opening prices: fifty percent off everything, storewide. The newest iPhone, available for just five hundred fifty dollars.The second that number landed, jaws dropped not just among passersby, but among his own crew too. Tyler and a few of the others practically started rubbing their hands together, ready to buy one on the spot and flip it for a quick few hundred bucks profit."You've got some nerve. Where'd you even source this inventory?" Once the crew scattered to their tasks, Nicole finally turned to Jake with a r