Chapter Nineteen

 

Adam Quinn had a reputation as a man who'd never told himself 'no.' It was a reputation that in many ways was well-earned, and yet in many other ways, it could not have been less accurate. There had been a thousand times that he told himself no. A thousand times a day.

They were just in the less-public parts of his life. And of course, the reputation of being a bit of a playboy had served him well up to this point. Even in politics, it had been serving him well the past few days, getting him impressive press coverage since the very first announcement of his candidacy.

Of course, there were more than enough people who had asked him to run the past thirty years that he wasn't particularly afraid of anyone suggesting that he wasn't a serious candidate.

To his great surprise, though, it had happened. Now it was time to be himself a little more. To play to the press corps's fears. It was a magical formula for press coverage that worked just about every time: give them something surprising, then stir the pot a little, and wait for it to bubble over.

The press will supply their own heat, after all, and they'll boil over at the drop of a hat. It's in their best interests to do so; every time that something exciting happens, ratings go up.

Every time ratings go up, they get to go back to their shareholders and tell them that they're increasing in popularity. The shareholders and the board give them more money to play with, and then they wait for the next chance to get everyone riled up and watch the cycle continue.

It made Adam sick to his stomach. Rank dishonesty at its best. In his mind, it was what was wrong with investing. What was wrong with America. Everyone was doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons, and they managed to get away with it because there was no other system.

Well, he was ready to shake things up. If nobody else could sit at the table of a rigged game and try to play straight and honest, then at the very least he could do it. He had the popularity, he had the name recognition, and he had the friends to make sure that he got on long enough.

The only other thing that he really had to worry about in the end was that a scandal would appear out of thin air that would ruin him before they could recover. There was always a recovery after a scandal, but you had to weather the storm first.

This would be his first real test. Of course, it was also very nearly the worst thing they could throw at him. That meant very good things for him, if he was actually able to avoid getting hurt too badly.

Nothing that the press could throw at him after this would stick, not really. Because they'd get themselves out of the accusation, of course. And then everything else would pale in comparison to the time that Adam Quinn didn't go to a sex party in DC.

It was beautiful in its simplicity, and it was beautiful because the only way to disarm the trap for any of his opponents was to let him go without scandals. Of course, it ignored the very real possibility that he would leak another. And another. And keep himself at the center of a media shitstorm for the next year.

People are desensitized to things that happen over and over again, and with Adam Quinn, scandals are constant. They blow over quickly, because he doesn't generally do anything wrong.

There's exactly one exception to that rule. One thing that could ruin him if it got out. One time that he didn't practice self-denial when it counted, and if it bit him in the ass, well… he deserved it.

And that time was two nights ago.

There was nothing wrong with Adam Quinn, tech mogul, sleeping with his secretary. Nothing wrong with Adam Quinn, philanthropist, fucking his business partners. It didn't even make the news. Not when there were more interesting sexual partners to explore.

But Linda was a mistake, because Adam Quinn, possible future Democratic nominee for President fucking his campaign manager was something that could hurt him.

He should have been kicking himself the past two days. He should have been, but he wasn't, and he didn't feel as if it was likely to come on any time soon.

He settled into the couch beside her. She can't hide the subtle lean into him, though nobody who wasn't paying attention would have noticed. It wasn't anything as obvious as laying her head on her shoulder, so much as body language. Her body telling the room that she liked being close to him.

Adam pretended not to notice. Tom Delaney didn't pretend not to. Adam took note of it, but didn't respond to that either. Because they were about to watch the firestorm unfold in front of them, and it was going to be glorious. Too glorious to ruin with a conversation that none of them truly wanted to have.

"Good evening, I'm Ellen Holden, and you're watching Tonight, on CNN. We've got a great line-up of stories for you, but first, breaking news out of Washington. We've all come to expect scandals from Adam Quinn, since he first started his own line of personal computers in the 1980s.

"Well, the Quinn Labs CEO now has another title to add to his list, and that is Democratic Candidate for President, and with it, we've got a brand new scandal.

"A source close to the campaign has informed us, under the promise of anonymity, that there's been a shakeup in the campaign after the discovery of Adam's presence at a masked party specifically for the purpose of casual anonymous sexual encounters.

"Our producers' attempts to reach out to the Quinn campaign for comment were answered with a stock response: 'We don't know anything about such allegations.' Could this be the first signs of trouble for an already rocky political candidacy? What will Mr. Quinn have to say for himself at our interview Thursday? And what could he possibly say for himself that would deflect such a story?"

Adam's heart raced, pounding in his chest. He kept himself seated, his jaw tensing and un-tensing.

It was perfect.