"Mason, are you even comprehending what kind of shit storm you're looking at?" Roy Purpus asks me as I stare out the window. "We're talking about throwing everything you've worked for into the garbage can because of your ego."

This isn't the kind of fucking language that you normally hear in Board Meetings. But then again, this isn't the kind of thing you see in companies.

What's going on isn't actually even supposed to be fucking happening.

I was just minding my own fucking business, when I got an email from Roy if he could pop in with some members of the Board.

So minding my own business apparently means anything that can potentially go wrong with the company. So I said yes, cleared my schedule, and sat back as almost every member of my fucking Board walked in.

"We need to talk," Roy said pretty bluntly and immediately I knew what he was here for.

"Have a seat, gentlemen," I told them as I got up to walk to the set of couches on the far corner of my office.

"We didn't want to come to you like this Mason," another Board member, Peter Cheil, said to me. "But Roy here got us together and raised some good points about the Red Lion Aviation deal."

That's when I walked up and went to go stare out the fucking window.

You can't blame me, because if I had been right there I would have hit something.

That's basically where you came in. You're all caught up now.

But what I didn't tell you that I think is that I've been fucking set up.

"We can't pass on a trillion dollars, Mason," Roy says to me, raising his voice when he sees that I'm quiet. "We'll be the laughingstock of Wall Street."

Okay, let me just take a moment to talk to you real quick and explain something to you.

I bet a part of you is probably hoping you could ask me if this Red Lion deal is really so fucking lucrative and it's already been reported on in the newspaper and all that shit then why the fuck has no other firm on Wall Street gone in and snapped it up.

That's a very good question and a part of me wishes that the people in the fucking book would take a moment to pause half way through and answer any and all questions for readers. Because it would certainly make your experience a more enjoyable one.

Let you focus on getting wet and imagining my 12-inch cock between your legs instead of thinking about the complicated nature of investment banking.

Let me put it really simply to you. Lorna proposed a deal to me. And that deal was put together potentially with Red Lion and whatever other players are out there. In putting the basics together, we've already signed a fuck ton of paperwork. I'm talking fucking Non-Disclosure Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, Clauses for binding arbitration.

So Red Lion knows that if they breach any of that shit, the penalties are tremendous. We know that if we breach any of the shit that we agreed to before we started talking to them, the penalties are tremendous.

So it's like both sides sat down to talk about a potential alliance. But before they sat down, they used a third-party negotiator to make sure that everyone was clear how many guns each side was going to carry, where they were going to sit, and what was going to be served for dinner. With the expectation that if one side brought more fucking guns or tried to sit somewhere else, the other side and the third party mediator would both blow them out of the fucking sky.

So until Kane Price formally declines the offer and releases Red Lion Aviation from any sort of clauses that we had, no other Firm can come in and sweep us up.

There are two ways to do this. The first is to formally let the company we're looking to invest in know that we are not going to at this time.

The other alternative is to let the contract lapse without renewing it.

Nine times out of ten, the best way is to just let the contract lapse.

That's what's got Lorna fucking spooked.

"We're running out of time, Mason," Roy says to me from his seat. "And people may start to question your leadership if you let this one slip away from our fingers."

That's when I fucking realize that Roy Purpus has probably been fucking Lorna.

I turn around and look at him.

Yeah, he's most likely the guy who she's using to round up allies for her cause. She probably bent over, shook her ass for him and grinded herself on his fucking cock before sucking it down and riding it.

I can definitely see that. Roy used to be a happily married man before Lorna joined the Board.

Now there are rumors that he was cheating on his wife with another woman and the affair started right around when Lorna joined. He's had wild fluctuations with his weight and has looked fucking strung out at times. I've seen the signs. That's what happens when you fucking party too fucking hard. Sniffing too much of the fucking blow at the fucking club.

Yeah, Roy's life has definitely gotten worse in the time that Lorna has been here. I think his wife has even left him recently, taking their daughter with her.

"You think my Board is going to try to oust me from the company that I fucking built?" I ask, hostility tinting my voice as I take a step toward the sofa that Roy is sitting on.

But Roy's a weak fucking man now. When I first met him, he was a strong and savvy marketing executive. He now withers under my stare.

"We're not talking about ousting you, Mason," he says defensively.

I know the rock and hard place that Roy is fucking trapped in. Lorna probably set him up to do this. Probably fucking sucked his cock in exchange. But poor Roy, he probably didn't know the best way so he started putting together a group of Board Members to back him up.

But now they're fucking quiet, staring at the both of us and letting Roy do all the talking. And Roy isn't used to being able to defend himself from my words.

"That's exactly what you're fucking talking about, Roy," I say, pressing my advantage. "You walked into my office and told me that if I don't gamble with the future of my company, you're going to fucking take it away."

Now either Lorna fucked a bunch of other Board Members when she joined or Roy has done a fucking wonderful job recruiting people because he holds his head lower. But it doesn't matter because another Board Member, Harry Trent, stands up.

"That's not what Roy is saying at all, Mason, and you know it," he says to me. He's standing and looking at my side and I turn my body toward him as he continues. "Like it or not, when you went public you agreed and signed paperwork with the SEC that you would look out for the shareholders. And you'd listen to our advice when doing it."

"That's not what this is fucking about," I snarl.

"It absolutely is, Mason," Roy says, standing up. "And if you do something that we believe is against the best interests of the company based on your ego, we'll fight you on it."

Is that a fucking threat?

"And that is a threat, Mason," Roy says, reading my thoughts. "We'll go to the news outlets, the stock exchange, and wherever it was that we went and did the work so you didn't have to. And once we're there we will contradict the shit out of you. This company will be paralyzed and eventually destroyed when it could've been profitable for all of us.

Roy is looking at me with a glint of jealousy in his eyes, and I realize that the odds are stacked against me.

"How many of you here share Roy's opinion?" I ask.

Literally every hand in the room goes up. Some forcefully. Some in an irritated fashion.

But at the end of the day, they're fucking taking sides against me.

Lorna's been fucking busy, that's for sure. Whatever she had been planning, she's had it ready and in motion.

And right now, I'm staring down a fucking potential coup.

I'll be at her fucking mercy.

Maybe it's time I start playing fire with the fire in the same fucking fashion until I can take them once and for all.

But that'll mean I just have to get down and dirty with the rest of them.

Which is fine. I've had to in the past.

There's just one person who might be upset beyond all measure with me.

I'll leave you to figure it out.

"What would you propose our next steps would?" I ask.

Roy takes out his phone and dials it.

“Hi, Lorna,” he says into the device. “I have Mason here. He wants to talk to you.”

He hands me the phone.

On the other line is the salvation for my company.

The chance to live another day.

All for the small price of my soul.