**** Chapter Nine – Leeches ****

The next two days were basically a blur, I had a new truck and I had deliveries arriving left and right. Meetings and phone calls dominated and things were progressing quickly, but even the simplest of tasks was completed in a hurry. Time was ticking until the official Lottery Winner announcement came out.

At that point I no longer even knew what day of the week it was. Since this whole thing had started I really hadn’t had time to stitch together the events and a proper timeline in my mind. I just pushed forward, knowing that it was merely a matter of time before the news of my sudden wealth got out and the jackals began to circle hoping for a bite of that pile. The Lottery folks had given us thirty days and I was trying to make the most of that. We didn’t make it that long.

The first money grubber call came as a shocking eye opener. I’m still not exactly sure what day it was since I had turned in my winning ticket but it was three days since I bought my trailer so I had some since of when it was, also I knew that the spring weather was fine and warm so I assumed May was near. I still was living in a bit of a fog though, too much had happened in my life way too fast and things were still accelerating.

Actually, the first leech call wasn’t bad, the second was demanding, the third and worst call came from Trish – three men had showed at her door wanting to speak about “the investment obligations”. It was suddenly time for action, fast action. I immediately conferenced in David, Traci and Sonya. David and Traci were impressive, they had prepared for this as part of the Wealth Management business. One quick phone call from Traci and private security personnel were dispatched to pick up Trish from home and each of her boys from their school. I spoke up and added in my mother to that effort, I was sure my brothers could take care of themselves and my sister’s husband was the same way but Mom had to be taken care of.

Charter flights were arranged and within a few hours everyone in my world who was vulnerable was suddenly on their way to a whirl-wind European vacation via charter jet. Subterfuge was involved. We kept it legal and above board, regardless we still managed some shade; while their jet refueled in Shannon, Ireland my people switched to a different charter flight and headed off to Prague. From Prague, Mom, Trish and the boys would change charters again, and after a stop in Cairo would enjoy the spring weather up in Stockholm. Amusingly enough, a like sized lucky family from Shannon suddenly won a free spring-time trip to Spain with expenses paid and continued on in my folk’s place. It was all above board, but most likely more than enough to shake anyone but the most dogged of pursuers, like a government.

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Oddly enough I had inadvertently protected myself by moving into Max’s Pub first and David’s guest house second. All my purchases and charges after my lottery claim had been made by one of my new trusts or companies and David had registered all of them in various Caribbean nations. David was scarily good at this stuff, mafia level good.

With that all handled it was time for me to go also. Just like my people, I suddenly had multiple new cell phones - one company phone for incoming only plus burners for placing calls anonymously - and I was also on the move. At that point I felt like an international spy, but the sad fact was I was only running from the leeches of our world.

The room at Max’s pub was available, so Sonya secured it for me while I loaded my truck to leave. After packing my personal items and stowing them into the bed of my new truck, I placed a call to Sam Adams the custom trailer man. What I expected to be a difficult conversation turned out to be surprisingly easy, Sam had somehow heard of who I was and figured out what was happening; word was spreading that fast. Bad luck met good luck, and good luck was on my side again for a moment. I asked Sam for an extreme expedite and a delivery of tomorrow a.m., and this time there wasn’t any hemming, hawing or grunting - simply a quick quote of the overtime cost for his guys to work through the night. I appreciated that and authorized a significant bonus for anyone involved. Just like that my trailer would be ready by 10 tomorrow morning.

Leaving was the next part. I wasn’t looking forward to saying goodbye so quickly to my team. Surprisingly, Traci gave me a hug, and even Lisa was there to say goodbye. Oddly, Sonya was nowhere to be seen. I gave David a manly shoulder-hug and promised that I would call daily and that I wouldn’t make any further unapproved major purchases. Sadly, I knew I needed to disappear for basically a year and I wouldn’t see my friend any time soon.

I found Sonya moments later entrenched in the passenger seat of my truck with her laptop on some strange desk-like contraption and her phone to her ear. I stopped literally hallway into my truck and stared at her in surprise, she merely put the phone down for a moment and said “Hurry up now, we’ve got things to do”; phone back up to her ear she was talking and working one-handed on her laptop again.

So I got in, buckled up and drove us down to Max’s.