Mixed Signals Page 13

Teague, Benjamin’s mind supplied in bright panic, but his mouth mercifully stayed closed for once.

  “He’s accusing me of sending someone after him.”

  “Er, like a hit man?”

  Frank snarled. “Hell if I know. I have no idea what the fuck he’s talking about, and I’m pissed off he got my number.”

  “I’m assuming it’s not the same number you had back then?” Benjamin asked, already knowing the answer was no and kicking himself for not seeing this twist coming. Of course Teague would assume Frank was behind Corsak showing up on his radar again.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Honestly, finding someone’s phone number is child’s play for hackers. He would only need one shady friend to do it for him.”

  Frank grimaced. “Oh, he’s got lots of shady friends. Dammit.” He set the phone down and rested his face in one hand. “This is probably because of my discharge petition. I bet the USAF tracked down Corsak.”

  Benjamin’s stomach flopped. “Corsak?”

  “Yeah, that’s his name, the guy I got caught with. Sanford Corsak. Jorge told me he might resurface during this and to be on the lookout for him. Not my ex, God dammit.” He looked up. “Honestly this puts some merit to the idea that my ex was behind that whole pile of shit.” He tapped his fingers against the table. “Look, sorry, I need to bail. I need to call Jorge and, hell, Nancy.”

  “Nancy?” Benjamin asked, as innocently as he could.

  Frank’s face blanked out. “Just as a precaution, no reason. Gotta go. Training flight on Tuesday, don’t forget.”

  Benjamin nodded. “Sure. See you then. Text me, let me know how that goes.” He waved a hand at the phone. Frank nodded once, curt and distracted, before stomping out of the place.

  Benjamin slowly collapsed against his chair. Of course Teague thought Frank was the one siccing Corsak on him. It was the kind of underhanded, shitty thing Teague himself would do and therefore assumed everyone else would too. It demonstrated how little Teague actually knew about Frank, despite their (apparently) years of being involved. Benjamin ground his teeth. He was thrilled to be bringing Teague down, but he needed to rein in the collateral damage.

  He headed home to his own VPN setup in order to email Corsak with a warning on the development. Corsak responded that he wasn’t too surprised, but he wasn’t sure what he could do about it. Benjamin thought it over while fixing lunch, then told Corsak to act like he hated Frank, too, that he felt like the “rich bloodsuckers” used him, a peon of the people, for their own battles, and that he had no regrets about ruining Frank’s career. To his credit, Corsak didn’t like the idea but realized it was the only way to push Frank’s current situation to the back of Teague’s mind.

  It was time to pull the trigger, in any case, so Benjamin followed up by telling Corsak to make the demands.

  Now they just had to hold steady and wait for Teague to take the bait or walk away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “IT’S BULLSHIT, Nancy!” Frank yelled.

  They were at Warren’s offices, in a conference room that was theoretically soundproof and checked for bugs. Which was a reflection of Warren’s usual clientele more than Frank’s situation, but it served. Nancy, Warren, Camila, and Jorge were sitting at the table, all looking prim and contained, while Frank paced and yelled.

  “Why would Paulie even think I’m setting Corsak up to trash him? In what world does that make any fucking sense?” He threw his arms up in the air.

  They all looked at each other before wordlessly nominating Warren to be their spokesperson. “In a world where Paulie was the one who actually set Corsak up to trash you,” he said with a shrug.

  Frank stopped pacing but felt his rage rising. “Okay. Okay, fine. Fine! Let’s say that’s true. Evidence points that way—”

  “And always has, Francis!” Nancy snapped. “You should have let me put one of our private investigators on it—”

  “Not going back there, Nance! Drop it!”

  “Hey!” Camila shouted and everyone shut up. “That’s beside the point. Ancient history. The fact is that for some reason, Teague believes that Frank has reached out to Corsak, which—we haven’t, right?”

  Jorge nodded. “We haven’t. No need. His statement is on record, and no offense, Frank, but you two were caught, er, red-handed.”

  “Facefucking, I think you mean,” Frank said, and Nancy hissed at him.

  Jorge was unruffled. “What I mean is, the basis of our petition is not that the incident didn’t happen. We’re arguing for clemency based on your previous record of outstanding performance and achievement, and the repeal of DADT less than a year later. Corsak has nothing to do with it. He was probably given notice by the Air Force about it, due to his status as a witness, but I’ve got no use for him.”

  “Ah shit.” Frank finally flopped into a chair and rubbed his face. Everyone let him have his moment, but of course it was Nancy who spoke up next.

  “Assuming Paulie was the one who somehow got Corsak to set you up to get caught, and that Corsak was notified about your petition, is it possible that Corsak is actually threatening Paulie?”

  “With what? He’s got everything to lose,” Jorge said before Frank could. “I looked into the guy, off the record, just to cover our bases. He’s married, active in his superliberal church, has minimal credit card debt, and has a good job as an IT tech. His Facebook is all about cute corgis and his wife. I mean, we didn’t do a deep dive because he’s not a player at this stage, but overall he’s a totally normal guy who got busted during his ‘experimental stage’ in the military. Should’ve gone to college and fooled around at gay clubs instead, but there you go. I’d be worried if he had heavy debts or any kind of police record, but he’s clean as a whistle. His administrative discharge gives him access to VA benefits, and that’s not something anyone wants to throw away.”

  “That’s what I told Benjamin,” Frank said.

  Everyone stopped and stared at him.

  “Your business partner?” Warren said, frowning.

  “That guy you’re trying hard not to date?” Nancy groaned.

  Warren looked at her. “Wait, they’re dating?”

  “Really? Since when?” Camila angrily pulled out her planner. “I told you to let me know if you started dating!”

  “We’re not dating!” Frank announced. “We’re not. I promise,” he added, looking at Camila, who was glaring daggers at him.

  “Sure you aren’t.” Nancy smirked.

  Frank sat back in the chair, looking around at them. “I told you I like him. Honestly I’d love to date the hell out of him. All day and every night.”

  “Ew,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes.

  “But!” Frank wagged a finger at her. “He said no. He turned me down flat. Said it would be bad for business. Hell, I’m not too sure he’d tap this if I laid out naked on his bed with an arrow on my chest pointing down.”

  “Okay, ewwww.” Nancy held her nose while Warren chuckled.

  Frank shrugged. As much as he thought of his time with Benjamin as dating, it wasn’t, and that was because Benjamin didn’t want it to be.

  “But still, you’re talking about this case with him. That makes him part of your inner circle, dating or not,” Jorge said, pointing out the obvious. Frank shrugged again.

  “What does Father think?” Nancy asked.

  “He thinks Benjamin is a genius and that our marriage announcement is imminent.”

  Nancy blinked. “Really?”

  “Benjamin is humoring him, for my sake. It keeps Father happy?” he said, wincing.

  “Only you could dig your grave deeper by actually not dating someone.” Camila rubbed her temples.

  “Hey! You aren’t officially a member of the family, you don’t get to be all critically insightful about my poor life choices.” Frank folded his arms over his chest.

  “Be nice to my campaign manager, Francis. She’s in charge of your schedule,” Nancy said.

  “For th
e record, I hate everyone in this room and am five seconds from flouncing out of here like the annoyed queer I am right now.”

  Camila laughed and Warren snorted.

  Jorge tapped the table for attention. “All that aside, Teague believes that Frank is in contact with Corsak, right? What did the text say, again?”

  Frank pulled out his phone and opened the message. “I quote: ‘Sending your old whore after me? Corsak is your problem, not mine. Back off or this is war!’ He used about ten exclamation marks.”

  “And you know this is from Paulie?” Nancy asked.

  “The message right before it is ‘This is Paulie’. So it’s him or someone is pretending.”

  Jorge shrugged. “Always a possibility.”

  Camila shook her head. “It’s from Teague’s personal phone; that number checks out. Someone might be hacking it, or it could be someone who has access to his phone, but… I’m guessing it’s him.”

  “Joan is too proud of her Duke diploma. She would never use ten exclamation points, even if pretending to be Paulie,” Frank said. He had met Paulie’s wife more than a few times, starting with the wedding, which he had attended under duress. That he had given Paulie a blow job in the bathroom five minutes before he walked down the aisle was still a high point for Frank, if only because Paulie had looked like he had just been sucked off while standing next to his bride. He was sure Joan knew the score. She was in it for the status and the money and never claimed otherwise, at least in private. Frank might have even liked her if she wasn’t so determined to be a money-grubbing socialite. “I also gotta say, I don’t think she’d care. If things go sour for Paulie, she’ll just divorce his sorry ass and bleed him for alimony.”

  “I hate that woman, but I admit I respect her. Not someone I want to cross,” Nancy said with a heavy sigh.

  “So, you really think this is from Teague himself?” Jorge asked, chewing on a pen.

  “Yes. I do. Why he thinks I’m behind it, I don’t know.”

  Camila steepled her fingers. “Appearances can be deceiving. Corsak is clearly contacting Teague for a reason, and the only reason that makes sense is blackmail.”

  Warren nodded. “Corsak’s doing fine, but who knows—kid on the way? Health issues? Parent or sibling in trouble with the law? He might need cash. He knows Teague is the kind of guy who will pay out, if the price is right, and with both Frank’s petition in gear and the gubernatorial race heating up, that puts Teague in a vulnerable position.”

  Everyone nodded, except Frank. “Who cares, though? So Corsak is blackmailing Paulie for some shit he pulled seven years ago. Am I pissed off that Paulie is accusing me of this? Sure. But the bigger picture is: So what?”

  “At this point the whole situation is a liability,” Camila said with a sigh. “If Teague had just kept his mouth shut, we could claim ignorance. But he texted you, and that opens the can of worms of ‘what did you know and when did you know it?’ All of which I’d rather avoid in this election.”

  Frank groaned and flopped over, banging his head on the table. Twice. Just in case the first time didn’t take.

  “Or, we could get ahead of it,” Nancy said slowly. Everyone looked at her.

  “What terrible, devious thing have you thought of?” Frank asked, sitting up.

  She grinned like a shark, and Jorge, at least, had the good sense to lean away from her. “I think it’s time someone sent a tip to MudzNewz.”

  “What? No!” Frank said at the same time Camila whooped in agreement.

  “Yes! Oh, I got this, I got this, hold on.” She put her hands out as if framing a scene in a movie and dropped her voice to sound like a newscaster. “Insider source from the Sheldon-Kane campaign reveals that Paulson Teague believes he is being blackmailed by a former business associate, and has reached out to his old family friend Francis Sheldon for help. What does he have to hide? And what could it have to do with the beloved youngest Sheldon, the handsome pilot and queer celebrity?”

  “Oh my God! You’re all but outing him!” Frank shouted at her.

  “I love it! This is fucking gold. Do it!” Nancy gave Camila a finger-gun salute, and Camila ran out of the office.

  Warren and Jorge quietly packed up and slunk out of the room while Frank glared daggers at Nancy.

  “What?” She waved a hand at him. “Go on. What?”

  “You are a terrible human being. That’s just fucking wrong, Nance!”

  She put an elbow on the table and leaned over toward him, pointing at his face. “What is wrong is that son of a bitch set you up to get you kicked out of the Air Force.”

  “You hated the fact I was in the Air Force!”

  “But I love you! It was your dream, and never in a million years would I have done anything to ruin it for you! That asshole led you along for years and used you and then turned on you in the worst way possible, by destroying something precious to you.” She sat up, taking a deep breath. “I get that you loved him once. I was there for all the teenage angst, okay? But he’s a piece of shit, Francis. Piece. Of. Shit. If he gets himself outed on national TV, I will cry not a single fucking tear, you hear me? Not one!”

  “God dammit.” Frank rubbed his face.

  “If I remember correctly, you were the one who originally suggested outing him!” Nancy threw her hands up in the air.

  “I didn’t think anyone would take me seriously!”

  “I always take you seriously!” Nancy seethed and slammed back into her chair. She closed her eyes and took another deep breath before opening them and looked at Frank. “You know he’s going to be outed one way or another at this point, Francis. You have to know that.”

  “I’m not comfortable with this!”

  “Welcome to politics. I have to make decisions like this every damn day. Sometimes there is no right answer, no way to make everyone happy. Sometimes I have settle for making everyone equally miserable, and I hate that, I really do. I hate that this election was always going to turn dirty, no matter what I did or did not do. Teague started his smear campaign against me before he even officially tossed his hat in the ring. If he had anything like this on me, I guarantee you he would be screaming about it at every news conference, fuck anonymous tips to MudzNewz. I’m being pushed into a corner, and if I had even an iota of confidence in him as a politician, I would take the high road because I could risk losing. But if he wins? It’s going to spell disaster for this state’s education system, infrastructure, social services… and yes, brother dear, I am that person who will fight dirty if the greater good is at stake.”

  Frank just stared at her. He had always known she was ruthless and had been on the receiving end of that more than a few times when they were kids, but this was a side of her he rarely saw as an adult. “Nancy,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “Just because he hit first—”

  “No. You still don’t get it. I don’t care if he hit first, second, or last. I care that he’s going to keep hitting until my campaign goes down. I care that he will be a catastrophe for this state if he wins. And? Most importantly? I care that he hurt my baby brother.” She stood up. “Get on the train or get off, Francis, but don’t stand on the tracks.” She squeezed his shoulder and walked out.

  After a moment Jorge walked back in and handed Frank a beer. Frank held it up. “Really?”

  Jorge raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

  Frank sighed and took a swig, staring out the window. “I drove here.”

  “Like Nancy doesn’t have a town car on call for you.” Jorge sat down and slapped the folder open. “This all might put a wrench in the petition, but for right now we’re going forward like none of what just happened ever happened.”

  “I’m totally on board with that.” Frank took another swig of the beer.

  Jorge eyed him. “So you and Teague, huh?”

  Frank groaned. “Yeah. For a long time, since we were kids, really. We broke up for good a couple of months before I hooked up with Corsak. Nancy’s always believed the t
iming was too coincidental, and she’s hated Paulie since, well, since we were kids.” He grimaced.

  “You believe he was behind it?” Jorge tapped the file.

  “I tried not to, but I think that was more willful blindness. He’s just that much of a bastard, and after my discharge was too eager to console me with a luxury condo in the same high-rise he and Joan lived in.”

  “Holy shit,” Jorge said and cringed. “Sorry. But, yeah, maybe you were being a bit dense.”

  “Ugh.” Frank polished off the beer. Jorge lifted a hand to motion at someone outside the door and another beer appeared at Frank’s side.

  “I’m cutting you off there, but—” Jorge closed the file again. “But I think things are going to get worse before they get better. For all of us.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve mentally been preparing for this since I was seven and Nancy announced that she was going to become president of the United States one day.”

  Jorge just nodded.

  Chapter Eighteen

  BENJAMIN STARED at his computer monitor, knowing his jaw was ajar and his eyes wide. The email was from a barely anonymous account, set up by someone who was clearly not worried about being tracked. In fact, given who she claimed to be, there was no doubt that she expected to be tracked. She was making an off-the-record claim in a way that allowed her some plausible deniability if it all went south.

  Camila López, longtime confidante to Nancy Sheldon-Kane and current campaign manager for same, was no fool. Sending an anonymous tip to MudzNewz was a strategic move that had been carefully weighed and considered by all involved. Included, he suspected, Frank himself.

  The email claimed that there was some evidence that Paulson Teague was being blackmailed, but that nothing could be confirmed; that an “old business associate” was causing trouble for Teague, who had reached out to Francis Devonshire Sheldon III for “help” containing the scandal. The scandal itself was not elaborated on but hinted at heavily in a way that all but outed Teague. The reason why Teague contacted Frank, as opposed to keeping a lid on the matter, was also heavily implied.