The senator laughed, a rueful sound. “Yes, I fall in love easily. I love the marriage ceremony. I love the honeymoon phase. I just don’t want to be married. I’m not marriage material, but I am a very good honeymooner. What can I say? If I’d played the game a little straighter, I would have gotten away with it. I welshed on the prenup. Well, not really. I promised each wife ten million if we were still married after five years, when I knew damn well I’d be gone after the honeymoon. I was deceitful. I didn’t want to pay up. Like I said, they found me, and I was forced to pay up. They were all at the restaurant last night dressed as nuns and priests. Samantha, your star operative, was there, too. She saw you and Kyros. That’s why I’m here. I suppose it’s possible my partners found out and were afraid I would be an embarrassment to the organization or worse yet, confide in one of my wives. We’ll probably never know. The bottom line is they’re only worried about saving their own skins.”

For the first time in the whole of his life, Pappy was at a loss. He didn’t know what to say or what to think. “Is that why…”

“I assume my, ah…my partners found out somehow. I used another name and a partial disguise. I honeymooned in exotic places, where no one knew me, so it’s hard for me to imagine how they found out. Let’s face it, if it got out, my political career was over. There’s embarrassment, and then there’s embarrassment. Not to mention that since I used a false name and required a basically fraudulent prenup agreement, I probably broke the law. Maybe the consortium thought I would babble about our…arrangement. Then again, it could be something else entirely. I have to wonder why you weren’t told, considering they wanted you to sanction me.”