Chapter 56
A fter what seemed like hours of shaking hands and having small talk, we went to Greg’s room. He has a similar chalet to ours, basically a massive condo. It’s the unofficial after-party, I think, looking around at the couple dozen scofflaws breaking the conference rules.
“What’s your plan when Adam is back to work?” Greg asks, pouring me a whiskey.
“What do you mean?”
“He won’t have this much time to give you.”
“I’ll also be growing my business.” I squint at him.
“You can drop the whole earnest thing. You’re with Adam. You’re set.”
“Is that how you feel? Riding his coattails for a nice check.” I’m curious if this is his way of testing me or if it’s actually how he thinks of me.
He laughs, holding back a smirk, hopefully impressed by my dig. “You’ve got balls.” He takes a pull straight from the whiskey bottle. “You’ll need them if you’re serious about being in our inner circle.”
Extending the bottle toward me, I take a big gulp. “Be real, Greg,” I press. “Why don’t you like me?”
“You’re twenty-five.” He laughs. “You’re a killer. I like you.” He takes another pull. “I’m worried about my man Adam. He doesn’t need to be jumping into a relationship right now.”
Either Greg is a no-bullshit guy, or he’s drunk. Either way, I know where I stand with Adam’s number two. I can’t help myself and ask another lingering question. “So, what’s your read on Declan?”
“Don’t get me started.” Greg rolls his eyes. “We never should have made him an owner.”
Owner? I want to furrow my brows but consciously keep my face neutral. I thought Harris Ventures was one of his investors. Greg’s implying it’s the other way around.
“Last question, then I will leave you.”
“There are three women in this room. Don’t leave me.” He laughs.
“Ha. Ha,” I mock. “Do you think crypto will ever be used as currency, or is it a fancy way to launder money?”
Greg’s smile grows on his face. “Stop being so pretty and smart.”
I think back to my conversation with Adam about money and its origins. He doesn’t care. How much of a shell game is Harris Ventures? Should I care? Does it matter? Taking my cue to end my chat with Greg, I steal the bottle he keeps pulling from. He can thank me in the morning.
Walking back to Adam, he wraps his arm around my waist, not interrupting his conversation with another forty-something guy.
“We’re paying close attention to that too. Can you imagine if we had to report how much we owned?” the guy asks.
“Let’s make sure we don’t have to,” Adam says, and the guy walks away. Then, he winks at me. “What were you and Greg so enthralled in conversation about?”
“Money laundering.”
His hand slides down to my ass, and I flinch. “Is it that sore?” Adam asks in a whisper, and I nod. The cocky fucking smirk that grows on his face. “I can’t wait to get you alone.” He lightly spanks my sore cheek, and I nudge my shoulder into him.
“Do you need to network more?” I ask, liking the idea of going back to our chalet.
“No. But you could.”
“Mr. Harris,” a guy my age nervously says. “I kinda snuck in here for the chance to pitch you about my startup.”
Adam smiles, like this happens often.
“Pitch me in three sentences.”
“I only need one,” he says, too confident. “Carbon credits traded on the blockchain.”
“What’s your stance on effective altruism?” Adam asks. I can tell he’s intrigued by this guy.
“It’s bullshit.”
Adam chuckles and waves over Allison. “Send over your pitch deck, and we’ll chat.”
Allison asks him for his email when Adam whispers, “I want to be in the hot tub with you.”
“I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Perfect.” He places a kiss on my neck and then makes eye contact with someone. “Ahh,” he groans, staring at a guy intently. “I need to talk with him.”
Not that he needs my approval, but I nod. He walks away, bottle in hand. When did he steal it from me? I smile, thinking about how much I love his hands on me.
“Allison,” I say, getting her attention and walking toward her. “We’ve barely talked. I wanted to get to know you better.”
“Well, first off, thank you for keeping him busy.” She raises her glass to me. “I’ve had a semblance of work-life balance so far this summer. I’m not looking forward to August.”
“Why’s that?”
“We’ll be in the weeds, negotiating a majority stake in a real estate investing platform.”
“Adam mentioned that at dinner yesterday.”
“When they do deals, especially majority ownership ones. It’s no joke.”
I can see the past stress emerging on her face. “You seem overly qualified to be an assistant.”
“I have an MBA from Booth, but everyone treats me like I went to community college. It’s a Stanford boys club at Harris.”
“Why not do something else then?”
“The six-figure bonus checks and the connections.” She takes a sip. “Whenever I want to leave, I’ll have the Rolodex to spin up any business I want.”
I nod, understanding. The more time I spend with Adam, the more I appreciate how valuable his connections are.
“I knew who you were before Adam did,” she says after a pause.
“After his … incident in Lake Geneva. When he said your name and shared your phone number, you were already in our CRM.” After taking a sip of her drink she says, “The world can be so small, him meeting you through Declan. Do you know if he’s single? ”
“Adam didn’t meet me through Declan,” I correct. “And he only dates sober girls.”
“Oh … I assumed since Declan was so insistent we invest in Shirts and now with you doing this project.”
What the fuck! “Wait,” I say. “I’ve never heard about this.”
“Our other silent partners stay out of the day-to-day, but Declan is more hands-on, suggesting companies we should invest in … like Shirts.”
I want to scream. Allison confirmed Greg’s statement that Declan is a minority owner of Harris Ventures.
Plus, she just dropped a bomb. Why didn’t Adam say anything?
Why didn’t Declan? For the first time in my life, I feel like a nepobaby.
Would Shirts have ever raised money without Declan’s insistence?
“Isn’t that weird?” I ask. “Harris Ventures being invested in Cryptoball and then Declan being an investor in Harris Ventures?”
“Weird? Yeah. But it’s not illegal. The way everything is structured. It’s fascinating, honestly. All these guys have like dozens of shell companies and various entities they run things through. No one has any personal liability for anything.”