Henry’s jaw clenched as he stood up, hands clenched into fists. His anger permeated the board room.
Maya made a worried noise, no doubt more upset about our reactions than what he said. Maya gave little consideration to what humans thought of her and it was extremely attractive.
“I’m sorry, what the hell did you just say?” I growled slightly while narrowing my eyes at his assistant. I was trying really hard to not get worked up since Maya was sitting so comfortably on my lap. Her hand was on the back of my neck and face pressed against my chest, almost purring against me.Almostbecause right now she couldn’t fully relax because of these assholes.
“Nothing,” his assistant immediately put out, his face paling.
What was his name again? I didn’t really care if we were being honest.
“Alex, your assistant is fired. Get the fuck out of my building. Now.” I snarled as Maya’s face dipped into a frown as she glared at the man. Except I got the distinct feeling it was because she was upset that he upset me. Which was fucking pefect. She was perfect.
“Seriously?” The assistant turned red in the face, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. As he stood up, his chair crashed to the floor.
Alex grunted looking embarrassed, “Charles, leave. We will talk later.”
My eyes moved over to Henry as he sent a message on his phone, to Atlas no doubt. Charles would not be returning to my company and his asshole comment would not go unpunished.
Maya seemed to relax as I ran a hand over her leg. She kept her attention on the room, landing on Henry, the only one nownotlooking worried. No, instead he was staring at Maya and making her blush, due to what I had no idea.
I inhaled trying to pull myself away mentally to focus back on the humans. “What exactly are we arguing about?”
Henry shook his head, “Alex and Michael are attempting to argue something that is idiotic. Edmund agrees with me.” Henry had a much longer attention span than I did, following along with everything going on around him.
This was why I didn’t like to get involved in shit like this. I had enough responsibility, I didn’t want to also have to argue with humans on how to run my company.
“If we invest in these three companies,” Alex began, “it will help us. I’ve looked into it, I promise you that it will yield results.”
Maya frowned as they broke back into arguing as her lips came to my ear, “Marco, this sounds crazy, but I can tell he’s lying.”
That didn’t sound crazy to me at all. I had read that part of a phoenix’s magic was gauging the truth of others’ statements. Made me wonder if Maya realized that she was using her magic. I wasn’t positive if it was normal for a phoenix, but I often found her using her magic, unintentionally to gauge the truth of others statements.
Henry looked over at us as his eyes lightened with surprise. “Run me through this again,” Henry sighed, despite how calculated he was no doubt being. It was rare that my brother ever did anything unintentionally, it was what made him a fantastic beta. He continued, “maybe I am not understanding this. So, you promise this will yield results. At least as far as you can predict.”
“Yes.” He answered.
Maya offered a head shake while rubbing her nose to Bella. That didn’t mean shit though, the results could just benefit him rather than the rest of the company.
“And you believe it will help us. As in this company,” Henry frowned, “you believe it will help the company to essentially invest in competitors when it comes to our international trading connections?”
“Yes.”
Maya’s head turned as she looked right up at me, “That’s it. That’s a lie.”
Michael paled, “What is she talking about, Marco?”
Henry arched a brow, “Do you believe the same as Alex?”
“Yes?” Michael sounded unsure.
Maya shook her head, pressing a kiss to my cheek before speaking, “I’m going to go find Atlas and see if we can find some food for Bella, but they are lying. It’s super obvious. So...maybe they have something to gain from this that would yield a result for them but not the company?”
“Thanks, baby girl,” I chimed with a lazy smile as Henry stood up, bringing her to the door, she kissed his cheek as well and he locked the door after she left.
Alex sputtered, “That isn’t true!”
I inhaled and smiled. Alright, I lied. This meeting was about to be far more fun.