Page 82 of Priceless

We all knew the board’s blackmail wasn’t a request.

“We assumed you would take some time to find a wife,” Joseph was pretending he didn’t care, but he did. Our suspicious were right. There was more to this than he was letting on. “Build up the image and the anticipation in order to help change your image. Not drop photos from a secret wedding like an atomic bomb.”

“Have you seen the photos?” Cam asked mildly. “There were plenty of people there. Clearly, it wasn’t a secret. So sorry your invitation got lost in the mail. I think I have an extra copy floating around here somewhere. They were beautiful. Blue and silver.” He paused, thinking, and looked at Micah. “Well, not fully blue. This delightful shade of bluish purple our wife loves. What would you say it is? Tanzanite?”

Micah shrugged. “I’d say it’s more of a periwinkle.”

“Hmm, maybe.”

Joseph huffed out a breath. “Are you done talking about fucking colors?”

“Are you done pretending any of this was actually about us getting married?” I shot back. “Because I’m still waiting for the real reason for this whole failed coup you planned.”

His face turned red. “Preventing you from running this company into the ground because of your image isn’t a fucking coup. You?—”

“No, no.” I pushed off the wall and took a step forward. “We already established why your accusations have no place in reality. You know I’m not a patient man, so we’re not going to go through all of it again. So you can either congratulate us on our wedding and get the fuck out, or you can tell me the truth.

“I can think of only a couple of reasons why you’d do this, and none of them have to do with the press or wanting us to settle down. So do you want to talk about those?”

He stood there, silent, so I kept going.

“Maybe you don’t like where Zenith is headed. We’re expanding in a direction you don’t approve of, and you’re already in too deep to get out without looking weak or like there was a scandal you were dismissed for. So maybe you thought the best way was to take us down and make us look like the bad guy.” I stepped around him slowly, in a circle, making sure he felt like the prey he was. “But that doesn’t make sense, since Zenith is the most valuable of its kind in the market, and I know exactly how over inflated your salary is.”

“Congratulations.” He gritted the word through his teeth. “On your wedding.”

“Or maybe,” I continued, “someone came to you with an offer. Get our company to suffer some losses in order to make us vulnerable to a hostile takeover. With your shares and all that notice, you’d stand to make more money than you’d ever seen in your life, and they’d give you a new position. So you and the board planned your little ambush, and now it’s only been a week, everything you thought would happen has crumbled into dust, and you’re furious.” I stopped in front of him. “Am I getting close?”

If looks could kill, I would be lifeless on the floor. “Or maybe I care about this company and everyone in it, and don’t want to see it run into the ground by your recklessness.”

I tilted my head. “Okay, and what would that be? And you don’t get to say we were reckless being photographed dancing, fully clothed, with a woman more than three years ago. You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Joseph’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t say anything. And in this moment, I was glad that Micah and Cam always had my back. Because I could say what I was about to without consulting them, and they would stand by my side.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, Joseph. We’ve decided to take our wife on a honeymoon at the end of the week. Don’t know how long that will take, so we’ll, of course, be available if we need to be. But when we come back, I want to know what your answer is. I want the truth, and I want your reasons. If you don’t give me those, Zenith Incorporated will be looking for a new Chairman of the Board. Am I understood?”

For a second I thought he might hit me, and there was part of me that dared him to do it just so I could throw him out on his ass. He didn’t.

Pity.

“You lost. Whatever your goal was, it didn’t work. Make peace with that while we’re away, and you let me know whether I need to hire a headhunter.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re dismissed.”

The shock on his face was a beautiful thing. He sputtered like he was finally going to say something before he turned and stormed out of Micah’s office at full speed, nearly knocking Josie over where she was bringing a carrier full of to-go coffee cups.

“Damn,” Cameron said. “I wish I’d recorded that, because that was fucking glorious.”

Micah smirked too, but was still tense. “Are you sure humiliating him was the way to go?”

“His plan was to humiliate us. If you’re going to execute a plan, you should make sure you’re ready for it to come back on you. Besides, I’m frankly sick of his shit. I hope he doesn’t tell us so we have a reason to get rid of him and bring in someone who doesn’t fight us every step of the way.”

The success we had wasn’t accidental. It was because we knew how to run a business while also caring about the people it employed and those it affected as much or more than profits. Amazing what human decency could do. But as many boards were, they were looking at the bottom line. Joseph came highly recommended when we’d brought him on after going public, but he was also a barrier to most of our ideas, and we’d had to force him into too many things. It might be time for a change regardless of his decision.

“I can’t say I disagree.” Micah stroked a hand down his face. “But we should still be careful. He had the whole board with him, and even though we won this round, it doesn’t mean they won’t have something else up their sleeve.”

“Yeah. And we need more information.” I sent a text to Aiden asking for the details. If there was something to find, he would find it. “As for Frank, I hope you know I’m planning to hold him to every sticky little thing in the contract.”

“I’m looking forward to that.” Cam rubbed his hands together. “He should be here now, right?”

“Josie?” Micah called. “Is Frank McCabe in the building yet?”

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