Page 9 of Fool’s Gold

At the same time, his mind raced. What exactly did Matt get from this? And how stupid could he be, putting himself into harm’s way like this when the actual Feds hired an actual bodyguard for him? He knew what Levi charged for his work. It wasn’t cheap.

“Of course. That’s why the pizza was supposed to be anonymous. I’m seriously just concerned for your health. I want you all to be safe out here. It’s like I said yesterday, you’re doing important work. I know our goals aren’t quite aligned, but I’m not kidding when I tell you I value what you’re doing out here. You’re not harming anyone. You’re legitimately reminding people that something terrible was done, to real people. I’d like to think we’ve purged anyone who had a hand in it, but there’s always a possibility that someone managed to sneak through. That’s why we need you so badly. While I think the work we do is important, I don’t think we should ever be allowed to forget what happened.”

Jack found part of himself unclenching and gave himself a mental shake. Sure, Matt sounded sincere. Jack could sound sincere about a lot of things—it was part of his skill set. He didn’t see why Matt would be any different.

“Hey, babe?” He knocked on the roof of the car for attention. “Don’t you have that interview in twenty minutes?”

Matt glowered at him. Let him glower—Jack was pulling him out of this ugly situation whether he wanted it or not.

“Fine.” Matt turned back to the protestors. “Anyway, thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow, I hope.” He got back into the car and drove toward the parking garage.

Once they were out of earshot, Jack turned to his erstwhile target. “How do you get to be a CEO while being so incredibly stupid?”

Matt ignored him.

“I’m serious. You know people are trying to kill you so you just hop on out of your car and go chatting to hostiles? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“It’s not your business either way, Vessely.”

“It is when it’s my actual job to stop people from killing you.”

“Except you’ve been fired. So maybe stop talking?”

“You don’t get to fire me. Only Five Star does. So until that happens, you still need to cooperate. Maybe try?”

“You first.” Matt pulled into a parking spot—cleverly enough, not the one marked as reserved for the CEO, so maybe he had some self-preservation instinct—and got out of the car.

They got into the elevator, and Jack wished Levi would get back to him about reassignment.

They emerged onto the executive floor of the office building. To say it was opulent would be putting it mildly. There was an actual water feature. Jack couldn’t think of a reason to include a water feature in an office no one would see, other than to show off. No wonder people wanted to pick off everyone in charge here.

Matt led Jack toward a kitchenette-type area. “This is where coffee comes from. Husniya has too much on her plate for anyone to ask her to bring coffee. Anyone asking her to fetch coffee or take dictation will be summarily fired and escorted out by security. We’ve had ten summary terminations in the two months since I’ve become CEO. Are we clear?”

Jack huffed out a laugh. He’d like to see security try to escort him out. At the same time, this might be the first CEO who didn’t expect secretaries to fetch coffee. “Sounds good. Has she been vetted?”

“She came over with me from my old accounting firm. I’ve known her for five years. She deserves better than all of this and she sure as hell deserves respect.”

“Of course.” Jack swallowed and looked away. He didn’t like Matt, and he didn’t respect him, but he had to give him credit for standing up for his admin.

Husniya turned out to be a woman in her early thirties, of South Asian origin, in stylish but fairly conservative office wear and a floral headscarf. She beamed at Matt when she saw him and showed mild curiosity toward Jack. “Good morning, Matt. I’ve got the numbers you wanted; they’re in your inbox. The presidents of Emory University, University of Georgia, and Morehouse College School of Medicine will be here at two to discuss your proposal. And Dan Parkinson fromGeorgia Risingwill be here at one.”

Matt grinned at her. “A fun and busy day ahead, I’m sure. Is everything going okay for you? Have you had any problems?”

Husniya looked away. “Not really.”

Matt cleared his throat.

She looked back at him. “Okay. Someone threw an egg at my car on my way in this morning. I don’t know that it was related to the whole... thing... here. It wasn’t one of the protestors near the gate. It was someone in a cluster near my exit. They could have been upset about anything, really. They were mostly young, so they could have just been playing a prank. I don’t know.”

“Fair enough.” Matt’s smile softened. “You’ll keep me posted if anything changes, right?”

“Of course, Matt.” She smiled up at him. “I’ve handled worse than a couple of eggs.”

He turned to Jack. “Husniya, this is Jack Vadas. He’s going to be staying with me for a little while. Jack, this is Husniya Jatt.”

Jack bowed his head, and she seemed to relax a little more since she wasn’t expected to shake his hand. “Pleased to meet you, miss.”

“Let me know if I can help you with anything, Mr. Vadas.”

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