“Marcos has always been a man who doesn’t show his face, we better be cautious.” Chris said aloud.
This time, whatever happened, they had to bring down the project in front of Marcos.
Nothing would hurt him more than that!
Rawlins withdrew his gaze and looked back at the stage with a somber look, “Of course I’ll be cautious.”
The bidding session began with the host on stage presenting all the details of the project.
After the presentation, it was time for the companies to start bidding.
“Three hundred million!”
“Four hundred million!”
“Five hundred million!”
All the bids were increasing by one hundred million, and the atmosphere was very enthusiastic.
“Brother, shall we raise the cards?” asked Alvaro to Marcos, who was next to him, in a whisper.
Marcos nodded his head slightly.
Alvaro immediately held up his card and said aloud, “One billion!”
The increase from 500 million to 1 billion was a shock to the other companies, but it also showed the determination of the Leoz Group.
It seemed that the Leoz Group was so determined to win this time that some companies gave up bidding on the spot.
They knew they were not as rich as the Leoz Group, so they quit early and did the Leoz Group a favor.
Rawlins and Chris exchanged a look and raised their bids, “1. 5 billion!”
Another half billion more!
The host was a bit taken aback as he looked at Rawlins and then at Marcos and couldn’t help but feel excited.
It looked like tonight’s price was going to be the highest ever!
And he would have the honor of witnessing it.
“One and a half billion once! One and a half billion twice!” The presenter’s voice trembled slightly as his gaze went straight to Mark, “Anyone else want to bid? If not, this item will go to the Bartram Group!”
“Sixteen billion!” Alvaro looked in the direction of the Rawlins, a grimace curving the corners of his mouth.
He wanted to see if they could compete with the Leoz Group!
“One hundred and seventy million!”
“Eighteen hundred million!”
In the time that followed, Alvaro and Rawlins went back and forth, slowly adding up the bids for a billion.
The final bid came in at three billion.
The other companies were surprised, as they were the only ones who could pay that price.
Three billion was the price the Rawlins shouted, and that was their final price.
They had studied the whole project and three billion was the top price, anything higher really wouldn’t be worth it.
I thought that was also Marcos’ psychological price.
“Bro, what now, do we have to go up?” Alvaro was also aware that three billion was the best to take the project.
But how were the Rawlins going to get away with it.
Marcos took the sign in his hand and raised it high, his deep voice echoed in the room.
“Four billion!
Four billion!
Everyone in the room was surprised, even Rawlins and the others didn’t expect him to bid so high!
The host reacted, “Ken, Mr. Marcos, you’re not kidding, are you?”.
Marcos replied nonchalantly, “No.”
The host didn’t dare delay a second longer, “If no one here bids more than four billion, then this TS Group project will be taken by the Leoz Group.”
“Mr. Rawlins, what do we do now?” someone asked anxiously.
Rawlins’ face was as dark as ink as he stared at Marcos, his hands clenched into fists, nails sinking into his palms feeling no pain.
“I really didn’t think the Leoz Group would be able to make it to four billion.” Chris snorted, a look of resignation on his face, “We really underestimated Marcos!”.
When a minute passed and there were no more bids, the presenter dropped the gavel and announced that the project had been acquired by the Leoz Group.
Alvaro let out a long sigh of relief, as his nerves had been tense the whole time, and the corners of his lips lifted.
He glanced in Rawlins’ direction just in time to see the latter’s resigned look and smiled even wider.
“If it weren’t for the others, Rawlins would have run to strangle you.” sneered Alvaro.
“Come on.”
Marcos stood up and without looking away turned to walk out the door.
Seeing this, Rawlins and Chris rushed to get up to chase after them.
“Mr. Marcos, please stay!”
A familiar voice sounded behind him and Alvaro looked back, eyebrows raised, a sneer appearing on his handsome face.
Marcos stopped in his tracks.
Rawlins quickly approached him, his grim gaze fixed on him as he asked, “Why are you making outlandish offers? You know what the top price is on that project.”
“Making outlandish bids?” Marcos’ brow furrowed slightly, “The bids have always gone to the highest bidder, what’s wrong with that?”
“You!” Rawlins gagged for a moment, unable to speak.
“Simply put. If you felt resentful, you should have offered 4. 1 billion or 5 billion.” Alvaro scoffed.
He looked at the Rawlins’ faces and, with a slight twinkle in his eye, pretended to apologize, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have thought you could pay more than 3 billion.”
Anyone could hear the mockery in his words.
Rawlins became furious, “Marcos, you don’t think just because the Leoz Group has this project that you can rest on your laurels! We’ll see about that.”
With his words, Rawlins directed his men with fury.
Alvaro snorted with disdain: “Do you really think you can do anything to the Leoz Group? The fact that we have offered four billion today and they have already offered three billion shows the difference between the two parties.”
“Don’t let your guard down just because of that.” Marcos gave him a sidelong glance and said in a lighter tone, “Dogs can jump over walls in a hurry.”
Alvaro couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “You’re right brother, dogs do jump the wall in a hurry, so I’m going to see if they really can jump the big wall that is the Leoz Group.”
…
Rawlins returned to the office, so angry that he swept everything off his desk and threw it on the floor.
The assistant stood on the sidelines, not daring to utter a word.
“Fucking Grupo Leoz! Fucking Marcos!” said Rawlins, pulling his tie back and crossing his arms, his chest heaving violently with such rage.
“You’re cussing here, and they’re not missing a piece of meat.” Chris gave him a cold look and walked straight to the couch and sat down.
Seeing that he was still calm, Rawlins quickly walked over to him, “Chris, don’t you ever get angry? Obviously we could have kicked your ass today, but in the end we’re a joke, a big joke!”.
Chris raised his hand to signal his assistant to leave and spoke slowly and deliberately, “Of course I’m angry, but will being angry change the outcome?”
Rawlins sat across from him and took a deep breath to quell the anger he felt. “No, but we can’t let it go, can we?”.
Chris twirled his ring around his finger, looking thoughtful.
Since he didn’t say anything, Rawlins spoke again, “The Leoz Group is going to have fun with this project.”
The Leoz Group had been suffering more or less with all their targets.
But just today, Marcos easily turned the whole situation around.