At first, Handy asked Hunter to “fix the problem.” Hunter said he didn’t know how. Then he started receiving pictures of his daughter at school with red circles around her face. The threat scared him and he didn’t know what to do. On one hand, he could go to the authorities, but on the other, he knew the authorities were also corrupted. He knew the Cobras had half the police in their pockets and they couldn’t protect his family. Hunter knew he had to pay back the money, but he didn’t know how.
Meanwhile, his wife left him. He wasn’t sure why—maybe it was because he took all his gifts back, or maybe because he just wasn’t man enough anymore—but he was happy she left for California. It put distance between the Cobras and his family. But flying to California for divorce proceedings got him thinking about something—or someone—else that was in California.
Why did Madeline have it so easy? Her life was so perfect, with her perfect family and career. He started to blame her for his situation—why hadn’t she helped him when he came to her at the Langham? Why had she left him in the first place? His life could have been so different had she not ruined it for him. He wanted her to pay, and sometime when he actually was at rock bottom, he decided that she was the answer to his problems. She had money, she could fix things with the Cobras. And why shouldn’t she? Didn’t she owe Hunter something? After everything they had been through together? After all, he could ruin her career if he wanted to. Didn’t she owe him something for not doing that?
When smart men are pushed into desperate situation, they can make mistakes. When fear clouds vision, they can fail to see all the options in front of them. Sometimes the only option they see is the one surrounded by the bright frame of anger. The option that in hindsight, would not have made any sense at all.
Chapter 38
Madeline didn’t need to knock when she approached Hunter’s hotel room. He had been waiting with his eye on the peephole for ages, alerted by every ding of the elevator or brush of a footstep on the hallway carpet. He opened the door for her before her fist could tap the door.
“Good afternoon,” she greeted him with a friendly smile. Not the smile of the someone whose career or marriage hung on by a thread. She stepped into the room and sat down on an oversized square fake leather chair that was stiffer than it appeared. With her straight back and bag on her lap, she motioned for Hunter to take a seat. He did, sitting down on the edge of the perfectly made bed in front of Madeline.
“Where is the money?” he asked. He felt a little panicked. It had seemed too easy to get Madeline to agree. He knew her better. Had he thought about it more, he should have known Madeline would be empty handed.
“I saw Rhonda last night.” Madeline ignored Hunter’s question. “She seems like a lovely person.”
Hunter scoffed. He didn’t know that Rhonda knew of his situation with the Cobras, but he thought that no good could come of Madeline meeting his wife.
“She had a lot to say about you,” Madeline continued speaking.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m not giving you any money, but I’m taking care of your problem.” Being a politician is all about taking care of problems. It’s about solving inextricable situations in ways that please everyone. Or at least ensuring that everyone believes they are pleased for the time being. Future displeasure can always be fixed with future solutions.
“My divorce?” Although even as Hunter said it, he knew that was definitely not what Madeline was talking about.
“You can stop the pretense,” Madeline responded. “With the Cobras. It’s all settled. They won’t be bothering you.”
Hunter sat with his mouth dropped open. It was clear Madeline knew everything—even more than he knew—and that, like always, she had figured out a way to come out unscathed and on top.
“What did you do?” he asked, more curious than anything else.
“Tomorrow morning the FBI is going to show up here and ask you to come in.”
“Maddy, please, I’m so sorry, I can’t go to jail—”
“You are going to tell them that the Cobras have been following you for the last few years. When they saw you with me, they took it as an opportunity to take me down.”
“Why will the FBI believe a gang in Harlem is trying to take you down?”
“Harlem is exactly the kind of place where my SAVER Bill is needed. There is always pushback to change. My SAVER Bill has been the subject of significant controversy. There is no end to the amount of angry phone calls and letters my office has received about it. Some even come all the way from New York. The evidence has already been handed to the FBI.”
Relief, grateful, awe, Hunter felt multiple emotions pounding down on him as he continued to look astounded at Madeline. He wanted to ask more questions, to understand, but his lips were unable to form the words. Instead, he said two words that were extremely difficult to say. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Madeline said without getting up. As Hunter should have known, there were no real favors in politics. Madeline fixing his problem was part of a bigger tit-for-tat that he would be sucked into and unable to break free for the rest of his life.
“Maddy—” Hunter began to speak. He felt foolish and he wanted to show Madeline that he really wasn’t as pathetic as the whole story made him seem. He was about to say two other words that were very difficult to formulate, so difficult that he
