For a moment after Adrian spoke, the table remained quiet.
The music drifting through the club softened the edges of the silence, but it didn't remove it completely. Jake leaned back slightly in his chair, one arm resting casually along the side while he watched Marcus across the table.
Marcus didn't strike him as the type who enjoyed speaking without preparation. He was the kind of person who arranged his thoughts carefully before releasing them into a room. Jake recognized that instinct.
Marcus picked up his glass, took a small sip, then set it down again before finally speaking. "I've been thinking about a structure," he said slowly, "for pooling capital."
Leon leaned back in his chair. "Here we go."
Marcus ignored him. "This started as a conversation between the three of us," he continued, gesturing briefly toward Leon and Noah. "Mostly theoretical at first. But the more we talked about it, the more it started making sense."
