Page 17 of Fool’s Gold

“Real people fanfic. I’ll explain later.” The corners of Jack’s mouth twitched, but he kept a straight face.

Matt buried his face in his hands. “Dear God.”

Husniya cleared her throat. “Should I go ahead and confirm with them?”

Matt picked his head up. “Of course. Maybe don’t let them know about the fanfic?”

She grimaced and toyed with the edge of her headscarf. “Mr. Astraukas already went public with that one. His daughter is fourteen.” She cleared her throat. “Apparently, she wrote one of them. And is now grounded for two weeks.”

Jack laughed. “Now that’s a shame. She shouldn’t be punished for expressing her creativity.”

“About us?” Matt glared at him.

“Ain’t like it’s real.” Jack smirked. “Let’s get you ready for that board meeting, sweetheart.”

Matt spent the next hour and a half pulling numbers and resources together, so he’d have them at his fingertips. His pulse raced in his ears, like he was about to be dragged to the principal’s office, but he made himself portray outward calm. He’d learned young that he should never let the enemy see him sweat.

And maybe it wasn’t great that he saw the board as the enemy, but that was a problem for future Matt. It was probably a normal reaction, all things considered.

When ten o’clock rolled around, he joined in with the virtual board meeting. They would see nothing behind him but books; Jack was in the room, but out of sight.

“Good morning, gentlemen.” He made himself smile affably. “I hope you’re all doing well this morning.”

Sven Heinonen, the board member who’d been most opposed to Matt’s appointment as interim CEO, scowled at him. “Don’tgood morningus, Taggart. You know why we’re here. What the hell were you thinking, going to a prince’s ball like Cinderella at a time like this? We promoted you to salvage the company, not to make it a laughingstock!”

Matt kept his bland demeanor. “Honestly, Mr. Heinonen, when I got the invitation my initial response was to decline. I agree wholeheartedly—I had no desire to go dance at some formal party when people were suffering because of something Besse unleashed into the world.

“The fact is, Prince Daniel came to Atlanta specifically to offer Corvian aid in getting the epidemic under control. They needed cooperation from Besse to get the job done, and I had no problem agreeing to it.”

Doug Salmon, a retired general who supplemented his Army pension by sitting on various corporate boards, recoiled. “Without consulting the board first? And a foreign power, at that? You’re out of your goddamn mind, Taggart.”

Matt dropped the illusion of affability, but he didn’t let himself get hostile. He just let his tone cool. “General Salmon, the whole reason to have a chiefexecutiveofficer is to make decisions that need to be made when there isn’t time to convene the board and make decisions by committee. We agreed when I took this role that my primary focus would be digging Besse out of the hole it dug for itself, both by implementing stringent internal controls and by reestablishing public trust.

“Corvia, under Crown Prince Eric’s direction, has come up with both a treatment and a vaccine for the super flu Besse created. They don’t have the resources to test or manufacture these products to scale. They want to work with us and our research partners to make that happen, but they needed to keep the project a secret. Hence the formal reception, and hence my attendance.”

Most of the ten-member board nodded, looking thoughtful. Salmon and Heinonen grumbled and glowered, but they couldn’t find a fault in Matt’s logic.

It fell to Ellis Walmsley, the board’s oldest member who had quite possibly witnessed Reconstruction, to bring up the other subject of the board’s ire.

“Taggart, your responsibility is to restore the reputation of this fine, storied company. However, you have been cavorting with another man for some time and last night you allowed yourself to be photographed in a homosexual act. This is despicable, and it will not stand.” Walmsley pounded on the desk in front of him for emphasis on the last three words.

A pang struck in Matt’s chest, because while he’d never hidden his sexuality he’d never exactly flaunted it either. He was just a private kind of guy, like most accountants.

He ignored the feeling and raised his eyebrow at the camera. “Why, Mr. Walmsley, I hope you’re not discriminating against me. I know for a fact that the previous holder of this position was not subjected to the same treatment when he was photographed with his hand on a dancer’s backside last year.”

“That’s different and you know it.” It was Salmon who barked out the response, not Walmsley.

“Indeed it is. That’s because the dancer in question pressed charges.” Colwyn MacRae, one of the medical doctors on the board, yawned and sipped from a mug. Matt hoped the mug held coffee. “To be sure, it looks a little off for our CEO to be making out with someone at a time like this, but to be worried about the gender of the partner is a little absurd in the twenty-first century.”

“It’s not discrimination, it’s an issue of neutrality.” Heinonen glowered. “Whether we want it to be or not, homosexuality is a political issue right now—and it’s a highly divisive one. We have a hard enough time with public opinion without rubbing the fact that our CEO is a queer in people’s faces.”

Matt cleared his throat. Fury grew cold in his chest, but he reined it in. “Gentlemen, I can promise you I’m not given to public displays of affection. You’ve been made aware of the threats being hurled my way? The bombing in the parking garage?”

“We have.” This came from Astraukas. Matt wasn’t sure if he was an ally or not yet.

“Security signaled to Jack to get me down, so that’s how he decided to do it. They had an assailant incoming, and didn’t want to cause a panic in a crowded venue. The assailant was taken into custody quietly. Once I have more information about the person, you’ll be updated.”

Silence fell over the board. Most of them looked shocked. Walmsley, Salmon, and Heinonen just narrowed their eyes at him, as if they didn’t believe him.

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