From a Humiliating Bet to the Boss He Can't Have novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Balance Held

Nate opened the folder and held a sheet up to the booth.

The screen behind us changed to a bank notice with a highlighted line.

"This is a payment to a photographer," he said. "Two hundred fifty dollars a day, for standing outside my building and recording one of my employees."

He tapped the memo.

"FRL Escrow, Pemberton Family Trust, photo services. There are thirty of them."

A murmur ran through the room.

"That's operating cost," Cynthia said, still smiling with her teeth. "Every host has them."

"The entry was fifty dollars a head," Nate said. "Roughly two thousand one hundred players. The pot is advertised at two hundred twelve thousand four hundred."

"That's right."

"Held in escrow."

"Held safely."

"By your father's family trust, which also pays your photographer, your hotel and, I assume, your lease." He closed the folder. "I'd like to know the balance. Tonight, here, so the players can see it."

"That's private financial information."

"It's their money."

Someone shouted, "Show us!"

Someone else took it up, and then it was a chant, six hundred voices rolling forward off the back wall.

"Show us! Show us!"

Cynthia lifted her hands, laughing, and the laugh cracked in the middle.

"This is a harassment campaign by a man who bet against..."

"Excuse me."

The greeter in the black dress had climbed onto the stage steps with her tablet held against her chest.

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