Page 105 of Tangled

“You mean your buddy Max, the royal-dude Prince of Monaco who owns the air we’re breathing?” she asked.

“The very one. Casimir is a good guy. While this isn’t exactly his specialty, he is a contract and intellectual property lawyer.”

Tristan made the videocall and set his phone on speaker so Colleen could hear.

When Casimir answered the videocall, Tristan became uncomfortably aware that he was once again introducing Colleen to a guy who was better-looking than he was, at least in his estimation. Casimir’s hair was dark with streaks of auburn that caught the sun's fire shining over the ocean behind him. He seemed to be standing on a deck overlooking the sea, and he had the most brilliant green eyes Tristan had ever seen on a human being.

Casimir’s eyes hadn’t changed, but the rest of his face had. It never ceased to jar Tristan that Casimir wore a face utterly unlike the one that Tristan had known when they were growing up together in boarding school.

He started with, “Hey, Casimir, this is Tristan King from Le Rosey. I knew you there, and we met at the rather exciting events that led up to Maxence’s wedding a few months ago. I need a lawyer.”

Casimir van Amsberg worked in the entertainment industry, not in finance and big business. “I do contracts, but this is not my field. You need a specialist in finance law for this. I can refer you to somebody. I know people all over the place.”

Tristan was adamant. “We need this done right now. There are reasons. Maxence trusts you, so I trust you. I don’t want somebody I can’t trust.”

“I’ll make sure to find you someone good. I assure you, I am painfully aware of which lawyers in this town are dirty.”

“We need somebodynow.”

“While I do specialize in contracts, these sorts of negotiations usually take months, if notyears.Divesting a portion of a business into a separate entity is a monumental undertaking. Gaining the agreement of all the members of the board of a corporation is the worst. That part alone can take months. There are all kinds of meetings.”

“We have one negotiator who has proxy waivers for sixty-seven percent of the shares.”

“What! How the hell did you get that?”

Colleen leaned in and said into the phone, “Hi! I’m Colleen.”

Tristan said, “It’s a weird situation, and we need the whole thing to go down and the part that we carve out to be transferred to the other owner within the next three hours.”

“Are you on drugs?I live in LA, and I know when people have snorted a bagful of cocaine. You have to behigh.”

“Because Colleen has all those proxy waivers, we can tell you what we need in the contract, and there are no negotiations. It’s entirely one-sided. It’s a majority owner doing what they want with a company.”

“This is the weirdest situation I’ve heard of in months, and I work with celebrities in Hollywood.”

“I need to do this right now. Come on, Casimir. I know you’re good in emergencies.”

“But the details.”

“The business we’re carving out doesn’t have any employees, health plans, separate contracts, 401(k) plans, or pension funds. It’s pretty much just a digital entity that stands on its own in cyberspace.”

“That sounds too easy.”

“It’s the only reason I think it could work.”

“Fine,” Casimir grumbled. “Tell me what you’ve got, and I’ll ask the questions, and then I can probably have the contract to you within two hours. But the next time you’re in California, you owe me lunch.”

Tristan said, “Deal.”

Colleen grinned at him. “So that’s done!”

Tristan shouldn’t tell her. It was a little mean to tell her. “By the way, Casimir is royalty, too.”

She rolled her eyes.“Nuh-uh.You said he was a lawyer.”

“Oh, Caz is a lawyer, too. He’s a younger son. His older sister will inherit the throne. But he’s Prince Casimir van Amsberg of The Netherlands, House of Oranj-Nassau.”

“Nuh-uh. No way.”