Page 36 of Presidential Bargain
“We’re still working on verifying all of this, so take it all with a grain of salt. Russell Atlee’s real name is Russell A. Hunt. His mother used to be a cocktail waitress at one of the casinos inLouisiana.”
“And his father?” I was not a fan of Sean’stheatrics.
“The goodgovernor.”
I heard the collective gasps of the men in the room, including my own. I wanted to say that after being in politics, there wasn’t much that surprised me. But I was fucking shocked. This man was the poster child for family values. When Louise Huntley had been unable to conceive a child naturally, the Huntleys had gone out and adopted. They made it their goddamn mission in life. Louise Huntley was staunchly pro-life and used adoption as her primary platform against abortion. And now her bastard husband had an illegitimate child. I should have guessed this because the loudest voices always had the biggest, nastiest, and ugliest demons hiding in theircloset.
“That explains what he asked of me,” Imuttered.
“What didheask?”
I hadn’t shared very many details of the meeting with my team, just that his price was too high, but there had beenclues.
“To not prosecutetheman.”
All of the mengroaned.
“Nor make his identitypublic.”
“What do we know about Russell Hunt?” DeWayne brought us back ontrack.
We needed whatever intel Sean had been given in order to make the most informed decision. I didn’t want to run an ugly campaign because I felt personal attacks distracted the American people from the real issues that needed to be addressed. It didn’t matter to me that my opponent had a child with another woman. What mattered to me was whether or not he was the best person to lead our country. I happened to firmly believe I was the betterchoice.
“He runs the super PAC we knew was involved. He’s been a political operative for a while, running different PACs, working for various campaigns, but he’s never worked directly with thegovernor.”
“Smartguy.”
“He’s also got arecord.”
This intrigued me. “What kind ofrecord?”
“Couple of bar fights, mostly. But he was accused of beating up an ex. Evidence was pretty damning, but the girl dropped thecharges.”
“Let me guess, Daddy stepped in and paid her to keep her mouth shut?” The more information Sean revealed, the more disgusted Ibecame.
“Something like that,” Seanconfirmed.
“But you said the information wasn’t completely verified?” Harvey, the security specialist with a snow-white buzz cut and near-constant look of anger,asked.
“Right. Russell Hunt’s birth certificate doesn’t list a father, so obviously that’s a dead end. But, if he’s Lamar Huntley’s illegitimate son, then that’s pretty much to be expected. Russell lives off a trust fund, so we’re working on tracking down the connection to Governor Huntley. That’s going to take afewdays.”
“What’s his motive, though?” DeWayne voiced the question that had started to run throughmymind.
What was the endgame? Perhaps the governor was pulling the strings because he didn’t want his campaign to start running negative? I tried to remember what Georgie had told me about that night, running through every conversation we had. He wanted me to call him. What could he possibly wantfromme?
“He wanted me to contact him. That’s why he gave Georgie his card. He wants something from me, so maybe weshould?”
All eyes landed on Harvey. He shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to try. I’ll setitup.”
“In the meantime, how do we proceed with the campaign?” Our attention turned on Lewis and Jenkins, who had been listening intently, absorbing theinformation.
“Business as usual,”Jenkinssaid.
I knew it was Jenkins because I had asked them to wear different ties. Jenkins was supposed to wear a striped tie. I hated getting themmixedup.
“Georgie is amazing. People really love her, in both parties. Now that her sexual assault has been revealed, her popularity has skyrocketed. Keep sending her out there,” Lewisadded.
“I’d send her out with Avon,” Jenkinssuggested.
