Now Slater was very concerned, as well. He had thought the Senator’s threat to expose his prior affair was just that, a toothless threat to force Lucas to back down. He couldn’t seriously be considering claiming the rancher as his son. He had enough trouble with Lucas and his headline-making scandals. The last thing the campaign needed was a long-lost love child emerging, no matter how rich and powerful said love child had become.
“Has Jack agreed to meet with Lucas?”
It was time to point out a few truths about his oldest son. Perhaps the senator had blinders on when it came to Jack Barnes. He would try to open his boss’s eyes a bit, but with well-trained subtlety. Arguing with Cameron was a bad idea. “He was reluctant. I think if he thought he could get away with it, he would simply beat Lucas into submission.” The man was a Neanderthal and, if the rumors were true, something of a pervert. Slater had seen the report from the very exclusive, very private detective the senator had hired to keep track of his oldest offspring. Jackson Barnes had married roughly six months before, but it was an open secret in the town they lived in that he ‘shared’ his wife with his business partner. Slater shuddered to think about that tidbit hitting the papers. Perhaps the rancher had more in common with his youngest brother than he would like to admit.
There was a chuckle on the Washington end of the line. “I actually envy you, Matthew. There is a large part of me that wishes I could see this first meeting between brothers. I actually think meeting Jack could be good for Lucas. If Jack wants to beat Lucas into submission, well, give it a shot. Rehab certainly hasn’t worked. I’m fed up with Lucas’s childish demands. He’s had everything handed to him, and it’s made him a brat.”
“Sir, I think I should tell you that I don’t believe Lodge or Barnes will give in to this little blackmail scheme of Lucas’s.” The senator was going to have to start taking this problem seriously. This was no longer a family matter. This had long-ranging consequences.
It had become apparent to him during his meeting with the club owner and the rancher that neither man was the type to pay up and hope that was the end of it. It wouldn’t be, of course. There was no end to a good blackmail scheme. Slater would know. He’d run several in his time as a Washington insider. The key was to know your victim. He would never have selected Barnes and Lodge.
“Then maybe it’s time we came clean.” The senator didn’t sound entirely decisive. “I spoke to my wife last night. She’s upset, but she knows it could be worse. This Barnes fellow is very successful. Considering the way sports stars and actors have been behaving lately, I’m practically a saint. It was just the one affair, and the boy is perfectly fine.”
After years and years of abuse in foster care, Slater thought. Jack Barnes might be ‘fine’ now, but he didn’t think those years in foster care would look good in the press. Cameron had abandoned his firstborn son.
“Perhaps we could even spin the story to look like a father-son reunion. They don’t need to know anything else,” Allen Cameron mused. “I’ve been doing poorly with the middle class in the polls. Jack is a rancher. He’s a man of the people. We could view that little five million I gave him as a loan that I chose not to call in. He’s my son. I owed it to him, and look what he did with it. That cattle ranch of his, it’s organic, right?”
“Yes, I believe it is. It’s organic and free-range.”
“That will go over so well with the Greenies,” the senator said with a chortle. “This could be a huge positive for us. It would be a perfect counterpoint to all the bad publicity Lucas brings in.”
Yes, the ménage his oldest son was involved in would more than likely take the spotlight off the youngest son. This was rapidly turning into his worst nightmare. How could he spin this?
“All right, I’m leaving this in your capable hands, Matthew.” The senator sounded as though he was shoving off a laundry basket on him rather than a powder keg. “Keep me updated, but do what you have to. Keep Lucas’s mouth shut until I’m ready to go public about Jack.”
There was a click, and Slater knew he’d been handed his orders. He’d been dismissed. The senator would move on to other more pressing matters, like his barely legal mistress. Slater knew it was chance that Jack was the only illegitimate child the senator had produced.
It took everything Slater had not to throw the cell phone across the room. He knew it wouldn’t do him any good, but the impulse was still there. He wanted to destroy something the way Lucas Cameron and Jack Barnes were about to destroy his career.
Slater carefully set the phone down and walked to the mini-bar. He opened the first bottle he found, not caring what it was, so long as it burned a path from his mouth to his nauseous belly.
He was fifty-two years old in a world that was rapidly being given over to the thirty-somethings. The new campaign managers ran on personality and an ability to spin anything. Everyone wanted a young, fresh face for the media. No one cared that he knew more about Washington politics and winning elections than all of the pretty faces put together. He didn’t look good on Hi-Definition television, and that was what counted.
He had one shot left, and that was making sure that Senator Allen Cameron became President Cameron. If he could pull off that little miracle, everything would open to him. He would have his pick of assignments in the White House, or he could become a private consultant to any number of organizations. He could write a book. He could pay off his bookies.
If he could just get through the upcoming campaign, everything would be fine, he just knew it. Once Cameron was in Washington, it wouldn’t matter if all of the stuff about Barnes and Lucas came out. There wouldn’t be anything anyone could do. Having an illegitimate child wasn’t an impeachable offense. If Cameron was actually elected president, the scandal would be big enough that he could make a bundle off of it, Slater mused.
He opened a second bottle. This time he looked at it. It was barely a full swallow of vodka, but he had no doubt it was an expensive swallow.
He could write a tell-all book. Hell, he’d start on it now, so it would be in place when the scandal was fresh in the minds of the public. It would be a best seller.
All he had to do was ensure that the scandal didn’t break until after the election.
The vodka started to work, making his stomach calm down and giving him a warm glow. The real trouble lay in Lucas. The Barnes fellow didn’t seem to want any publicity. He doubted Jack Barnes would be stumping for his long-lost dad any time soon. He would keep his mouth shut and his head down.
Lucas, on the other hand, was a publicity whore. He’d do just about anything to make the front cover of a magazine. Slater was sure it had to do with being ignored by his parents, but he couldn’t bring that into consideration. Matthew Slater had bills to pay, and some of them were with very shady characters. They wouldn’t care that his future employment was being threatened by some twenty-three-year-old’s daddy issues. He had to do something about Lucas Cameron, and that was that.
He was on the third little bottle when a sudden thought occurred to him.
A man in mourning was highly sympathetic.
It solved several problems. Death would keep Lucas’s mouth shut. It would put the question of Jack Barnes firmly on the shelf. It would also give the Senator a platform to talk about drugs and alcohol. Law and order could be his central focus.
It was a gamble, but then again, he was a gambler.
Chapter Six
Abby’s mouth came open as Sam walked out.