Page 7 of Fool’s Gold

One more thing he had to sacrifice because of his employers’ arrogance.

He forced himself to focus on the present. He’d agreed to take the job on, so there was no use whining about it. Even in his own head.

Norah captured and held the gaze of each man in turn. “Now that we’re all settled in with some food, who wants to explain why we’re having a surprise breakfast party in my home?”

Kingston looked to Morales. Morales looked at the table.

It fell to the new guy to speak. “Well, ma’am, it seems like Matthew’s been a naughty boy, and now he needs protection. The FBI feels his bodyguard should be living with him in a fake relationship type of situation, and I’m the man they sent.”

Kingston glowered at him. “Christ, Vessely, way to break it to the lady.”

Matt closed his eyes.

Norah was silent for a long moment. “So this is about the time Matthew and Billy Coogan released a box full of live frogs in the science room, just because they didn’t want them to get dissected?”

Matt couldn’t help but grin at that memory. Yeah, he’d done that, and he’d do it again given half the chance.

“Well, no,” said the new guy, whose name was apparently Vessely. He opened his mouth to continue, but Norah wasn’t done.

“Then is this about the time he got caught under the bleachers kissing Mark Rodgers? Because that seems like an odd thing for the FBI to get involved with, especially twenty years after the fact. And I’ll tell you now what I told Mark Rodgers’ parents at the time. The good Lord wouldn’t have made them attracted to each other if he had such a problem with it, and maybe they should look to themselves and clean up their own act before they kick up a fuss about two teenagers kissing under the bleachers.”

Matt smiled as warmth ran through him. No one at his school had expected Norah to stand up for him, considering it was rural Georgia and Norah was an older woman. She had, and she’d stood up for Mark too. She’d even let Mark stay there when his parents kicked him out, even though he and Mark hadn’t worked out as a couple.

“Ma’am, this isn’t about anything he’s done when he was a child. Matthew was the CFO and is now the CEO of a company that killed thousands of people and made millions extremely sick. A lot of people are angry about that, and they’ve been making some pretty serious threats. Threats toward him and toward you.” Jack scowled at Norah, waving his fork around.

“Toward me?” Norah snorted. “Why toward me? For that matter, threatening Matthew is absurd. He had nothing to do with what those vicious little men were doing, and he’s done nothing but cooperate in the investigation. Let them come. I’ve got a shotgun and a pistol just dying to meet them.”

Matt pinched the bridge of his nose and made a mental note to speak with Samaira.

Morales leaned over to whisper to Matt. “You let her keep guns in your house?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Agent, no oneletsNorah Taggart do anything.” Matt straightened up.

“Damn straight.” Norah patted his hand and turned a fierce glare toward Vessely. “Now I’m only going to say this once, so you listen and you listen good. I don’t care that whatever relationship you’re supposed to have with my grandson is fake. That’s fine. But youwilltreat him with respect. You don’t have to love him. You’re here to do a job, I suppose. And, Matthew, we’ll be having a discussion about secrets and hiding things like threats from your grandmother.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Matt looked back down at the table.

“But you, mister.” She stabbed a gnarled finger toward Vessely. “I don’t want to see or hear you being anything other than respectful to my boy again. He hadn’t been at that wretched company for a year when they pulled their grotesque little stunt. He’d never worked in pharmaceuticals before, and from what he showed me, none of what they did would have showed up in the financial records.”

Morales cleared his throat. “It’s true. Our white-collar division went over everything with a fine-toothed comb, or he wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

“You see? Listen to Agent Morales. He’s a fine young man. Smart.” She smiled at him and passed him some of the fruit from her plate.

Matt knew he should feel embarrassed to have her taking up for him like that. He couldn’t manage to find shame. She was the only one who had ever stood up for him, and now that the whole world was against him, he couldn’t help but be grateful.

He carefully switched the topic to the nascent WNBA season and indulged in sports talk for the rest of the meal.

It turned out that Kingston hadn’t been able to follow sports very well in his previous life as a Navy SEAL, so he’d enjoyed catching up on that aspect of the outside world since leaving the military. He was especially pleased to learn about the WNBA and had been following the Sparks out in Los Angeles. He loved watching it with his partner’s sisters especially; it was good for them to see so many women in nonsexualized roles.

Matt had never heard so many words from Kingston’s mouth before.

Unfortunately, breakfast was over all too soon, and they had to get back to business.

Vessely rose, and gestured to Matt. “If you’ll come with me, maybe Agent Morales and Mr. Kingston here can help Mrs. Taggart clean up. We’ll establish how this is going to work and get out of her hair.” He directed a saccharine-sweet smile toward Norah, who stared him down.

“Fine. That’s a great idea.” Matt stood up and followed him.

Unsurprisingly, Vessely knew exactly where the master bedroom was. Matt didn’t know why he bothered to question it at this point. He was working with the Feds; they probably knew the layout of every apartment in the building and the offices at work too.

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