Mixed Signals Page 19

  Then he called Frank.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  FRANK LOOKED at the text from Benjamin in disbelief: Next phone call from unk nmbr is me. Pick up.

  Sure enough, a few seconds later, his phone rang with a call from an unknown, unidentified number. He stared at it for three rings, then finally hit the Answer button. “What the hell?”

  “I’m taking a chance that your phone hasn’t been tapped.”

  Frank tried to keep his emotions in check at hearing Benjamin’s voice. “But yours has?”

  “The people who hate me right now are a lot more tech savvy than the ones who hate you.”

  Frank had to acknowledge that was, in fact, true. “Still. Hell of a risk.”

  “Yeah.” Benjamin sighed. “Look, I get that you—”

  “This is a business call, right?”

  Benjamin stopped and Frank could almost hear his disappointment. “Yes.”

  “So?”

  “I want to get you on video validating the authenticity of the recording and explaining your side of things. I want you to clear Corsak’s name, because Teague is going to drag him into this one way or another, and I want you to make sure everyone knows what kind of jackass he really is.”

  Frank’s blood had gone cold the second Benjamin had mentioned video. But there was a thread of earnestness in his voice, something raw and needy, that Frank could not bring himself to ignore. “Why are you doing this, Benjamin?” he asked, his voice weak even to his own ears.

  “I’ll do anything, fucking anything, to make sure you come out of this golden. And I hate Teague for what he did to you. Hate him. I probably hate him more than your father hates him, and let me tell you, that is a hell of a lot.”

  Frank sighed.

  “Frank, I get it. You feel like I betrayed you and, fuck, I kinda did. And we can talk about that if—”

  “No, I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

  There was another long pause. “Okay.”

  Frank rubbed his eyes, trying to figure things out. “I have a better idea: press conference.”

  “Huh?”

  “Press. Conference. It’s when you get a bunch of reporters together—”

  “I know what a press conference is! For fuck’s sake,” Benjamin grumbled, and Frank had to hold back a smile. “How about both? Look, I want that vid to post the same time I post the recording. You can do a press conference an hour later when it’s had time to propagate.”

  “You know, we’re making a lot of plans based on the assumption that he’s going to incriminate himself.”

  “Sure. That’s the whole point of all this. If he doesn’t, then we fold our cards, I hand over MudzNewz to the new guys, and your sister hammers it out the rest of the summer in a head-to-head campaign.” Benjamin sounded so flippant about it, as if he did not even care that all his work would be for nothing.

  “Hand over MudzNewz?”

  “Oh. Uh, yeah. That came up after you left the meeting.” He paused. “It’s not important. Look, vid? No? Yes?”

  Frank thought it over for a moment. “Yes. But! We’ll do it after my meeting with Paulie. Either he gives up the goods or he doesn’t. No point to doing anything until we’ve got something.”

  Benjamin sighed. “Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Call me at this number if you need to. Meantime, Shemer will be contacting you in the morning about the wire.”

  “Okay.”

  Benjamin hung on the line until Frank disconnected. He felt a little bad about that, but then his anger welled up and he didn’t feel bad about it at all. He had been maneuvered into his current situation by everyone around him—his sister, his father, Benjamin… even Paulie counted on that list. The only thing he had ever done purely for himself had been to join the Air Force, and that had been taken from him. His sister bullied him into stumping for her campaign, even if it was for a cause he believed in. His father harped on his future plans to the point that he concocted a ridiculous and see-through scheme to go into business with Benjamin, who had, at the very least, the sin of omission on his hands about MudzNewz.

  But the anger he was feeling, that was his. Anger at all the choices taken out of his hands, the opportunities he let slide by because of his sense of obligation or his need for approval from his family. He could blame Paulie for the current clusterfuck, but everything else in Frank’s life was due to the choices he didn’t make, or tried to make an end run around.

  He sat on the end of his bed, twirling his phone in his hands and thinking about the sting they were setting up for Paulie. It wasn’t his idea, sure, but it was something he could do for himself. He could clear the air, find out the truth, and then move on to creating a life that he really wanted to live, not just move through on automatic.

  That might include Benjamin, he wasn’t sure. At that point, he didn’t think so. But first he had to go through with the damned meeting with Paulie, and that was enough to stress about for the night.

  Shemer showed up in the early morning, posing as a bike messenger sent from Warren’s firm. It was all a bit too cloak-and-dagger for Frank, but then, he was in the middle of a sting operation against his former lover in order to sink his campaign for governor. He wondered when his life had gotten so screwed up, and it was a toss-up between “having Nancy as an older sister” and “falling for a jackass at thirteen years old.” Benjamin did not even make the list of top five things.

  He arrived at the restaurant early, but of course, Paulie had arrived even earlier. Frank would bet money that the guy had checked under the table for a tape recorder or something. He sat down and let the waiter pull the drapes closed, leaving them in a semblance of privacy, despite the reporters outside and Paulie’s entourage sitting at the bar.

  “Not even close to like old times,” Frank said with a forced grin as he sat down, making a show of turning off his phone and setting it where Paulie could see it.

  Paulie had aged predictably—not well, but not poorly. He was getting a hint of male-pattern baldness, but he had gone the route of just wearing a crew cut rather than pretend it wasn’t happening, which was pretty much how Paulie tended to deal with everything that wasn’t his love life. He was wearing a suit, but the jacket was folded up on the bench next to him. Frank did the same with his blazer.

  “Here I am.” Paulie held his hands out. “As requested.”

  Frank took a deep breath and thought of the last time he had taken Benjamin there, when they were just on the cusp of starting their relationship. It had been postflight, of course, and Benjamin had done most of the flying on his own, so he had been high on his sense of accomplishment and joy. The image it conjured did the job, because he felt his face fall. Paulie squinted at him. “Frank?”

  “I loved you, once.”

  Paulie closed his eyes and shook his head. “I know. I loved you too. Remember?” He reached out across the table to grab Frank’s hand, but Frank pulled it back. Paulie frowned. “Look, I know you’re feeling raw because of that Kaplan asshole using you, but think about it: he was using me too.”

  Frank raised his eyebrows.

  “He even talked that poor guy, what’s his name? Cossack?”

  “Corsak.”

  “Right. Him. Talked him into trying to blackmail me! For bullshit!”

  “You thought I was the one pushing Corsak to blackmail you!” Frank hissed.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” Paulie snapped and folded his arms over his chest. Their waiter dropped off menus and glasses of water and then fled.

  “Why the hell would you think I did that?”

  “I know you hate me. Don’t pretend you don’t. I figured you were trying to submarine my campaign to help your sister out.”

  “Because that’s… that’s so like me?” Frank leaned forward, shocked. “Do you know me? Holy shit, Paulie, we dated off and on for over a decade! We practically grew up together at that damn boarding school! How could you ever believe that of me?”

  Paulie lifted one sh
oulder in a microshrug. “People change.”

  “Oh, fuck you.” Frank sat back in his chair, reining himself in. Accusing Paulie wouldn’t work, he knew that, and even Shemer had told him not to go that route. He rubbed his face, wishing he had Benjamin to tell him how to handle things because he was so much sneakier than Frank. That thought brought a well of anger to the surface, and he opened his eyes to glare at the man who he had loved so much once. “All you ever wanted was for me to be your damn ‘mistress’ on the side, your secret trophy husband. You’ve kept this whole charade for years, married Joan, and for what? To become governor? You hate politics, Paulie!”

  “That has nothing to do with you!”

  “Doesn’t it? Not like you could have run for governor with your father’s money if he knew you were fucking a guy.”

  “The fact I was in love with you means nothing, now?” Paulie hissed, his face turning red.

  It was a direct hit, an admission of their relationship, but it was not enough. Frank gritted his teeth. “No. It doesn’t. Because you were always pissed that my career in the Air Force came first; you never forgave me for that, and I know it. How many times did you try to talk me into resigning my commission? To do what? Be your kept man? You even offered me that condo after my discharge in the same damn high-rise you lived in with Joan! What, you were planning to slip back and forth between us? How convenient!”

  “I loved you! You were just too stuck-up to accept a boyfriend in the closet!”

  “I dumped you because the only reason you loved me was because I was easy for you.”

  “Easy? Like hell! You were always assigned to some damn base on the other side of the country, or the world. If you had loved me, you would not have set your sights on being as far away from me as possible!”

  “Because I loved the Air Force, Paulie! I loved it! As much as I loved you! You’re the one who didn’t believe me, who was always asking me to choose.”

  “Oh, you chose all right. You chose to let some flunky suck your dick and you got caught!” he snarled.

  “I never, ever cheated on you. We were broken up by then, remember?”

  “I remember.”

  They both sat there staring at each other for a long moment. Finally Frank sighed. “Fine. Whatever.”

  “Look, we’re here about Kaplan, right? He used you and was trying to blackmail me—”

  “I don’t buy it.” Frank shook his head, the thought coming to him that nothing would make Paulie madder than to defend Benjamin. “He’s not that kind of guy.”

  Paulie looked taken aback. “He runs a muckraking website, for God’s sake. He lied to you.”

  “No. He didn’t tell me the whole truth, but you know, I never asked him point-blank if he ran a political blog or whatever.”

  “‘Sin of omission’ ring a bell?” Paulie snarled.

  “He’s a good guy.”

  “Holy shit, you’re in love with him,” Paulie said, a look of horror on his face. “That pudgy Jew?”

  “You absolute raging bigot. Yes, I’m in love with him! And I don’t believe for a moment he was trying to blackmail you.”

  “Oh, that’s bullshit! He totally was. My people have nailed communications between him and Corsak. He was in on it.” His anger-blush was starting to rise.

  Frank narrowed his eyes. “So you say. I think it’s way more likely that you’ve set him up for a fall.”

  “I don’t need to. He’s done that on his own!”

  “How would he even make the connection between Corsak and you, Paulie? Why?”

  “Because I’m running for governor? Obviously he was grasping at straws.” He leaned over the table and pointed at Frank, temper and rage all over his face, his skin bright red. “And I’m going to destroy him and everything he loves.”

  “Like you did me?”

  “The Air Force was ruining you!” he shouted, then sat back in his chair, his anger fading into pale-faced horror.

  Frank worked his jaw, focusing on keeping still and not leaping over the table to beat Paulie bloody with his bare fists. “So it was you. You paid Corsak to set me up.”

  “Frank—”

  “Admit it!” Frank growled, the words low and harsh even to his own ears.

  “That piece of shit was going to hit you up anyway. That’s how low you sank, Frank? Letting a hick sergeant blow you in your office? It was pathetic!”

  “So, what, you did me a fucking favor?” Frank spread his hands out and knocked over his water glass. A second later the waiter was there, looking terrified. “Get out!” Frank snarled at him, and the poor guy ran. “Admit or deny it, Paulie. To. My. Face.” He pointed at himself. “You owe me the truth, you selfish bastard.”

  Paulie laughed, a caustic sound. “Does it even matter at this point?”

  “Deny it, then.” Frank felt like he was chewing his words.

  Paulie let out a long breath. “My parents forced me to get married, and I thought if I could just have you near me, things would be okay. Look, it was low. I get that—”

  “You got me discharged, Paulie! You ruined my career! Because you were horny?”

  “I was in love with you!” Paulie hissed.

  “You low-down motherfucker. No wonder Corsak is blackmailing you. You’re trash.”

  “I did it for your own good! And Corsak was well paid for a BJ, okay? Maybe you should look at that blackmailing asshole you’re in love with. How much high ground does he have, huh?”

  “We’re done. Done, for good. I am never agreeing to talk to you again. You want me? Call my lawyer.” Frank threw his napkin on the table, and channeling his father, threw open the drapes to their booth and walked out, refusing to look at anyone as he made his way to the front. He knew Shemer was close by, sitting at a table and picking up the signal to record it. “Wysocki, call Benjamin and tell him to meet at Lucha Libre,” he said softly. He followed the parking valet to his car and tipped him a twenty before driving off, losing the tail that was either sent by his family or the media to track him.

  He needed to breathe, and there was only one place he could that—in the air.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “SO I don’t know what this means, but he told me to tell you to meet him at Lucha Libre. You guys are wrestling fans?” Shemer sounded so confused, it was kind of funny.

  “Not quite. Bed wrestling, maybe.”

  “TMI, Kaplan!”

  Benjamin chuckled, already moving to grab his keys and get out of the house. “How’d it go?”

  “Like it was scripted by Spielberg, hot damn. Sheldon cornered that asshole like a pro—maybe we should hire him. Also found out Teague’s an anti-Semite. Who’da thunk?”

  “It’ll play well with his base,” Benjamin said, giving the finger to the lone news reporter who was either desperate or got the shitty assignment of waiting for Benjamin to do something. He got in his car and broke a few rules of the road to get away before the reporter could even start their van.

  “Sure, up until they realize he also just outed himself.” Shemer outright cackled, which on speakerphone sounded disturbing. “I’m going to go copy this and I’ll put it in our drop box. When is the ETA for posting?”

  “I don’t know what Frank wants, so a lot rests on why he wants to see me.”

  “You think he wants to kiss and make up?”

  “More like punch me and run me over with his car, but sure.”

  “There are worse ways to die than to get smashed by a Tesla, just saying.”

  “Two to three hours before I post the tape. Goodbye.”

  “Mazel tov!” Shemer yelled with malicious glee as Benjamin hung up.

  He got to the airport and quickly walked to the Sheldon hangar, only to see that the plane was in the midst of being towed out. He jogged over to the flight offices. Frank was tensed tightly at the desk, angry and stern, glaring at the staff who were hustling to get the paperwork for his flight plan filed. Benjamin stood there and for the first time really imagine
d what Frank would have looked like as an officer, standing grim-faced in his blues or his flight suit. It was an impressive mental picture, and Benjamin would be lying if he didn’t admit it turned him on a little bit, but it also made him sad. Frank had really loved being in the Air Force and would no doubt have ended up a general if he had been allowed to stay. Benjamin wondered if there was any way to pursue reinstatement? Was that possible? Would Frank even want that anymore, after all the pain and grief?

  Frank turned and looked at him. “Let’s go.” He marched out and right onto the tarmac toward where the plane was being fueled up. They stood silently until that was done and the ground crew got out of the way. Frank almost threw himself into the pilot’s seat, and Benjamin crawled into the copilot position without a word. They put on their headphones, and the silence continued. Benjamin was about to burst with curiosity, but he managed to keep his mouth shut through brute force of willpower. It was not a busy day, so they got airborne within twenty minutes, which Benjamin thought was probably a record of some kind.

  He kept glancing at Frank but tried not to stare. The other man was flexing his jaw as he went through the motions of taking off, speaking only when necessary with the flight tower. Frank looked like a coiled snake ready to strike, so Benjamin was satisfied with staying out of range for the time being, turning his attention to the flight itself and putting his brain into pilot mode. It was still new enough that it got his heart rate up, and he could not help but smile as they rose in the air and the world spread out beneath them.

  “He admitted it.” Frank’s voice came through the headphones, terse and to the point. Benjamin checked his own setup to make sure his mic was on.

  “Shemer told me. He’s drop-boxing the file. I’ll post it when we get down on the ground.”