Ten
Harvey Sillinger slapped a file folder on Maxim’s desk. “Now you’ve got to do it,” he said, his eyes burning with exhilaration.
Maxim scowled at the intrusion. This was his first day back at work since the crash. He wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with his campaign manager’s intense personality. Christmas was in three days—his daughters would be arriving tomorrow. He’d wanted to spend a few quiet hours at campaign headquarters clearing off his desk before the new year. He’d thought he’d be able to do that when he walked in at eight and found Harvey so absorbed in a telephone conversation that he barely grunted hello. They’d already spoken several times since the rescue, had nothing pressing to discuss, and Harvey was the only one in the office. Maxim’s other employees and volunteers were off for the holidays.
It should’ve been a low-key, catch-up morning, but nothing about his campaign manager was ever low-key. A longtime political veteran, Harvey lived to one-up his opponents. That was initially why Maxim had hired him. He’d wanted a heavy hitter and had planned to do all he could to retain his senate seat. Maybe he’d even wanted to prove something to Adelaide. But he was learning that Harvey had no sense of when he’d gone too far.
“What are you talking about?” Maxim asked.
Harvey motioned toward the file next to the mini Christmas tree some volunteer had placed on his desk. “I have the e-mails,” he stated with obvious satisfaction.
Maxim could guess where this was going, but he’d already told his campaign manager that he didn’t want to follow up on what they’d uncovered about Mark Fairfax. He was even more reluctant to hurt Adelaide now than he’d been before—for reasons he refused to disclose to Harvey and preferred not to think about himself. “Tell me this has nothing to do with Mark Fairfax.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Short and stocky but bursting with frenetic energy, Harvey leaned closer and lowered his voice. “I have correspondence here that proves Fairfax was having a very sordid affair when he died—” he paused for effect “—with a male intern.”
“Oh, God,” Maxim muttered and dragged a hand over his face.
Harvey thumped the file, nearly knocking the Christmas tree to the floor. “Fairfax sent these messages to a boy of eighteen,” he said as he caught it. “They’re so explicit there’s no way anyone can argue about what was going on.” He chuckled. “Read them yourself. He had one hell of a dirty mind. It’ll be a shock to everyone.”
Especially Adelaide. “Why are you still at this?” Maxim asked, rising to his feet. “I told you I didn’t want to know any more about Fairfax. We’re running this campaign, my campaign, on the issues.”
Harvey stiffened, glaring at him. “A political campaign is never about the issues. You know that. At least you did when I came on. It’s a sales job, pure and simple. And I’m the best salesman in the business.”
“Then sell—but forget Fairfax.”
“You’re saying personal integrity isn’t an issue?”
“The man’s dead!” Maxim said. “The only person this will hurt is the wife he left behind!”
“You mean the wife who’s trying to take your job?” Harvey yelled. “Who just stole the Salazar endorsement? You hired me to win this campaign and now you’re tying my hands? I don’t get it! You’re the one who came to me with the tip on Fairfax. You’re the one who wanted me to see if there was anything to it.”
Maxim had received a voice-mail message from an anonymous caller who’d accused Fairfax of a lot of things, including bribery and a vague charge of sexual misconduct. Maxim had been interested in finding out whether or not he’d taken bribe money from some of the developers in the state. He knew it would reveal why Mark had changed positions and thrown his support behind certain projects. But he’d never expected the crazy accusation of sexual misconduct to take them where it had. A homosexual affair with a boy of eighteen? “I wanted to prove he was corrupt, but—”
“But we found something even more damning!”
“More sensational isn’t necessarily more damning.”
“Everyone takes bribes these days. Not everyone plays hide the salami with teenage boys.”
“Stop it.” Maxim scowled, but Harvey wouldn’t back off.
“He solicited sex from the young men who volunteered to work for him. That’s big news, Maxim, and people need to know.”
The “need to know” line warned Maxim that Harvey was out of control. “The man’s dead,” he reiterated. “No one needs to know anything about—” he gestured at the file “—this.”
Harvey began to stalk around the room. “I can’t believe it! I thought you were reluctant because you didn’t want to be perceived as desperate, grasping at straws, lowering yourself by accusing a dead man.”
Maxim had said all that and more, but keeping what Mark did a secret had always been about Adelaide, not the campaign.
“I thought you wanted me to pull back because we didn’t have enough proof,” Harvey went on. “So I get you proof, unimpeachable proof. This puts Fairfax and his widow right in our crosshairs. And you’re not happy about it? What am I missing here?”
Maxim shoved the file away and managed to knock the Christmas tree off the desk himself. “No, I’m not happy. I want you to shred every last e-mail and wipe away whatever’s on your computer. And don’t you dare breathe a word of this to anyone.” This time he leaned forward. “I mean it, Harvey.”
Apparently realizing that he wouldn’t relent, Harvey stopped pacing. “I’m only doing my job.”
“Your job is to help me win.”
“Without this, you’ll lose. You’re giving her every advantage!”
Maxim threw up his hands. “Then so be it!”
Shaking his head, Harvey kicked the miniature Christmas tree to the other side of the room. “I’m out of here. Why sully my reputation with a loss that we could easily avoid?”
Clenching his jaw in an attempt to control his temper, Maxim carefully modulated his voice. “Harvey, it’s Christmastime. Don’t you have family somewhere? Can’t you just...take a few days off?”
Harvey propped his hands on his hips. “Do you think you might change your mind if I do?”
Maxim imagined Adelaide hearing about her late husband’s gay affair and knew changing his mind was out of the question. “No.”
“Then why bother?”
“We might be able to strategize other ways to succeed.”
“No. I don’t pull punches, even if my opponent is a woman. I’m not that sexist,” he said with a sneer. “And I can’t stay if you won’t use the advantage I’m giving you.”
Maxim shoved a hand through his hair. Harvey was giving him an ultimatum? “Innocent people will be hurt, Harvey.”
“The blame for that lies with Fairfax, not me.” He reached for the file he’d dropped on Maxim’s desk but Maxim snatched it up before he could touch it.
“No way are you taking this.”
With a curse, Harvey turned on his heel and marched out.
“You’d better keep what you’ve found on Fairfax to yourself,” Maxim called after him, but Harvey made no commitment one way or the other. He collected his briefcase and slammed his office door as he left.
Maxim sank into his chair. Would he read about Mark Fairfax and the intern in the paper tomorrow? Harvey had to have some way—favorable to himself, of course—of explaining why he was no longer heading up the Donahue campaign.
So where did that leave Adelaide?
* * *
Adelaide spent Monday morning shopping, which was what she’d done during the weekend, too. She was filling Sub-for-Santa orders for a local charity. She still had some difficulty getting around on her injured leg, but at least it was merely bruised and not broken. Shopping gave her something to do. After being stranded in the mountains with Maxim, she didn’t feel like going right back to work. She’d decided to take two weeks to focus on the holidays, to allow her mind a rest from the campaign and the confusion she felt now that she knew Maxim better. Before the crash, winning that senate seat had meant everything to her. It’d given her a reason to go on. Now she wasn’t even sure she wanted to stay in the race. But with so many people counting on her, she couldn’t withdraw and lay off all her employees, especially at Christmas. Besides, she didn’t know what she’d do with herself if she didn’t spend the next months campaigning. She’d already bowed out of her solar business, put Rhonda Cummings, who’d worked with her for years, in charge, and Rhonda was doing a fine job.
Maybe she’d continue—but at a less frantic pace. If she didn’t win the primary in June, she wouldn’t be disappointed. She actually preferred Maxim to win. Now that she knew him and liked him, it was easier to forgive the comments he’d made about Mark’s lackluster performance. He’d misjudged Mark. He didn’t know him that well.
So would she go back to the solar business? That seemed the logical choice, but the idea didn’t excite her and certainly wouldn’t make Rhonda happy.
Maybe it was time to do some traveling. She’d always wanted to see Europe, Australia, Alaska. She’d pictured Mark at her side, but maybe Ruby, her former neighbor and closest friend, would want to go.
No, Ruby had just opened a dress boutique downtown. She couldn’t leave it.
Once again, Adelaide seemed to find herself in no-man’s-land...
Her cell phone rang as she was standing in line to buy a video game system. Setting her bags on the floor so she could reach her purse, she fished out her phone and checked caller ID.
She didn’t recognize the number but answered, anyway. “Hello?”
“Adelaide?”
Maxim. She would’ve known his voice anywhere. “Yes?”
“How are you?”
“Better. You?” She tightened her grip on the phone. Crazy as it was, she’d missed him. He hadn’t contacted her since they’d been home.
“I’m okay, I guess. Listen, do you have plans for tonight?”
She might’ve thought he was asking her out. She’d been yearning to hear from him. But the reluctance in his voice made her leery of assuming too much. She sensed that he didn’t want to be making this call. “Is this where you try to convince me to drop out of the race?” she teased.
The question seemed to take him by surprise, as if it hadn’t occurred to him. “Are you open to that?”
“Probably not.”
He sighed. “Too bad.”
“So this isn’t about the primary.”
“No.”
Then he was worrying that she might be pregnant. She’d bought an over-the-counter test that boasted almost immediate detection, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to use it. It was more comfortable to live in denial, at least until she’d adjusted to the possibility.
But maybe there was a reason he needed to know now. Maybe he was going to ask the tall blonde he sometimes brought to political events to marry him...
Adelaide cringed at the jealousy that thought evoked. The fantasies she’d had of Maxim during the week she’d been home told her she’d developed a crush on him, but she trusted it wasn’t more than that. “I’m free. Where would you like to meet?”
“Would you mind if I came over after dinner?”
After dinner. He wasn’t trying to parlay this into any type of date. She interpreted that to mean he regretted what had happened between them and hoped she wasn’t pregnant.
She felt her shoulders slump. “No. I-I wouldn’t mind.” They had to face reality sometime, didn’t they?
There was a brief pause. “Will we be able to speak privately?”
How would he react if she was pregnant? Let’s wait until we’re sure we have something to worry about before we start making difficult decisions gave her no indication. He knew she’d want to keep the baby; she’d already told him as much. Would he pressure her to get an abortion instead?
She swallowed hard. “We’ll be alone.”
“Great. I’ll see you tonight.”
He was gone without a goodbye.
“It’s your turn,” someone said, nudging her from behind. She was holding up the line.
Gathering her sacks, she paid for the game system and headed down the center of the mall and out to her car. Her leg was aching too much to do any more walking—and she’d lost interest in shopping. She had to take that pregnancy test. It wasn’t fair to keep Maxim in suspense if he needed to know, and she could use the intervening hours to cope, whatever the results.
If she wasn’t pregnant, she’d put the plane crash behind her. And if she was, there’d be no forgetting the crash because it would change her entire future.