Page 104 of Tangled

Tristan told her, “Anjali can advise you, and I’ll tell you exactly what to do.”

“But, what’s the deal?” Colleen asked. “Are the minnow-level investors going to get shafted?”

Tristan shook his head. “They’ll end up with their stock shares and the CurieCoins, but there’s going to be a reorganization. There are several things we have to do.”

“Then we got everything we wanted,” Colleen said, a thrill running through her. “What did Mary Varvara Bell ask for in return?”

Tristan shrugged. “Nothing important.”

56

Proxy Waivers

Colleen

Anjali prepared the proxy waivers, inserting the correct name and information for the GameShack Corporation, as well as Colleen’s name and info as the designated negotiator, into the appropriate slots on the form that she’d downloaded from her advanced business class.

Colleen spent her time drafting posts for the boards, explaining that there had been a change in plans, but that if everything went right, the small fish were going to get a lot more money than previously thought. No matter what, the deals would be over with by the end of the night.

And if everything else fell through or if they didn’t like the outcome, TwistyTrader would make good on his offer of thirty-six cents per share. They had nothing to lose by waiting a few hours.

The Killer Whales scoffed at her, gloating to the small fish that they’d been had. What suckers, they said. There’s one born every minute. They’d gotten out of their positions when their losses were small because that’s what savvy investors do, not suckers like them.

Then Colleen explained a proxy waiver, meaning that the minnows would sign over the voting rights associated with their stock shares for a limited amount of time, but they still owned the stock. The stock would stay in their trading accounts and would not move. It had to do with assigningjustthe voting rights.

When she was done explaining and the minnows had finished electronically signing the proxy waivers, Colleen held the voting rights to sixty-seven percent of GameShack’s stock.

“Okay, it’s done,” she said to Tristan. “I can’t believe they trusted me with this.”

He reached out and held her hand. The warmth of his hand comforted her. “Remember all those ideas that you had for the GameShack stores when we were sitting at that Starbucks back in Phoenix when we first met? I used those ideas to make the deal. It’s time to do some of them.”

Horror slammed her.She’d made a mistake.“Wait, I told you to sell all the real estate. Are we going tofireall the GameShack employees? We can’t just burn down the company. Remember?Sixty thousand people—”

“Of course not,” Tristan said. “That would be unethical, and I wouldn’t expect you to do it. When I was sitting in my computer room talking to Mary Varvara Bell, trying to figure out what I could offer her, your ethics guided me.” He dropped her hand and stroked her cheek. “It’s one of the reasons why I love you, because I know I can trust you. Youwon’tbetray people. Youcan’t.When I said I was the spotlight, I was wrong. That’syou.You’remyguiding light.”

Colleen stuttered to a stop. “I—Tristan, I should have said it before. I—”

“Don’t,”he said. “Don’t say anything. When this is over, and it should be over soon, we’ll talk. I wanted you to know, but I don’t want you to say anything you’ll regret, or that I’ll regret. Just let me get through these next few hours, okay?”

“Okay.” Her skin flushed, anxiety emerging as heat.

He drew her into his arms, wrapping her in warmth against the night that chilled her skin.

“Next,” Tristan said, “we take a sledgehammer to GameShack.”

57

Casimir van Amsberg

Tristan

They needed a lawyer.

It was after midnight in Monaco, but that meant it was just after six o’clock in New York and three o’clock in California.

Colleen said, “I don’t know any lawyers.”

Tristan said he knew a lawyer out there he could call. “He’s a friend of Maxence’s.”